Why Is There a Need To Engage an Agent? (Rental Perspective)
I’m sure this question have ever came across your mind during some point in time. Ask yourself these questions: Do you know what are the paperwork involved for renting out your unit? Do you know how to handle premature tenancy? Do you pride yourself as a good negotiator?
If you do not have a certain answer to these question, it is always better to bring the professionals into the picture to safeguard your interest in time to come.
1) Agent provide professional advice and recommendation on the choice of property
This applies more to expat. Where we just move to a totally unfamiliar country, due to the lack of information on Singapore rental law as well as industry information such as average rental price, minimum rental period, it is only wise to involve an agent.
Although market information are widely available on the net for everyone but most owners may still prefer to engage an agent to market their unit. To them, that couple of thousand spend is incomparable to the hassle of doing mass advertising for the unit, managing tons of interested prospect, negotiating for an ideal price and handling all the paperwork. And yes, this is when money can buy you some form of convenience.
2) Tenancy agreement
To save that few hundreds or couple of thousand dollars may cause more in the long run. The attempt to sign and draft a tenancy agreement in the absence of professional assistance to suggest and prevent the occurrence of some unforeseeable situations such as premature termination of tenancy, conflict on the agreed amount of security deposit, failed rental payment and etc. If these information are not tied down and written in the tenancy agreement, both landlord and tenant’s interest will be jeopardised.
Hence, under such circumstance, the agent fee that you initially paid will be put to good use. By engaging an agent, they are tasked to help both landlord and tenant to draft out an ideal tendency agreement that is enforceable by law. In times of premature tenancy and failed rental payment, they also act as an advisor on the issue of forfeiture and seek to reach a settlement with the parties involved.
3) Handover service
Some owner would definitely agree with me that the handover stage can be the most tiresome part of the whole rental period. Usually at the end of the lease, before refunding the security deposit owners will conduct checks for any defects in the apartment, such as leaking pipes or vandalism where repainting is required. These ‘maintenance cost’ will then be forfeited from the tenant’s security deposit. However, there bound to have cases where some irresponsible tenant tries to argue their way through to avoid such charges and this is when the agent comes in to resolve the issue and seek mutual agreement.
Agent basically act as the middlemen and mediate between the owner and landlord. Due to the lack of technical knowledge, it’s always better to engage the professionals to get the job done.
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