achilles

Perhaps my first experience with an agent with non-existance service, thus the strong sentiments. If you did read in detail my first post, my agent is a first-timer with no experience whatsoever (this was not disclosed to us), thus all the above services mentioned ie managing paper work, answering questions on legalities, dealing with seller etc was not performed. Yes, ultimately as clients, we have the final say. As you said, the agent is someone who works for a fee, so if you had chosen to buy the house, and there was NO WORK DONE by agent, will you still pay him the fee if you have a choice? If you signed a commission agreement, its likely you dont have a choice. If you hire an employee but the employee did not turn up for work 70% of the time, probably there's a clause in the employment contract to protect your interest like a termination clause/ pro-rated pay based on worked days. The commission agreements I came across, there are only clauses which protects the agent's interest but nothing about the client's interest. The contract is unfair and biased. (Maybe its just the ones I came across. I'm not sure if any agencies may have different practices) Basically, once signed, even if NO WORK DONE, you're still liable for commission. And if the deal did not go through, you stand to pay both agents 3% commission, all for NO WORK DONE. The issue here is: If you are paying a fee, don't you deserve to know what you are paying for? And shouldn't the commission agreement indicate the scope of work , such that if breech of contract by agent, your interests would be safe-guarded? Yes, I did firmly request for scope of work to be included, but repeatedly turned down such that I didnt even sign any agreement. Technically, I could avoid paying for NO SERVICE, but I still did pay. So it was never about the commission being too high. Having a documented scope of work tied to the commission amount allows people to know what they are paying the fee for and of course when you know what is NORMAL service, you'll know BETTER/GOOD service when you see it and you can pay more for it in appreciation.

I think my earlier post was totally taken out of context. Never was I suggesting that having a fixed fee would be the solution. Neither was I suggesting ANY solution. I was merely pointing out the irregularities which can be looked at in detail, debated and improved upon. There are many feedback and suggestions by lots of others which is certainly worth policy makers to look into. Granted, there is no one answer suits all solution, (Else everyone can be ministers or chiefs of stat boards), it does not mean that the current system is perfect and does not need improving. (and when I mean system, I'm not refering to just the commission/payment structure). When something is not perfect, in the true blue Singaporean-style, policymakers look at the issue, disassemble it, debate, feedback and come out with something to better the situation. Eg can be Transport ministry, COE implementation, road tax revisions, ERP, Bus lanes, FULL Day Bus lanes, Taxi pickup rules within CBD, All along, the purpose of my post is 1.To share my own personal experience with people who might or might not be aware of the pitfalls of engaging agents. 2.To voice my personal opinion that I'm better off without an agent. 3. That my personal opinion is not likely to change unless there is an overhaul of the system. I'll leave the solution-making to the policymakers. That I have no control over. What I can control is not using agents myself, and if enough people is aware of the advantages/disadvantages, the market forces will speak for themselves. Let those who agree, agree and others, agree to disagree.

1. No one is forced not to use an agent as well. I'm just sharing my opinion that contrary to perceived notion, its not difficult to buy/sell a house yourself even for a first-timer. And based on my own experience, I am recommending that people should consider the DIY route. 2. Perfect case scenarios, your agent is honest and responsible, negotiates the highest price (for sellers) or lowest price (for buyers), is motivated for your best interests instead of for their own pocket and does everything without you needing to lift a finger. Who wouldnt want an agent who can do the perfect job for you? However, based on the complaints on forums, newspaper articles and CASE files, there obviously is a big risk to put so much trust in your agent at such a high cost afterall as we live in an imperfect world. 3. Negotiation is obviously not on the Agency's cards in my case. Try calling up agencies asking to have an agent but stating that you are only willing to pay anything lower than the "guidelines", and also subjected to the completion of your checklist of necessary duties. I get supposedly reputed agencies trying to pass the 2%/1% guidelines as LAWS. 4. I speak for myself when I say this. I do not need innovation from agents. I just need an agent who will be willing to stand by their service. Allow the commission agreement to list ALL the services the agent is to perform and to base the commission payout based on performance instead of just pegged to transaction price. For agents representing buyers, paying them a commission based on percentage of the transaction price is flawed. The higher the purchase price, the more commission the agent gets to earn, why then would the agent fight to get a lower price for you? 5. I agree with your point. Following your logic, the selling/buying of a 3-rm flat vs exec aprt does not differs in the amount of work done by agent. Why then should the "guideline" commission be a percentage of transaction price and not a flat fee? If its to motivate agent to get higher/lower price for you, another mechanics can be in place instead. I have nothing against agents. I just believe that with the current industry practices and lack of regulation is corrupting the whole system. Until the whole system is overhauled , I stand by my own opinion of not using any agents to deal my property.

I believe that the whole system in place is too messed up that short of a radical LAW be implemented (not guideline), nothing is going to change. The way moving forward is to STOP using agents and to do the legwork yourself. HDB buy/sell procedures are not complicated and everyone who's able to read English should be able to pull it off yourself. If all sellers post their flats themselves , and buyers hunt for flats themselves. We can totally eliminate the need for agents (at least for HDB flats, where there isnt much differentiating factor from one to another flat) I sincerely believe that in my case, there was no value-add from the agent and I am probably better off without the agent. At least I will have 1 less headache. If you think about it in the BIG picture, effectively 1.5% of all property deals Revenue goes to these leeches as their commission! With no product/innovation, millions of dollars of PURE MARGIN just for service (or lack of service). In no other service sector do you see professionals earning that amount of money for "service" which is not even properly documented , ie lawyers, accountants, auditors

Thats why I came out with my story, hoping to give courage to someone facing the same issue to fight it to the end and not be scared by their scare tactics (lawyer's letters, threatening phone calls, using big words like LIABLE FOR LEGAL COSTS etc). I must say reading some of the forummers advise previously helped me handle some of the issues and taking the stress off by knowing that I'm not the only one out there having the same problem. Anyway, I was just sick and tired of how corrupted and unethical the industry is and do not want to stoop to their level, gave some commission and closed the case.

