Rental – Bypassing Estate Agent?

Hello all,

Recently I have been apartment hunting in Tokyo through an estate agent. To keep the story simple, the estate agent’s service has been really poor e.g. forcing me to say yes to an apartment even though they didn’t send us an “initial fees” document. After some back and forth and some light negotiation, she sends us a revised “initial fees” document(“mistakes” she made) then gives us about 2 hour deadline to respond with a confirmation or rejection.

We heard through another estate agent that it is possible to talk directly with the property management and to just cut the estate agent out because we haven’t signed any agreement with the estate agent.

Has anyone done this or know much about it? I am a little wary !

Thanks

2 comments
  1. I have a contact that has been very transparent with me. He speaks English and worked really fast. Within 2 weeks I got a good apartment near main station Yokohama with all of the initial pay+tax combined ¥100k. And he is super flexible and will find try to find your desired apartment. I was picky and he was completely professional throughout the process.

    Sorry if this does not answer your question. But I am just passing through info if you are having trouble with agencies.

    If you are interested I can share his FB through chat.

  2. I’ve never really heard about it for rentals. Even though it’s probably possible, I guess getting the contact information to the places and arrange viewings etc is a bit more work without an agent.

    But I would definitely go to another agent if they have poor service. There is literally no reason stick with the crappy ones.

    When I was looking I was talking with several agents simultaneously. The ones I didn’t like, I didn’t come back to, the ones I liked I continue to work with.

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