Can I trust property maakelar to find a rent house in Ams?

[vidak]

Excuses for English - hope you can help still

Mijn vraag

Basically should I trust them they will do what they say - will help me find an apartment for rent in Amsterdam within my budget? They want one month rent as fee which is ok but the guy is telling me he can find me flats in around 1500/1600 within 2/3 weeks - but what if I have to overbid or they still ask for more than asking price .. ? Should the fee be the asking price or the overbid price.

Relevante info

I have a permanent contract and a good salary in software and want to move from Rotterdam to Amsterdam for work. I tried to find a flat on my own but no luck.
This maakelar is someone a friend of a friend connected me with and I am really pressed for time as I need to find a flat within August - so this guy says he will help because he has access to houses that are not on the market.

I'm thinking it is not in his interest to lie to me because he's doing work for free untill i find something but is there a catch? Does he have me and 20 other people and then have us overbid over one another?

I want to avoid the scenario that I lose 2-3 weeks with him and still end up without a flat because he said he'd find something in this price range but that was not possible or that I have to offer more.

I asked about overbidding and he said - don't worry we'll find the best deal for you but I'm nor sure if I believe that.

Any experiences or feedback or something I'm not seeing or not keeping in mind? Does anyone know how these maakelars work? Is this legit?

Appreciate for taking the time to read this

[JukeboxBill]

You can search Funda by yourself:
https://www.funda.nl/en/z...m%22%5D&price=%22-1500%22
It is important that a 'makelaar' is a certified member of NVM or another industry association.

At the bottom of the page there is a link to rental agents in Amsterdam.

[ Voor 14% gewijzigd door JukeboxBill op 28-07-2023 23:51 ]

[vidak]

I've tried Funda and Pararius and all the websites + Rent Slam which basically scrapes all the websites and send you email as soon as something pops up on any of the websites but everyone is so fast the viewings get full in 2 minutes. The few viewings I got and offered more than asking price I still did not get because someone offered more

[Dick]

We don’t know the broker that you are in contact with, so no one here can say anything about this specific person. However, I must say that finding an appartement for this budget within two or three weeks sounds almost too good to be true. But on the other side, what do you have to lose if this is ‘no cure, no pay’?

In addition to engaging the broker, you can always keep searching by yourself as well. Also try websites of real estate investment funds or brokers they work with, for example: Vesteda, VB&T or Van der Linden. These funds often have comfortable homes, good rental conditions and fixed prices. When replying to apartments via these parties, it is important to upload all required documents to their portals as soon as possible, as they make a preselection based on the uploaded documents. If you have a good profile (also financially) and have all documents available, things can go quick. A friend of mine found a new apartment via VB&T last February within 2 weeks and moved in a week later.

Newly developed apartments also become available every now and then, for example, this will be available later this year and they just started offering the appartments: https://wonen.cruquius.nl/project/cruquius-23-berkhout/

[Homeland]

New apartments are a lottery though, with many times more applicants than apartments.

The rental market is very difficult, overbidding for monthly rent is insane though... Why not search for cities with good connections to Amsterdam? Even from Rotterdam its very possible to commute.

[naitsoezn]

Als je hem z'n ding laat doen, kun je tegelijk ook zelf gewoon verder kijken toch? Niets gewonnen, niets verloren, totdat ie je een huis aan kan bieden.

Of de huur uiteindelijk 'de juiste' huur is, dat zul je toch nooit weten. Ook niet als je zelf iets kan vinden. Via de huurcommissie kun je de huur laten checken.

[sypie]

Die jezelf een plezier en zoek vooral ook buiten Amsterdam. De prijs van 1500/1600 per maand is absurd. Met een beetje reizen kun je veel goedkoper wonen.

En de prijs die je betaalt voor de service van de makelaar? Ik heb er mijn vraagtekens bij.

[kx22]

Volgens mij mag de makelaar niet beide kanten in rekening brengen.
Het is de verhuurder die de moet betalen. Niet de huurder.

[Het_Eendje]

kx22 schreef op zaterdag 29 juli 2023 @ 09:09:
Volgens mij mag de makelaar niet beide kanten in rekening brengen.
Het is de verhuurder die de moet betalen. Niet de huurder.

Volgens mij is het precies wat je zegt: je mag niet van beide kanten geld vangen. Dus nu vangt de makelaar geld van degene die een huis zoekt, dus werkt die ook in zijn belang. En niet van degene die huizen verhuurt.


Verder over Amsterdam, ik denk dat 1500/1600 kale huur in Amsterdam prima mogelijk is, maar de locatie is even opletten. Is Zuidoost of Nieuw-West dat ook waard? En wat is de grootte van het appartement?

