How to choose the best real estate agent in Warsaw? What is the best service formula? As in any field – a short consultation in relation to an ongoing comprehensive service makes a significant difference.
ATMOSPHERE AND TRUST
In Poland, an increasing number of clients have been using the services of the same real estate office and agents for years. Just like in the profession of a lawyer, doctor, banker – both reliable communication and openness for knowledge is the basis for successful mutual cooperation and trust. For example, although the market of OTC drugs is booming, many people are moving away from the self-medication system, consulting each pharmaceutical product with a trusted doctor. The same is happening on the real estate market – for years we have seen in the profession and according to data obtained from portals, an increase in the number of sales and rental activities entrusted to real estate agents
AGENT’S LICENSE – according to the law, it is not obligatory. However, it’s better not to risk it and check whether someone has it in the office.
There are already over 20,000 allocated licenses on the real estate market in Poland. Some of them were certificates based on state exams, 6-month internships, trainings and/or postgraduate studies. In addition, there were obligatory trainings – min. 20 points per year to keep the license valid for the next years. For one office there had to be min. 1 license.
For many years after deregulation, we have had a situation where an office can be set up by anyone who wants to run a business. Unfortunately, some people do not have substantive knowledge or the ability to navigate in the environment and the basic principles of cooperation between agents for the represented parties. Mechanisms operating over 17 years ago for offices and indirectly property owners are sometimes omitted by new offices as elements that reduce their effectiveness and indirectly profitability.
RIGHT
Every real estate seller expects the Agents to quickly introduce the offer to the portals and bring the client in the first phase. Unfortunately, this is only the beginning of the road. It’s all in the details – starting with what exactly is being sold, and finally how to construct a secure deed. If the agent, coming to the first meeting or signing the contract, does not review the source data and does not provide the information required for quick completion before publication on portals, the entire transaction may fall apart when submitting documents to the notary office or with the first questions from buyers. I omit the bizarre publication of offers on portals without having a brokerage agreement.
PRICE
You can sell apartments in the area and not know all the real transaction prices. You can know transaction prices, but not understand the essence of differences in buildings, defects in apartment layouts, real value of equipment or its depreciation. Especially many questions arise when selling premises, buildings, houses and plots. Destination can be much more interesting than is given in the basic offer on portals. Unfortunately, still few Clients and Agents entering the market without education in this profession do not understand the differences.
TAXes
Real estate agents do not have a tax advisor license. Unless they have completed an appropriate education confirmed by the ministry. Therefore, it is a good practice for the office to cooperate with advisers and recommend them to its clients, and the client is informed when accepting the offer and before publication that he must include this element in the price. There are many interpretations and data that go beyond the sales figures for this particular reported property. You can become a VAT payer by inattention. If at the meeting someone talks about taxes, and not just simply asks about the time of purchase of real estate, ownership changes or activities carried out around the real estate and does not indicate an advisor in this regard – it is a signal that he is focusing on putting up an offer for sale without worrying about tax consequences for sellers.
PLOT BORDERS AND DISCLOSURE OF BUILDINGS IN CATASTER REGISTERS
Years go by and the owners are convinced that nothing is lost in nature and the data is unchanged. Unfortunately, before the sale, it is worth inviting a surveyor when preparing an offer. Many years ago, when excerpts and extracts from the land register were not required, some people bought plots or houses without, for example, access from the plot to a public road or by placing a building incorrectly partly on someone else’s plot. Unfortunately, there are many such cases.
LOCAL LAND DEVELOPMENT PLANS
Not everything that is written in the local plan is easy to implement. The plots have different designations. The stage of obtaining a building permit for a house may be preceded by exclusion from, for example, forest production or obtaining the consent of the co-owners of road plots regarding the routing of media. If we are planning a purchase, it is worth using the knowledge of architects and understanding a number of activities necessary to analyze the plot before purchase, and affecting the time and overall implementation of investment plans.
COUNTING ON EARNINGS FROM SALES – COUNT REAL COSTS
A good agent recommends checking the detailed tax and local fees. The adiacena fee and the planning pension, although they have existed for years, still arouse surprise.
