Property Buyer beware. Easier to identify real from fake now.

We always hear of agents who are unprofessional. Some took the money and disappeared. My friend Mr. Michael Geh who’s the Senior Partner of Raine & Horne said, ‘to avoid situations where the agent runs away with your money, you should issue the cheque to the agency name instead of the individual’s name’. The reason is simple. It is not easy to operate an agency and no one would be running with your money even if it is RM50,000 and lose everything overnight. Recently, the Board of Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents (BOVAEA) started a registration of all Real Estate Negotiators and this exercise saw 10,000 RENs registering.
Now, all the negotiators or even project marketing staffs who are working whether it is in sales galleries, shopping complexes, hotel function room or exhibition halls are required to wear the newly issued tags. These tags have a specially assigned REN number and a QR code, allowing the buyer to quickly get information about the negotiator with just a smartphone. The identification tags also come with security features to prevent it from being imitated. This is believed to lead to the the increase of professionalism of the RENs here in Malaysia.
The surprising this is, I still see many ‘fake’ agents in the shopping malls not wearing such tags. Seriously, the enforcement has to be stricter. Why not make it clear, what the punishment would be to the agency involved if the RENs under their agency does not follow the procedure? A fine? A suspension? Sometimes, I really hate it when Malaysians complain that the enforcement is not strict but when it comes to all these things, they would prefer to use brokers instead since brokers are giving them ‘special deals’. Come on, if all of us are also serious, these things would not happen. You are selling a property, you need a service, you pay for that service.
written on 26 June 2014
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