Who sells apartments in the center

Who sells apartments in the center

of Bucharest?

The “tribes” of sellers

Last week (Wednesday, 06.02.2008) I was talking to you about the “para-normal” situations I had to face with while trying to purchase apartments in the center of the city. But, let us “dig little deeper”… Who is selling today an apartment in the center of Bucharest? We should not forget that most of the transactions in the center have already been done and today the majority of owners there have no intention to move. Mainly there are two categories of people:·

• The foreigners who are searching for victims, asking for tremendous prices, as if they sell an apartment on Avenue Champs Elysees in Paris (yes, they have learned the lesson that many Romanians taught them too or they were tricked by someone else before or they are simply too greedy. But why is it OUR problem?).
• Romanians who need the money, or have something to hide concerning their property or want to upgrade / change their life.

Do we buy from these foreigners? Usually no, except if the property fits to a specific need that must be fulfilled, on an urgent basis. We search normal properties, trying to buy in prices that will allow to US to benefit of the future appreciations of the property and not to pay them today to someone “more intelligent”.
So, let us go back to the Romanians and try to check better their reasons.

• “They need the money”: It is difficult to find this category of owners, because the move VERY fast. Usually most of the foreigners are slow, want to think about it. If someone is in real emergency, he will sell to the first one who will “show him the money”. If he will not sell fast, then he was just lieing, which is not rare to find. So, if you hear your real estate agent telling you that there is an emergency which lasts for… 2 months, then there is no emergency at all, simply someone is trying to trick you.
• “They have something to hide concerning their property”: Nowadays these things are very easily found out, but still you must be careful. You need a lawyer and an architect, so as to verify what is going on with the apartment. Be very suspicious if you hear an owner saying “I want to use my own notary for the transaction” and try to figure out all possible dangers even if in the end he will accept your choice for notary (actually no one should accept something different, the one who pays chooses the notary he wants). Many times this kind of people are arrogant, pretend they don’t care and they don’t accept giving the papers of the property. Of course always everyone can make a mistake, but using the experts, you can decrease the chances for this to happen to you to almost 0.
• “They want to upgrade / change their life”: This is the typical category you will find in your search. You need to verify what is the real reason someone wants to sell and how badly he wants it. Without to have the intention to insult any owner, very few want to sell because they consider the prices high enough and they want to cash out and re-invest in something else (in most of the times, “education about investments” is not included in their vocabulary yet). It is common to hear someone who wants to sell a smaller place so as to move in a bigger one, to cash in a serious amount of money and transfer his status from poverty to wealth etc. Do not bypass this part, the reason of sale. It can help you negotiate better, or avoid losing time.

Coming up on Monday, 18.02.2008: The basics you must crosscheck and keep in mind before buying an old apartment (and especially in the center of Bucharest)
Have a nice good week…