In Reply to: Any sugestion re property sales ... posted by sobeit on Thursday, 19. May 2011 at 10:20 Bali Time:
Is to be very very careful....
I have had a couple of bad experiences of late dealing with so called "real estate agents" in Bali. Both were on commercial property deals.
Property 1.
October 2010: I had been negotiating with an agent for 6 weeks on a small but very upmarket freehold villa/hotel in southern Sanur (Mertasari). Finally, we settled on a price subject to my inspection of the property. I arranged for deposit monies into Bali and a local notaris in Sanur to handle the conveyance and flew off to Bali to do the deal. I had also arranged with a good mate who is also a retired builder living in Sanur (and well known to this forum) to come along to inspect the property with me, if he gave the nod the deal was done.
The night before the inspection I was having dinner with some friends and the property came up in conversation, it was suggested by one at the table (who dabbles in Bali RE) that the property I was looking at he heard had already been sold. I immediately called the agent, he said he had heard nothing about this and would check. It wasn't till next morning after I had tried calling him several times, that I got a txt message from him to say "sorry yes it's been leased or 10 years". Not satisfied with a one line text message I phoned the agent (it took several calls and changing my phone to private before he finally answered). I asked him how this could happen, and why would the owner have accepted a 10 yr lease when I had offered to buy the property freehold for several times as much?
It was only then that he told me the new lessee (a Singapore investor) had "gone over his head and had done a deal direct with the UK owner of the property". I asked him "well who the hell have you been dealing with these past 6 weeks for me?'...
His reply: "I have only been speaking with the local manager who runs the property".
Property 2.
Another small hotel in the Sanur area. This was more recent (about 8-10 weeks ago). Again, dealing with an "estate agent" (a different one from the first) on a small leasehold hotel in the Sanur area. The price "as advertised" included a 15 years "pre-paid" up lease. Again, several emails were exchanged and a date set for inspection, my notaris engaged, funds arranged etc... I specifically asked was there any other interested parties, "no was the answer", so again I flew over to set the wheels in motion.
To cut another long story short, not only was he wrong about the pre-paid up lease (it was less than half the tenure advertised), but behind the scenes the "agent" was playing me against another interested party. I was having a drink with a mate (actually the retired builder I mentioned above) and turns out it was him and another of his friends looking to expand their business ventures. Small world hey......and unlucky for the agent because we both decided to pull out of the contest. The property as far as I am aware is still looking for a buyer!!!
Moral of the story: Be careful.....be very very careful who you are dealing with and make sure they are talking to the rightful owner of the property/business you are interested in and not some staffer who doesn't relay messages onto the property owner.
Cheers
Don