Property Listings

Fred,

Price may differ due to different size, level (if u buy a condo), etc.

There are also cases where few agents display price slightly lower than other agents just to attract buyer. It's part of marketing strategy.

I am talking about the same exact bungalow or piece of land.  in some cases 200k - 700k difference.

We had the same in Dubai. It's often a way to get you to contact the agent. They'll then tell you that it's no longer available BUT we have some properties you may be interested in!

***

Fred,

You are buying developer unit or subsale? Have u check whether it's bumi unit or non-bumi unit?

I am looking for a subsale.  what I was talking about was non-bumi units.
I am trying to get use to the system property dealing in Malaysia. In US, the property is usually listed by one agent  and the price is the same regardless of the site you use to arrive at the listing.
I have been contacted by several property agents who seem to be monitoring this Forum. I try not to contact back because I am in the phase of understanding the property dealings first before I proceed so I can avoid making major mistakes.
Thank you all for all the info.

Fred

Watch out for agents (All over the world, not just Malaysia).
Many will try to sell you whatever they can dump at whatever price they think they can overcharge you.
Watch out for ones breaking the rules by advertising on the open forums - If they can't follow the rules, how can you trust them to be fair and open in business?

I am sorry if my past post broke the rules. I tried to delete it but I guessed someone already reported it. Anyways, beware of phishing scams as I said. I've handled a few cases already.

Fred,

As for subsale, it's all about who can get buyer ASAP because normally owner don't wanna wait too long to sell their property. So its common for agents to play with price but at the end, it's up to the owner whether to agree with the nego price or not.

Subsale house price was set by owner but it cannot exceed market value. If u see multiples listing from different agents, it's probably due to owner has appointed multiple agents to sell the house but owner normally only give one price to all the agent. So when these agent start to advertise the property online, some tend to reduce the price to attract buyer to contact them instead of other agent (marketing strategy) because normally the asking price from owner still can be negotiated. Once u agreed with the given price by the agent, this agent will contact the owner and start the negotiation. If owner agreed, then u get the deal. If the price does not suits, owner will counter until both party agreed.

I absolutely would never deal with any agent that comes to this site hunting gullible newbies to Malaysia. And any agents that contact you through private messages then I would just report them and block them.

Price differences could be for any reason. The landlord may have reduced the price and not all the agents know it. Usually there is one main agent appointed by the landlord (not always) and those other agents make the same listings but are not talking directly with the landlord and therefore might not know his bottom line. The agents who hike up the price from the landlords asking price are not too smart as they will just price themselves out. Agents nearly always work together and split the commission, although not all are happy about this. I would choose one of the most reputable property agencies and point out the difference in prices to them. If the landlord is just offering his property to any agent that comes along that would be very stupid. It might also be his appointed agent who has given the listing to another agent and other agents get the listing from them and the price goes up.

Bottom line is that it's a buyer's market so make a low offer. Make sure you deal with the landlord's appointed agent. Don't sign anything handed to you by an agent unless you've had it checked by a lawyer. As mentioned above, compare the price for similar listings. Look at the price per square foot.

Shill88,

Just wanna know those info that u gave based on your knowledge as a property agent or u heard from someone else or just your assumptions?

Shill88,

"If the landlord is just offering his property to any agent that comes along that would be very stupid. It might also be his appointed agent who has given the listing to another agent and other agents get the listing from them and the price goes up."

While I agree with you, that is how owners list their property in Malaysia. You can see commercial lot full of agents banner. Depends on the owner to set up an exclusive agent to handle is property or general which is giving all agents to sell. No offence but don't just say a landlord is stupid if you don't know the system here. Not like at other countries (Japan to be precise), the real estate agencies will handle the listing for the owners an let the agents handle. Lastly, it is not easy to know who is the appointed agent from the landlord. You can ask the letter of appointment to sell for the unit/house but in my experience the landlord will only give the letter when the client wants to view or the client already view.

