The Rental Process in Thailand.

The first and foremost important decision to make in the rental process is to decide with which estate agent you would like to work with in your housing search. You should choose ideally one real estate agency or agent, or at a maximum two. These agents should have a proven track record and come from recommendations of other expatriates in town and should be very knowledgeable about the area in which you want to live. Possibly more important than this, is that your estate agent gives you a positive 'feeling' about working with them and they instill confidence in their skills as both a property locator and skilled negotiator. They listen to your wants and needs, and are willing to work with you in finding the best solution for your needs.

Why only one or maximum of two real estate agents you ask? Well, there are a few very good reasons for this. Some of those reasons would be:

Most Bangkok real estate agencies have many of the same rental properties available in their database. You don't gain anything or have access to more properties by dealing with numerous agencies. Occasionally, a few agencies deal with only specific areas of Bangkok, though as a foreigner chances are you are looking to stay in a downtown area, and 99% of agencies do cover downtown.

Reputable agencies, even if they do not have a particular property available to them in their database, can generally get access to ANY property for rent or sale in Bangkok through their network of other agencies that they work and co-broke with.

As in any country, the relationship that you have with your realtor is very important, possible even more so in a foreign land. Taking the time and effort to cultivate a relationship, so that your realtor can get a good idea of exactly what you are looking for and what style will suit your tastes will reap huge rewards and massive time savings in the long term. Additionally, don't forget that if you are new to Bangkok or Thailand, your agent will probably be one of your first points of contact when you want information on just about ANYTHING in your new country.

As a follow on from the point above, and related to the fact that good agencies work within networks, they also share properties, and in many cases client names too. This is necessary to make sure that agency B does not show the same property to John Doe as Agency A already showed to him, as this would be a waste of everybody's time and effort, not least the potential tenant who will be viewing the same places over and over. When a clients name gets around a few agencies, obviously the motivation of those agents to work with the client is far less, as they have a much smaller chance of 'closing a deal' and earning their commission. It then becomes a game of chance for the agencies involved, which is rather unfair for the agent who loses out on the deal through no real fault of their own.