I’ve been looking into the possibility of buying a condo in Taiwan, Kaohsiung specifically. I have experience with buying real estate in the US and it’s been mostly good. Sometimes I’d hire a local agent to represent me the buyer, sometimes I’d approach the listing (seller) agent directly. The sellers and the agents on both sides have mostly been honest and factual about what they say in the disclosures and when answering my questions, in my experience anyway. They may not tell me everything but in some states certain things are required to be disclosed by sellers so I haven’t missed anything major.
Do things work much the same way in Taiwan? Do I need a good buyer agent to represent me? Is it required by law? Are there enough regulations in place for me to trust what the sellers and the agents (seller’s or buyer’s) say? I see value in having a good local agent to represent me because I’m new to the Taiwan market. Can I trust that the agent I hire will have my best interest in mind or would they just want to close the deal and take the commission? All the buyer agents I’ve dealt with in the US have been great so I have a tendency of trusting the agents I work with. If things are different in Taiwan, I’d definitely like to know
By the way I’ve already noticed something. In the US the seller would hire one listing agent who would be authorized to list the property. You’ll only see one listing for a property on the online listing sites such as Zillow or MLS. This doesn’t seem to be the case in Taiwan - I see multiple listings of the same condo sometimes with the same pictures. Hmm… Are they on the seller side or the buyer side or neither?
No, but sellers might have exclusivity agreements with their agents as well.
No
No. Get a lawyer. Don’t get burned like me.
No. Agents most often represent both the seller and the buyer simultaneously.
I’m still fighting them. It’s been two years. Get a lawyer.
Real estate agents aren’t necessarily exclusive to one listing. The whole office can do it and the commission isn’t like the US, they all get paid if a listing sells. This is what I was told.
Thanks for the reply. I’m sorry your transaction didn’t go as planned. Is a lawyer needed only when there’s a dispute or you’ll always need a lawyer for a purchase?
Sounds like they are only there as a middleman to facilitate the process and don’t necessarily look out for either party’s best interest.
That’s frustrating. Hope you’ll get it sorted soon. Good luck!
I didn’t have a buyer’s agent but had local Taiwanese friends review everything including going to the final negotiation meeting.
The seller agent lied like crazy every step of the way about things like what is a standard agent’s commission (this is the final step before you sign and they’ll give you a high number and say it’s very normal), value of home decorations (hint: it’s not worth much because most local Taiwanese home owners will re-decorate everything since it’s not per their style. The AC is not worth anything if it’s old. Decorations aren’t worth anything unless done by a professional company and they have receipts, otherwise they probably half assed it with their side gig company or friend for business expense purposes.), the home owner wanting to meet me for coffee to get to know me (they wanted to do final negotiations and close the deal), fixed electrical items like AC having warranty (they don’t have any warranty), offers that previous buyers already gave (I eventually offered much lower and they still accepted), reasons that the previous tenants moved out (they were hiding a smelly sewage system by sealing off access to toilets), etc.
Probably best to have a local friend who bought a home already walk you through the steps and go to the meetings with you.
In my case the seller’s agent signed a contract with the seller that they would keep a large % of sale proceeds over X price as commission, so they were incentivized to sell for as much as possible rather than get a good deal for the buyer. They revealed this during final negotiations since we weren’t willing to go over X price and they had to change the commission structure (the seller refused to pay the seller agent any commission fee).
There are exclusive contracts, where only one agent/agency can show the house for sale. There a re non=exclusive where many agents may list the same property.
My wife is a real estate agent for Tainan/Kaohsiung and she speaks English well.
