With property portals and the HDB resale portal now so established, buyers and sellers alike have started to wonder: why do we still need realtors? Has Proptech evolved to the point where we can cut out the middlemen? The answer is not as clear-cut as it seems.
Developers often gripe about how much realtors add to the project costs , but they have no alternative: they can’t afford to sit on their hands and just hope for buyers to arrive. So in the sense of the wider property industry, even in 2023, we don’t see the role of agents becoming any less necessary.There are some cases where a property agent can be skipped; we’ll detail these below. However, there are still situations where the agent provides hard-to-duplicate services:Additional vigilance during a transactionThe main benefit of realtors, which comes up time and again, is in the way they can manage timelines.
Even outside of upgrading, we have seen inexperienced buyers lose money just for doing things in the wrong order. For example, some buyers put down a deposit before securing a bank loan. However, the impact of renovations doesn’t show in transaction records, such as URA caveats. As such, the high transaction for the ground floor unit would give the impression of rising value, and push up the prices of other units in the project.
On a similar note, we’ve had many stories of agents who swing by the property more often at different hours – they often catch things the buyers can’t, such as rowdy neighbours, or loan sharks targeting other units in the block.This is one of the most common reasons we hear, as to why people want to hire property agents. Even seasoned property investors sometimes choose realtors for this specific reason.
Likewise, agents already have contacts and interested parties , so they’ll start off already having a big list to call.We’ve detailed it here, but many people forget that being an agent is really like running your own business. When you see social media posts of agents earning 6 digits a month, don’t forget that’s like a company’s revenue – not profit.
The HDB resale portal exists to help you DIY your flat transactions. While there is some paperwork involved – and you do need to find your own buyer – we’ve heard of many people managing to do it on their own.