[Sunday, 25 February, 2007]

In this world, you can classify working personnel into two types – one who works honestly and one who works scandalously for his own gain, even in the loss of others.

In my short journey in the property line, I have encountered many people who do not practise what they preach. They turn out to be despicable liars just like how it appears in dramas. I shall give you an example.

I-Da-Liar is the coordinator of a team who will make contacts with other agents and clients, and arrange all the viewing and timing for her team’s agents. In this unfortunate day, she contacts agent “Donator” to arrange a viewing for her clients who wish to purchase a 4-room flat in Ang Mo Kio.

Donator is a happy-go-lucky, frank and honest agent who represents the owner of the flat. The flat belongs to JTC (Jurong Town Corporation) and it is a project for his company. Since many companies are fighting over this project and some even offer zero commission, he receives no commission and therefore has to collect commission from the buyers, with or without the companion of an agent.

Since in the market there are standards for the amount of commission, such that sellers have to pay their agents 2% commission and buyers have to pay their agents 1% commission, it is difficult to handle the JTC flat without the sellers paying any commission.

There are two ways of handling the commission. The first way is that the buyers have to pay 1% commission to Donator. Donator’s company will take 35% of that 1% and the remaining amount will be split between both Donator and I-Da-Liar’s team, such that the buyers do not need to fork out any money to any agent. The second way is that the buyers have to give 1% commission to each of the agents – Donator and I-Da-Liar – and in total, 2% commission. Their respective companies will of course take part of their commission. However, in both cases, the buyers of the flat have to clearly understand and agree on the commission beforehand.

In many cases, the first way is used and that 1% from buyers is shared between both of the agents but however, the buyers’ agents will get another 1% directly from the buyers. This nice and cosy flat is sold below valuation, which means that the buyers will gain from it, unlike for other flats the owners are asking for extra cash value. Since Donator and his team have been working hard and in order to recoup their loss on transportation, food, time and energy, they decide to go for the second way such that they will not be “eaten” up by the co-broke agents.

Nevertheless, I-Da-Liar claims that her buyers do not wish to produce 2% commission. Since I-Da-Liar sounds so friendly and sincere on the phone, Donator decides to give her a chance to serve her buyers well and accept the deal of sharing 1% commission, such that her buyers will only come out with the 1% commission in total.

I-Da-Liar is actually working for two people – Pennis and Ni-Conned. During the first viewing session, I-Da-Liar sends two runners to bring the buyers over, Donator does not suspect nor mention much to his mentor. It is until when I-Da-Liar calls Donator again for second viewing, Donator tells his mentor about it clearly, which is too late, because as a beginner, Donator does not know this group of despicable agents are already blacklisted by many agents in the market.

On this very crucial day, Pennis goes down personally to close the deal. He starts to scandal and accuse Donator for taking commission from both sellers and buyers. Pennis is actually a very experienced agent, who is once Donator’s mentor’s boss, and knows everything about the JTC flats’ commission.

In the end, Donator and his mentor realise that Pennis is actually taking another extra 1% commission from the buyers when Pennis’ dog, I-Da-Liar, has claimed earlier that the buyers are not willing to fork out 2% commission. In this way, Pennis is able to earn 1% commission directly and another half of Donator’s commission.

For example, the selling price of the flat is at $224000, Donator should earn $1456 (65%) commission after his company absorbs $784 (35%) of his total commission. However, Pennis has now tricked Donator for half of his $1456 ($728) despite Donator has to pay for the advertisement and transportation fee and sacrifice so much of his time and energy.

Even though Donator is a new agent from a very poor family and needs money badly, what he loses most is the trust he has given to the cunning team who pockets his money. He does not mind losing this income but for the professionalism, he has to proceed for the sake of the seller (JTC). He can never forget how I-Da-Liar has betrayed his trust and how Ni-conned has pretended nice over the phone.

Donator decides to treat the money he has been conned of to be the funeral money for the cunning team of housing agents. He knows clearly even though they can live blindly and use the dirty money they get from cheating a poor guy, they will get their retribution one day.

From this story, I hope every agent can learn from Donator’s mistake to trust people too easily. If any agent comes across such despicable team of agents, please do not co-broke with them no matter how much you can earn from the deal. Whereas on the other hand, buyers should know that many top agents are cunning people and please do not engage their services.

YES, I HAVE LET THE ENTIRE SINGAPORE’S HONEST AGENTS DOWN. I’M A SINNER. I should not have entertained such corrupted agents in the first place.

Hereby, I wish all the best to all despicable agents. I hope their children will not encounter any mishap like torn of penis or born without any private part, their houses will not be broken into, they will not be struck by lightning during rainy days, they will not fall into drains while walking, they will not be choke while eating, they will not be drown while bathing, their cars will not crash with big lorries and their pets will not die of AIDS; and lastly, I wish heaven will open his eyes soon.