[CurlyM]

I'm curious if it better to avoid agents all together and go with a owner-listed apartment. What's the advantages/disadvantages of this scenario?

I know one advantage is saving a lot of money in the agents fee!

[Laughing_Monkey]

do u speak cantonese?

[penguinsix]

Yea, that's a big one.

We also had an interesting experience in that we needed to get out of our lease early. We went back to the agent who handled our transaction and she was a great go-between with the landlord and us. It actually worked out well--we got out of our lease without a penalty and the landlord got a new tennant at a higher rate.

These little unforeseen things are when you really want an agent.

[tvrlover]

Originally Posted by CurlyM

I'm curious if it better to avoid agents all together and go with a owner-listed apartment. What's the advantages/disadvantages of this scenario?

I know one advantage is saving a lot of money in the agents fee!

I don't have much direct experience with this, but my wife used an agent to find our apartment and she had a very good exprience. We got a very good place in Quarry Bay within about 2 weeks (+/-), and she told it me that having an agent made it smooth, easy and professional.

In addition, I would guess that agents have a lot more listings and contacts to get things done faster.

[hbrand]

It is expensive, but I found it totally worthwhile. My agent met me at my serviced apartment with a car and driver and literally took me to every building in HK I wanted to see. He was a great negotiator and was more than happy to keep taking me Southside, Pok Fu Lam, all over the island actually for two weeks. Then he arranged a driver for my husband to see my shortlisted apartments.

I think it's worth the money.

[KnowItAll]

Having said that a fair number of agents can be classified as clowns and they would give used car salesmen a bad name.

People to watch out for -- Treasureland and a couple of the expat idiots who work for LJ Hooker. Treasureland in particular pisses me off by calling me every f'ing 6 months from hidden numbers asking me if I want a new apartment -- they know we dont. LJ Hooker screwed me badly as an agency by not doing some due diligence which ended up costing me around $50K out of my pocket.