How to Sell Your House in Singapore: Find An Agent

You’ve decided: it’s time. You need to know how to sell your house in Singapore. Find an Agent! You know the road ahead might be fraught with hidden obstacles and seemingly-random encounters. It’s dangerous to go alone.

Most people have a mentor to help guide their journey in life. Selling your house is no exception — it can be difficult and time-consuming, for many reasons. Because of that, you’ll want to find a real estate agent to work with. Of course, then you’re faced with a new challenge: how do you find the right agent for you?

First, interview a handful of property agents

Sadly, around 80% of homeowners in Singapore go with the first real estate agent they speak to. This is someone who is going to handle one of the largest transactions in your life. You’re going to spend your days with them, pour over contracts with them, and put a significant amount of faith in them. While there are plenty of great agents out there all over in Singapore, it’s a better practice to talk with at least a few of them before you make your final decision.

Ask for the agent’s experience

Here’s where the conversation gets interesting. In the agent’s initial pitch, you need to find out everything you can about how they get the job done.

Ask them questions like:

Can they name a time they helped a seller get more for their house than expected?
What about a time they helped someone sell their house quickly?
Do they stick with old-fashioned techniques, or list it on a website?
Do they have actual marketing strategies (“we create a profile of potential buyers and outlets that those buyers are likely to be looking at”) or just put the home up for sale in the usual listings?
What’s included in their fees? Some agents include staging, photography, videography, and repairs (typically with a cap on spending) in their fees.

Look at online reviews but take them with a grain of salt

Reviews are good indicators of the real estate agent’s customer service skills and they can give you a peek into the way they interact with clients. Unfortunately, online reviews are anecdotal. An agent with positive reviews might not be able to sell your house as fast as another agent and an agent with a few bad reviews might have just had a bad day.

Talk to previous clients and get details on previously sold properties

Ask your potential agent if they have a client or two that you could talk to — someone who has sold property similar to what you’re selling, if possible. Ask them questions about the experience of working with the agent: what they liked, what (if anything) they didn’t like, and any other questions you can think of.

Once you’ve got a few candidates narrowed down, look at their real estate license

Licensing and discipline are done on a state-by-state basis. Check with the regulatory body in your state to make sure that your real estate agent is licensed and see if there have been any complaints about them. A quick Google search should do the trick.

Watch for these red flags

One red flag is if the agent doesn’t know much about your neighborhood, although this will depend on where you live — in some areas, there are huge variances in price from neighborhood to neighborhood. In other areas, it might not make as much of a difference.

Another one is that the agent only does real estate part-time. You want a full-time professional who has their finger on the pulse of the real estate market and knows all the ups, downs, and intricate details of it.

Having said all these, it’s time for you to talk to our agent if we could be any of help.