Korean Job Discussion Forums

[VFRinterceptor]

I found this Realtor on craigslist about a property I was interested. When he was going over the price, he quoted his Realtor fee at a ridiculous price. I told him I thought it was way too high and that I would think about it. A few hours later he sends me text with his new Realtor fee, 1/2 of what he was charging me before. I told him that new price was acceptable, and that was the last I heard from him.

It's no secret that most Korean service based businesses have two price tiers, Korean and foreign, which I don't agree with.

Just be careful when dealing with this guy.

[Senior]

[dharma bum]

from what i know, gilbert deals pretty much exclusively with foreigners, helping them find apartments through local real estate agencies that do not cater to foreign clientele (i.e., speak english), so i doubt he has a two-tiered system in place. this is also probably why the fee he quoted you was higher: it included his fee as well as that of the advertising real estate agent. at least this is how it worked when i asked him to help me find an apartment in bundang a few years ago. i ended up moving somewhere else, but he was very helpful when i met him and was also honest enough to tell me that i didn't really need his services since i had a korean friend who could translate for me. how much was the fee he quoted you anyway?

[conbon78]

I used Gilbert and I thought his fee was fair (no, I don't remember what it was), but afterwards I talked to some Koreans and they said that is about what they are charged. Also, I didn't mind paying a little more considering he was English speaking and if I had to do it myself - things could have been very ugly.

[red_devil]

[Drew345]

I thought that the owner paid the commission in rental deals, not the renter. I could be wrong.

[dr. love]

Gilbert's cut is a little high, but not extreme. He has helped a lot of our guests who needed short term housing. If you're in a hurry and you don't speak Korean, he's been a good person to deal with.

[hostness]

[PatrickGHBusan]

VFRinterceptor,

Did you contact the Human rights commission? The UN human rights commission perhaps?

This is clearly racism and an abuse of your sacred human rights.

The industry of real estate is racist. No other possible explanation can be provided or considered.

It is completely impossible that there could be another reasonable explanation for the price...

Fight the good fight.

[PigeonFart]

He said nothing slanderous. He merely said "be careful when dealing with this guy."

[teretere]

[seoulsucker]

It's a shady biz...deal with it.

I had the guys who brokered my first lease try to charge me 300,000 won in "administration fees" for resigning for another year. After saying no, they dropped it to 150,000.

I contacted the landlord and told her what they tried to pull. She cut them out of the deal and I now deposit to and deal with her directly.

[pkang0202]

99.99999% of websites with housing are bait and switch operations.

They show you amazing apartments for low prices. And then when you inquire about then, all of them were mystseriously "just rented out yesterday".

[djsmnc]

[daemyann]

As a matter of fact, the one and same Gilbert helped me get the apartment I'm currently in.

The realtor fee was around 350,000, and he offered (and followed through with) decent follow-up assistance.
I continue to recommend him because of how well he dealt with me.

Having said that, he admitted to me openly that some of the 'amazing' apartments listed on the site are there purely as a means of obtaining interest, ie. bait.

It's not really a 'bait and switch' though, because you're aware of the fact that what you buy isn't what was on the site.

P.S.- the guy who mentioned that this could be considered slander is actually right.