[Sport_Life]

Skip that makelaar (broker), tip from my side: have a look on Funda on daily basis (check at 8am) and if you see an apartment in good area for good price (competitive) then call directly and make an appointment to visit it. You don't have to pay any fee in that case. In the Netherlands a makelaar is not allowed to receive a fee from both parties. Although my experience is that some will try.. (in that case, pay it, get the key and afterwards you can get your money back via legal procedure - worked for me).

Also you don't have to hurry, some people travel between Rotterdam and Amsterdam for years (even by train), if you are able to work hybride then I would suggest to take a longer time to find your appartement.

[ Voor 39% gewijzigd door Sport_Life op 29-07-2023 09:56 ]

[Immutable]

vidak schreef op vrijdag 28 juli 2023 @ 23:53:
I've tried Funda and Pararius and all the websites + Rent Slam which basically scrapes all the websites and send you email as soon as something pops up on any of the websites but everyone is so fast the viewings get full in 2 minutes. The few viewings I got and offered more than asking price I still did not get because someone offered more

So how does your makelaar earns money. Do you give him a fixed fee for finding something for you? Or does he do it for free, and asks a certain percentage on the rent?

[Cybje]

I can recommend checking out MVGM. Most of the apartments they rent out are managed by them, so it's not a broker/makelaar, but you rent with them directly. Often they have apartments available in 1-2 months. See https://ikwilhuren.nu/huurwoningen

Note that my experience with MVGM is a bit so-so. The whole sign up process was going fine, but they're sometimes a bit difficult if you need help with your apartment. For example, when I had issues with something in my kitchen, they called Atag for service, but all the appliances were from Siemens. So the Atag guy couldn't help me. Same happened when I had issues with my heating, they called someone to service my central heating boiler, but I didn't have a boiler, because it was 'stadsverwarming'. But in the end it gets fixed usually, it just costs unnecessary energy from both MVGM and my side.

Also, it helps to not only search in Amsterdam, but also for example Diemen and Zaandam. With public transport you can reach the Amsterdam city center in about 15 minutes from those two cities.

[Hessel89]

Why not ask him directly what's the catch for him?

Most realtors ask 1 month of rent as their fee, so if your rent is €1600 they will ask exactly that.

There are a lot of private landlords out there they may not post on Funda. If he find a deal for you by using his network it might be worth it.

As long as he's completely open about his revenue model I see no reason not to trust him.

[Cbr]

kx22 schreef op zaterdag 29 juli 2023 @ 09:09:
Volgens mij mag de makelaar niet beide kanten in rekening brengen.
Het is de verhuurder die de moet betalen. Niet de huurder.

Behalve als de makelaar alleen diensten verleend aan de huurder (dus niet de verhuurder al als klant had). Dan geldt hier een uitzondering op.

[vidak]

thanks all for the replies
yes - he's not charging anything until he finds me something, then i think the fee is one month worth of rent.
so this seems ok - why would he waste time unless he is sure he will secure something for me.
on the other hand he says i'll be able to find something in the price range - but not sure what's goona happen when i'm actually interested in the flat - maybe he has another person and will try to have a bidding war with a few of us.

[Homeland]

Your messages make it seem like you don't trust him so why even go ahead with him?

[BlueWaffle]

It's not really okay considering that you'll likely be paying a deposit for the new place also.
Before you know it he brings you an option and you find out you have to pay 3-4 times the rent (once to him, another for the deposit, maybe a last month and the first month). You don't know what landlord you will end up with and you will likely have no time nor chance to look for second options. There are a lot of scummy landlords about, you have to be careful. In the worst case you can end up with an apartment you're not allowed to register as your main address, I've seen that happen as well.

I don't understand why it has to be Amsterdam in particular, look for towns close by, not only will they have a lower monthly fee, but you increase your chance on succeeding. I mean Hilversum is 10-15min by intercity to/from Amsterdam Central. You'll save rent and you can commute instead.

If something smells fishy then don't put all your faith in that person's hand. And AFAIK there's no bidding going on in Hilversum, Baarn or Bussem.

[ Voor 6% gewijzigd door BlueWaffle op 29-07-2023 18:12 ]

[Ivow85]

Everyone is too focused on Amsterdam imo.

Try surrounding towns that have a direct train connection towards an train station in Amsterdam that offers direct local public transport to your place of work. That way you'll probably make it yourself much easier to find housing, get more value for money without increasing your dialy travel time to work by much.
Taking 2 or 3 busses/trams within Amsterdam or a direct train form a surrounding town + one bus/tram will not make a big difference in time