What is important to know when buying a finished timber house

In each of the articles, we try to convey to you some of the knowledge and experience that we have accumulated when working with real estate. GetHom has both a legal department, which actively works in the secondary market, and a sales department for new buildings. In this article we will look at what you need to know when buying an apartment in a new building and on the secondary market in 2020.

How to check documents before purchasing, what to look for and what questions to ask the seller. How to properly organize a transaction and what is the procedure for purchasing and registering an apartment. All the most important information in a condensed form so that you can have an idea of ​​where to start and how best to proceed.

Some of the information has already been disclosed in the articles on our blog, so if you still have questions, you can find the answers to them in similar materials. You could write a book on the topic of what you need to know when buying an apartment, this area is so vast. Let's start with the most important knowledge when buying an apartment.

The most important thing to know when buying an apartment

The most important thing when buying any real estate is the documents. Whether you are buying a new building or an apartment on the secondary market, the documents are the first thing you should pay attention to. An apartment on the secondary market means the right to own and dispose of property. An apartment from the developer before the house is commissioned is the developer’s promise to give you ownership rights after the house is put into operation.

It makes no difference where the property is located and what its value is if there are problems with the documents. This could be an apartment in the city center for 10 thousand dollars. But what difference does it make if you cannot live there due to problems with documents? Therefore, first of all, apply and check the documents and only then should you evaluate everything else and think about carrying out the transaction.

What happens if you don’t know about the documents and buy an apartment with emotions?

We agree that sometimes emotions prevail over reason and calculation. Some people find it difficult to think about documents when they like the price, the location, the view from the windows, and even the seller himself. But what happens if you buy an apartment with problematic documents? Let's tell you using a real example, which has been replicated recently on Odessa news resources.

On January 11, 2020, investigators from the prosecutor's office reported suspicions to a fraudster who, using a forged power of attorney from the owner, sold an 8-room apartment in the center of Odessa on Deribasovskaya. The cost of the mistake for the buyer was almost 3 million hryvnia or 105 thousand dollars.

And now it doesn’t matter how many rooms there were or where the apartment is located. There will be a trial in this case and in the end, most likely, the fraudster will have no property and no money either. She has already divided the total earnings with her accomplices. The buyer will most likely lose the entire amount paid for the purchase.

The transfer of ownership was formalized by a notary, and realtors were most likely present in the transaction. And as you can see from the case materials, the buyer was still left without money and without an apartment, because he could not use it - it was the property of the previous owner.

Who is to blame for the current situation with the apartment?

The perpetrators will be determined by the court, but this is, of course, a fraudster or a group of people who organized such a fraud. They face up to 12 years in prison. And all the people associated with the transaction, including the buyer himself, can be considered guilty. It is worth looking for mistakes first of all in yourself. Trust is a useful thing, but the intermediaries could have a share because they were simply selling the apartment and were interested in the transaction in order to receive their commission.

The buyer simply did not have the knowledge that scams on the secondary and primary markets in Ukraine are not uncommon and it is worth checking the documents before purchasing. But things happen in life and no one is perfect. All comes with experience. It turned out to be a very expensive experience.

A notary, if he was not among the fraudster’s accomplices, cannot be directly accused. According to Article 27 of the Law of Ukraine “On Notaries”, a notary is not liable if he is provided with knowingly false data. These may be forged, invalid documents, false information, false evidence regarding persons whose rights and interests may be infringed - children, spouses, relatives.

His task was to carry out the transaction and simply formalize the transfer of ownership, which, as we see, is what happened. And then, if such situations arise, the apartment is simply seized and further actions are determined by the court. According to statistics for 2019, every 10 apartment in Ukraine is a risky investment. But people still fall into the hands of scammers because they don’t care about their documents.

Where to put it?

This issue should be resolved individually directly in the room where the installation will take place. At a minimum, you need to measure the size of the room in advance and roughly estimate how the purchase will fit into its space. It is important to leave enough space for free passage between the walls, and also to ensure that doors and drawers do not touch anything when opening. If you don’t have enough space, try to take a closer look at folding design options that can be assembled into a small sofa or even built into the wall using a special mechanism.

What you need to understand before buying an apartment

You must clearly understand for yourself that only you are responsible and responsible for all your actions. It depends only on you what kind of apartment you buy and what people you trust. But you have to trust, because we all deal with people. You cannot have all the knowledge in every area.

Not all people are good, not all are bad, but if everything is checked sufficiently, the risks can be minimized. Avoid money loss and fraud.

