Dubai Property: Buy Directly from Developer or Use an Agent?

What you are about to watch and learn is not one of our regularly scheduled podcast episodes. In fact, this is a compilation of parts from all of my Dubai Connect seasons where we focus on one thing and one thing only: why should you as an investor choose to work with an agent rather than going directly to the developer? This is meant to educate and inform you on all of the cost-free benefits and advantages that you would have, should a buyer or investor go directly through the developer or through agents such as myself. That's a good question and we get that asked on a daily basis. We have several direct buyers that come to us on a daily basis and we tell them all the exact same thing: we do not have any sort of benefit if they come directly or they come through an agent. One of the benefits that people need to realize that Dubai has done with, especially with developers, is they don't pay our commissions. The client does not pay our commission. The developers do. So if I know as a buyer, as an investor, that all my expenses have been taken care of by the developer, why wouldn't I take advantage of that broker's services? That's like getting a full VIP about customer service. The only reason investors assume, well, we get a lot of our investors saying, well what if I go directly to the developer? I've been told that I will get a discount on the price. I wish I as an employee would get even a discount. I wish I could get it. Not even myself as an employee can I get a discount. We give zero discounts to absolutely anyone. We've had some of the biggest bulk buyers, billionaires buying multiple units, and they've tried. They've tried their level best in order to get this. We don't give discounts to anybody. And I love this because it's just a testament to the transparency of the developer, to just have a level playing field. Absolutely. Besides, we have minimized, we've reduced the price as much as possible just so we can be an even more inclusive master community. So we don't give any discounts to anyone, not even employees. Investors are usually used to having to pay commissions to real estate brokers on purchase transactions, particularly for new properties or new projects, right. Agents over here are being compensated by developers, correct. Right, so they get their commissions from developers. What buyers essentially get by working with an agent is that extra layer of service. Right, not only at the search and discovery part, because then the real estate agent will help you navigate the closing, not only closing the transaction but also in the future, tracking progress, following up with developers, managing the handover process, potentially if you want to take out a mortgage at the handover process, they could refer you to a mortgage operator like me. Also managing the property, you know, if you want to turn it into a rental property, et cetera, et cetera. So a lot of people, even if they're buying off-plan, they think that, listen, if I just go directly to the developer it'll be better. I'll get a better deal or a better unit, which is not true. Never go with just that one. Never go directly with the developer because the problem with the developer, yes, is that if I am developer X, of course I'm going to tell you my product is the best in town and definitely I'm not going to tell you we had delays in certain communities or we have major issues going on. I'm going to tell you I'm the best and in some cases they'll even downplay the other developers. Very unethical way of selling. Having that person, again, for a US investor living overseas, even for a lot of the local buyers who live here in Dubai, you go to a developer, then the developer is going to offer you their product or their project. Whereas when you go with a real estate agent, funny enough, I had somebody who randomly came to me from the US or sent me a WhatsApp saying, I'm thinking about buying a property in Dubai. And I said, go talk to Gigi for a simple reason. Because look, a developer is not a person, right. It's a big entity. And for the developer, you're just one client buying a unit. He's making the developer is making thousands of units. Okay, you're just buying one of them. It doesn't make any difference to the developer. Developer sales people, they keep changing. The sales team can change. Turnover is huge. If a person who wants to go directly to the developer firstly has that intent from the very beginning, you cannot avoid these kind of people. Okay, that's the first thing. Second thing is when they go to the developer directly, the guy will welcome them with open arms. He'll close the deal for you. After that, you're gone. He's not going to follow up for you. He's not going to be there to help you in renting it out. He's not going to be there to help you to resell it. So that's a one-time transaction. And what was the reason to go to them directly? What is your benefit? You are not paying me anything, as I'm being paid by the developer. And that's a misconception. I remember a lot of times when people would come to me, clients would come and say they were introduced to the project through a broker and they'll come around and say, what if I buy directly now? First of all, we do not, or personally I will never entertain such a thing because I believe the brokers deserve, the deserve to get paid for the hard work. Absolutely. No, that's a principle that we have as a company and I always had as an individual. But I explained it to the clients. I say, listen, you're not paying anything extra. And if I don't pay the broker, I'm not going to give you a discount. That's not going to happen. However, on the other hand, okay, you're going to get all of these services and it's not going to cost you anything. And there's something that I always like to say is that buying a property should be a pleasant experience for sure, right. And if you have the right broker, they're going to make sure that it's not a stressful experience. I love that. First of all, me myself, I only work, if I'm buying something, if I'm going to purchase something for myself, I only work with agents because first of all it's going to save me so much time. I'm not going to do so much work, trying to figure out this area and this project and so on. I just quickly say what I need and they quickly show me, like, three to five options. Actually, I think going through someone who's expert and connected with all the developers will definitely guarantee that you will get a good deal. Dealing with an agent of a certain developer definitely will end up buying from that developer because that's where he makes money. But in general, in general, Dubai has all measures to protect investors. The only thing we require from the investor is to do a little bit of extra work. Make sure he deals with the right people. Yes. So a broker's role here is they operate within the market. Even if you go to developer X and the product is actually good, the broker confirms to you, yes, this makes sense. Even which unit within that development is most strategic. And then the post-sale service. Not only that, see, you want to invest. You have X amount. You're going to X developer. Maybe there is developer Y who's got something as good or gives you something slightly different. People with experience, today they're in the market. For example, I've been in the market for so long. If we've sold a property to a client, we make sure we take regular progress. Even if the developer person changes, we can still service them because we know who's the new guy, exactly right. Who to take, who to talk to if there's an issue, if there's some delay on the payment, et cetera, right. So your agent can manage your property. They can rent it out for you. Collect the rent on your behalf. When I say collect the rent, I mean not take the money in their account, but they can deposit in your account, make sure the money reaches you on time and take care of your property as well. So with that, please make sure to like, subscribe, follow, and stay tuned for the next episode of the Dubai Connect podcast.