5% Estate Agents Fees

[thalang3645]

I have decided to sell my villa in Phuket and have been quoted a 5%+VAT fee.

Compared to the UK it seems quite high. Is a 5%+VAT fee normal in Phuket?

Is there much room for negotiation? or is it a case of, take it or leave it?

Thanks in advance.

[AJBangkok]

I think they will bargain down to 3% .

[keeniau96]

5% is about as high as I have found in Phuket. 3% is more common.

[steelepulse]

Besides posting on local facebook groups and classified ads, find out what exactly they are going to do. I see most agents just do the aforementioned and hope for a punter.

[shirtless]

he is expensive shop around better still try and sell it yourself you will have a better chance than using a realtor.

[xylophone]

I have sold two houses and an apartment since I've been here and decided to do it all myself because most of the real estate agents were absolute crap. In fact some of them just put the photographs on their website and leave them there, and I can prove that because there are houses which have been for sale here for more than six years, with the original price still attached, now grossly overpriced with the "new norm" as regards property.

I will send you the name of one whom I have heard is a good operator, via PM, however you should also be looking at supplementing this with your own efforts.

Just to give you an example of "thinking outside of the square", I had a montage of four photographs and some bullet points with regards to the key features of the house made up and spoke to some of the folk who were selling apartments! I asked if they ever had people who were looking for houses/villas, and they said that they occasionally did, so I struck up a deal whereby they could channel them my way, for a consideration for a successful sale.

Some were prepared to do it, and others were not................another thing I did was to contact the small business owners with whom I had done business and asked if they would e-mail the details to their client base, this after inspecting the house to make sure that it was as good as it sounded, and this worked well. Don't want to go on too much but quite a few other things did get me some leads.

[robertson468]

I have sold two houses and an apartment since I've been here and decided to do it all myself because most of the real estate agents were absolute crap. In fact some of them just put the photographs on their website and leave them there, and I can prove that because there are houses which have been for sale here for more than six years, with the original price still attached, now grossly overpriced with the "new norm" as regards property.

I will send you the name of one whom I have heard is a good operator, via PM, however you should also be looking at supplementing this with your own efforts.

Just to give you an example of "thinking outside of the square", I had a montage of four photographs and some bullet points with regards to the key features of the house made up and spoke to some of the folk who were selling apartments! I asked if they ever had people who were looking for houses/villas, and they said that they occasionally did, so I struck up a deal whereby they could channel them my way, for a consideration for a successful sale.

Some were prepared to do it, and others were not................another thing I did was to contact the small business owners with whom I had done business and asked if they would e-mail the details to their client base, this after inspecting the house to make sure that it was as good as it sounded, and this worked well. Don't want to go on too much but quite a few other things did get me some leads.

I would also strongly recommend advertising your house on the Thai Market. i advertised two Town Houses for sale mainly on the farange market and got no where. My lovely Thai Wife took on the task and within two months we had six offers! Oh and one Russian Agent said he would sell them for 10% commission which I thought was exceptionally kind

Edited September 9, 2015 by robertson468

[dotpoom]

5% is the norm. in Chonburi Province (3% when I first came to Thailand). But I never heard of the "+VAT" you mention. Surprised none of the replies I read so far have not also queried this.

[crazykopite]

5% is the norm everywhere in the south yes it's a rip off but that is the going rate put the commission on the asking price and see how it goes but remember it's a buyers market at the moment good luck with your sale !!!!

[hgma]

we sell at fixed amounts.......land or houses or both....

The most effective way of finding interesting parties is digging in the scene.....

Linkedin Facebook Bangkokpost and Thaivisa

[stoli]

Having been a Realtor in California for 12 years, and on the Board of Realtors for California and National (Washington DC). it pains me to say that most Realtors are worthless, clueless, and will make many mistakes that can cost you. And, in California, you must be tested, and pass a difficult test. In Thailand, you just need to call yourself a Realtor, period. Tread carefully, and negotiate on the cost of the commission. Realtors will fall over themselves to get a listing. Give them 30 days. If they have done nothing, interview another one, at what you are willing to pay them. A good Realtor is worth extra.If they are any good, they should be closing many sales a month. No need to pay them for just selling your house in 6 months. That is just a game with losers hoping for a payoff without working.Don't wish for a price that is ridiculous. Set it correctly at the beginning.

[SOTIRIOS]

......3%.....

....maybe a lawyer would be a better bet than an agent.....they also verify the paperwork....

