# Help in this predicament



## hheyitsme (Sep 21, 2015)

Hi guys,

I am checking apartments with different real estate agents. Today I check a really nice apartment with two different agents. I am very interested in renting it but I dont know whom I should tell this, the first agent or the second..

What would you have done if you were in my shoes?

Cheers, S


----------



## cvco (Mar 20, 2015)

Two agents show you the same apartment at the same time? Ok then they are a team so just tell either one and it doesnt matter. If one agent show you, then later another agent show you the same apartment, tell the first one.


----------



## prof.ishack (Jul 4, 2014)

I had the same thing happen to me many years ago while still living in the US. I met with a real estate again and he showed me a couple of properties but my ex-wife didn't like his attitude (very pushy) so we switched agents. The 2nd agent showed us probably 20 properties, and in the end we went with the one we looked at with the first agent. However the 2nd agent took us through the property twice more before we made an offer. I didn't feel bad going with the 2nd agent because at that point she was the only one we were working with and she spent almost 3 hours every Saturday for 2-3 months (my ex was very hard to please - could be one of the reasons she's an ex) showing us properties. The other agent spent an hour and half with us, and it was pick one of these two and don't waste my time. He never followed up with us, and basically I think we weren't spending enough money for him to bother with us.


----------



## cvco (Mar 20, 2015)

Hi ishack,

Im an active broker in US and here is my comment. First, it really doesnt matter who is first (we are talking US now, not Malaysia) because the whole point of agency is trust. You can go out with the same agent and see the same property 100 times but then suddenly you buy it through a different agent you trust more, like more and at the last minute. Its not nice but it happens and no rules have been broken. Investing time with an agent doesnt mean a person is locked to that agent.

In Malaysia, there are no laws, no licences (in the US sense), no title companies, no escrow companies, no nothing. They make up rules as they go, (and eventually the transfer is written down and handled by a lawyer in the case of sales, and lease agreements by either lawyers or owners). I love to meet people like that because I love cutting them to RIBBONS when they try to press upon me their supposed ownership of the transaction.

That said.............
An agent in Penang whom I contacted about a house for rent once some months later sent me an SMS about a house and suggested I look at it. I asked a friend to do a drive-by since I was in KL. The friend saw the owner at the house, looked at it, suggested I come. I did, and we made the deal and I moved in. A week later, the original agent drove up and demanded a $1000 commission because I rented the house. I balked and he said "thats how we do it in Penang." The he-ll you say! He never showed the house, never negotiated, never wrote up the agreement, never contacted the owner, had no listing or agreement to rent it, NOTHING. I offered a referral fee of 20% of the rent, for two months, total RM140. That would be fair since all he did was refer and I wanted to do the right thing. But he balked and went to the owner to demand the full money and the owner asked, who the he-ll are you? The owner came to me and said look, just pay him what he wants, lets have peace in the neighborhood. I REFUSED. I have no idea what happened, I think the owner paid him himself.

The reason Im telling this story is 1) unless you have a contract for an agent to find a property for you, he cannot demand anything, even if you go to another agent. You owe no loyalty unless you made a deal for that loyalty. 2) There is a rule here, the owner of a property pays the commission. Agents will not tell you if they have an agreement because they most often DO NOT. They simply try their luck, ask anyone for money, advertise property for rent or sale when in fact they have no connection to the owner or transaction. If they snag a buyer or renter, they approach the owner and say, Hey I got a live one, will you pay me? They wont tell you if they do have an agreement so that they can quietly collect money from both sides, if possible. They will say they only collect from the buyer/tenant when in fact not only is that not true, they may have collected from the owner before they tried to get from you.

They massively lie on this entire topic and pretend there are firm relationships when no such thing exists. They dont like written contracts because they just might be held to something. They prefer to negotiate on the fly, keep things open and loosey-goosey. I dont work that way. They hate it when you use "no ticky, no laundry" back at them.

If you, as a client or customer choose to be loyal to someone, fine do that. But remember too, because this has also happened to me, you are loyal to your first or 10th agent but that agent rents/sells to someone else because they made a more favorable deal. Feel mad? Feel hurt? TOO BAD. So hey, the knife cuts both ways and they can GTH until they choose to do things professionally. Maybe in Vision 2020 they will be forced to.


----------



## prof.ishack (Jul 4, 2014)

I'm well aware of some of the dealings of shady brokers in Malaysia. The first time I came to Malaysia I was replacing a faculty member and discussed just taking over renting the house he staying in. Pretty much had it all worked, was to just pay the standard 2 months deposit and first month rent and sign the lease. On campus I asked for a ride to the house. The administration assistant just told me that he was going to take all of us to look at houses. Again I told I didn't want to look at houses, I'd already have a place worked out. 

As it turned out they picked up this so called agent on our way. When we got to the house I just asked to be dropped off. No way, the agent got out of the van before I could and was at the door telling the landlord that SHE was bringing a potential renter and her commission would be one month rent. I was adamant that she did not bring me. But the landlord went back on the verbal agreement and said she had to pay the commission. Needless to say I was pissed and refused to go along with the scam. The whole group then asked the driver to drop off agent and we'd find our own places. We then filled a complaint with our home university against the admin assistant. Turns out he was getting a kick back as well. The university was paying our rents, but being naive Americans we didn't understand the system of bribery and corruption even at this level. 

Actually it was the admin assistant who was being paid by the university to help us find housing,but instead he passed the job off to someone else that not only was charging us a commission and he was getting a kickback for not doing his job. Great job, getting paid twice for not doing anything. Of course he wasn't fired as he would have in the US.

To be fair to Malaysia I ran into similar scam while in Air Force when I was stationed in the UK. The local housing office on base had a person doing the same thing, difference was he was fired and rumors were that he was charged. Don't know for sure, but the scam stopped after he was fired.


----------



## cvco (Mar 20, 2015)

Thats right. Thing is, I wouldnt care, id go long, if the cheating was backed up with good service, hard work, something extra, whatever. But they dont, because everything here is 1) hit and run 2) get rich quick 3) short cuts. Its not like, "ok, look, i dont even have a licence or anything and i need to cheat you out of about $400 so i can make my plan work. But this is what i'll do in return.........and you wont be sorry you met me." If the cheats, scammers and liars at least had some integrity i'd pay them, but they dont.

Everyone is working an angle, everyone is someone elses agent in some way, everyone is looking for a buck, nobody wants to work. So there ya go. Ok, yes, fine, its true you might get cheated on the purchase of that washing machine but the guy did deliver it and take away the old one as promised, but generally its "hit and run fast" around here.

Modern Asia has been cheating people for 5000 years so its doubtful they have anything to learn from us. My own personal friends were cheating and scamming me from the first day I arrived in Malaysia. This wasnt because they knew the game better but because my objectives were unclear. As I got clear about exactly what I wanted and went for it, all the scamming subsided. You potentially get cheated anytime you let yourself be steered into someone elses plan, even if its just going out for dinner (when I got scammed many times by allowing people to suddenly say they forgot their wallet and couldnt pay). When your own crystal clear plan is being executed by you, its basically impossible to be cheated which has been exactly my experience ever since those early times. Get people to cooperate in your plan, not you cooperating in theirs because you cant trust them to keep your best interests at heart. They seldom do. Thats the difference between east and west.

So, yes, ishacks experience with the agent mirrors my own and hence this post.


----------

