MALAYSIAN ESTATE AGENCY STANDARDS
STANDARD 6
ADVERTISEMENT/MARKETING
6.1.0 INTRODUCTION
6.1.1 Advertising the property for sale, purchase, letting or renting is an important aspect of the work of an estate agency firm and this aspect of the work requires essentially that the advertising is done tastefully, professionally, with no misrepresentation and must not mislead the public as to the facts of the property.
6.1.2 Estate agents should recognize that the profession needs to maintain its goodwill with the public and it is imperative not to do harm to the profession by advertising in an unbecoming manner or without good taste.
6.2.0 STATEMENTS OF STANDARD
6.2.1 Estate agents must ensure that advertisements and public statements shall not bring the profession into direpute and that they are responsible, accurate and not sensational in content.
6.2.2 An advertisement shall comply with the following conditions:-
6.2.2.1 It shall contain the firm's name, telephone numbers and E-number;
6.2.2.2 It shall contain no comparative or superlative description of the practice;
6.2.2.3 The advertiser makes no claim to be an expert in any specialized field;
6.2.2.4 The published information must be factual.
6.2.3 The firm is permitted to insert any announcements or felicitations in the mass media, electronic or digital media.
6.2.4 The estate agent shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that advertisements placed by him are accurate, factual and not misleading.
6.2.5 The estate agent shall only replace or remove another estate agency firm's signboard from any property provided always he has the written consent of the client and has duly communicated this information to the other estate agency firm via a letter.
6.2.6 All advertisements made by the firm in promoting the sale, purchase, letting, leasing or renting of the property should be accurate factual and not misleading.
6.2.7 The advertisement should be tastefully done.
6.2.8 The advertisement should not be written in glowing terms, which overstate the virtues of the property.
6.2.9 Advertisements should be placed in proper places as allowed by the relevant authorities.
6.2.10 Flyers are permitted under the following conditions:-
- 6.2.10.1 The contents in the flyer shall specify the types of property for sale/rental/lease or wanted.
- 6.2.10.2 The flyer shall be produced in a firm's letterhead which bears the name registration number, the telephone number, address of the firm and shall carry the signature of the estate agent.
- 6.2.10.3 Every flyer must carry the following statement:-
"Person responding to this flyer are not required to pay any estate agency fee whatsoever for properties referred to in this flyer as this firm is already retained by a particular principal."
6.2.11 A firm teaming up with foreign developers, estate agents or owners to sell foreign properties must ensure that they comply with Standards 6.2.12 and 6.2.13.
6.2.12 The local firm must obtain written permission from the Board before the sale or marketing of the foreign property.
6.2.13 The minimum fee chargeable is 1% of the Sale Price.
6.2.14 The local firm must have adequate knowledge of the property and the foreign country's framework of the real estate law and practice before it accepts the assignment.
6.2.15 The local firm must be accorded due prominence in all advertisements and shall play a major role by actively participating in the transaction.
6.2.16 The approval number given by the Board shall be prominently displayed in all advertisements.
6.3.0 EXPLANATIONS TO THE STANDARD
6.3.1 Factual advertisements can have modern marketing concepts.
6.3.2 Should not overstate/oversell the property means basically that the firm should, with the use of as few words as possible paint a word picture of the advantages to be gained by owning a particular property.
6.3.3 Immediately means as soon as is reasonably practicable in the circumstances.
6.3.4 A cardinal principle is the need for care and accuracy on the firm's part, in what it says and what it writes, not only to be true but not to be misleading by being incomplete or biased on the particular subject and if it is in doubt to leave it out.
6.3.5 The firm should consider it worthwhile, as a precaution, sending the draft particulars to the clients and asking them to advise them urgently if they have reason to believe that any statement is inaccurate or misleading.
Ref:
Verbatim from Standard 6, MEAS 2014.