Always ask to see the relevant documents to make sure that you are working with a accredited property agent.

Apparently, some firms are resorted to employing so-called rental coordinators to do the job of property agents.

These rental coordinators do essentially the same work as a real property agent, but as they are unaccredited, they do not need to pass the required examinations and meet the minimum sales quota.

The “phantom” property agents will split then their commissions with the real property agent they are operating under, who might not be present.

This blatant flouting of rules make a mockery of the Estate Agents Act, which aims to increase the level of professional of real estate agents.

And has anyone else besides me also felt that becoming a real estate agent is increasingly becoming a second career option for many people? I know of so many friends and acquaintances who have quit their job to become full time housing agents.

Just when you thought that interest rates can’t get any lower, the swap offer rate (SOR), a benchmark interest rate that is commonly used to determine mortgage rates, fell below zero for the first time. The Singapore interbank offered rate (Sibor) is the other benchmark interest rate commonly used in Singapore.

The three-month SOR fell to -0.0119% two days ago.

In theory, a negative interest rate implies that you will need to pay banks to hold your money or banks will pay you to borrow money from them (fat chance on the later occurring in Singapore as the bank will usually have clauses to prevent that from happening). We are living in interesting times.

With interest rates remaining at all time lows, they continue to fuel speculative demand for property. But a low interest rate by itself does not guarantee a booming property market. Recall that Japan had interest rates that were very low for as long as we can remember but their property prices had been on a downtrend all the way ever since the bubble burst.

It looks like we will no longer see terms like “Property Expert” and “Property Specialist” being used come 1st August 2011.

Yesterday, the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) issued two Practice Guidelines to promote ethical advertising in the real estate agency industry.

Other than disallowing misleading headlines and claims, real estate agents will also need to display accurate advertising contents and adhere to responsible advertising (like including a mobile number for consumers to opt-out of future SMS advertisements).

While the guidelines are positive, they should have gone further and allowed for consumers to unsubscribe to SMS advertisements at a company level. Currently, a company will distribute your contact details to all their agents and it is very tedious for us to unsubscribe to every SMS that comes our way.

One further thought that comes to my mind is that shouldn’t all those advertisements that have people proclaiming themselves to be “stock market expert” or “forex trading expert” and with unsubstantiated claims be disallowed as well?