New Real Estate era, new challenges for all of us. 5 tips for owners of properties

Part 1

• to read part 2, click here

Romanian Real Estate world has entered in a new era since several months now. During this period, not only investors choose the rules of the deal, but the only expected transactions will be the ones dealing with top properties in "decent" prices or foreclosures. Everything else will remain "idle", depending on its owner's ability to wait for better days.
(read more about this new era here)

This is not a moment for someone to be arrogant, either he is an owner of a property or a potential buyer. It is time for clever moves and careful actions, in order the result to be satisfactory. But what should be the steps of an owner or an investor during the following 12 – 24 months? Let us try to identify them together, referring always to people with common sense and self respect.

5 tips for an owner in order to protect his interests

Mainly we see three types of owners during this period:
The ones who have top properties and they don't have financial problems

The ones who have "not top" properties and they would consider selling but they are not under pressure.

The “distressed” ones, who urgently need money.

Whatever your status is, there are 5 things that you should take into consideration before you proceed in any transaction, selling your asset:

1. Create a time frame and a strategy. Don't let everything to the last moment. You probably know your needs over the following months. Try to organize yourself, write down your future payments and try to identify the period when you expect a problem to occur. Sometimes we end up selling a property for a low price, just because we didn't find a minor amount of money on the right time. Don't end up like this, it will be a pity…
2. Collect the missing documents of your property. Any wise investor will ask you the full documentation for your property. The approach of "I don't care, this is what I have" belongs to the past and either investors reject it (including you too) or undertake the risk to purchase something without perfect documents, but they demand a serious discount for this reason. If you don't know what to collect, ask a lawyer and an architect. Also a serious Real Estate consultant can help, he knows what his clients are searching for. A complete file increases your property's value by minimum 5%, sometimes even more.
   (* If you search for stupid investors to trick them and sell to them something bad, then I am sorry, you belong to a different world and you can stop reading this post here).
3. Try to identify the real value of your property. Yes, I know that you will immediately think "my neighbor sells for this price, so I should ask this or more" but this is not always the right way to realize your property's actual value. Maybe it is sad, but the price of a property is the one that a buyer is willing to pay for it. Try to think as a buyer and create a list with the advantages and disadvantages of your property. It will take you couple of hours, but you will discover more than you can imagine. Some people pretend that they are buyers themselves, in order to identify their property's value. Some others, having a higher budget, pay evaluators or (again) serious Real Estate consultants.
4. Invest in your own property, by giving it added value. You don't need to be a magician, in order to transform an ugly old apartment to something more decent with a budget of 1.000 – 5.000 Euro (it depends on the extent of changes). Now you can do it with lower cost as well, due to the crisis. This will increase your property's value by at least 10%, probably more. If you are the owner of a land, think about new urbanistic parameters or other procedures which will make your property look much better to the investor's eyes.
5. Don't panic, search for appropriate collaborators. I know, it is easy to say but very difficult to do so. Once someone is in trouble, he feels the world tearing apart and he runs to the first option he finds in front of his eyes, usually the worst one. If you are stressed, don't follow this rule. Try to contact several market experts. Many serious Real Estate companies have clients who will respect you more than "your first option" will. Plus they will ask for an opportunity, but they will not try to take your property for "half bread". Ofcourse if your papers are not ok and you just want to offload a property, then "your first option" will also probably be the last one too.

But try to remember: Panic is the worst consultant, when in trouble.

Tomorrow:
5 tips for an investor in order to reach a successful investment