I hope this help.

So who pays the fees for the buyer agent in Malaysia? In US, the buyer agent splits the commission with the seller agent. The seller pays 6% of the property value for the agents’ commission.
If in Malaysia, the buyer has to pay the buyer agent fees, do you recommend me getting an agent if I know the city and the exact neighborhood I want to buy the property in?
I understand I still need to get a property lawyer.

Thank you

Fred

If you are selling/buying a property, the seller ALWAYS pays the agents fees. The buyer NEVER pays any part of the commission. Any agent that tells you otherwise is incorrect.

Agents often try to ask 3% from the seller but you can negotiate it down to around 1.5% net. And, you can refuse paying any tax on top of the 1.5%. If an agent who isn't the landlords appointed agent finds a buyer, then the commission is split between the two of them. Some agents (usually exclusive agents) don't want to work with other agents in order to keep all the commission for themselves, but then it might take longer to sell the property.

Landlords might regularly work with one particular agent so no written agreement is necessary. However, in many cases the exclusive agent is the one who holds the keys to the property. A non-appointed agent will often tell the potential buyer that they need to get the keys and when you go to view the property there will be another agent waiting to show it. If a landlord is not living at that property then there is all likelihood that they have given a set of keys to an appointed agent.

If you do find an agent who is helpful, willing to drive you around to show you different properties, then that's great. But almost certainly they will be calling up other agents to find properties to show you and will split the commission with the other agents if you decide to buy a property. If an agent is willing to do that for you, please don't any Agreement stating that all the properties they show you can only be purchased through them with a validity of six months. Just don't sign it. You may find the property listed at a cheaper price somewhere else but you will be tied to the agreement with them. As I said, agents have many tricks up their sleeves. Even in the small print on anything you sign, if you or the seller backs out of a signed deal, the agents still try to get 50% of the deposit or 50% of the penalty that the seller would pay if they backed out. You can negotiate all these kinds of terms, but the bottom line is that the agent only wants to protect themself and get paid something whether the deal goes through or not.

An agent doesn't need to know a neighborhood since they will ALWAYS contact other agents to find the kind of property that you are looking for. They work together with other agents commonly.

As far as a buyer is concerned, it doesn't matter whether they are dealing with the appointed agent or not. Get the name card of the agent. I prefer to work only with established agencies. There have been occasions in the past when a so-called agent has shown me a property, I've been interested, and the agent discovers that the property has already been sold.

I am not an agent, so obviously some agents here will not be happy with me or disagree with my comments. However, I have been buying, selling, renting out properties in KL since 2003 and my property lawyer is one of my best friends and I also have several good agent friends. I have also served on several condominium owners committees in various positions for many years.

Thank you

I think I need to correct some of the things said here.

"Landlords might regularly work with one particular agent so no written agreement is necessary."

This is absolutely wrong. If there is an exclusive agent, the agent will have an exclusive letter of appointment to sell/ to rent. If there is no agreement, everyone can sell the house. If you're a buyer, you don't need to think about this but if you are a seller, please double check the agreement. If you have sign more than 1 exclusive letter of appointment to sell/ to rent, they might bring the case to court. Agents will ask you to sign letter of appointment to sell to secure the commission of selling. If the owner doesn't sign and the agent get to sell, owner will negotiate the commission or even worse, won't agree to sell it.

" Even in the small print on anything you sign, if you or the seller backs out of a signed deal, the agents still try to get 50% of the deposit or 50% of the penalty that the seller would pay if they backed out"

Of course you need to pay for the penalty if you already paid the booking fees. If you are a buyer, and you already paid the booking fees and suddenly the owner backs out of selling, the buyer will get FULL REFUND of their booking fees but the agent will get 50% of the booking fees amount (depending on agreement) from the owner. No scam here since the owner wasted everyone time. Same vice versa, if the buyer backs out, the booking fees will be given to the owner and agent.