It is important to understand that a realtor is only a seller of goods. The notary formalizes the transaction and certifies the transfer of ownership. If you contact real estate lawyers, they will assess the risks and help you avoid them. The real estate seller himself is no less important. It is important to evaluate the seller and his reputation if it is a developer.

Someone wants to make money from you, someone wants to help you, someone is just trying to sell an apartment, and someone is a scammer and is thinking about how to deceive you. In the world of real estate, as in life, there are all types of personalities. Therefore, we advise you to contact people you can trust and who are on your side.

Your task is to identify them, or try to understand everything sufficiently on your own. In any case, it is better to have at least a minimal idea of ​​the main points before purchasing an apartment. This way you will know what to do at each stage and who to consult.

Who is a gaming laptop suitable for?

Gaming laptops are purchased by users who want to fully immerse themselves in the world of virtual reality and get maximum pleasure from playing modern games. If the device will be used for other purposes, you should pay attention to universal models. You can also choose a device with certain characteristics (large disk space for storing information, high performance, powerful graphics, etc.)

It is important to know. Most gaming laptop models have an unusual appearance. There is embossing on the body, and contrasting colors are used in the design (for example, black with red or orange).

Gamebook subclasses

GAMING is a transitional option between a regular and gaming laptop. The device has an expressive gaming design, portability and autonomy.

SLIM GAMING are gaming ultrabooks that combine slim, stylish designs with extreme gaming performance.

PRO GAMING is one of the highest classes of gaming equipment. Laptops are designed for gamers who want to play at maximum performance.

HARDCORE GAMING – powerful gaming laptops equipped with the most top-end hardware. Some models come with a VR headset (virtual reality helmet).

Good gaming laptops are equipped with high-quality components, so they cannot be cheap. The minimum cost of a gaming device should be in the range of 1400-1600 BYN, the optimal choice is models costing 2200 BYN and above. You shouldn't buy the cheapest models, otherwise you'll have to play on medium and low graphics settings.

It is important to know. Regular top-end laptops may be close in price to gaming laptops, but they are not designed for gaming. Therefore, you should not mistake anything that costs more than 2200 BYN for gaming laptops .

What you need to know when buying an apartment in a new building

When buying an apartment in a new building, you need to know that you are not buying an apartment. You buy the right to receive it after putting the house into operation. But it’s not a fact that the house will be rented out and that everything will end well. It's like an investment in business. Reliable companies with reliable documents are more likely to sell the house. Companies that have not been on the market for a long time and have just started to engage in the construction business are less likely to complete a house.

It’s not for nothing that the buyer of an apartment on the primary market is called an investor. You invest your money in a real estate developer's business and expect everything to end well. It is important to understand that the developer and his sales department can also believe in this and assure you of this. But as in the case of secondary real estate, first of all you should pay attention to the documents and check them yourself, without taking the developer’s word for it. Because the delivery of the house may remain a promise.

What you need to check with the developer when buying an apartment in a new building

This is a list of what needs to be studied from the documents first:

• Constituent documents of the developer company
• Documents for the land plot
• Permits for carrying out construction work
• Urban planning conditions and restrictions
• Technical conditions for connecting communications
• Construction license
• History of the property
• Arrests, bans, mortgages on real estate
• Litigation regarding the developer and related parties
• Seller's debts and prohibitions on the sale of real estate
• Check communication between the builder, contractor and developer
• Type of contract with the buyer and its conditions
• Legality of the sales scheme and terms of the transaction
• Powers of the person who signed the contract with you

In addition, it is worth studying the reputation of the developer and how many houses he delivered, what the delivery deadlines were and how the house was delivered in general. All this is very important. Often, even large and reliable companies do not have all the permits and expect to receive them during the construction process.

But this is a big risk, because if there is a change in the leadership of the authority issuing permits or with any change of government, difficulties may arise with this and construction will simply stop. Therefore, it is worth checking the documents with any developer during each new construction.

Checking the quality of the apartment

When buying a home, what should you pay attention to and how to check the apartment to make sure that such a purchase is really relevant for a particular person? To do this, the quality of housing is checked in different ways:

• documents for the object are ordered from the BTI, with the help of which you can check for illegal redevelopment;
• when communicating with the seller, it is important to make sure that all his documents are genuine, for which it is advisable to use the migration service website, since there you can find out whether a certain passport number is invalid;
• if an intermediary is involved in the sale, then you need to check whether he has a power of attorney certified by a notary;
• you need to make sure whether the seller is legally competent, and this information can be clarified from neighbors or information from a medical certificate requested from the person.

