Apartment search advice

[jchawk97]

All,

I am an expat who works for a very large American firm. I have been working in Asia for the past 3 years and have experienced many aspects of using local agents to find apartments for lease. Some experiences have been better than others. I realize everyone needs to earn a living, but from my experience, when the agent knows you are on a corporate budget, they immediately want to know your budget and try to corner you into the places where they have the best monetary advantage. This may sound a bit paranoid, but it has been my experience.

This is my experince in China and South Korea. I am looking for practical experience and advice from professional Expats like myself. I realize from the posts Singapore real estate is more expensive than what I am currently used to. Looking for some useful advice.

Agents who may want to respond with contact info, well... a post with "contact me and I will help you" is not what I am looking for. I am looking for practicle "how to" information. You want to make a connection, do "that".

Regards,

[ecureilx]

Well, in Singapore, you say your budget is 4,000, for example, the agent will jack up a 2k apartment into 4k, and then still try to 'stretch' your budget, and use the standard sales talk - like - "A lot of people from your country live in that area", "a lot of people from your company rent around that area", "well, it is actually a good deal"

Dont forget that agents make money on the value of the rental signed, so if you sign for 2K per month, they get 2K commission, if they can swoosh you upto 4K, for the same property, they make 4K ...

[jchawk97]

Thank you for your information and validation that Agent actions are international. Hopefully my local HR office will be able to help with an apartment search.