Agents' Comments

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If mourad is so full of dosh, why do you think it should be a free lunch to have your applications processed by reputable agent. M$10,000 is a small sum to pay for the amount of paperwork that needs to be checked, written statements from agents who have to act as sponsors, visa fees, trips to KL, and if the sponsored individual later turns out to be a criminal, charges and transport to deport the criminal.For the amount of savings in car tax of 30%, lower costs of living, how can one possibly ask for more, for free.It is advisable to do the right thing, having the right visas so as not to be blacklisted by immigration authorities. 

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hi, origen,

1). Your earlier post was deleted for TOUTING.

2). You complain about a free lunch for mm2h applications but you've no qualms about a free ad on this site. In fact no-one is posting about a free lunch.

3). With the return of DIY it's an open market place. If agents wish to charge the maximum of RM10,000 per application then it's up to them, and if potential applicants choose to pay it, it's up to them.

Luckily there's plenty of alternatives. There are several "value-for-money" agents who will do the whole application for around RM2,000.  And there's Do-It-Yourself which takes just a bit more the time & effort (about 1 day).

A potential applicant gets nothing "extra" from paying RM10,000. From your post you seem to think that folks should be grateful to pay the maximum as they will get car-tax savings, cheaper cost of living, and that they shouldn't comment on it. Hummmmm? I don't think so.

BTW, why do agents keep telling potential applicants that's it's all too difficult without an agent. Most my2homers that I know have degrees, PHD's, and many are professionals. And the regulations and procedures are on the MoTour site, and they're pretty clear and straightforward. There's no need for agents to be "economical with the truth".

I'd like to see agents have more of a regulated approach. Things like depositing RM300,000 with MoTour as a clients' protection scheme, and having served a minimum number of years in the tourism (or related) business, and having previous experience in running a business.

And then they could take a test on their knowledge of mm2h. I know all of this is a bit hard at the moment given that any Tom, Dick and Harry can be an agent but it's a good target for the future. What do you think?

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We were quoted 10,000RM, but did it ourselves, I think the total cost came to less than 100 Euros, and that was because Putrajaya had lost a form so we had to resend it priority mail.  There was no problem, just keep a copy of everything and send by registered post.
Regards Rob

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Some people will find it's worth 10,000 MYR. Others won't.
I personally would balk at 10,000 MYR.

When I was working in Malaysia a few years ago I had some local employees. One had a masters from Cambridge(the real one) and he earned less than 3,000 MYR per month. So I would have a hard time justifying 10,000 MYR or looking my former colleagues in the face if they heard I paid gweilo price. I couldn't show my face in public ever again.

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10.000 RM is IMHO very high. There are very good agents around who do it for less then 20% of that amount (Joy-Stay, Poly travel).

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If mourad is so full of dosh, why do you think it should be a free lunch to have your applications processed by reputable agent. M$10,000 is a small sum to pay for the amount of paperwork that needs to be checked, written statements from agents who have to act as sponsors, visa fees, trips to KL, and if the sponsored individual later turns out to be a criminal, charges and transport to deport the criminal.For the amount of savings in car tax of 30%, lower costs of living, how can one possibly ask for more, for free.It is advisable to do the right thing, having the right visas so as not to be blacklisted by immigration authorities.

I'm afraid that any reputable agent would only be charging a small portion of the RM10K fee you mention. The DIY option seems fairly easy to do and there isn't any tax free car option added by an agent also the 30% saving is a misrepresentation of the facts. The saving is much less unless you want to keep the car for 10 years. A couple of years ago the main reason for using an agent was because they were bonded, as far as I know that is not now required.

When I did my application my agent added very little, all the hard work was done by myself. These days it's much easier because the MM2H centre is better organised.

There is a really good agent that does a semi DIY service for around RM2k I think. Please avoid the big charging agents as they would have little experience.

Bob

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Always good to see that greed is truly international

Here is a little story embedded in many western cultures and until some in Asia understand it they will never profit long term from the western foreigner

The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg

An Aesop Fable
 
 
       A man and his wife owned a very special goose. Every day the goose would lay a golden egg, which made the couple very rich.

      "Just think," said the man's wife, "If we could have all the golden eggs that are inside the goose, we could be richer much faster."

      "You're right," said her husband, "We wouldn't have to wait for the goose to lay her egg every day."

      So, the couple killed the goose and cut her open, only to find that she was just like every other goose. She had no golden eggs inside of her at all, and they had no more golden eggs.
 

Cheers

JJ

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hi,

I think that many agents would prefer to sit and wait for the golden goose rather than work to process the applications of many little chicks.

Given that the value-for-money agents can make a profit from full-service fees of about RM3,200 per couple, and run a KL office, and pay for google ads, and have local/overseas promotions & representation, then seems to me it establishes the market, and a market value for the service.

I think that it's MoTour's mistake in setting a very high upper limit. Anyway a few years ago the then Minister of Tourism (the guy with the bow ties) expressed how upset he was at some mm2h participants having to pay RM50,000 and more in fees. Unfortunately I don't remember that he did anything about it. Maybe that was why he was sacked. But then subsequent Ministers also don't seem to have done much as there's been no published news of agents struck-off the approved list, or warnings issued, or disciplinary action taken.

The expat guy at the ExpatGroup says that the RM10,000 is needed for all the overseas promotions , especially to the UK. Given the lacklustre figures on applications then the promotions, if any, didn't work. So dropping the upper limit on agents' fees to RM4,000 and relying on word-of-mouth wouldn't make much difference, would it? Although it could be the marginal encouragement for more folks to apply.

I wonder what happened to the government's RM32M, or thereabouts, that was reported in the media as being allocated to a Property Association for promoting Malaysian property overseas. Couldn't these folks use some of the RM32M to add-in a few plugs for mm2h?