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UNSATISFACTORY service from property agents is the top complaint consumers have about them, says the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case).

Unsatisfactory service from property agents is the top complaint among consumers. — ST PHOTO: JOYCE LIM

New figures released to The Straits Times show about four out of 10 complaints in the past three years were due to agents failing to give proper advice or to carry out duties for consumers, such as submitting relevant documents.

The next most common type of complaint was failure to honour agreements. This made up 15per cent of complaints from January to September – up from just 3per cent of complaints in 2007. Continue reading →

How to Choose The Right Property Agent for Yourself?

Posted on 16 Oct 2009 | Comments Off

Property agents are known to market themselves aggressively. We get their flyers stuffed into our letterboxes everyday. But how do you pick the right one out of so many dolled up faces you see on the flyers? Or should you just rely on referrals?

Traditionally, people simply expect housing agents to just have the knowledge about the property they intend to sell. But today the expectations of homebuyers going beyond that. Now buyers expect an agent to be able to analyze the market and update them with market pricing of the different locations be it in the North, South, East, West or the Core Central area. It’s not just about those projects they are selling only.

Agents should no longer concentrate on just buying and selling. Today they need to know extra information such as bank interest rate, loan schemes available for their clients etc. Then they can give good advise to potential buyers on financial matters and even estimate the monthly returns for the buyer.

A good agent is also someone who reads the paper daily to know what is happening in the country and around the world. How the stock market or Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is progressing can easily affect the buying/selling price. These are factors that drive consumer sentiments. And the property market is largely driven by sentiments. Continue reading →