How I'd choose a property agent

If I were selling a home for the first time in a long while, I'd ask to see the agent's REN tag before the sales pitch started, then look the number up. It takes a few minutes and it isn't rude. What it tells me is smaller than people think, so most of my choosing would come after it.

Here's the order I'd do things in.

Before I'd hand over the keys

Check the number

A negotiator has to carry a tag with a REN number, and it's meant to be on the advertising too.¹ The Board of Valuers, Appraisers, Estate Agents and Property Managers keeps the register, which you can search at lppeh.gov.my, and it shows registered contact numbers as well.²

So I'd check three things match: the name, the phone number I've been calling and the firm on the name card.

Now for what it doesn't tell me. A negotiator gets there through a two-day course, and the people in a focus group held in 2019, written up in a 2024 paper, doubted the tag was doing much as a safeguard.³

I'd treat it the way I'd treat a driving licence in a taxi. I wouldn't get in without one, and it won't tell me if they're any good.

Find the firm

A negotiator works under a registered estate agent, and that person's firm is who I'd really be dealing with.¹ So I'd ask two plain questions. Who's the registered agent responsible for you, and when did you last speak?

I'm not being difficult. One registered agent can have up to 50 negotiators, and that focus group described some working with little supervision.³ If something goes wrong, I'd like to know whose desk it lands on, and I'd want to be able to name them.

Write down the fee

The ceiling on a sale is 3% of the price, with a minimum of RM1,000.¹ It's a maximum, so nothing stops you asking for less, though the person you're asking may keep only part of it. There's more on how that works in what the 3% pays for.

If you're letting instead, the ceiling is 1.25 months' gross rent for a tenancy of up to three years.¹ I'd get these things on one page, signed:

• The fee, as a percentage or a sum.
• Who pays it, and when it falls due.
• What happens if the buyer pulls out, or if I find a buyer myself.
• How long the appointment runs.

That last line matters more than it looks. One agency's guide sets out the kinds of appointment, and the differences are real.⁴ With an exclusive agent you can't sell on your own, with a sole agent you can, and an open listing lets you appoint any number of agents, in writing.⁴

It's tempting to go open and let everyone try. I'd lean the other way, towards a sole appointment for a short, fixed period, because an agent who might lose you to five rivals has little reason to spend on your photos. The open-listing people are right about one thing: a long exclusive with a quiet agent is a bad place to be stuck.

Settle who holds money

I'd ask this before anyone's put in an offer. Whose account does the buyer's deposit go into, and who can release it?

In The Star in 2024, the president of the Malaysian Institute of Estate Agents said: "Every real estate company has a trust account to hold money on behalf of the customer."² A request to pay into a personal account was, in his words, "an instant red flag".² He was talking about rental scams on property sites, but I'd apply it to a sale just the same.

I couldn't get the Board's own wording on deposits to open, so I can't quote you the rule. Your lawyer should know it, and I'd pick that lawyer for this sort of question.

Then talk about price

This is where the enthusiasm arrives, and I'd enjoy it without believing it. A high figure costs nothing to say, and it's a good way to get a listing. Inflated prices were among the things that focus group raised.³

So I'd ask for the evidence, and I'd ask for it as actual sales: same development or the next one, with the prices people paid. Asking prices don't count. The government's National Property Information Centre (NAPIC) put transaction data online in 2023, so you've got something to check it against.⁵

Then I'd ask the question that sorts people out. If I had to sell within three months, what price would you tell me to take? An agent who gives a lower number than the first one, and can say why, is one I'd be happy to work with.

I'd also ask what they'd do in week six if nothing had moved. A real answer has actions in it, and possibly some bad news about my kitchen.

When I'd walk away

• The number isn't on the register, or the name doesn't match.
• They'd rather not say who their registered agent is.
• The fee stays verbal after I've asked for it in writing.
• Someone mentions a personal account for anything at all.
• The price is high and nobody can show me a sale behind it.

Interviewing two people would do. A third tends to teach me only that all three are friendly.