What value do all the property agents really add?

davita

Absolutely agree Beck...ridiculous. Apart from the above problem, your fight with Qatar on the ticket and removing your Joglo in 25 years......how are things in Bali...having fun?:cupcake:

Mark

Beck wrote I am curious how much commission do the agent typically ask to sell a villa? 5%?

Maybe 5% is the bule price, but my experience in Ubud is that the seller pays 2% commission to the agent.

Beck

I have been following the Ubud property market for a few years and I wonder what value do all the property agents really add for the seller and the buyer more than just an ad? Yes, they do put your vila on their home page. But I have yet to come across even a remotely OK homepage. This goes for the posh international agents too. These pages all remind me of internet 2007 in terms of user experience. The photos looks like ****. Honestly. Both from a technical and artistic point of view. Sometimes the properties are not even cleaned or tidied up before the pictures are taken. There are people and bikes on the pictures. Often no floor plans. Contradicting or missing information galore. I fully understand that the agent wants to be vauge where exatcly the property is since they got no exclusivity. I also fully understand that more or less broken English is the most spoken language on the planet. Fine. But if you make a claim to represent properties worth hundreds of thousands of dollars you must do better than Google Translate and omit very basic spelling and grammatical errors. Trust is everything in this business. Sometimes I see photos and texts obviously provided by the seller. No wonder they choose to do that. If I were a seller I am not sure I would let them guide potential buyser around the house. maybe they will do the "Buy now, good price" sales pitch too? So what value do the agent provide to justify their fee? Legal expertise? No, you better hire your own lawyer and double check everything starting with who actually owns the property. Accurate and complete information? Hardly. All sorts of information is missing on the home page. And the information provided is incomplete and not seldom confusing. I saw one example where they obviously added an extra zero too much to the price. Just sloppy work. Error was still there two weeks later on the home page. So much for first impression. Do they handle the transaction for you? No, you hire your own lawyer and you better be paranoid about everything. I know that the last idiot is not born yet, but how realistic is it to believe and act like you can turn up a client who will overpay and not ask any critical questions let alone follow the market for a while? I am curious how much commission do the agent typically ask to sell a villa? 5%? No deal no commission. Fine. Treating potential buyers like idiots is not a winning concept. And what is the point of putting a property on the market with a fantasy price tag? It just reflects badly on the property agency in question. ** Please move this thread to the Owning Property section **

gtrken

Maybe 5% is the bule price, but my experience in Ubud is that the seller pays 2% commission to the agent.

Interesting as in my experience the commission is 5% hence why every Indonesian person you meet is an " agent". They can make a lifetime of wages in one expensive hotel sale . Everybody I have talked to from Professional agents ( and I use that term loosely ) to our neighbor have said the commission is 5%. On top of that is the tax you have to pay the government on the total sale price of another 5% :( Cheers Ken Kennetha Kost - Home

no.idea

The "agents" put any amount they can on top of a deal. I constantly see "agents" quoting prices that are 50% higher than the actual asking price.

gtrken

And to answer Becks question , I agree with Davita, the agents here are ridiculous. We contacted 2 parties who shall remain anonymous and one said our Kost was worth about 2 times what we thought it was. Sat with them for 3 months and then they tried selling us advertising space in their magazine... So we changed agents and told the next one to value it. They did and then about 2 weeks later the salesman complained to our manager the price was too high!! They set the price so go figure.. Anyway , we went the usual route of most locals and offered the sale to our staff , their friends, their friends friends etc and the jungle drums worked as they could all see the 5% commission ( approx. 250,000,000rp ) at the end of the sale. We still are in negotiations with one Bali local and a businessman from Jakarta both who agree our price is fair. But they still want discount.. Hehehe. So my answer to you is do not waste your time with the big " Professional " agencies. Cheers Ken Kennetha Kost - Home

davita

As Smoke expresses in his signature to all posts..."Leave your western ideas at immigration' or something like that...it serves to remind us that Indonesian 'law and order' is in the eye of the person receiving the 'commis'. In our western property transactions....'law' prevails. Realtors are licensed and obligated by law and 'relevant associations' to apply due diligence and can be prosecuted if failing in their duty. Title insurance is obligatory in USA. In Indonesia, and most Asian countries, anybody can hang up a shingle and say they are an agent...they are NOT agents...they are 'finders' and under NO obligation to be lawful. Currently, I have contracts from a couple of premier Bali/Indonesian agents controlled by 'bule' to sell my villa. The contracts are ridiculously biased and I've filed under 'garbage'. That's why I reject anything like a 5% fee but what can you do...there are no consumer protection laws to refer nor can any price be justified other than 'what the market can justify'. Asian bargaining prevails. We are stuck with what Ken says...better to advertise as 'owner sale' and find a reasonable price range to negotiate....or, have a flat fee for a 'finder' and negotiate with the buyer/seller on the price.