This article is about how we work with and relate to Co-Brokers and Freelance Agents and I will try to describe how these work and co exists with us and to straighten out some questions and confusions..
The Thai Real Estate market is not regulated like in many countries, anyone can call them self a Real Estate Agent and list any property as long as the property is not on an Exclusive contract.
With internet, a smart phone and some free advert platforms like FB, pretty much any Thai citizen can legally start to sell properties from friends and owners.. We call them Freelance Agents and in all there diversity there are some characterising things making them form two mayor groups. 1. The ex-Employee from a Real Estate office that is not happy with their commission share and think they will earn more money going Freelance. Some of these are not genuine and still make it look like they work for a registered company and even worth, they have during their former work start doing business of their own and many times they have stolen important info about buyers and sellers and listing. These Agents will normally not stay long as stupid things eventually catches up with them.
Some of These Ex-Employee agents are very smart and honest and earn lots of respect and what drives them doing this hard work is that they cherish there freedom so much. Compared to a office staff, that needs to be at their desk early morning the freelance agent can join their customers as a guide, dine and party all night long and give 100 % focus on the customer. But in slow times they do not get a monthly salary.
2. The second group of Freelance is the bored home wife’s, a business owners in the service industry talking to all these potential buyers, like taxi drivers, Spa owners, restaurant and bar owners. Many of these never advertise but true who they are they still bring many customers.
We always welcome Honest Freelance agents with customers and we always pay a good fair commission. This is a clear win win, The Agent can work true our office, use all our tools, listings, contracts and invite their client to us and have meetings in our sofa. We sell more and that will give us more listings, we still make money and the buyer that thinks he is in our hands will recommend us to their friends.
Co-Broker is often a Foreigner with a legal office in Thailand or Abroad, smart on building websites but with very few listings and in many cases lazy and find this Co-Broking idea as a perfect win win as we do the hard work.
There are always risks with using a Freelance Agent not connected to a legal registered office. One is money and deposits, some people are naive and send rent and buying deposits and sometime down payments to a stranger’s private bank account and when things go ugly they have no proof what so ever and will write a new chapter in there book of stupid failures.
So if you are an honest Freelance Agent or you have your own Real estate Business, we are open to work with you