"An agent doesn't need to know a neighborhood since they will ALWAYS contact other agents to find the kind of property that you are looking for. They work together with other agents commonly."

Yes, this is true. To be precise, the law here only accepts 1 agent to handle 1 party. In other words, If an agent is appointed by the owner, can you guess who side is he/she on? Of course it is the owner. They will try to keep the price high because their client is the owner. So when you ask an agent to help you, and there is 2 agents involve, one of them is supposed to be on your (the buyer) side. Of course as Shill88 wrote, the agents would just like to secure commission and I totally agree with that. There is no other way. If an agent has showed you around and you saw another ads elsewhere, ask him to ask the owner is it legit. Ask also the agent who posted the ad is it legit.

I can see some people here are looking down on agents, but all of the advertisement fees, marketing fees and etc are usually not sponsored by the owners. Even some owners don't want to pay their Real Property Gains Tax (RPGT). Guess who's paying for it? It's the agent. Some cases even the property lawyer asks the agent to split the commission.

So I know there is a lot of scam and even I did not realise my past post broke the rules of the forum but I just wanted to help. I am not really used to forums thus I am sorry if my words offended anyone but please think of all sides (owner, buyer and agent) when writing.

Good Luck Mr Fred and all the best. Hope this helps.

"This is absolutely wrong. If there is an exclusive agent, the agent will have an exclusive letter of appointment to sell/ to rent. If there is no agreement, everyone can sell the house. If you're a buyer, you don't need to think about this but if you are a seller, please double check the agreement. If you have sign more than 1 exclusive letter of appointment to sell/ to rent, they might bring the case to court. Agents will ask you to sign letter of appointment to sell to secure the commission of selling. If the owner doesn't sign and the agent get to sell, owner will negotiate the commission or even worse, won't agree to sell it. "

Nonsense. Ideally every property agent would want an exclusivity agreement, but if a landlord knows the agent he/she is working with or just doesn't want to sign one then it isn't required. I've sold lots of properties through different agents and I've always refused to sign one. Your opinion is purely an agent's opinion in order to protect the agent and nobody else.

"Of course you need to pay for the penalty if you already paid the booking fees. If you are a buyer, and you already paid the booking fees and suddenly the owner backs out of selling, the buyer will get FULL REFUND of their booking fees but the agent will get 50% of the booking fees amount (depending on agreement) from the owner. No scam here since the owner wasted everyone time. Same vice versa, if the buyer backs out, the booking fees will be given to the owner and agent."

Of course penalties need to be paid. If you read the small print in my comment you will see that it refers to unscrupulous agents who word agreements so that if a booking fee has been paid and then later the deal fails to go through, that the agent gets to keep a part of the penalty or original deposit. The clauses that agents like to include in their agreements try to ensure that they get compensated irrespective of whether the deal goes through or not. I never agree to that and I always cross out that clause if it is included in any agreement. If a property was selling at MYR 3 million and the booking fee was 2% or 3%, then there is no way an agent should get 50% of the booking fee. It should all be returned to the buyer. This is precisely why buyers should be very wary of what they sign with an agent, and, I think I've made my point.

"Yes, this is true. To be precise, the law here only accepts 1 agent to handle 1 party. In other words, If an agent is appointed by the owner, can you guess who side is he/she on? Of course it is the owner. They will try to keep the price high because their client is the owner. So when you ask an agent to help you, and there is 2 agents involve, one of them is supposed to be on your (the buyer) side. Of course as Shill88 wrote, the agents would just like to secure commission and I totally agree with that. There is no other way. If an agent has showed you around and you saw another ads elsewhere, ask him to ask the owner is it legit. Ask also the agent who posted the ad is it legit."

