Abraj Lulu Today I resigned from my position as a sales associate in the real estate company that I worked for.  Khallas, I had enough of it and  really can’t run around like a mad person doing it anylonger. The market is down big time and but I must say this is not the only reason why I left since the company I worked for has a steady stream of clients wanting to rent apartments, offices and villas.

I just had enough. It has been both a great and dreadful year. I met many funny, interesting, sweet and kind people but also many seriously creepy people that wasted plenty of my time and unfortunately I have been blessed with too much patience.

The real estate market in Bahrain is in no way regulated so it is jungle to say the least. I think everyone can agree that anyone and everyone here is as an agent. From the watchman, to grandpa Abdullah, to the stray cat , to the ice cream man.  A client often has many agents and things can get kind of messy in the end of who should have the commission since the same property can be shown by many agents.

There are not such word as ethics, standards or morals in the real estate market here. Agents steal each others clients, companies refuse to pay commission and even fire agents once they realise they have made a lot of sales  for the company (court case - shame on you ), people steal information from each other (clients and property data) and so on. In the middle of all this you got clients noticing the chaos in the market and desperately trying to play agents against each other by bargaining on commission rates (screw you - do you think we are the Red Cross?).  Many people seems to think agents are charity workers that owes them their lives (even if they pay jack-all). Not to mention the owners of property that ask you to sell their property and once you are about to close the deal for them they suddenly increase the price :) . That really makes us looks like asses when we tell the clients. Well suckers, you are stuck with your property now :) . Can you feel the sweat as you are paying it off not being able to get rid of it as you planned muaahahaha!

There are a few companies that have set standards for how their agents can act and they also back up their agents in times of need. I welcome and applaud this. The market needs some hard ass rules and some serious people backing up agents and kicking their asses if they act irresponsibly.

I have a great interest in the real estate market here but since being a sales associate doesn’t really lead anywhere here and all of the above mentioned, I say yalla byeeeeeeee! Gimme a shout people if you hear of any interesting vacancies ;) !

Oh, and Happy New Year!
Have a wicked 2009!