Hello. I forgot my old account so just signed up new. Seeking advice from property experts here:

I own an apartment & already settled the loan (partially funded by parents). I've been  looking for a landed house nearby my workplace for my own stay in future (next 10 years). So I found a subsale low cost basic double storey in Selangor (rm300k) & already paid earnest deposit 3%. The agent said I can purchase the property since the apartment i owned located in KL. The house is in fair condition, needs lots of repair work (rewiring, bathroom renovation). The process of buying the house could take more than 6 months due to ownership transfer process of low cost house. I plan to rent out one of the properties later.

About a week ago, I found a bigger, fully renovated double storey house to be sold significantly below market price (600-700k) by the owner through an online ad. The house cost 400k. I'm not familiar with buying a property directly from the owner. The owner asked for 10% deposit to lock the deal, fully refundable if i dont agree after viewing the house (viewing only due next month) or if my loan get rejected. I requested to do the transaction through property agent company & to have a look at legal documents of the property first. The owner said he will appoint a real estate developer which he signed up the sale contract as 3rd party for the transaction. FYI, the owner seems as if he's trying to hide his identity throughout our email communication.

I think I can afford paying installments for both houses (got adequate saving, stable income & only car loan commitment).  I'm just not sure if this is a fake owner scam or not.  Is it normal to put 10% deposit if buy from owner directly? Is this process legit?

Let's say the deal is legit & I buy the 400k house, will it affect the ownership transfer of the low cost house?

Thank you in advance for your advice ☺️.

i think the owner might be trying to scam you. pay then view? significantly below market price? too good to be true?

why the seller wanted to sell way below market price ?

also, 10% is not norm, normally 3% upon signing the letter offer and another 7% upon signing the sale & purchase agreement

if u are uncertain he is the real owner, u can always ask for a copy of the title to confirm before making any payment.

You should appoint a lawyer and NOT an agent and ask the seller to deal with your lawyer.

IF HE DISAGREES ....... WALK AWAY !

DO NOT PAY ANY MONEY TO SELLER OTHER THAN THROUGH YOUR LAWYER.

He may be a tenant pretending to be the owner.

These three parts are major red flags for scam sellers. Do not proceed.

1) ONLY EVER APPOINT A LAWYER to handle real estate transactions. Real estate agents only facilitate the meeting/negotiation between seller and buyer. Real estate agents and developers ARE NOT SAFE ENTITIES to draft SPA and actually work with financing and sale & purchase agreements.

2) If direct with owner both owner and buyer should appoint their own lawyers to protect their respective interests and use the lawyers to handle the financial transactions and transfer of property. This ensures that you have safeguards in place to have your finances and rights protected in the event something goes wrong.

3) Never directly transfer funds to seller for subsales as if they run away with money you cannot get it back without extremely expensive, time consuming and potentially unsuccessful methods. Collecting booking fees are technically illegal by the way, and you're only supposed to pay the 10% downpayment upon SPA signing, not earlier.

This post has been edited by DragonReine: Apr 18 2022, 11:54 AM

How can I appoint a reliable lawyer ?

For my other purchase (the low cost double storey), I paid 3% earnest deposit to the property agent company. I thought the process would be similar (i mean to enggage a 3rd party like real estate company) if buying directly from the owner.

How can I appoint a lawyer? I'm sorry if the question seems stupid buy I never appointed a lawyer on my own. Before, I only used a lawyer panel from the property developer or lawyer chosen by my property agent. 🤔

Use the same lawyer as your low cost house purchase.

Logically, no owner will appoint an agent if he oredi has a buyer. He has to pay agent commission without him doing any work of finding a buyer.

He oredi selling below market price and still pay commission ?

Your low cost house I believed you bought through an agent appointed by the seller from the begining.

If you looks desperate to buy, you will be scamed ! The low price is the bait for you to pay the upfront 10%. Why only next month can view and not immediate ?

This post has been edited by mini orchard: Apr 18 2022, 09:29 PM

Just an update. The seller mentioned about using real estate company as the 3rd party for escrow account service. I received an invoice for the transaction from iproperty.com.my for the deposit transaction & payment due in 2 days. However, the bank account given is an account in Italy. The invoice dont even have address of the house that want to be sold.

https://pictr.com/images/2022/04/19/BesokY.md.jpg

Just run away from this transaction. 200% confirm scam. The online ad just a bait. One of those 419 type scam

Do others a favour . .... Report to iProp to remove the advert b4 others get scam.

There is no necessary to blackout the details as it is a scam. Not sure why are your protecting the scammer.

This post has been edited by mini orchard: Apr 19 2022, 01:09 PM

I found the listing in mudah.my 10 days ago and sent email to the seller (he didn't provide any handphone no.). I noticed the seller reply to my email a week after but the ads in mudah was no longer available. I asked again information about the house & he gave photos & videos of the house. From the video, there's contact info of the property agent so I searched back & found the listing in another property listing website (not iProp) by a licensed property agent posted 3 days ago. Even the description almost similar.

I'm amazed at how the scammer seller can get all the info beforehand because he posted about the house in mudah 10 days before the the property agent posted the listing (listing price is twice the scammer offered price).

The listing is not in iproperty.com. Just the seller claims to use iproperty as a 3rd party for the transaction. But the foreign bank account in the invoice made me refuse to proceed with the transaction.

Do iproperty has this kind of service?
it's not a real estate agency but an advertisement company tho
so, just call in iproperty to verify

and.. it seem scam to me la.

This post has been edited by jasonchaw: Apr 19 2022, 04:08 PM

You so cute
1) It's a photoshopped - and not generated invoice
2) iProperty do not offer this kind of service
3) Domain name is @iproperty.homes
4) Always deal through law firm or proper real estate agency registered under MIEA only
5) Nobody will try to sweep this deal under your feet
6) Pay and forget about seeing your money ever again.

Sekian

Reverse scam them

If a deal is too good to be true, the it usually is. Scammers' main target would always be victims greed.

Yes, reversed scam the seller.
Give him a photoshop Transaction Slip, tell him ur payment is stucked at bank and need him to make a payment of USDxx only the bank will release the fund. Upon released, u will refund him.

Well... this tactics tooo general, no need further explanation

[quote=C_ST,Apr 20 2022, 11:55 AM]
Yes, reversed scam the seller.
Give him a photoshop Transaction Slip, tell him ur payment is stucked at bank and need him to make a payment of USDxx only the bank will release the fund. Upon released, u will refund him.

Well... this tactics tooo general, no need further explanation

[/quote

I'm not good at editing photos. I already made a mistake by sharing with the scanmer a photo of my ic (although i put some words on the photo). I'm thinking of lodging a police report along with the scammer counterparts contact no claimed to be business no of iprop. Just want to protect myself against wrong use of the ic without my knowledge in the future.

Definitely report for sure, putting words on IC means nothing if photo and NRIC number is clear enough

This post has been edited by DragonReine: Apr 21 2022, 12:19 PM