“Is this the era of finding a rental room through a second-hand trading platform?”
Mr. Park, in his 50s, complained that his daughter, a college student, was trying to find a rental house through the used trading platform ‘Carrot Market’. Park said, “I don’t know what to do if I get a charter scam. Is this the generation gap?”
If you are a used transaction app (application) user, you will have seen the ‘direct real estate transaction’ category at least once. In the early days, we used to directly trade small amounts of properties such as studio apartments and gosiwons through online sites such as Naver Cafe’s ‘Getting a Good Room for Peter Pan’, but recently, direct real estate transactions are also prevalent in second-hand trading apps. In particular, single-person households in their 20s and 30s have little qualms about direct real estate transactions.
According to the actual transaction price disclosure system of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, there were 1385 direct transactions in Seoul apartment transactions (excluding cancellation transactions) in the first half of this year, an increase of about 300 compared to the first half of last year (1090).
It is said that the direct real estate transaction of Carrot Market, a representative used transaction app, began in November 2015. At that time, as the demand for real estate transactions increased, real estate services were operated through the ‘near me’ category, and then, in March 2021, the service name was changed to ‘direct real estate transactions’ according to the characteristics of direct transactions between individuals. The barrier to entry for direct transactions has been lowered to the extent that dozens of listings are posted on the Carrot Market every day.
The biggest advantage of direct real estate transaction is ‘cost reduction’. You can save a lot of brokerage fees ranging from millions to tens of thousands of won. According to Carrot Market’s “direct transaction in real estate,” you can save 594,000 won (0.3%) in brokerage fees in the case of a detached house with a charter price of 180 million won, and in the case of a townhouse or multi-family house with a charter price of 450 million won, you can save 1.485 million won. (0.3%) brokerage fee can be saved. According to the Licensed Realtors Act, the more expensive the house, the more brokerage commission rates are saved. For example, if you trade a 1.5 billion won apartment directly, you can save up to 10.5 million won (0.7%) in brokerage fees.
Fast transaction is also an advantage as it does not go through a middleman. At the top of the carrot market, it also shows the status of fast transactions such as ‘ transaction completed in 3 days’ and ‘transaction completed in 5 days’. In the position of putting up a house, you can reduce the number of cases where you put your house on real estate and are nervous, or you can’t show the house because the time is not right. As a buyer, you can ask the residents who have lived there directly. In the listing introduction section, details such as the direction of the house, maintenance costs, exclusive area, etc. are described in detail along with the description of the surrounding location.
It is said that it is also useful when looking for a sale in a nearby area because it is operated based on ‘local trade’ and a community within the area is formed. In particular, college students who need to find a house near their school often use school online communities. I often do business with people from the same school, so I prefer direct business.
The lack of trust in certified brokers also contributed to the increase in direct transaction demand. Recently, in the process of real estate accidents such as charter fraud and canned charter, it has been pointed out that real estate agents have joined forces with scammers to increase the damage. The Ministry of Land먹튀검증, Infrastructure and Transport conducted a special inspection of 4090 real estate agents nationwide from May 22 to the end of last month, and 19% (785) of them detected 824 illegal acts.
However, like Mr. Park’s concern earlier, various cases of damage are increasing. Above all, since the main demand for used trading platforms is the 20s and 30s, they are aiming for the fact that they do not have much experience in real estate trading. Damages such as jeonse guarantee fraud, tin can charter, false sales, and stabbing are typical. Direct deals are often offered by individuals residing in real homes, but there are as many fake listings as it is easy to sell online. Even if you find a house you like, it is typical if it was sold a while ago or suddenly offers a different condition. However, even if a complaint is reported, it is difficult to respond immediately. In the case of online communities run by individuals, the risk is greater because it is impossible to identify the people who put up the sale.
Mr. A, in his 30s, who was unsuccessful several times trying to make a direct real estate transaction, said, “It is common for cases where you do not receive a call even if you call the number written on it.” He said, ‘I’m sorry,’ and it was absurd.”
The case of the landlord who puts things out is also frustrating. Mr. B, who put his house on the real estate direct transaction platform earlier this year, said, “I received more than 10 inquiries in one week, and among them, I showed the house to the tenant who had the right move date.” I found a house,’ and went into hiding.”
Since the identity of the landlord is unclear, there is great concern about the return of the deposit if the correct verification process is omitted. Examples include cases of abuse of the method of not returning the deposit with a contract with biased special terms when making a contract over the phone or on the app.
Aside from these harms, it also has the disadvantage of being cumbersome. Real estate transactions must be reported to the district office within 30 days. If you traded through a real estate agent, the brokers will take care of it for you, but if you traded directly, you must visit the ward office and report it. In case of non-reporting or late reporting, fines will be imposed.
Experts advise that you should proceed after reviewing the details of the contract and compliance with the points to be noted before signing a direct transaction.
An official from Carrot Market said, “For safe real estate transactions, we operate post review, real-time monitoring, and user reporting systems. The identity of the landlord can be confirmed through the ‘Landlord Authentication’ function in the app to see if it matches the registered owner.” “Criminal attempts such as real estate fraud are immediately subject to strong sanctions, such as restriction of service use, non-exposure of postings, and permanent withdrawal,” he explained.
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