jeanne wum has posted several quite well-written ads on smartshanghai.com for apartments that look really nice and are fairly priced. she says she is the owner of these places. but i've heard that a lot of 'agents' in shanghai are really just scam artists. her places look great, though! has anybody ever heard of her? rented from her? know if she is really just an individual with several properties who makes her living this way, or if she is working for one of those rental 'companies', like mona lisa properties?
thanks so much!

....I have never heard of her...... but does it matter if she's the owner of just an agent, I thought the important thing is that you like the place and are happy with the deal. Anyway, you will soon find out whether she's an agent or the owner when you're sign the contract with them. The contract in SH is signed between the tenant and the owner, the agent do not have this power.
Good Luck!

actually, yes they do if they are given a "power of attorney". My apartment got rented out alst month and I wasn't even there to sign the deal with Porsche.

wow.... I stand corrected. My agent told me that they cannot sign....may be no one trust them enough to hand over their power of attorney.... which is understandable here in China I wonder what sort of qualification you must get before becoming an agent here in China And what you need to open a realestate business? May be I am asking too much

qulifications to be an agent? living breathing (no disqualification for bad breath unfortunately)
Broker has to put some sort of bond in place i think or minimum working cap requirement, but really, probably notmuch more so far as I can tell... :S Have had some really bad ones as well as a few good ones in my few years of renting managing and buying places for our family's properties...

i think it is the same as every other businesses as long as you havemoney to open shop you are in.

we are not in western countries like when i was in the states people had to have a license to open real estate agencies.

look at all those real estate shops around do you really think they are all qualified to do it? do they have diplomas? all the other businesses the same they just put money and open the shop one day they do reaol estate the next dy they can sell clothes who cares here.

it is a money business..................... sorry bto say that but chinese people are not really comuniste anymore they start to be capitalists they want to have money this is not much of a comunist moto is it???????????

anyway i may be wrong let see what other people say

I also thought that there are no legislative/licensing requirement to start most business here in China but when I heard Yu888 said that he sign over "power of attorney", I assumed (never assume...I know) that it was to a realestate agent which lead to the ealier questions.
So Yu888, you must really trust your agent or may be it was your relative....or was it little Yu who sign the contract on your behalf?

i have signed over limited power of attorney over to an agent before as well as to a relative to manage all the affairs of the rental. Both work fine.