I Hate Paying Agent FEE !!!!

[hasnainhyder1]

Hi Fellows,

I have been renting rooms/apartments in Singapore for quite some time now.
And always I pay so much money to the Agent !
Seriously 2000$ for just setting up the meeting is insane !!!

Any bright ideas???

[sundaymorningstaple]

Try the bright idea of using the search engine here. Lot's of info in the forum if you but just look for it.

[beppi]

I have never paid any agent fee in my 12 years and 6 house searches here.
I didn't rule out using an agent and did consider their offers, but the better places always were the ones without agent.

[Wd40]

Ads posted by agents doesnt mean that as a tenant you need to pay the agent fee. The agents in the ads are representing the owner and get the agent fee from the owner. So you should try and negotiate to not pay the agent fee.

I think at condos its much easier to avoid paying agent fee just like Beppi mentioned.

Its the HDBs that its slightly more difficult to avoid agent fees, but its still possible. I have paid agent fee for the past 3 HDB units I rented and in those days there was lot more demand from FTs and hence agents had the liberty to double charge from both tenant and owner.

But my latest HDB that I rented, I didnt pay agent fee and I see lot more ads where agents post that they wont charge the tenant any fee. So things are certainly improving on that front.

[AngMoG]

I just want to point out again for everyone's benefit: If the agent represents the owner, he cannot charge you agent's fee. The owner must pay him. That is the law now, since 2011 (I think).

If he does try to double charge, that is illegal. You should point that out and report him to CEA if he does not relent. It does not matter whether it is a room, an HDB or a condo.

[therat]

Add on

Property Agents Can No Longer Act For Buyer And Seller effective November 15 2010,

[Wd40]

I just want to point out again for everyone's benefit: If the agent represents the owner, he cannot charge you agent's fee. The owner must pay him. That is the law now, since 2011 (I think).

If he does try to double charge, that is illegal. You should point that out and report him to CEA if he does not relent. It does not matter whether it is a room, an HDB or a condo.

The thing is he wont double charge you directly. Instead when you call the agent in the ad, he will take down your details and then ask one of his friends/aids to call you and that friend/aid will tell you that he is representing you and you need to pay the agent fee.

These are the tricks that agents in Singapore pull off especially in the HDB rent and even resale market. Again, it depends on demand and supply and nowadays its tilted a bit towards the tenants and hence its a bit easier to get a house without paying agent fee. But its not as black and white as you say. I have been in the market constantly and also know many colleagues who have gone through this. There are loop holes which these leech agents make use of.

[Wd40]

In fact, recently I helped my friend to double cross an agent and avoid paying the agent fee. My friend had contacted a property agent to view a property and after that he used to send him sms daily about different properties and he expected my friend to pay the agent fee.

One of the property viewings I accompanied my friend and my friends agent, stupid fellow, is a very busy person, instead of coming to help us view the property he didn't turn up instead he asked us to meet the owner's agent directly to see the property.

When we went to view, the owners agent kept telling us that he is not representing us and so on and so forth, yet I asked him for his card while viewing. After viewing we went away and had couple of beers we decided to double cross our agent.

We called up the owner's agent and told him. lets just fu*k this agent who really didnt help us in anyway other than just post the ad. We want to deal with you directly we will pay you the commission that we would otherwise pay him so tell us, will you take it or not, just get us a better deal.

The owner's agent was a good guy, he said he doesn't want the agent fee and he will deal with us directly. So I saved my friend $1100

[AngMoG]

I just want to point out again for everyone's benefit: If the agent represents the owner, he cannot charge you agent's fee. The owner must pay him. That is the law now, since 2011 (I think).

If he does try to double charge, that is illegal. You should point that out and report him to CEA if he does not relent. It does not matter whether it is a room, an HDB or a condo.

The thing is he wont double charge you directly. Instead when you call the agent in the ad, he will take down your details and then ask one of his friends/aids to call you and that friend/aid will tell you that he is representing you and you need to pay the agent fee.