This is to share my experience with readers who might have come here to seek advise about agents as I had when I went through a stressful period and received very helpful advise from some of the forummers here. Before the lengthy post, 3 points I wish to emphasize. 1. Read through the detailed information available on HDB website. 2. Do NOT sign the unfairly worded commission agreement form. 3. DO NOT TRUST YOUR AGENT, or DO NOT EVEN USE AN AGENT in the first place. I’ll try to be brief here. Some time back, my wife and I was house hunting for my first HDB flat in an area near my parents to enjoy the additional grant, an acquaintance referred me to an agent (Lets call her LJ) whom introduced to us 3 flats in the location. One of the flat caught our interest which we expressed to LJ but maintained that we wanted to look around a bit more and not be hasty. Other the next couple of days, we received a few phone calls from LJ to “share insider information” with us, that there was other interested parties, and that the seller agent is willing to negotiate undertable with us to close the deal below valuation (valuation report not out and based on estimated valuation) Thinking back, these are tricks by both agents to close the deal fast. Feeling hurried, we arranged a 2nd viewing of the flat, and the seller agent offered a price to close the deal undertable. He then acted out a scene infront of the sellers and us to pretend re-negotiation. The whole time, LJ did nothing but watched as bystander. Signing the Option to Purchase, the seller agent pressured us to exercise the Option saying that this way, we only need to pay once for the option not twice. (This has no logic but as first timers we were unaware) Turning to LJ for advise, LJ concurred with the seller agent. We signed to exercise on the spot on LJ’s advise. Leaving the house, LJ then passed me a paper and asked me to sign as if its part of the OTP papers and part of the procedure. The paper was the commission agreement. I remember coming across a forum post about being careful when signing commission agreement so I asked to take it back to digest the commission agreement before signing it as we were all rushing off. This is the start of the nightmare. I did some research and realized that the 2 weeks period from signing the OTP and exercising it is in the best interests of buyers as it allows for a longer time for consideration and to work out financial obligations while having the purchase price fixed. LJ never informed us of this. Neither was LJ familiar with HDB policies about income ceiling, housing grants, fiancé-fiancee scheme, eligibility for HDB housing loan which we had to find out ourselves via HDB website and speaking to HDB officers. We went through a stressful period as me and my wife’s income exceed $8k and thus not eligible for HDB loan and grants. We considered giving up the flat but was not able to as we had exercised the option and thus liable for losses amounting to the difference between our agreed price and the price the seller sells the house at. The whole time while making several trips to HDB to clarify on these issues, there was no help forthcoming from LJ. There were only consistant calls from LJ / LJ’s manager / LJ’s director pressurizing us to sign the commission agreement. I asked for some of the clauses to be removed as well as stating in detail the scope of work to be done by the agent instead of just paying $xxxx amount of money for services rendered. They did not accede to our request nor was there any form of discussion or negotiation or answer to what exactly is the “services” to be rendered. The clause I asked to remove is that of paying 3% commission if I back out of the house purchase. If there is no completion of sale, there should not be any “service” rendered that would warrant the 3% commission right? All the calls soon become harassment with raised voices and threats. I maintained that I am willing to pay for services rendered as long as the services/scope of work listed and that clause removed. Services is too broad a term to define if the agent did/did not perform his duties to earn the commission. I maintained my stand that I will not sign commission agreement and its up to LJ whether LJ wants to continue to service me or just leave. The threats grew and LJ ganged up with seller agent and threatened certain actions. Somewhere during these nonsense, I found out that this is LJ’s first HDB case and it was not made known to us at all, although the seller agent knows about this and was asked by LJ for guidance. This to me is misleading the clients and so far, all actions by LJ has not been in the best interests of the client, me. Although unwilling to proceed with the purchase, I worked out the financial obligations and went ahead to the 1st appointment. LJ was there. We subsequently settle all the paperwork ourselves for the 1st and 2nd appointment. All LJ did was to fill up our names and NRIC on a few pieces of paper. So much for the "paperwork" I see agents talk about. To cut the long story short. LJ even had the cheek to SMS me to prepare a cheque amounting to 1% to bring on the 2nd appointment date. I sent a cheque with a reasonable commission less than 1% and a lengthy letter, detailing my unhappiness and the events which occurred, to the agency. 4 months passed and no one from the agency even called to apologize/clarify the matter. So much for Singapore’s superior customer service. The only communication I received after that were letters from their finance department and lawyers letters threatening to sue me and LEGAL CHARGES WILL BE LIABLE by me if I do not pay up the difference. What I did was call them up and inform that I did not owe them anything and they are free to take whatever actions they want with me. By then I was prepared to fight this to the end. Like one forummer said:"The worse that can happen is some time lost and having to pay the remainder". FYI, there are NO LEGAL CHARGES as they can only go through small claims tribunal. Subsequently, a few further calls from LJ manager / director threatening me and saying a few lies (BTW, a few conversations recorded in my phone) to which I ignored and that was the end of story. I guess the moral of the story is, see my 3 points above, and do not feel threatened by these A**H*** as long as you got yourself covered.

From my own experience, I wont use ANY AGENTS in future. More trouble than help.