Singapore Expats

The general impression was that our agent wasn't keen to get appointments as we weren't moving for a few months but we really needed to see the sizes and standard of porperties within our budget.

Anyway, cut a long story short, he only showed me 4 properties which i had found myself and which he had to arrange through other agents - so he was co-broking. I guess he's areadyy half motivated if his commssion is halved.

We are very interested in cluster houses and I noticed that there were many empty units but he said he didn't know who was handling those ones so I suggested that we put notes through the doors of the property or speak to the Mangement office to see who was dealing with these properties. But my agent didn't seem that keen. SO what's the deal?

Maybe not all agents will agree to co-broke?
In which case I might never get to hear of properties that I might really like? Our brief is for a large modern style cluster or condo in Holland/Bukit Timah.

queenie71 wrote:Anyway, cut a long story short, he only showed me 4 properties which i had found myself ... We are very interested in cluster houses and I noticed that there were many empty units ...

If you're already familiar with Singapore and doing this much research yourself, why are you going through an agent in the first place? Just use the property search websites to look for the places that you're interested in and contact them directly.

jpatokal wrote:

queenie71 wrote:Anyway, cut a long story short, he only showed me 4 properties which i had found myself ... We are very interested in cluster houses and I noticed that there were many empty units ...

If you're already familiar with Singapore and doing this much research yourself, why are you going through an agent in the first place? Just use the property search websites to look for the places that you're interested in and contact them directly.

Totally agree and if you do it correctly you wont have to pay any commission

is your agent forced upon you by your company?

Sometimes (like in my case) your employer will simply attach one of their agents to you and then you have no choice but to go through him/her. The lease being in employer's name, its important to go along with the allotted agent as he/she knows the ropes within your company. I know it sounds strange but I have found our agent to be actually not taking care of company interests but rather side with the land lord agents all the time. The amount of research my wife did on Strait times was unbelievable and yet our company agent thinks we are the ones who are too fussy !!!

We did it on our own, its worth doing it that way if you have the time to research it.

Hi, why don't do you post a query on the website for anyone living in cluster homes moving about the same time as you? However, best for you to already know which cluster homes you like.

This way you can get the landlord's contact directly from the current tenant and perhaps even get cheaper rent as both of you would save on the commission costs.

hg wrote:is your agent forced upon you by your company?

Sometimes (like in my case) your employer will simply attach one of their agents to you and then you have no choice but to go through him/her. The lease being in employer's name, its important to go along with the allotted agent as he/she knows the ropes within your company. I know it sounds strange but I have found our agent to be actually not taking care of company interests but rather side with the land lord agents all the time. The amount of research my wife did on Strait times was unbelievable and yet our company agent thinks we are the ones who are too fussy !!!

Lift the bedsheets, or look for a conspiracy, you scratch my back and i'll scratch yours A company agent is a nice catch i would think! What i have seen since i have been here, there could be many people involved in one deal, they all want paying, and the Company is on the hook to foot the bill.

Although the grass is not always greener on the other side with 30.000 agents operating and only 6000 which are registered, you need protection as much as possible Ouch! Did i say that, sorry your only a tenant you have no rights, how can the landlord make money, if you have rights?

The only thing you need to know about agents is that all they are interested is getting your money and as much of it as they can and then denying saying things they told you, even when you explicitly ask them to confirm. They tend to asnwer "yes lah".

Personally I avoid them at all costs. I find them sneaky, underhanded and a total waste of time. If it's the landlords agent they;ll scre you at every turn and if it's one you employ they'll take you to places above your budget as as far as they are concerned if you say you have a budget of 5k they'll show you places for 7 as you are an overpaid expat and therefore have more money!

Can you tell I don't like them!! There is no control for agents although I believe that they are trying to clean that up but it'll take a long time for them to clean up their reputation. Alot of landlords have a similar attitude so I would advise taking photos of everything and keeping a record for you and send to your landlord/agent via email as proof or even get them to sign and date the pages with the photos as proof.

I'd check out the board here as it has lots of info on properties etc and there are plenty of other websites to go to do your research. If you are looking for something specific like cluster houses, do a search and then do a drop through their doors etc etc.

Worth asking to meet the landlord of a property you like.

After we found a property the "landlord" via his agent kept insisting on stuff we didnt want like low energy lights, crappy blinds, etc. The final straw was after handing over the deposit cheques changes appeared in the contracts.

We insisted on meeting the landlord who turned out to be a really decent guy and it was his agent trying to swing lights, blinds, contractors through her friends firms. She never told him about our request for changes to her home made tenancy agreement.

He dump her (though still paid for her comms.) and we dealt direct with him, he OK'd and paid for all our lights, electric blinds etc. and agreed to use an industry standard TA.

queenie71 wrote:The general impression was that our agent wasn't keen to get appointments as we weren't moving for a few months but we really needed to see the sizes and standard of porperties within our budget.

Anyway, cut a long story short, he only showed me 4 properties which i had found myself and which he had to arrange through other agents - so he was co-broking. I guess he's areadyy half motivated if his commssion is halved.

We are very interested in cluster houses and I noticed that there were many empty units but he said he didn't know who was handling those ones so I suggested that we put notes through the doors of the property or speak to the Mangement office to see who was dealing with these properties. But my agent didn't seem that keen. SO what's the deal?

Maybe not all agents will agree to co-broke?
In which case I might never get to hear of properties that I might really like? Our brief is for a large modern style cluster or condo in Holland/Bukit Timah.

There are many kinds of Agents everywhere... All kinds of character and blah blah blah... maybe you just met up with the wrong kind...

As to co-broking, same things happens, there are those that do not like to co-broke, but just will not tell u.. hahaha... so you'll just be sent on a wild goose chase...

However, I'm sure that you'll definitely be able to find what you are looking for...

good luck... email me if you wanna chat more...

Usman_DC wrote:
However, I'm sure that you'll definitely be able to find what you are looking for...

good luck... email me if you wanna chat more...

tic.....toc.....tic.....toc.....tic.....

'Tis only a matter of time......