Nothing in Thai statute stops anyone calling themselves a property agent. A 2023 review of Thai brokerage law in a Thai academic journal found that the Civil and Commercial Code covers brokerage only in general terms, in Sections 845 to 849, and "does not contain specific provisions regarding real estate brokers". It identified no qualification standard, no licensing procedure and no supervisory body, and proposed legislation to create them. A search on 12 October 2026 found no later change, but it was one search, and a reader who knows otherwise should tell us.
So the choosing is yours. This article gives seven questions to put to any agency, each tied to something a reader can check: a section of the Code, or a public register. They apply to every agency on the island, this one included.
Disclosure. ZEN Real Property publishes this Journal and is itself a Phuket agency. We have not named or rated any other agency here, and we have no basis to. The only commercial party we quote is FazWaz, a portal rather than an agency, and only from its own page. The questions come first; where ZEN stands on them is a short section near the end, flagged as our own statement.
1. Which company is it, and is it on the register?
Ask for the legal name of the company, not the trading brand. Then look it up. The Department of Business Development runs DBD DataWarehouse+, which describes itself as a way to search juristic-person information and financial statements, and lists foreign-owned entities and shareholder records among its services. A company that does not appear, or that appears under a different name from the one on the contract, has just told you something. This is a two-minute check and the one most buyers skip.
What it does not tell you is whether anyone at the company is competent, and being registered is a low bar. Treat it as a way to rule people out, not in.
2. Who is the agency working for?
The Code is blunt about the case where the answer is "both". Under Section 847, a broker is not entitled to remuneration or to reimbursement of his expenses if, contrary to his engagement, he has acted also for the third party or has been promised by that party a remuneration inconsistent with acting in good faith.
In practice, ask a buyer's question and a seller's question. If you are buying: does the agency also hold the seller's instruction, and does it receive money from them? If you are selling: will the agency bring in a second agent from the buyer's side, and who pays that agent? The point is not that dual roles are wrong. It is that an agency which cannot tell you plainly whose side it is on has not thought about it.
3. What exactly triggers the commission, and how much is it?
Section 845 says a person who agrees to pay remuneration to a broker for indicating an opportunity to contract, or for procuring a contract, is liable to pay it "only if the contract is concluded in consequence of the indication or of the procurement by the broker." That is the default rule. Which is why the question to ask is what your contract says: payable on signing a reservation, on the sale agreement, or on transfer at the Land Office? Those are three different moments, and money paid at the first one is exposed if the third never arrives.
On the amount, Section 846 provides that where the remuneration is not fixed, "the usual remuneration is deemed to have been agreed upon". There is no statutory rate. So get a number, in writing, and the party who owes it.
Published rates show why. FazWaz's own Premium page on 12 October 2026 showed plan cards reading "Standard 3% commission" and "Premium 4% commission, or 5% if sold in first 30 days", while the same page's FAQ, when we read it on 28 September, put the standard rate at "3% in Bangkok, 5% elsewhere". The page redraws by region tab, and we did not establish on the later reading which figure the Phuket tab displays. That is the point: a headline rate can depend on which tab you are looking at, so what counts is the figure in the signed contract. We set out the arithmetic of a seller's commission on our own asking prices in the owner-direct comparison.
4. Is it exclusive, for how long, and how do I leave?
A seller should ask this before signing anything. FazWaz's Premium FAQ, as we recorded it on 28 September 2026, answers its own exclusivity question: "Yes, FazWaz Premium requires an exclusive listing agreement." The same page lists, as questions of its own, whether you must list exclusively and what happens "if I want to cancel my listing"; we read that list again on 12 October. Exclusivity is a legitimate bargain: one agency, more effort, in exchange for the sole right to sell. It is a bad bargain when it is open-ended or when there is no written exit.
Ask for the term in months, the notice needed to end it, and whether the commission is still owed on a buyer introduced during the term but who completes after it. Those three answers are the whole contract in miniature.
5. Who holds the money?
Here the Code helps the buyer without anyone asking it to. Section 849: "A broker is presumed to have no authority to receive on behalf of the parties payments or other performances due under the contract." A deposit paid to an agent therefore sits outside the default position of the law. The Section does not forbid it; it says only that the agent is not presumed to have that authority, so the law does not treat the money as safe while it sits there.
The practical rule is to pay a deposit to the seller or the developer under a written receipt, or into a regulated escrow, and never into a personal account. Where escrow exists and where it does not is covered in the off-plan deposit guide; the same logic applies to a resale.
6. What has the agency actually verified?
Ask what, if anything, the agency has checked: the title at the Land Office, the seller's identity and authority to sign, the encumbrances on the deed. Then ask whether it will say so in writing. Section 848 provides that a broker is not personally liable for performance of the contracts made through his mediation, unless he has failed to tell one party the other's name. The Code does not make the agent answerable for the deal being performed. If you want an agency to answer for a check, that has to be written into what it signs.
That makes the checks yours. We list every one, with its statute, in the checks to run before you sign, and the cost of the transfer itself in the transfer-tax study.
7. Whose listing is it?
The same villa often shows up on several sites under several names. FazWaz's seller page said on 28 September that a listing appears on eight sites automatically, and its Premium page speaks of 10+ portals. In our study of FazWaz, 16 of 4,120 Phuket villas on the site carried its own verification badge. So when you meet an agency through a portal, ask whether the property is theirs to sell or someone else's they are relaying. The answer decides who can actually negotiate, and who you are really talking to when the price needs to move.
The seven in one table
| Question | What backs it | The answer you want |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Which company? | DBD DataWarehouse+ | A registered name matching the contract |
| 2. Working for whom? | Civil and Commercial Code s.847 | A plain statement of whose agent it is |
| 3. What triggers the fee? | ss.845–846 | A written rate, payer and moment |
| 4. Exclusive? | The contract | A term in months and a written exit |
| 5. Who holds money? | s.849 | Deposit to the seller or escrow, with a receipt |
| 6. What was verified? | s.848; our due-diligence list | Named checks, in writing |
| 7. Whose listing? | The listing itself | The agency's own instruction, or a clear relay |
Where ZEN stands — our own statement
Everything in this section is ZEN's account of itself, the first three points can be checked by a reader, and the fourth rests on our word until it is in your contract.
- The company. Our site's footer names ZEN Real Property Co., Ltd., a Thai-registered agency with one office in Ko Kaeo, Mueang Phuket. Look it up on DBD before you call.
- The people. The about page names the desk and what each person does, and says enquiries are answered 09:00–21:00 Phuket time.
- The prices. On 12 October 2026 our catalogue held 2,576 priced and available listings, 1,845 to rent and 731 to buy, out of 2,590 rows, so 99.5% carry a published price. That is a number from our own database and a reader can check it against the pages.
- The commission. On our book the selling commission is contracted with the seller, not the buyer. This is our statement, and the check is to ask for it in writing for the property in question.
What we have not measured: how other agencies answer these seven, how quickly anyone responds, or the quality of anyone's service. We have no evidence on those, so we say nothing about them. If an agency, ours included, answers three of these seven with "it depends" and nothing in writing, that is the finding.
If you want to put the seven to us, contact the desk.