[ozyjon]

Try to sell anything in Portugal, 5% plus VAT 23%

government will take about 45% also in taxes, if

you are a foreigner or owned a place less than 5

years the government could take as much as 75%

So stop complaining, are you a brit?

[steelepulse]

I have sold two houses and an apartment since I've been here and decided to do it all myself because most of the real estate agents were absolute crap. In fact some of them just put the photographs on their website and leave them there, and I can prove that because there are houses which have been for sale here for more than six years, with the original price still attached, now grossly overpriced with the "new norm" as regards property.

I will send you the name of one whom I have heard is a good operator, via PM, however you should also be looking at supplementing this with your own efforts.

Just to give you an example of "thinking outside of the square", I had a montage of four photographs and some bullet points with regards to the key features of the house made up and spoke to some of the folk who were selling apartments! I asked if they ever had people who were looking for houses/villas, and they said that they occasionally did, so I struck up a deal whereby they could channel them my way, for a consideration for a successful sale.

Some were prepared to do it, and others were not................another thing I did was to contact the small business owners with whom I had done business and asked if they would e-mail the details to their client base, this after inspecting the house to make sure that it was as good as it sounded, and this worked well. Don't want to go on too much but quite a few other things did get me some leads.

I would also strongly recommend advertising your house on the Thai Market. i advertised two Town Houses for sale mainly on the farange market and got no where. My lovely Thai Wife took on the task and within two months we had six offers! Oh and one Russian Agent said he would sell them for 10% commission which I thought was exceptionally kind

Any particular areas of "Thai market", or mainly just Thai real estate websites and Thai groups on FB?

[maidee]

did not know farang could own land in this country, new law?

[ronaldo0]

5% is normal although one agent said 10% and they were they only pesron allowed to sell the house for the next 3 months !!

In samui they all seem to be rubbish ! Posting on facebook all the time, ask for appointment to view an hour before they want to turn up, know nothing about the roperty and leave the owner to do the showing and details part !!

Nothing more than expensive taxi drivers is all they seem to me !!

Most of the serious parties i have had interested in property seem to have come from Thais who are interested or looking for a bit of cash put their way if you sell it on through someone they have shown the house too.

[xylophone]

I have sold two houses and an apartment since I've been here and decided to do it all myself because most of the real estate agents were absolute crap. In fact some of them just put the photographs on their website and leave them there, and I can prove that because there are houses which have been for sale here for more than six years, with the original price still attached, now grossly overpriced with the "new norm" as regards property.

I will send you the name of one whom I have heard is a good operator, via PM, however you should also be looking at supplementing this with your own efforts.

Just to give you an example of "thinking outside of the square", I had a montage of four photographs and some bullet points with regards to the key features of the house made up and spoke to some of the folk who were selling apartments! I asked if they ever had people who were looking for houses/villas, and they said that they occasionally did, so I struck up a deal whereby they could channel them my way, for a consideration for a successful sale.

Some were prepared to do it, and others were not................another thing I did was to contact the small business owners with whom I had done business and asked if they would e-mail the details to their client base, this after inspecting the house to make sure that it was as good as it sounded, and this worked well. Don't want to go on too much but quite a few other things did get me some leads.

I would also strongly recommend advertising your house on the Thai Market. i advertised two Town Houses for sale mainly on the farange market and got no where. My lovely Thai Wife took on the task and within two months we had six offers! Oh and one Russian Agent said he would sell them for 10% commission which I thought was exceptionally kind

Any particular areas of "Thai market", or mainly just Thai real estate websites and Thai groups on FB?

As "robertson468" has suggested, it is a great idea to get it into the "Thai market" by various means.

I also spread the word amongst all of my friends Thai wives/girlfriends that my house was for sale and gave them some photographs and suggested that if they put a buyer my way I would pay them 3% sales commission. In addition I posted the montage of photographs I spoke about, along with some bullet points (this time in Thai) in businesses owned by Thai folk I know and also in bars of friends of mine – – letting the girls in the bar know that there was 3% in it for them for a successful sale.

A simple banner upon which is written house for sale, call.......... and give a farang name with a phone number and a Thai name with a phone number, and hang it outside of the house, has worked for me on one occasion.

I also sent an e-mail with all of the information and pics on it to friends of mine and ask them if they would send it on to any friends they had, and asked them to do likewise so I got far reaching coverage.