Wrong!!! An agent would like an owner to think that he/she is on the side of the landlord selling a property, but actually the agent will do what is needed to make a deal and earn a commission. That means he/she might undervalue a property and try to get the owner to sell cheap because if you knock off a few hundred thousand ringgit off the price of a property the commission isn't going to reduce all that much, but for the owner is the one who will suffer. Also, when you say one of the agents is supposed to be on the buyer's side, that is total  rubbish. The agent is only trying to make a deal and earn a commission, The agent will do anything they can to make the deal whether is helps the buyer or not. Again, your viewpoint is that of an agent.

"I can see some people here are looking down on agents, but all of the advertisement fees, marketing fees and etc are usually not sponsored by the owners. Even some owners don't want to pay their Real Property Gains Tax (RPGT). Guess who's paying for it? It's the agent. Some cases even the property lawyer asks the agent to split the commission. "

I do not look down on agents. But I just suggest that both buyers and sellers be wary. Yes the advertising costs are born by the agent but they anticipate recovery of those costs when they earn their commission and those costs are not great. And of course the owner is not responsible for the advertising costs. That's the way it works.

Real Property Gains Tax is all part of the negotiation for what an owner is willing to give the agent. RPGT is not all that much compared to the commission an agent makes. It's up to the seller to negotiate the terms of the commission and if the agent wants the exclusivity then they will usually accept the owners terms.

"So I know there is a lot of scam and even I did not realise my past post broke the rules of the forum but I just wanted to help. I am not really used to forums thus I am sorry if my words offended anyone but please think of all sides (owner, buyer and agent) when writing."

I'm not offend at all. Agents are agents and they just want to make money like everyone else. My concern is not to put agents down. It is purely to make potential buyers and sellers (and tenants) aware of how not to get taken for a ride by an unscrupulous agent. Again, read everything handed to you by the agent very carefully, and feel free to cross out anything that you think is unreasonable. I will usually cross out 2 or 3 lines.

"....but please think of all sides (owner, buyer and agent) when writing."

It's the buyer or seller that stands to lose out if one one side defaults and the deal does not go through. I mean lose out a considerably amount of money. The agent should not get part of any default settlement in my view since they failed to conclude the deal and it was not their money in the first place. If a seller defaults then the buyer should get all of the compensation along with his original payment.

So if the seller backs  out of a deal, does the buyer get anything beside the money he/she put down. I understand the seller may have to pay the agent.

Thank you

Fred

If the seller backs out once the buyer has paid the 2% or 3% down payment, the agreement should stipulate how much the buyer will get compensated. The buyer will get his original down payment back plus compensation.

Later on, when the Sales & Purchase agreement has been signed by both parties, there should also be a clause stating how much the seller would refund the buyer but it really depends on the reasons why an agreement would default. An agreement may terminate for any number of reasons such as not getting permission from the land office or existence of an outstanding legal issue with the property etc. At the very least, the buyer will get back everything already paid plus interest for delays in the refund.

As for a seller paying the agent for a deal that did not eventually conclude, I have never had to pay an agent anything in that situation.

Depending on the agreement.  Here is the link from LPPEH.
https://lppeh.gov.my/WP2016/circular/EX … 20MEAS.pdf

I am not going to write more because people will be talking using experience but I am talking based on laws amended by The Board of Valuers, Appraisers, Estate Agents and Property Managers (LPPEH). If you want to know the agent is exclusive or not, ask for the exclusive letter. You can search "LPPEH exclusive agents". There you will find the laws set up by LPPEH. Even the "acting as two parties" law. Some of the law are written in Bahasa Malaysia so you maybe need to translate it.

Thank you

Shill....Thank you for sharing your useful r/e knowledge.  Great stuff.   

Thanks Rendang Lover.

I am not an agent so my point of view as a buyer/seller is different to what agents would want to give here. Agents do a very important job, but my priority is to advise those new buyers and sellers who have questions here in this forum. I've worked with a lot of property agents in Malaysia, some are my friends, so I just know that when an agent hands you an agreement or letter to sign you need to treat it as a draft and that certain clauses that unnecessarily benefit the agent don't need to be included. If a buyer or seller insists then usually an agent will accept their removal.