The agency or the project developer? Where is it better to buy an apartment in a off-plan condominium?

There are only facts provided in this article as the final decision is taken by the purchaser himself. "Real Estate Agency" means an officially registered company in Thailand which has its office, staff, web-site, and, of course, its own history and positive image on the market both among the builders, its colleagues and among its clients. The variety of private agents, acquaintances and other "advisors" which quite often represent themselves as real estate brokers are not considered in this article.

1. The choice of an apartment. The trustworthy agency always cooperates with many project developers and can offer some alternative options based on price and location from different project owners. Every successful agent possesses information concerning the market much more than those who read something in newspapers and internet or watch TV program, so this agent fully understands the current situation in the market. As a result, a professional real estate agent is able to analyze the market and offer his client exactly what suits him best, having considered all advantages and disadvantages of different projects. In the other hand, it is absolutely obvious that any manager of any project developer will never show the weak points of a project and will never provide a frank comparative evaluation of the projects from different companies. In addition, there are some agencies which offer projects which are realized by one or several developers. Perhaps, this company is an affiliated department of the same developer or it has been opened recently and doesn`t have cooperation agreements with all the developers in the market. in this case there is no sense to expect to get an objective presentation of the market.

2. The price. Anyway, a project developer and a real estate agency ALWAYS set the same price for a flat or a house. The realtor provides any apartment according the prices which are set by his developers ONLY. The project developer pays an agent some commission for searching for the client, for overall service for client, including getting the keys of the apartment, settling and completion of the freehold documents. Frankly, there have been a lot of cases of opening of new real estate agencies in Pattaya recently and their realtors at first intentionally drove up prices for inexperienced clients and then offered a "discount" to attract the clients and make them buy the apartment. As you understand, this kind of business is deception of purchasers and a solid agency will never propose such a scheme.

3. The discounts, sales and marketing campaigns. The project developers can offer various bonuses and discounts when they organize advertising campaigns. There promotion conditions are applied for everyone including the customers which come with the real estate agency.

4. The contract of purchase. The contract of real estate purchase (house or condo) in a new building is always signed by the purchaser directly with the project developer, even though the client was directed by the agent. The developer has a standard contract which is admitted by his legal service. The contract is filled in with the information about the purchaser, the purchased flat and payment terms. In particular cases the contract can be modified if the agent participates in the deal. Usually, the changes consider the payment schedule which can be made according to the request of the purchaser.

5. Contract payments which are set with the developer. The contract payments are ALWAYS transferred only to the developer`s operating accounts in Thailand bank at any step of purchasing accommodation. In special cases if you trust your agent completely, you can transfer the sum of reservation directly to the agent in order to reserve the flat you liked as fast as it is possible. In this case the agency can pay for reservation of the house or a flat on behalf of you, but as a rule this sum doesn`t exceed 20 000 - 50 000 Thai baht.

6. Documentation procedure. Having signed the contract of purchasing a flat or a house the purchaser has to respect its terms, particularly, to consider its payment deadlines. If the deal was made in cooperation with a solid real estate agency, this agency will always control the whole communication between the purchaser and the project developer. In this case the client is always sure that he will receive each bill, every finance report and necessary documents. Moreover, it is important to notice that the clients will avoid any problems with communication with the developer. The manager which guided your deal with the developer might just quit and the purchaser would have different problems which vary from inappropriate invoices to loss of payment.

7. The purchaser is informed concerning the business situation. The company - developer usually informs the client only about the payment period according to the contract, the readiness of the apartment for moving in and about the terms of document preparation. So, the information concerns only the aspects which are set in the contract. The agency has an opportunity to communicate with the client personally, providing, for example, a photo of building process and readiness of a definite flat. Moreover, the agency always provides a lot of useful information about living in Thailand and this type of service can`t be performed by the developer. The developer won`t advice a place for buying furniture, a school for a child or an administration of visa procedure.

8. The client service after settlement - post-sale service. Usually the company-developer doesn\'t provide any service for clients after the registration of ownership and settling. The solid agency always offers its client an additional service: trust administration of property, leasing of a flat or a house, support with legal procedures ( empowerment, testament and other documents).

There are several real stories:

1. The client reserved the flat but wasn`t able to pay the first payment. According to the conditions of the contract, the deposit which client has made would be lost in this case. The agency managed to fix this situation, to avoid the cancellation of the contract and set another date for the first payment in 2 weeks.

2. The client was about to choose one of the most advertised projects but decided to consult the agency. After the detailed analysis of the market it was decided to buy the flat in another project with the same delivery date. The first flat hasn`t been delivered for 2 years because the start of the construction was delayed, but the client has already successfully moved into the flat from the second project.

3. The account department in the developer`s office didn\'t recognize the regular payment according to the contract and set penal sanctions to the agent for payment delay for 2 month. Thanks to the efforts of the agency the account department found the lost payment. It helped to avoid monetary penalty and even a possible judicial court.

4. Having signed the contract for purchasing the flat, the client determined the shift of the door to the bedroom from one position to another. The master builder didn\'t perform any necessary change. The agent found the differences during construction when he regularly inspected the apartment. And he appointed the necessary change to the builder before the start of the internal decoration.

5. The client bought the flat with one bedroom in a new building. Soon it turned out that he had a newborn baby and his family with 2 children needed the flat with 2 bedrooms. Thanks to the agency, he managed to sell the first flat, get his money and buy a new apartment in the other project even not coming to Thailand because the client made the letter of attorney for the agency.

6. The client purchased the flat from the developer in a project. The same developer launched a new project near that place in a year and this new one was more interesting and comfortable. The agency managed to change the flat from the first project to a new one from the second as this company is solid and reliable. Also the company transferred all the client`s payments into the new project without any loss and necessity to pay 100 000 Thai baht for re-legalization of the contract.

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