Agents' motivation against selling pre-owned property

[thebears]

A friend of mine who has been attempting to sell his home for some time, has indicated to me that he feels many of the local agents are not motivated towards selling customers' pre-owned properties, or properties that are reduced to an unusually low price, because the agent's commission is substantially reduced.

I'm keen to try to find out therefore, if indeed this is the case, and if it might therefore be a complete waste of time to advertise one's property with many of the local agents.

In his case, the situation is that he has reduced his asking price to well below market price, but found recently (or at least has reason to believe) that two successive agents have steered potential customers towards purchase of similar property at a higher price.

He seemed to be under the impression that agents want pre-owned property solely for 'window dressing' the shops, and that the real motivation is to sell developers' new property, at higher rates. He also said he felt the agents tend to work together to promote higher-priced property and share the resulting commission between them.

I have been attempting to sell my property also, and his comments have made me wonder if we are both simply wasting our time. I'm not suggesting that his assertions are true, but hoping to find out, and if so, what approach does one use. If he is correct, then the whole endeavour is counterproductive, since one is marketing a property with these people, not even being aware they have no intention to sell.

There are for instance, examples of property reduced substantially in price, almost to the point of giveaway, but they continue to fester in the shop windows.

[Takiap]

I could be wrong, but my take on it is that most buyers gravitate towards new properties simply because they feel they're getting a brand new house for the same money, or quite often less than a secondhand property. Most people, if they want to sell, will want to make some profit, which in most cases means a buyer can get a "better" deal buying new.


This is actually why we thought long and hard before buying, because we both went into this with no intention of wanting to sell. We were simply buying a place we could live in. Fair enough, if we were to get a good offer we'd sell, but we really couldn't care either way. My wife works for one of Thailand's biggest real estate agents, so I'll ask her, but as far as I know, most of the properties she and the other staff sell are condos rather than houses, and they're almost always new builds.


If it's money you're after, I think you either need to build a small development, build on demand, or simply stick to buying and selling land.


Go luck anyway, and if you need assistance, just PM me and I'll ask my wife to get in touch with you.


Cheers

[chopsticks]

A friend of mine who has been attempting to sell his home for some time, has indicated to me that he feels many of the local agents are not motivated towards selling customers' pre-owned properties, or properties that are reduced to an unusually low price, because the agent's commission is substantially reduced.

I'm keen to try to find out therefore, if indeed this is the case, and if it might therefore be a complete waste of time to advertise one's property with many of the local agents.

In his case, the situation is that he has reduced his asking price to well below market price, but found recently (or at least has reason to believe) that two successive agents have steered potential customers towards purchase of similar property at a higher price.

He seemed to be under the impression that agents want pre-owned property solely for 'window dressing' the shops, and that the real motivation is to sell developers' new property, at higher rates. He also said he felt the agents tend to work together to promote higher-priced property and share the resulting commission between them.

I have been attempting to sell my property also, and his comments have made me wonder if we are both simply wasting our time. I'm not suggesting that his assertions are true, but hoping to find out, and if so, what approach does one use. If he is correct, then the whole endeavour is counterproductive, since one is marketing a property with these people, not even being aware they have no intention to sell.

There are for instance, examples of property reduced substantially in price, almost to the point of giveaway, but they continue to fester in the shop windows.

Agree with you 100%. Best try selling it yourself on the internet websites and classifieds etc.

Agents will try and steer a potential client to a property they can make the most commission on which is usually a new development.
When I enquired about viewing a pre-owned property various reasons for it suddenly becoming unavailable were stated.

[jimmy40]

I have also been told that the agents themselves are involved in the NEW projects. Where they come up trumps on both sides. Talk to JW on here, he maybe able to help, and as i see him honest. I beleive he is a sponser

[johnnyk]

I've had six houses on three continents. One of the first things I learned is that real estate agents are working for themselves no matter how much they say they are serving you, working hard to get a deal done, yada yada.

[Lev]

Just for your information, we offer property sales and rental listings on this site, we need a full description and 5 images, the cost is minimal and all enquiries are sent direct to the owner - we take no commission! This forum and our property section gets more monthly readers than all of the agent websites combined.

Please contact us for details: headoffice @ huahinmedia.com

[charlesh]

There are people on this forum that have been apparently trying to sell for years. Either the price is too high or there are more intrinsic issues relating to the property including exposure. If you expect results by handing it over to an agent - think again.
I suggest that if you live in an estate have a chat to the security guard as most Thais seem to do a wander about and eye ball things first hand (as opposed to expats) and don't necessarily refer to advertising.

[advocate]

Out of the dozen or so agents I have called to list/sell our house, only 2 even bothered to call us back and show up to view the property. The others just made promises to do so that were not kept.

Most of the agents are completely unreliable and useless. I think I will list my property here instead.

I have 2 friends who just sold their houses last week using a sign on the gate.

[dtaai-maai]

I have 2 friends who just sold their houses last week using a sign on the gate.

Yes, this and other similar DIY methods are probably as effective as anything else here.

