Category Archives: Rental / Lease

How to Choose The Right Property Agent for Yourself?

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

Sellers can try mystery caller test to check on their property agents

WE THANK Ms Kwok Yoke Pui for her Forum Online letter yesterday, ‘Commissions and property agents’.

The Singapore Accredited Estate Agencies’ (SAEA) position expressed in an earlier letter last Friday (’1 agent for buyer, seller: OK, but get written consent’) was that if sellers and buyers wish to appoint estate agents to assist them in their HDB resale transactions, they should be separately represented by estate agents of their choice to avoid a situation of conflict of interest.

An estate agent should act and collect commission only from one party to the transaction, who could either be the seller or the buyer. We had then suggested an exception to permit dual agency if the sellers and buyers are both aware and consent to the appointment of the same agent, preferably in writing. Such a practice, including separate agents of the same agency acting in the same transaction, for example, can be found in some states of the real estate industry in the United States. Continue reading