My friend asked me how am I going to sell my properties in Penang. Would I be using any free online advertisements? I told him that I am using the services of a real estate agent. He remarked that if I do that, I would need to pay agent’s fee. I replied gladly, yes if they sell for me, I would pay agent fee. In my personal opinion, to sell your property properly, you should use an agent. While Malaysia has yet to enforce licensed real estate agents strictly, I would give to agents because of three reasons.
Convenience. Assuming you priced your property correctly, how many views do you think it will need for you to sell? Conservatively, five. If you are working, who would open the door if buyers want to view? You limit the viewing to weekends? You worked so hard on weekdays and you still want to ‘work’ on weekdays? If you still answer yes, you may stop reading now. All the best in selling your property. 🙂
Money. Your time is money. If you take a half-day leave, how much would that cost you? If you bring the buyers to view during weekends, that should be double as it is considered rest day. If you have a family that you asked them to wait while you bring the buyer to view, that’s a pity. Why waste the time that you could have used for more productive reasons, for your family, going back to hometown etc?
Lastly, safety. If a buyer called to view and he said he wanted to view in the evening, say 8pm, do you feel safe to open the door yourself? You want to bring a friend? Great. What if the buyer is viewing with a few other people and there are just two of you? Be real, even agents take precautionary measures these days, why not you?
I do not want to go into how much savings you can save versus what if things really do go wrong. To me, every profession has its reasons. You can buy a scissor and cut your hair too. Why pay so much to cut your hair? Think objectively, make decision swiftly. When you sell, you are looking for potential profit and not potential trouble. Majority of the profits would come from capital appreciation and not from your savings by not paying the agent fee. This is why I prefer to use real estate agents. Happy selling.
written on 11 Jan 2014
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Why I engage real estate agents / negotiators
Comments
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Good comment and article, it is the right mindset from business standpoint. you are right, every profession come with its reason and price, nothing is free, and we should also respect to those who deserve and what the effort is contributed.
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thks ang. yea true. every profession has its own value.
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Fully agreed with your points.
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wah…. thanks chee giap. take care.
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For your opinion, how many real agent should looking for the property?
For better way, house key should maximum give to how many agents?
If have two property, you will advice give both property key to an agent, or for two agents?-
i prefer one agent for one property. if they need co broke let them do it themselves. more accountability.
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Noted 🙂
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no right no wrong. just an opinion. cheers.
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Hi Mr. Blogs and Crystal, as a real estate agent I’d like to share some opinion.
What we practice is something like this. Owner list a property by choosing just a few estate agents, choose the ones with track record and you’re comfortable with. Ask if you need to know. Then get them to come collect keys from your house, at the same time take a picture of their ICs and REN cards, and business cards. Should anything go wrong, you can take matters up to the board.
Inform agents to keep you in the loop always, to inform when there will be viewings, and get agents to get feedback from buyers to share with you after viewings. Occasionally, do drop by property to check. Also, it helps to ask the agents on market sentiments. If they can’t answer satisfactorily, you might want to find another one. If too perfectly answered, might want to doubt his/her answers. Because in our line of work, market sentiments are always changing and quite often, it is for reasons beyond our understanding. We can only tell as mach as we see and hear from working, coming to conclusions should be everyone from themselves. Also, every now and them call them in to discuss the performance of listed property, to promote communication, trust and transparency.
Should all go well, your property will be very visible in the market and have best chance of selling. Beyond that, it’s out of our control already how the market performs. We are just specialized, professional marketeers after all.
Have a great day all.
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