All these facts must be verified, but if the seller insists on a prompt sale, then you need to be careful, as he may hide various significant information.

What you need to know when buying an apartment on the secondary market

If you buy from a developer the right to receive an apartment after the house is delivered, then on the secondary market you immediately buy ownership. It seems that there are fewer risks here, but this is only at first glance. Yes, the house has already been built and put into operation a long time ago, but there may be no less problems with documents. And if in new buildings the house may not be completed, then in secondary real estate there is a risk that the deal will be declared invalid by a court decision.

As in the example above with fraud, the seller will be required to return the money, but according to Ukrainian laws this can happen for decades. It is important to be able to correctly assess and identify risks when purchasing. They often arise as a result of the actions of the seller and related parties. There are risks that are critical and others that are not significant.

What you need to know when buying an apartment on the secondary market

The main things to check when buying an apartment on the secondary market:

• Title documents for the apartment
• Owners of the apartment and the right to sell the property
• Analyze the history of real estate acquisition
• Associated persons with the owners of the apartment - relatives, spouses, children
• Check for the presence of legal proceedings regarding the apartment and owners
• Check the legality of the contractual scheme for the sale of real estate
• Conduct a general analysis of the sale, the terms of the transaction and the words of the seller
• Identify and analyze hidden risks
• Assess risks not related to documents, but affecting the transaction

Mortgages, banks, courts, divorces, powers of attorney, fresh documents, terms of the transaction, intermediaries, notaries, seller's lawyers, relatives, heirs. Here you can list for a long time how many risks there are when purchasing secondary real estate. There are apartments with clean documents and your task is to find and purchase just such a property.

What other documents are checked?

• If you already have a completed purchase and sale agreement, you need to carefully study it to make sure that it contains the necessary information about the property being sold.
• It is advisable that the seller show an extended extract from the house register, which is issued by the Federal Migration Service, since it even contains data about the past residents of the apartment.
• If the housing has been privatized, then you need to make sure that there are no people who were not included in the contract without a correctly drafted waiver, since they have the right to the property.
• It is necessary to order an extended extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate, which lists all co-owners of the property.

If the seller refuses to hand over certain documents and information, then we can say that he has something to hide, so it is advisable to refuse such an acquisition.

How to check an apartment or developer before buying

You need a real estate lawyer to review the documents of a resale property or developer. We advise you not to trust people who only pretend to check documents and have little understanding of this. Realtors may know the area and price levels well, but legal issues are not their area of ​​expertise. A lawyer who graduated from law school is also not always the best choice. Specialization in a specific area is important. There are family law lawyers, there are corporate lawyers, and there are real estate lawyers.

Our GetHom legal department specializes in document verification and risk analysis when purchasing real estate. You can contact our lawyers. It's not expensive and reliable.

Article on the topic: Checking real estate, apartments, developers. GetHom real estate lawyers

In any case, when buying real estate, it is better to start by obtaining a minimum set of knowledge and engaging a real estate lawyer to check the documents. In this case, the risk of buying distressed real estate tends to zero. Based on experience, a lawyer will immediately help you weed out problematic real estate and suggest a reliable option.

Buyer's actions when buying an apartment

When purchasing any real estate, there are three stages:

• Search for apartments and best offers
• Apartment viewings, inspections and negotiations
• Registration and purchase

Search for an apartment and seller

This is a relatively safe stage. We advise you to look for real estate on independent websites where all offers are presented. This way you can have a rough idea of ​​the prices and compare different options in advance. There is a lot of information garbage from intermediaries regarding secondary real estate and new buildings. We described options for deception in a separate article.

Related article: How realtors deceive

When you understand what you want and how much it costs, you can move on to the next steps. If you are looking for an offer on the secondary market, then select 5-10 offers that you would like to see. If on the primary market, then decide on several developers from whom you would like to buy an apartment.

Apartment viewings, inspections and negotiations

There are different versions of how it is more profitable to buy an apartment. We all want to save money and be safe. With experience, we have come to options that allow us to obtain more favorable conditions for the client than when he contacts the seller or developer directly.

Sometimes it is more profitable to come to a developer or seller with a market participant if it turns out to be more profitable and they offer you additional benefits. On the condition that they do not take a commission from you or help reduce it. Like we do at GetHom. Below is an article on the topic of new buildings. For secondary real estate, we help reduce costs.