NOTARY
Real estate transactions in Poland require a notarial form. As a rule, the method of financing, waiting for a set of documents or ordinary human haste affect attempts to conclude preliminary civil law contracts without the help of a notary public. This solution has its advantages and many disadvantages. Not understanding the law can be very disappointing.
EXCLUSIVE OR NORMAL AGREEMENT OPEN.
If we decide that the scale of reaching the clients with the offer and the recommendation from the Agents working actively for the benefit of the seekers are not of interest to the Owner, then, of course, you can limit yourself to the narrow path of cheap portals according to the concluded ordinary contract. Unfortunately, the truth is that the purchase of real estate is subject to high risk and over 80% of Buyers work with at least one Agent during the purchase. Such a buyer does not disclose his details to the anonymous owner Mr. “Mareczek”, how much money he has to buy, how he wants to carry out the investment. Data at the beginning less useful – extremely important in negotiations. An open contract is a non-binding contract. The agency may place the data in its database, but if it is recorded as such, it does not have to be on portals or cooperate with other agencies. The exclusive contract should be included in the MLS system, where there are currently over 3,500 agents from Poland. If an agent offers you cooperation, make sure that the offer will go to this system. Without such a guarantee, it will become a “box” contract, and the number of repeated advertisements of the same offer in different versions will weaken sales and buyers’ interest.
VISIT THE OFFICE
The office of a real estate agency is, like a law firm, the heart of activities for clients. It should be a showcase and build trust. It is where agents operate, your properties are offered on the windows, contracts are stored in safes. If someone runs an office from home, deals with several businesses at once or casually – do not expect quality and do not compare rates. They will probably be low, and the office may cease to exist just as quickly. Marking on google maps does not correspond in 40% with the real network of offices.
REGISTRATION OF CUSTOMERS INTERESTED IN PURCHASING
Anyone who sells real estate shows his flats, houses, etc., and then provides his data to verify the legal status of the real estate, should understand that the customer’s registration in accordance with the GDPR is a seal of data flow in the interest of the seller. Since receiving a registered letter requires identity verification, just letting people from the street into the house is simply dangerous for the owner and the entire community.
REAL ESTATE RELEASE
Before signing a sale or lease agreement, a good agent prepares photographic and descriptive documentation. In this way, misunderstandings or, simply, unforeseen financial losses due to lack of equipment can be avoided with the acceptance report.
OCLICITY POLICY AND INVOICE FOR THE BRANDING SERVICE (23% VAT).
Agents are required to attach a copy of the policy to each brokerage agreement and enter its number in the brokerage agreement. Each real estate brokerage service ends with issuing a VAT invoice with the rate of 23%. It is assumed that, similarly to a notary’s office, 50% of the remuneration is paid for the preliminary contract and another 50% of the remuneration for the final contract of ownership transfer.
AGENTS OPERATION MODELS
There are no single model guidelines in the market. The Polish Real Estate Federation and Associations recommend using the full service of the sales process on the basis of an agreement with an exclusivity clause. In ordinary contracts, the agent has no economic basis for concentrating forces and means to sell such real estate, he has no common goal – he is stuck in competition with the owner for the pace and not the quality of the sale price, nor because of the time of accepting subsequent agents by the owner, he does not transfer meeting all the knowledge at the stage of preparing documents for issuing the offer and indirectly for the transaction. Since the client knows himself and needs agents only to extend his reach through portals, he is not open to knowledge and a full comprehensive service, having enough time for each agent to sign the contract and do a photo session, such a client receives a non-exclusive package. In our environment, it is called ordinary.
REPRESENTING TWO PARTIES TO THE TRANSACTION
Agreements contain a provision according to the choice of the parties, whether they agree to represent two parties to the transaction or only one. In some cases, the Owner’s consent contains a record of the amount of remuneration from the Buyer that may be collected by the agent with whom the Owner has a contract. In the absence of compliance, the agency must fulfill the obligation thus assumed.
