alexalexa

Hi, I am just curious, how did you find you apartment in Dubai?

1. Did you use an agent, ask around with people you knew, company, look around in the city yourself.... ?

2. If you used an agent, which ones did you use and which one was helpful / which one would you not recommend?

3. Which agent did you close the deal with?

4. Did you negotiate the initial price down or did you accept it?

Thanks for you time

TGFKASE

Hi, I am just curious, how did you find you apartment in Dubai?

1. Did you use an agent, ask around with people you knew, company, look around in the city yourself.... ? - All of the above!!!

2. If you used an agent, which ones did you use and which one was helpful / which one would you not recommend? - better homes helpful, some smaller ones on dubizzle not so...

3. Which agent did you close the deal with? bhomes

4. Did you negotiate the initial price down or did you accept it? Negotiated down...

Thanks for you time :thumbup

commander

1st house: company owned villa
2nd: gulf news adverts
3rd: First gulf bank
4th: Company Villa

there is no set way and everyone will have horror stories, just go with the flow, read the newspapers, talk to the letting agents, look in Dubizzle, look in spinneys and good luck

Blue Cat

always just driven around and taken phone numbers down for what looked OK, then chased them up that way.

MacScot

Good question..answer is yes. Do your homework and compare selling prices for similar sized apartments in the same tower or neighbourhood.

The asking price for my two-bedroom apartment in Dubai Marina was almost the same as one or two of the 3-bedroom ones, which I pointed out to my real estate agent (Links). They managed to get a significant AED300,000 reduction for me !

Eva

You got 50k knocked off the rental or purchase?
Canny Scot Mac

alexalexa

I assume you bought, right?

MacScot

...off the purchase price.

Bought my 2-bedroom apartment for AED 2 million and now, 2 years later, two smaller 2-bedroom at the back of my tower (with no marina view) are selling for AED 3.7 million...Not bad, eh? So glad I did not rent...

MacScot

Sorry..I thought you were talking about purchasing ?

Lyds

dubizzle.com is great for keeping track of the going rental prices.

Most of the ads are put up by agents who may or may not be in league with eachother - also landlords can ask as many agents as they want to find tenants for a property, so there may be some crossover.

It's highly likely that by the time you've seen the ad and phoned the agent, it'll have gone (70% of the time in my recent experience), but they will have others.

Don't wait for them to say "i'll call you back" - just say you'll phone back in an hour. There seems to be the mentality around here that it's not bad news if they don't actually tell you about it... doesn't matter if left left it so late that you are seething by the time you have to phone them! lol

As for my story, well, have you got a bit of time?!

Saw apartment ad, phoned agent (I won't mention comany name here), visited apartment, said yes, agent phoned landlord, all ok. Coughed up deposit that morning. Eid came and went. Coughed up rent cheque and commission, signed contract. "keys today! No problem!"... no keys. Weekend came and went. Still no keys. Landlord refuses to sign contract unless we pay more. Agent says no, Landlord says I don't want to rent then. Oh dear. Agent has to find us a new place or give back all our money (which is lots). Agent finds new place. We say yes. "Contracts all ready to sign in the morning!". 9h30 we're there. No contract. Afternoon, still no contract and landlord not picking up phone. Agent finds yet another apartment. Go see apartment. Say yes! Landlord was there. "want to sign NOW!", we say. Fine! Agent can't produce cheque in time cos in traffic/on his way home/ aliens abducted his dog. Landlord (who has to be the only honourable one in this place) says I trust you - here is the key. [I love him] Agent has just called saying "can we come pick up the extra 10k you owe us today? [cough] That may have to be discussed my dear.

So... be prepared!

Number one bit of advice: if you like a place, act immediately - preferably by wrestling them to the ground whilst giving them a pen to sign with. They are all as slippery as eels in a bucket.

Lyds

Number two bit of advice: don't use the agency I did!

mrskpd

Lyds, we are about to start the house hunt and we have been following your horror story very nervously! glad to hear it worked out okay. we have two dogs which really limits our options so are really hoping we don't have a similar problem.
can you let us know who the agent was so we know to avoid them is possible?

Lyds

sure thing, I'll pm you.

With 2 dogs, work out beforehand where you are going to stay - most hotels/hotel apartments don't allow pets. I'd also gear up for 3 weeks of staying in temporary accommodation if I were you. Most companies will throw in 2 weeks as a freebie welcome gesture, but budget for an extra week to 10 days to give you some lee-way. You don't want to be out on your ear with 2 dogs too!

Unless, of course, you come over before them. In hindsight, it would have been far better (although maybe not easier) if my hubby had come over a few weeks before we did so that he could do all the faff without us in tow.

Closure on our little adventure has taken the form of handing over 10k in cash as a deposit to another agent (there are now 3 different ones involved).

Our agent wanted the 10k plus a top-up to his own commission, and for a bit would not issue the final cheque without it, saying it was not his fault things had gone this way. We said ok, it's even less our fault, but if you force us, we'll pay up. He's off swanning around Cityscape and so wouldn't talk to us directly. Then a call came from one of the other agents saying "you're coming with the deposit and our commission?" - no mate, the deposit yes, but the commission has already been paid (albeit without the top-up) and so it's up to you and the original agent to sort it out between you.

Then the agent comes up with the brainwave - why don't we come up with the deposit and the full commission and then original agent will pay us back... er, do I have MUG tattooed on my forehead perchance?!

So, original agent coughed up the rent cheque (leaving him with 8k from the original sum), we coughed up the deposit, original agent now has to split the commission 3 ways (3 agents all get an equal share), but it should of course be 10k commission, so 6666.66 (ironic) goes out of his pocket leaving him with 1.33k. He can call me for the rest. "oh, yeah, I'll get it to you tomorrow... yep, yep, definitely tomorrow!"

[caring face]

mrskpd

Goodness, what a drama!
My company is putting us up for four weeks in a hotel
The dogs are staying behind with our parents until we find a place and get settled, then we will get them sent over. i think we will have enough stress settling in up front without them in tow!