Friday, September 01, 2006
[RealEdge] TodayOnline Forum : What 1% sales commission means
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| What 1% sales commission means HDB paper work just one aspect of sales agent's job Friday September 1, 2006 Letter from Low Swee Kim Acting President and 2nd Vice-President Institute of Estate Agents 5th Council We refer to the letters by Ivan Tan, Karen Ong and James Chi, "Pay commission before moving in" (Aug 30) and Chiam Moi Leng's letter, "Should buyers pay agents who don't represent them?" (Aug 29). The Institute of Estate Agents would like to advise Ms Chiam that a commission of 1 per cent of the contracted price is payable by the buyer to the seller's agent when the property is purchased through the agent. This service fee is stipulated in the Institute's Professional Fees for Real Estate Agents. It is standard market practice that for Housing Development Board (HDB) resale transactions, the seller and buyer are both required to pay commission to the agent. If there is more than one agent working for the same deal, this commission is shared. This structure of commission payment for HDB transactions has been in practice ever since HDB resale flats were allowed to be privately sold on the open market. The handling of the paper work for HDB transaction is only one aspect of the agent's job and should not be used as a justification to determine an agent's entitlement to the fees. Housing agents have a right not to entertain buyers who are unwilling to pay the commission. Paid 1% for non-service Letter from Evelyn Tan Keow Keow Last week, I bought a five-room resale flat for $350,000 and paid $3,500 as the 1-per-cent commission. I was reluctant to pay the commission as we had sourced the house through the ads and were prepared to do the paper work ourselves. The ERA agent (Toa Payoh division) did not tell us about the commission until we made an offer. She said we were paying for her professional service and the HDB paper work; if we didn't pay the commission, we would not be able to buy the house. After signing all the documents, however, we didn't get professional service. We kept calling and SMSing the agent but in vain. Why must I pay this agent when I had to call the HDB hotline on my own to check on my resale application status? This should have been her duty! | |
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// posted by Shajahan @ 10:24 AM 