Related article: Why it is profitable to buy a new building through the GetHom sales department

Should I contact regular real estate agencies and intermediaries who ask for an additional commission on the price? It is your right. But this does not remove any risks of the purchase. This is simply a selection of options and an apartment seller who will charge you up to 5% of the cost in addition to the price of the apartment.

Verification of documents

Whether you are buying an apartment on the primary market or on the secondary market, in any case it is better to engage a specialized lawyer to check the documents. This may not always be in person, but a remote inspection is possible. This turns out to be more profitable and faster. If you are buying an apartment on the secondary market, then hire a lawyer to accompany your purchase and help you choose an apartment.

If you are buying an apartment from a developer, then order a verification of the documents of the required developers whom you have previously selected. After the lawyers’ conclusions, make a choice about who will be safer to buy an apartment from and where your money will be more protected. This is the most correct option. This way you eliminate significant risks and simply choose an apartment based on location, layout and other characteristics. The documents should have already been verified by this time.

Negotiations with the seller

At this stage, your task is to obtain the most favorable conditions for the transaction. To do this, you need to understand what conditions are possible, what rules exist in the market and where you can save money. In the secondary market, these are the terms of re-registration and the commission of possible intermediaries of the seller. You can and should save money on this.

When purchasing an apartment from a developer, these are the conditions for installment plans and stage-by-stage payment. These are small details that can save you thousands of dollars if you know how to ask for it and if it's possible. Try to communicate and negotiate if you do everything on your own.

At GetHom, we build our work on the principle that a real estate lawyer deals with documents and checks them, and a GetHom consultant helps negotiate the best terms because he knows the market well. We can provide you with remote legal support in any city in Ukraine. You can contact us, but you can find someone on your own.

Registration and purchase of an apartment

If you have ordered the services of a lawyer in your city, or contacted our company, the lawyer will help you at all stages. For those who decide to go the route on their own, you need to figure out how the transaction is generally carried out and what documents will need to be signed.

In the secondary market, ownership is transferred from the seller to you. This is done by a notary. For this, you only need a passport, identification code, to whom the purchase will be made and money. The seller's ownership may vary. Main types:

• Purchase and sale
• Mena
• Inheritance contract
• Donation agreement
• Donation
• Rent
• Lifetime maintenance
• Privatization
• The court's decision

The notary will formalize the transfer of ownership and issue you a certificate. It is important to choose your own notary and not agree to the seller’s offers to complete the transaction with his authorized representative. This way you will reduce risks and the transaction will be more secure.

The seller’s notary may be a fraud, but if you have checked the documents with a lawyer and he is present in the transaction, then this scenario is unlikely, because the documents are in perfect order and the lawyer will tell you who to contact.

What you need to know about paperwork when buying an apartment from a developer

Each developer has its own type of contract and scheme for selling real estate. Everyone’s agreements are different and you need to carefully read the agreement and study the real estate investment scheme. The main types used by developers:

• Preliminary purchase and sale agreement
• Investment agreement
• Contract for the sale and purchase of property rights
• Joining a housing cooperative or housing construction cooperative
• Assignment agreement
• Construction Financing Fund or FSF

Some contracts can be registered by a notary, while others you simply sign at the developer’s office. There, at the construction company’s office, you pay the money into the cash register and thus invest in real estate. To purchase, you only need a passport and a code.

After putting the house into operation, you will sign the transfer and acceptance certificate and the developer will issue documents to register ownership. But for this, the house must be completed and delivered. After depositing money into the cash register and signing the contract, you simply wait for the house to be delivered.

What to look for when buying an apartment

As you already figured out, first of all we look and check the documents and only after that we begin to study prices, layouts, the apartment itself and the view from the windows. Some buyers on the secondary market come into an apartment and the first thing they look at is the tiles in the bathroom or the laminate flooring. If you work with a lawyer, then you can do this because he will check the documents and you can look at what is important to you in choosing real estate.

But if you come to the apartment on your own, then first of all study the documents and only after that proceed to the other stages of viewing the apartment, negotiations and the main transaction.

Scheme of work of intermediaries

On the secondary market we often come across a situation where intermediaries say - give us an advance for an apartment, and we will do all the paperwork, because now not everything is in order, but we will resolve the issue. You shouldn't get involved in such adventures, because it will probably just be a loss of money. There are many normal options with clean documents and it is better to buy an apartment from reliable sellers.

Before checking and studying the documents, do not sign any papers and do not give your money to anyone. It might just end up being a gift of an advance to the scammers. Or simply buying a problematic apartment that you don’t need.