I even put one over the the gents urinal in a go-go bar owned by someone I know and got a couple of phone calls from that (no sale, but interest)!!!!

Often I would put a few of the posters I spoke about (A4 paper with the montage and details on it) in a folder and carry them with me into the shopping malls here, watching for anyone who would be speaking to the folk selling apartments from their booths, and I would follow these people after they left, introduce myself and hand them my A4 paper and house details and ask them if they would be interested in viewing it.

It follows the old adage that "selling is a numbers game" because the more people you get in front of, the more chance there is of you selling your property and you should use every means possible to do that (obviously there is a proviso on that because people who show an interest in purchasing, are much better prospects than the everyday person).

Once again, good luck.

[mike324]

Ranges from 3-5% depending on your the value, you can always negotiate. VAT thing is kind of bs unless they are taking care of transfer for you, then it would be transfer fee they are referring to?

[BKResort]

Here 3% is the normal and top, but also depends of the property price. If the property is cheap, the commission may be too low at 3% for an agent to work hard in selling it. A very good realtor may ask for 5% for good reasons.

[i claudius]

My wife's agency gets 5,,% they have more property on their books than you can shake a stick at,best of luck to anyone trying to sell or rent it themselves,a hard sell here in Chonburi ,still she makes quite a lot of money at it,but for every 50 properties they take on they sell one,its not like the west more property than buyers or renters here ,also some developers even pay 7%.

[KittenKongRedux]

I dont think that there is anything "normal" about 5% commission, especially given the extremely poor job that most real estate agents do here.

I would suggest a maximum of 3%, always bearing in mind that everything to do with property in Thailand is 100% negotiable, with the possible exception of the transfer tax.

That said, anyone struggling to sell a property here should perhaps consider reducing the price to something sensible. Most property in the Pattaya area seems to overpriced by anywhere between 25-50% and as far as I can see this is the sole reason why it hangs around forever waiting for a pigeon buyer.

[xylophone]

I dont think that there is anything "normal" about 5% commission, especially given the extremely poor job that most real estate agents do here.

I would suggest a maximum of 3%, always bearing in mind that everything to do with property in Thailand is 100% negotiable, with the possible exception of the transfer tax.

That said, anyone struggling to sell a property here should perhaps consider reducing the price to something sensible. Most property in the Pattaya area seems to overpriced by anywhere between 25-50% and as far as I can see this is the sole reason why it hangs around forever waiting for a pigeon buyer.

I have met a couple of real estate agents who are prepared to accept 3% commission, but they are rare these days.

I don't know about the Pattaya area, however there are many properties for sale here in Patong, too many in fact, and even if some of the prices being asked for the small houses and condos were halved, they still wouldn't sell.

Just recently I helped a friend of mine sell his 62 m² furnished apartment, in a quiet location overlooking a golf course and no matter how much he dropped the price, nobody seemed interested, this over a period of two years or more. I eventually helped him sell it to a friend of a friend for 1.5 million baht – –a steal in anyone's language.

Having said that, there are still semi-detached, two large bedrooms, two bathroom houses on the estate where I used to live and the asking price has stayed at 5 to 5.5 million baht, with a couple of them being on the market for almost 7 years now. The problem being of course that Thai houses do not age that well, so they haven't got a sh1t show in hell's chance of selling them now........... and will they lower the price? Not a chance.

[i claudius]

Its got to the stage where if a property

is way overpriced the wife refuses them now, its just not worth the bother as there are so many properties at the right price that don't sell,its stupid to put up the price ,the Russians are selling in their droves, but as the old saying goes ,location ,location ,location, those in the right area rent and sell well.

[KittenKongRedux]

I don't know about the Pattaya area, however there are many properties for sale here in Patong, too many in fact, and even if some of the prices being asked for the small houses and condos were halved, they still wouldn't sell.

Just recently I helped a friend of mine sell his 62 m² furnished apartment, in a quiet location overlooking a golf course and no matter how much he dropped the price, nobody seemed interested, this over a period of two years or more. I eventually helped him sell it to a friend of a friend for 1.5 million baht – –a steal in anyone's language.

Is that price really a steal? If so then surely it should have sold more easily more quickly?

The problem here is that the average Thai would need to work for perhaps 10 years to be able to buy that unit whereas the average European would only need to work 3 or 4 years to buy some similar type property there, even though the real price there might be two or three times higher.

I think that Thai property asking prices are way higher than any logical comparison can bear, which for me is the simple reason why they dont sell.