How does one become a Farang RE agent in Thailand?

[theguyfromanotherforum]

I need many foreigners doing real estate here. Forget Russians in Pattaya, but Bangkok seems to have quite a few legit foreign real estate agents.

 

Do you know anyone in the industry? Do they make a good coin? 

[Peterw42]

Set up a company, employ yourself or Find a real estate agency willing to hire you, that will provide WP etc. I dont think there is a licenses as such. Commission is usually 3%, but if you are employed by someone you would only see a percentage of that.

[theguyfromanotherforum]

I completely messed my op by typing on the phone, but to clarify the real estate agency will actually provide a wp? Is this not one of them reserved for thais only?

[richard_smith237]

17 minutes ago, theguyfromanotherforum said:

I completely messed my op by typing on the phone, but to clarify the real estate agency will actually provide a wp? Is this not one of them reserved for thais only?

 

No idea... but the real estate agent I used in Bangkok certainly had non-Thai agents.. 

That said - they could be employed as a 'manager' for every 4 Thai agents... 

 

The quality of the Agent's from various companies varied significantly... some were excellent, listened and brought us to ideal places... others were totally dumb and received little attention from my Wife and I. 

 

A good real estate agent did make a little difference for us when presented with a very short time frame to move condo. 

[blackcab]

Being an agent is not a Thai only job.

 

Part of my job description in my work permit (attached below) states that I can:

 

Act as an Agent to:
Buy, Sell, Sell with the Right of Redemption, Arrange a Rental Period or Lease for a Landlord or a Tenant, for:
any Land, House, Condominium or any other Construction whatsoever, and also for:
any other kind of asset fixed to the land including rivers, ponds, trees, minerals (and much more as the list of included items is quite long).

 

As stated, you either need to open a company and hire yourself or find a company big enough to employ you. In general you need to bring something special to the table or you won't get hired. There are plenty of Thai agents that speak Thai plus English, Japanese or Chinese who will probably work for less than you.

 

 

[KittenKong]

Judging from some of the agents I have come across in Pattaya all you need to do is rent a car and have some business cards printed. At a pinch you can replace the car with a scooter.

[wpcoe]

5 hours ago, KittenKong said:

Judging from some of the agents I have come across in Pattaya all you need to do is rent a car and have some business cards printed. At a pinch you can replace the car with a scooter.

 

Not even.  One agency I contacted from a web site listing sent the agent from Naklua to Jomtien on a baht bus.  We walked from one condo building to another nearby one he wanted to show me.  He then caught a baht bus heading back north.

[siam2007]

On 07/09/2016 at 3:22 PM, wpcoe said:

 

Not even.  One agency I contacted from a web site listing sent the agent from Naklua to Jomtien on a baht bus.  We walked from one condo building to another nearby one he wanted to show me.  He then caught a baht bus heading back north.

 

 

LOL  (all I can comment here)

[AlphMichaels]

Pop down to Hua Hin.  There are farang and Thai agents everywhere, not to mention a big glut of homes for sale.  Sell 1-2 a year and you're a superstar there.   They're not selling well but...., 

 

Anyplace else.., BKK (over) crowded with agents..., not sure.  Chiang Mai may be a good area to find work.  Many agencies but not sure what they do on work permits. 

 

 

[mike324]

In Bangkok its too competitive to make a good coin. Everyone jump on the band wagon couple years ago when real estate was booming and when the economy was good.  If you are really looking into it, your best bet is to have a niche that cater to a certain group, having good connections with embassy staff / staff from big companies (eg. Chevron) is always a big plus.

 

I know the Korean / Chinese market is somewhat under represented by real estate agents that cater to that particular group, especially with websites in those languages. Thats one of the niche that I can think of that gives you an edge over everybody else. You can make good side money if you hustle and are a freelancer. Commission is normally 1 month of the rental rate. I doubt you will be doing much selling, but like other poster said is around 3%.

[toofarnorth]

Sorry I thought RE was Royal Enfield .

[Agent Sumo]

Just do what a lot of chancers do and call around agents, negotiate a split commission deal an post property details on some shitty Bangkok expat Facebook group.

 

Just don't show properties to Thais though - they could be undercover Ministry of Labour spooks trying to catch you out.

