Agents

[JR8]

a. I checked my phone records, it was Wednesday last week.

b. We spoke for the best part of 25 mintues on the phone, but because I'm not particular eloquent I said I would summarise these details via email. I did this on Sunday. Admittedly I would have liked to send this sooner.

Time is money.

You're accusing her of inefficiency, but perhaps you should consider your own? You're not considered as serious.

Back in those same days I was describing earlier of sitting in an estate shop on Saturday mornings. Everyone who walked in was welcomed, '[Smile] Sit down, would you like a cup of tea?'

Then the process was to:
- listen to what the walk-ins think they want
then
- listen to what they think they can get
then
- sort of gently break it to them what they're 'in the market' for (different areas, property specs)

The truly amazing thing was how many very educated and intelligent people, had so little clue about probably the largest purchase of their life.

There was also the category of 'time waster', people who came in and 'talked the talk', but would never do any business. I saw negotiators sit down, smile, take down particulars for 20 minutes, and then on a customer leaving the shop, they'd flamboyantly drop the notes straight into the bin - 'Kin timewaster lol'.

Estate agents are good judges of character, they have to be, it is a major (yet silent) part of their job. You could say their job is not property, but managing/gauging emotions/actions, in what is a highly stressful and emotive market.

[Strong Eagle]

It is unfortunate that some of the regulars, mods included, failed to notice your comment

Just had a few beers tonight and am a little bit wound up.

and instead went for the jugular. I've never used a property agent, always word of mouth referrals from friends and coworkers. But, I've heard many horror stories and sympathize with your plight.

[sundaymorningstaple]

It is unfortunate that some of the regulars, mods included, failed to notice your comment

Just had a few beers tonight and am a little bit wound up.

and instead went for the jugular. I've never used a property agent, always word of mouth referrals from friends and coworkers. But, I've heard many horror stories and sympathize with your plight.

You must be on the scotch tonight as well, as I specifically made mention of his drinking in my initial post.

[JR8]

The other odd concept was the fantasist.

You would occasionally have people walk in, and 'talk up a good game'. Instantly recognisable as, completely imagined.

I don't mean people stretching $250/mo on rent, or $50k on an asking price. I mean people offering $20mm on a house, despite not having a bean to their name...

[You have to wonder... just why do they bother?... before they sit down you know they should be down at the doctors getting pills]

Tag: Really Really weird people

[Hannieroo]

Taking away all of the other stuff where both of you look a bit cross purposes I would be a bit annoyed by an agent saying I had the whole day, taking my list of suggested places which I would expect them to supplement because that's the whole point of them and then crapping out on the Wednesday. Surely, the game is only over with two appointments on Friday night? She's got 48 more hours to pull it together and binning it off on the Wednesday tells me she is a) not good at her job or b) does have a better offer or c)for whatever reason doesn't want your business. So, I would be moving on and either doing it myself or getting a new agent. You are on the ground, you've researched. How hard can it be?

[JR8]

Anyone who takes 4 days to respond, is not serious, nor knows what they want, or want to do.

/Time-wasters

[Hannieroo]

Or works for a living or had to discuss stuff with their partner in a different time zone or was just too jetlagged or was still narrowing it down. I would have expected a rough game plan by the time my email was received.

But, hey. I'm just basing this on the 37 house moves I've done.

[katbh]

+1

[x9200]

On top of this it is always good to remember who pays whom so frankly I don't think it is the agent's business what level of inefficiency (if still reasonable) her clients show. She is for him, not the other around.

Trying to arrange something different than it was agreed despite of repeating the requirements dozens of times on dozens different occasions is so local that I would rather give all the credit to dresch than his agent.

[Hannieroo]

That is a very good point.

With ours (and god knows I wish I could turn back that clock) I had to make a very detailed list of the properties I wanted to see and still ended up being taken to the detailed list of the properties I did not want to see and a constant pushing of 3 bed 1000sqf apts off Orchard that don't take dogs.

[JR8]

Or works for a living or had to discuss stuff with their partner in a different time zone or was just too jetlagged or was still narrowing it down. I would have expected a rough game plan by the time my email was received.

But, hey. I'm just basing this on the 37 house moves I've done.

And which part of all your 'personal grievances' is or should be the concern of a busy estate agent/realtor? Money talks.



p.s. And if you have honestly moved 37 times (wow man!), jeez time to find a retirement home or settle down somewhere!

[Hannieroo]

It's not personal grievances. It's life and a realtor is one of those people whose very business is to fit in with your life. But sure, money talks and if that is the case then OP is right and he was binned off for a bigger wallet. Either way I don't think the agent is coming across well.

I suspect I'm younger than you so not quite ready for twilight living yet. We just have a fairly mobile lifestyle and the two 4 year stints are balanced with the odd year where we move 3 times. It's fun. I'll settle when the airline says they won't take my oxygen tanks onboard.

[JR8]

It's life and a realtor is one of those people whose very business is to fit in with your life.

I only got as far as this.

Herein lies the disconnect.

If you think estate agents are like 'bell-hops', you're making your own problem by believing this.

[Hannieroo]

Is that what I said? A realtor, particularly one targeting their business to expats, is dealing with people who are working hard at a new job having just arrived in a new country and everything that goes along with that. The payoff is that budgets (so therefore the commission) tends to be higher and if you can get in good word of mouth position in an expat community then you're pretty much made.

Real estate is a service industry so within normal practices that means they provide a service and $4k for what might be one days work tells me she should be pulling the appts in up until Saturday morning. I find the same with landlords here. They have a property they need the income on, either to live or to pay for the property. They are not doing us a favour bestowing their property on us any more than that realtor was being kind and taking people out for the weekend.

You need to read something in it's entirety before you comment.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Here we go again.

Seriously, though, Singaporeans don't really have a concept of "service" and that has to be the very FIRST lesson you learn when you land here. Usually starts with the taxi uncle who's been idling in the taxi queue for 1.5 hours fareless, waiting for a plane with enough tourists in it to pay his fare back to the city. That will be one of the rare times when the taxi uncle will try to load your bags in the boot. Once you get to your destination it's a different story.