These are the tricks that agents in Singapore pull off especially in the HDB rent and even resale market. Again, it depends on demand and supply and nowadays its tilted a bit towards the tenants and hence its a bit easier to get a house without paying agent fee. But its not as black and white as you say. I have been in the market constantly and also know many colleagues who have gone through this. There are loop holes which these leech agents make use of.

Does not go against what I said, since the second agent in such case would technically be representing the tenant, even though he would not be doing a single thing for you, really.

I have myself been victim of that scheme until last year, but we had an HDB at a relatively low rent, started rent before the new regulation and just renewing, so went along with it. We moved out earlier this year. In my case, not worth pursuing the matter further really.

But for new tenancies I would never pay an agent that advertises, and it is best if nobody encourages agents to do such a thing. There are enough properties in Singapore, if somebody is trying to pull that, just be firm, and worst case, look for something else and report the agent.

[Saint]

If an Agent has advertised a property for rent on a portal he legally has to already got the owener's consent to advertise and therefore act on behalf of the owner. The Agent therefore can not act on behalf of you an the tennant, totally illegal. However, more often than not how a conversation with an Agent will go is as follows.

Tennant : Hi, I've just seen you are advertising an apartment at xyz condo and I would be interested in viewing it.
Agent: Unfortunately that apartment has just been rented out. However if you are interested in an apartment at xyz condo let me find you an alternative apartment...........
Tennant: Oh yes please that would be great.

In the space of 30 seconds you have gone from talking to an Agent who was acting on behalf of a Landlord so you wouldn't have to pay an Agent's commission, to the Agent now acting on behalf of you and you having to most likely pay commission!

The apartment you called the Agent up about originally about probably never actually exist!

My best piece of advice when looking through these rental websites, if the advert doesn't contain any pics of the interior of the apartment (only exterior generic pics) it is more than likely a fake advertisement and the Agent is only after prospective tennant leads

[Wd40]

If an Agent has advertised a property for rent on a portal he legally has to already got the owener's consent to advertise and therefore act on behalf of the owner. The Agent therefore can not act on behalf of you an the tennant, totally illegal. However, more often than not how a conversation with an Agent will go is as follows.

Tennant : Hi, I've just seen you are advertising an apartment at xyz condo and I would be interested in viewing it.
Agent: Unfortunately that apartment has just been rented out. However if you are interested in an apartment at xyz condo let me find you an alternative apartment...........
Tennant: Oh yes please that would be great.

In the space of 30 seconds you have gone from talking to an Agent who was acting on behalf of a Landlord so you wouldn't have to pay an Agent's commission, to the Agent now acting on behalf of you and you having to most likely pay commission!

The apartment you called the Agent up about originally about probably never actually exist!

My best piece of advice when looking through these rental websites, if the advert doesn't contain any pics of the interior of the apartment (only exterior generic pics) it is more than likely a fake advertisement and the Agent is only after prospective tennant leads

+1. And this is not restricted to condos alone, its especially true for HDBs as well.

[AngMoG]

My best piece of advice when looking through these rental websites, if the advert doesn't contain any pics of the interior of the apartment (only exterior generic pics) it is more than likely a fake advertisement and the Agent is only after prospective tennant leads

If it does not have a pic of the interior, more often than not, I will not even bother calling the agent. If they are too lazy to put in pics (or the unit does not exist, or at least not as represented by them), I do not see why I should call them. Also, at least it gives some guidance as to how the unit looks.

[zzm9980]

My best piece of advice when looking through these rental websites, if the advert doesn't contain any pics of the interior of the apartment (only exterior generic pics) it is more than likely a fake advertisement and the Agent is only after prospective tennant leads

And this is 80%+ of the ads you find.

[livingontheedge]

Next time hire me to find your place. I charge a half of half month's rent.

[nakatago]

And sometimes, there are pics still. If you call and you get asked "What your budget? I call back meh", hang up.