These stories of potential buyers being steered away by agents surprise me, because if I were interested in such a property and the agent didn't want to take me to see it, I'd find it myself and the only loser would be the agent. (Speaking of agents, they seem to be conspicuous by their absence from this thread!)

[benmo]

Agreed, JW, for instance is normally a prolific poster! Maybe their absence tells the story

[advocate]

Watch how fast the agents will line up and offer to even pick you up from the airport if you email them and tell them you have cash and are coming here to buy a house.

Then email them and tell them you want to sell. They will basically ignore you, even if you have done most of the work for them by supplying photos and property description.

The agents here give the poorest service I have ever seen. Seems they don't give a crap about the sellers, only the buyers.

[advocate]

When this house is sold, and I go looking for a new house, the ONLY agents who will get any business from me are the 2 who had the integrity to keep their appointments with me.

[dozer]

I have help several friends and acquaintances over the years here, to both buy and sell land and property and at no time did I involve a farang agent.

I think you will find that with regards to farang “agents”, they mostly live up to their reputation as being fly by night shysters and very few if any of them have any sort of formal training.

My advice would be to deal with Thai agents only and steer well clear of farangs.

[petercr]

I have recently sold and purchased property in Hua Hin and my own experience was that most agents provide a appalling level of service. Despite many offers, only one agent inspected my sale property and it was necessary to provide my own photographs/details to have any chance of being listed. Many would turn up on my doorstep without an appointment, they also make appointments which are subsequently broken and offer no explanation or notice that they would not be attending. Follow up on any potential client viewing was almost zero unless you take the initiative and contact the agent yourself.

I generated more property viewings by placing signs at the development entrance and outside my property. HHAD also provided low cost exposure and generated leads, this is how I eventualy sold my property after nearly two years wasted with agents.

Why would anyone want to pay 5% commission to an agent when they do so very little!!

The purchase I eventualy made was on a property found by driving round our preferred area and seeing a 'For Sale' sign. While the property was also listed with agents, none had offered me a viewing and I subsequently negotiated a better purchase price as there was no agent commission payable. As a purchaser I found the agents more motivated (No surprise there) but I was also taken to many properties that were far removed from the specification provided, usually on a new development where the agent either had an interest of was incentified by the developer.

With few exceptions I did not receive accurate or objective advice from agents, instead was given any old Bull S..t to to acheive a sale!!

The best advice I can offer anyone is to sell and purchase privately after having a good long look at the area and a short list of properties. Always talk to existing owners/neighbours on a development to get accurate information on services, disputes with developers etc.

If an agent approaches you to list your property you have nothing to lose by agreeing but I would not pay more than 2% commission for the level of service typically provided in HH. If they refuse...................well in my experience it makes little difference to an eventual sale so you have lost nothing!!

[thebears]

Well, there's been some very useful contributions to this thread and certainly the agents are indeed very absent on it, as pointed out. Basically what happened in my case is that initially I used an agent who overvalued the property. I didn't think enough about it and went with his suggestion - my mistake. However, this agent is essentially a developer who has built a small group of properties and can't seem to sell them. It's difficult to imagine that the high pricing of my property was anything other than window-dressing his shop and helping to increase the average asking price of the properties on his web site.

In my friend's case, I believe he found out that an individual who had expressed interest in his home, was firmly steered towards another property by the developer/agent. I don't quite understand how this happened, because if the buyer was so interested, he'd have surely resisted it. But this is my friend's assertion anyway and I don't think he's entirely wrong.

I've recently signed with another agent (signed being a joke really, because they don't provide any form of paperwork or contract) and although he assures me that he's promoting the property, I've noticed that he's asked me to do a lot of work preparing additional information for interested clients - clients I might add who never seem to turn up in Hua Hin. They don't measure up floor area - my agents have simply guessed it. I've reduced my asking price by nearly 45% of the original price which I paid in 2006, and there's no doubt in my mind that in comparison with what else is on the market, my property is a steal. But still no interest.

The other thing with many of the agents' sale write-ups, is that their standard of writing is approximately junior school age. It always amazes me, reading a high-end property sale particular well into the double-digit prices and even those at 60m THB, that the grammar and style of writing is totally uneducated.

So, all in all, very disappointed that this is what we get here. In UK we'd call them property surveyors and they'd be professionally qualified, but of course that's not the case here. It isn't regulated.

Basically from what I've seen from the above posters' contributions (thanks v. much to all of you), my impression is that the agents are primarily selling new development 'products' and the pre-owned property is not being marketed. We're therefore wasting our time and in doing so, we're actually providing marketing assistance to the agents, instead of those agents working for us. One could argue therefore, that it constitutes a scam, because the professional service for which the agent is being engaged, is not in effect being carried out.

Perhaps it's best to use this web site mentioned by the above, although being quite candid, I don't personally find the quality of it to be very acceptable and I feel that if I was looking myself, I wouldn't want to navigate the site. I'd be interested in hearing if anyone else has sold via this method and open to using it of course. Beggars can't be choosers, as they say.