[rjwill01]

I have come across quite  few foreign real estate people. I was involved in real estate in the States for about 30 years. It suprised me when I asked a few brokers or owners of a real estate company what is required, I was told that you can start tomorrow. No licensing classes or educational classes needed. In the States I had to have 98 hours of real estate classes for a sales license and then an additional 90+ hours for my Broker license.  I don't believe there is a real estate commission or a real MLS system. I was also told that many agents can represent a seller as there is no agency designation and that sellers will not contract with just one exclusive agent. Real estate in Thailand sounds very helter skelter to me. I have met a number of English, American, Swedish and Australians that have opened real estate offices in Pattaya and Jomtien. 

[KittenKong]

12 hours ago, rjwill01 said:

I have come across quite  few foreign real estate people. I was involved in real estate in the States for about 30 years. It suprised me when I asked a few brokers or owners of a real estate company what is required, I was told that you can start tomorrow. No licensing classes or educational classes needed. In the States I had to have 98 hours of real estate classes for a sales license and then an additional 90+ hours for my Broker license.

 

As far as I know the US is one of the very few countries that actually requires any serious training or testing of estate agents. Some countries I have lived in require registration without any testing or training. In the UK anyone can do it, just like here.

 

interestingly the average commission in the US seems to be in excess of 5% and the average in the UK is around 1.5%. I find it impossible to justify more than 2% at the very most, and even then only if the agent were to spend very large amounts on advertising (which most dont here). There is certainly no justification at all here for commission rates of 3 or 5% as are commonly charged. In fact I find it hard to justify a commission-based rate at all. A flat fee would make more sense. Or perhaps a flat fee up to some asking price agreed by the vendor and a large commission of say 20% for anything achieved over that price.

[theguyfromanotherforum]

On 9/9/2016 at 10:49 PM, Agent Sumo said:

Just do what a lot of chancers do and call around agents, negotiate a split commission deal an post property details on some shitty Bangkok expat Facebook group.

 

Just don't show properties to Thais though - they could be undercover Ministry of Labour spooks trying to catch you out.

 

So, this is the answer I was looking for.

 

Is this how it's done?

 

Why would a Thai agent keep the word and split the profit?

 

Can't an agent post on Facebook him/herself? Maybe there is a language barrier?

[Agent Sumo]

6 hours ago, theguyfromanotherforum said:

 

So, this is the answer I was looking for.

 

Is this how it's done?

 

Why would a Thai agent keep the word and split the profit?

 

Can't an agent post on Facebook him/herself? Maybe there is a language barrier?

 

To the best of my knowledge, this is how many earn an (illegal) income here but, for the most part, they're letting agents although some do sales.

 

I don't know if they do deals with Thai agents - probably doubtful they'd get their half of the commission and worse, they could be reported to immigration if they kick up a fuss

 

Companies aren't allowed to post on some of the better Facebook expat groups because they tend to saturate the group's news feed with their inventory. 

 

These freelance agents post properties purporting to be owners or renters trying to transfer their lease on to someone else because they "have to leave Thailand urgently"

 

Many people avoid them for the simple reason that, at the end of the day, they're working illegally and, if something goes wrong with the deal, they won't accompany the client to the police to resolve the issue . . . obviously because they don't have a work permit.

 

Restricting their clientele to foreigners reduces the risk of being caught

[Global Guy]

I know a guy who worked as a real estate agent and then for a very well known business broker/real estate company that most every expat has heard of.

 

He was a top notch sales guy, in fact, one of the best I've every known. But, he got out of this because he couldn't make much money unless he was willing to take up some shady business practices. Especially in the business brokerage sales (which includes commercial/hotel businesses). With the straight commission sales, he couldn't make enough to live off of and didn't have deep enough pockets to survive while he built up a network of contacts.

 

With the business brokerage firm, he said all the firm does is sell failed expat owned businesses to new expats and after they failed at the same business, relist the business yet again until another sucker expat came along.....and on and on. They just kept relisting the same businesses every 1-2 years. The expat would run them until they became broke and then relist with the same company that sold it to them. Over and over.

 

He said it was a "churn and burn" technique. Falsified financials when there were any. Absent financials the majority of times. Shady 9 of 10 times.

 

Maybe if you get hooked up with a large commercial firm there might be a better chance of an income.