Whether you are a foreigner abroad looking to buy property in the beautiful country of Thailand or an expatriate looking for a place to settle down in, you would need to retain the help of a good real estate agent in the country. The agent is the person that will help you make sure that the decision you ultimately make on your real estate investment is the correct one.
However, you would still need to be on the lookout for and have to be careful in which real estate agent you would retain. That brings us to the question, “How do we know exactly if we are talking with the right real estate agent?”
Qualities to Look Out For
Your first dealings with a real estate agent, if you’re a foreigner, would definitely be online. This could either be through email or Skype. In any case, you should be watching out for the following qualities while you’re communicating with your prospective agent:
He must be professional
First thing you should look out for is how professional his working with you is. Are his replies prompt? Is there a reasonable delay between each message? Agents, as well as other professionals, are supposed to have a response ideally within 24 hours of your sending the email to him or her. Also, you have to check out the tone of his communication with you. Is it respectful to you as a client, or is the agent rough and disrespectful?
He must have a license or an affiliation with a licensed agency
You must not deal with agents who do not have the credentials to support their trade. They must have a valid license issued by the Thai government or they must, at least, be affiliated with a duly-registered and licensed real estate agency or brokerage that has a solid reputation providing the services that you seek.
He must demonstrate an expertise in his or her field
What use is a real estate agent who doesn’t know what the market is? This is actually easy to gauge. The answers during your communication will give you a means of gauging of how solid an agent’s grasp is of the subject matter, i.e. the Thai real estate market.
You must be comfortable communicating with the agent
Of course, an agent can be very professional and very knowledgeable about the Thai real estate market as it is what they trained for. However, you, as a client, must also be comfortable in dealing with this real estate agent. That’s the most important part of being in a business relationship, after all. You must be comfortable in dealing with this special agent and, in a way, they must also be comfortable with you.
Keep your eye out for these four qualities, and you should be able to tell if you are dealing with the right real estate agent to help you out in your quest to find the ideal real estate property for you in Thailand.
