5 horrible property-agent stories from homebuyers in Singapore: Lessons to avoid

There's probably no more hated profession in Singapore than the real estate agent.

While there are certainly good agents out there, the problem is with more than 30,000 agents (although the active number is much lower), the quality of the agent that you randomly meet can wildly differ.

In the early days, almost anyone could become a real estate agent, and some of the older agents that you may meet today may not have really kept themselves up to date with the property market (or for that matter, with technology).

Today, the newer agents have to go through an exam that is tough to get through. From what we've heard on the ground, the pass rate is only between 20 - 30 per cent!

So while realtors have become much more professional, there still are some horror stories in the market. (But remember, it's not always on the agent, there are some equally unreasonable clients out there!)

The following are some of the ones told to us by readers and home buyers, and they may provide a lesson in what to look out for:

1. Property agent didn't disclose the ongoing negotiations 

QF and his wife engaged a seller's agent, to handle the transaction of their four-room flat in Pasir Ris.

QF says the agent was known to his wife (via a previous line of employment), so he agreed to give the agent an exclusive deal. 

However, QF says the agent was in a rush the whole time, and made it quite clear that he didn't consider the listing to be "worth his time."

QF says: "He took a few photos with just his iPhone, and the quality was terrible. I took my own photos with a camera, and I told him to use those instead.

"I never got a single update from him, every time he responded only when I chased him; and most of the questions I asked I got one-word answers."

QF says he checked PropertyGuru, 99.co, OhMyHome, and various other portals shortly after engaging the agent — and when he couldn't easily find the listing, he had to "chase" the agent again.

QF claims the agent had minimal marketing spend on his place, leaving the listing buried deep in the back pages. 

The unit was eventually sold in the second month — but QF also received feedback from the buyer that his agent had been unresponsive, and refused requests to do viewings on weekdays. The agent had said QF didn't want viewers on weekdays, which QF says was nonsense:

"I specifically gave the key, I told the agent he can do the viewings whenever, because we already moved into our new place. Agent said he misunderstood me, even though I clearly showed him the text message, and he could see with his own eyes we had moved out. Why did he tell the buyer that?"

As the flat was sold by that point, QF decided to let it go — but he says it has soured his opinion on property agents. He also believes that he was treated badly because his unit was just a flat, which didn't have the same kind of commissions as a private property. 

2. Property agent didn't know their stuff

D and his wife were looking for their first investment property and visited a new launch show flat in the West. They didn't have a real estate agent serving them then and ended up with one of the random taggers at the show flat.

"We didn't make a prior appointment, and just showed up on a Saturday morning. It was an older guy that ended up showing us around, and he seemed quite sincere as we were shown around the showflat."

Now, while D doesn't proclaim to be the most savvy property investor, he had read up quite a lot beforehand and was quite familiar with the project.

"We asked the usual questions one would ask when visiting a showflat, but when I started asking him more, I began to doubt some of the answers that he was giving. For example, when I asked about the sun facing, he gave the wrong answer. I decided to let it pass and give him the benefit of the doubt as maybe he remembered wrongly."

But what really rubbed D the wrong way was when he asked about more important things, such as the potential of the development. It was either the agent was just being completely dishonest, or just plain ignorant.

"I then asked about the future facing, and the agent just said that it would remain unblocked without skipping a beat. I wasn't 100 per cent sure myself at that point, and made a note to check it up when I got home."

As it turns out the agent was wrong, and there were going to be future developments coming up that could potentially block the views.

But thankfully for D and his wife, they did end up meeting an agent in the end that they found to be very proficient.

"Through that experience, I was very put off by agents and didn't want to use one again. But we ended up meeting one through a friend's recommendation, and the difference was like night and day. The agent wasn't the best at presenting, but was sincere and very numbers-driven. I valued the honesty very much, and we did transact through him."

3. Realtor kept putting words in the landlord's mouth

Our landlord, who identifies himself as just Ang, told us a story about a property agent making him look bad. 

Ang coincidentally met the agent with some prospective tenants, when he happened to drop by the condo's management office. He struck up a brief conversation with them, but he was surprised by what he heard:

"I was quite shocked because they were told a lot of things that are not true. The agent told them I don't like certain types of tenants, I don't allow them to turn on air-con in the living room, only for their own rooms, and a few other things. But I never said these things." 

Later Ang spoke to his agent about it, and the agent defended these as being "practical" moves. 

"She had said all these things to protect the property because from her 'experience' certain types of tenants are more troublesome, and that letting them use the stove would cause damage, and so forth." 

However, Ang decided to switch agents, as he felt uncomfortable with the whole incident.

He also felt that some of the statements attributed to him were quite prejudiced; and he feels the agent took far too many liberties in using his name. 

Notably, this is something that happens more than you might think, especially with seller agents who withhold potential offers from buyers because they want a direct deal (to earn more commissions).

4. Property damaged during a viewing, because of the agent's negligence

Anna (not her real name) says her former agent damaged her living room after a viewing, and may even have tried to keep it quiet: 

"We had to replace the fridge, so my son went to open the door for the delivery man. That's when he noticed there were some brown stains on the living room wall under the air-con, and he showed me the pictures. Later the air-con man said the coil had to be replaced."

The moisture had also damaged the cabinet under the air-conditioner, leaving stains on the surface. 

When Anna demanded answers, her agent eventually admitted to being the cause, as she'd forgotten to turn off the air-conditioner after one of the viewings. She only noticed on her second visit to the unit which was days later; and the air-conditioner had been left on the entire time. 

However, the agent didn't inform Anna right away upon discovering it. While the agent did compensate her for the damages, Anna remains unimpressed: 

"If she told me right away I can accept it, all are human, all make mistakes. What annoys me is why did she keep quiet for so long?" 

5. Tenant gets blamed for bird droppings on the air-con ledge, among other things

YC and his wife rented a condo unit in the Outram area, while waiting for their own home to be built. He says the experience has left him sympathetic to tenants, and unhappy with the "inhumane" way agents interact with renters. 

"During an inspection, the agent blamed us for everything under the sun. He even pointed at the bird droppings on the air-con ledge, and said we should have put bird-wire there to stop the birds landing on it. Since when is this a tenant's responsibility?

He was clearly looking for things to deduct (from the safety deposit) — he found one speck of something black on the floor, and claimed it was cockroach eggs, so they had to call the exterminator.

One of the light switches was a bit loose from wear. He said it was our fault because we were turning it on-and-off all the time; but how else do you use a light-switch? 

YC also says the agent lied to the landlord, on how they weren't available for the final inspection:

"My wife and I cancelled plans for a family lunch, we were waiting for the agent to come. We only left for around 30 minutes at one point, to go to the coffee shop nearby.  We also repeatedly told the agent to please call us when he was there. 

We waited until 3pm, then the landlord called and asked if there was a problem. Then he showed us a video of the agent trying to open the door, and the agent had texted 'Tenants not in as agreed, can't do inspection.'

It was during the brief time we were at the coffee shop, and we could have run back up at any time. The agent never texted, never called, just swung by for a short while and claimed we weren't letting him do the inspection."

The downside for tenants, however, is that you don't get to pick your property agent. Unlike a buyer or seller, you can't fire them and choose another one.

So if you are renting, be sure to consider the attitude of the landlord's realtor as well; and don't be afraid to tell the landlord if they're risking their tenants with a bad agent. 

ALSO READ: 5 important details that aren't obvious on your condo floor plan

This article was first published in Stackedhomes.