Agent fees for rental tenant

[myprivate]

A Tenant is moving into our condo next month, I didn't promote it through an agent or anything, the agent found my condo by seeing a 7 year old online post of mine from when we wanted to rent it out for the first time. He called to asked if he could show his customer "in the next hour" as he was already in the condo building showing the tenant other rooms, and the tenant selected ours.

 

Just wondering if the agent will be expecting 1 month commission from me or if the tenant will be paying that as a finder's fee. The agent has not mentioned anything about us owing him a commission. I'm ok to pay it if they ask, but just wondering what's normal in this case to avoid any awkwardness when we meet during moving in day.

[Peterw42]

Who is collecting and holding the deposit and who is collecting the rent ? Agent will probably take a commission from both of those. 

If the agent has found you a tenant and handed the tenant over to you then a finders fee would be expected. Often Thai agents will collect more from the tennant then they are paying you.

Edited August 20, 2017 by Peterw42

[KittenKong]

1 hour ago, myprivate said:

I didn't promote it through an agent or anything, the agent found my condo by seeing a 7 year old online post of mine from when we wanted to rent it out for the first time.

 

Does this "agent" represent a real agency? Have you done some background checks?

 

So many scams.

[myprivate]

We will be holding the deposit and we will receive the rent directly, the lease contract is directly between us and the tenant, no cash passes through the agent, I'll make sure of that. In fact the agent ceases to be involved once the tenant moves in. The agent works for his own company/freelance which I find is quite common here in Bangkok, and they generally work a lot harder than agency employees in my experience.

For previous tenants the agent has always been engaged by me, this time an agent was engaged by the tenant, that's the bit that's new to me.

So back to the question, is it common that a tenant will pay commission to the agent as a finder fee, or is it always the landlord and who pays it regardless? It is a Bangkok grade A condo in the city centre if that makes any difference.

[myprivate]

33 minutes ago, KittenKong said:

 

Does this "agent" represent a real agency? Have you done some background checks?

 

So many scams.

Thanks but I've tried real agencies in the past.... mostly hopeless. In my experience it is best to is post it yourself on prakard/ddproperty, that's where the agents seem to look first when they have a client. I don't care about the agent being freelance or from a real agency as long as they find a tenant and are not involved in the cash side of things.

[myprivate]

2 minutes ago, myprivate said:

Thanks but I've tried real agencies in the past.... mostly hopeless. In my experience it is best to is post it yourself on prakard/ddproperty, that's where the agents seem to look first when they have a client. I don't care about the agent being freelance or from a real agency as long as they find a tenant and are not involved in the cash side of things.

But if there are scams I'd be interested to hear them, I can't see what they could be if the cash and contact are directly between the tenant-landlord and there is 2 months deposit and 1 month rent in advance held by me, but you never know of course.

[myprivate]

To close this off this thread and share the result. The agent asked for 1 month commission which I paid. So it seems they expect commission from the Owner even when they are engaged by the Tenant. No problem, I accept everyone has to earn a living. I was just curious.