Many people are discouraged from buying or selling an apartment or house via a real estate agency. They are afraid that the agent will take a high commission for their services and thus the property will get sold for less than they could get otherwise.
Is it really like that? How should we recognise a good real estate agent, what should they do for us? What commissions do real estate agencies truly charge, and how can I spot a fake agent?
Answers to these questions are given in the podcast on the Nehnutelnosti.sk portal by Filip Žoldák, partner of the Herrys real estate agency.
How to choose a real estate agency?
A real estate agency will sell your property faster and for more money. This is what Filip Žoldák claims; he also advises how to contact a real estate agency. “If you have not as yet worked with any real estate agency, you can contact the real estate agency directly, and they will recommend you a real estate agent based on your preferences or the property you are selling or the location where you are selling your apartment or house.
And if you have a reference to a real estate agent from an acquaintance of yours, then you should of course contact that real estate agent. The business works by word of mouth. If you have a good reference, use it.” If we don’t have any references, it’s a good idea to call a specific real estate agency and find out what they are willing to do for us to sell our property.
What to look out for when meeting a real estate agent for the first time
According to Žoldák, when buying real estate, the first sign of a good agent is that they arrive at the appointment on time. “The agent must be ready, have all the information about the property and the locality. They can inform you about the financing alternatives for the purchase, the procedure, so that the buyer has some idea about what lies ahead and how long the process will take.
They also will ask about the method of financing and possibilities of financing available to the buyers for the property they have chosen.” When selling an apartment or house, they must have a list of documentation they will need from us.
“To have all the essentials ready when preparing a presentation for buyers. The agent must be able to recommend a financial broker and, of course, a legal service, in order that everything proceeds according to the correct legal conditions. And they must also be able to explain the procedure and how long it will take and what situations may arise in the case of a positive response, but also a negative response from the market.”
You should be concerned if the agent does not answer your calls for a long time or gives you untrue information about their activities. You should be wary if they say they will do something but in the end act quite differently. According to Žoldák, the guide to finding a good real estate agent is cooperation with certified agents and real estate agencies. A contract should be the basis for any cooperation.
The average time to sell real estate is getting longer
The economic situation also affects how long it takes to sell a property. Filip Žoldák lays out the latest statistics. “While a year ago it took about 39 days to sell a property on the Bratislava real estate market, today it is about 64 days.
This period is still lengthening. It is the outcome of the circumstances we have already mentioned. That period ranges between a month or two.” Paradoxically, a good real estate agent need not have many adverts for real estate properties. Quite the opposite.
“We see it as being that the more real estate the broker or agent has, the less able they are to provide quality service in respect of all properties. This means that there is a critical number of properties above which the agent cannot realistically have 100% knowledge – about every property, about every client and about the procedure taking place with a given property. It’s about tracking response, demand, giving feedback to clients. There is a certain limit at which a real estate agent should say: OK, I’ve got enough, I have to sell what I have now,” explains Žoldák.
More about:
• what an exclusive contract with a real estate agency means
• what a real estate agent should provide in selling real estate
• what a real estate agent should provide in buying real estate
• the range of commissions for real estate agencies
• what if I no longer want to sell my home
• what kind of real estate agent you should be careful about
is given in the interview by the editor Zuzana Majerčíková and the partner of Herrys real estate agency, Filip Žoldák, in the podcast on the Nehnutelnosti.sk portal.