Choosing a good real estate agent with industry knowledge is important to help you to provide options that fit your needs. Knowledge of areas, buildings, even specific units takes years of experience and building relationships. Being able to work between both Thai and ExPat owners and renters is a skill set of both language and culture. Thailand real estate agents are a very specialized group compared to their western based counterparts.
Freelance Real Estate Agents vs Agencies
Many people claim to be independent agents (also known as freelance agents), but we suggest working with a good real estate agent from a reputable agency. There are no discounts or savings to be found by dealing with smaller or independent agencies, so why not select someone with breadth and experience, and most importantly.. inventory? Other things that bring value from an agency is experience in writing good contracts correctly and looking out for your best interest in the process. This is what a good real estate agent or agency is paid to do. Agencies have more resources and again, often more inventory for you to choose from.
Working with Multiple Agents
In the past years, people have found they can engage multiple agents to either increase the options for finding the right property, or seem to think they can negotiate a better deal. It is not always true, and it is also treating hard working, commission based people unfairly. It is probably obvious that most agencies would prefer for you to work with them exclusively. Here are a few reasons to consider ‘single-sourcing’. Co-Agency deals
(deals where there is a commission split) should be a deal your agent
(buyer/renter agent) and a listing agent
(owner agent) negotiate together. When an agent or agency discovers you are using multiple agents, they will often drop interest in wanting to help you
(for obvious reasons). Just because there are presently lack of real estate agency protection laws; as in US and other more developed countries, doesn’t justify the practice in doing it here.
A Good Real Estate Agent
An agent or agency that you choose to work with exclusively will do everything to check their stock listings and other agency listings. A good real estate agent wants to find you a deal and will co-agent to help you find the right place. There is truly little point in working with multiple agents and hope this practice is soon stopped. This is obviously a biased view, however, this writer has been on both sides of deals and it has certainly become a pet peeve for many agents and agencies.
We hope you found this article for Finding a Good Real Estate Agent helpful. Please contact us for your housing needs; serving the Expat community relocation to Bangkok for over 12 years with Residential Condo & House Rentals, Sales, and Property Management Services.
