Real Estate Tips #19: Sell your property through a registered estate agent

By way of referral or advertisement, you may call up a registered estate agent to sell your property for you. On your first meeting, the following should be discussed:

(1) Joint inspection of the property
- Before the joint inspection, you might want to give the address of the property to the agent for him to gather some information on the market price. During the inspection, the owner should produce documents such as photocopy of the title or quit rent receipts as proof of ownership.

- The owner should clearly point out to the agent any renovation involved and any known defaults on the property.

(2) Formal written instruction to procure a purchaser
Any registered estate agent should have with themselves a an instruction form, normally known as " Appointment to act as an estate agent (to secure a purchaser) " . This form may vary from one agent to another, but the general information should be as following as prescribed under the Malaysian Estate Agent Standard:

(a) Vendor's (seller) details and contact.

(b) Type of property

(c) Property address.

(d) The permission for the agents to display signboards/advertise in the media/send out flyers and promote generally the sale of property.

(e) The general terms and condition of sales, which includes:
- Asking price
- Earnest deposit on acceptance of offer, which is normally 1%
- On signing of Sale & Purchase Agreement, which is the balance 9%
- After signing the balance to be paid within, which is normally 120 days
- With or Without vacant possession, it simply means the buyer can or cannot take over the occupying of the property after purchase
- Other terms and conditions include, such as 8% p.a. charged on any extension give to the completion period of the agreement.

(f) Types of agency, such as exclusive/sole/sole joint/joint/ad hoc agency. Further explanation can be found in my previous article named Types of Agency you may come across with an estate agent.

(g) Appointment period.
- It can vary from 2 months to 6 months or so.

(h) Agreed fee
- Commission payable as prescribed by the Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents Act
- Payable upon the creation of a binding contract for the sale and purchase of the property, i.e. the signing of a unconditional Sale & Purchase Agreement.

- Other reimbursement may include :
I. costs of printing, plans, copies of documents, lithography, traveling (only when the distance between the agent's office and the property is more than 40km) and other expenses actually incurred;
II. costs of media advertisements, signboards, brochures or other promotional materials;
III. costs of private auction, conductin a tender, open house , exhibitions and tele and electronics marketing services.
IV. the total cost of reimbursement is payable on receipt of a statement of accounts even in the event of the transaction not being successfully concluded.

(i) In the case of this appointment being aborted, the estate agent is entitled to claim 50% of the full fee or 50% of the forfeited deposit/ compensation received, whichever is the lower.

(j) The capacity of the instruction given, such as registered proprietor, attorney of the registered proprietor pursuant to a Power of Attorney or a trustee for the legal owner.

(k) Signatory and witness.

(l) Viewing arrangement need to be decided as some property may be tenanted , then special arrangement needs to be made with the cooperation of the tenant before viewing.

Again , the above may vary from one agents to another, but this is pretty much the terms needed to be agreed upon between the agent and the vendor at the stage of appointment.