What does the apartment seller want? Get the biggest profit. What does the buyer need? Maximum benefits at minimal costs. In order for both parties to the transaction to be satisfied, you need to entrust the entire purchase and sale process to real specialists in this field.
Real estate agency "SKIP" is your guide in the world of real estate.
What should the buyer and seller know in order to find the “golden mean”, get what they want and leave satisfied with each other?
Trust but check!
Usually, at first, a potential buyer tries to test the waters on the real estate market himself: he studies the laws, looks through advertisements, and asks for advice from those who have recently purchased a new home. The approach is undoubtedly correct, but it is worth considering the following:
- The information contained in the advertisement is not always true. This can be either the machinations of scammers or enterprising realtors who inflate prices in order to obtain the greatest benefit;
- in private advertisements, prices often correspond not to real prices, but to the seller’s desire to receive a certain amount he needs.
What can raise the price of an apartment?
- sale of not only the apartment itself, but also other related products, which may be: the social status of the housing, the presence of furniture in the apartment, household appliances, a new alarm system, etc.;
- the customer’s interest in purchasing a specific apartment (for example, buying out a neighboring one to increase the total living space). The price may increase by 5 - 15%.
- the real cost of housing on the real estate market.
Sometimes it can be helpful to seek advice from professional appraisers. For example, this must be done when purchasing housing through a mortgage. Appraisers determine the maximum price based on a constantly updated database of practical real estate sales.
The following factors are decisive:
- the prestige of the area where the housing is located;
- construction technology and year of commissioning, as well as: series of the house and the presence or absence of amenities (elevator, loggia, garbage chute, etc.);
- if this is an elite sector, then the following are taken into account: communications, communications and other engineering delights of the complex;
- also in elite areas, the following are necessary: the presence on the territory of shops, beauty salons, saunas, convenient parking, etc.;
- the presence of an intercom or a guarded area (depending on the class of housing);
- floor (the first or last floor is always cheaper);
- the condition of the apartment for sale, and the pros or cons of its location (“view from the window”, landscaping of the surrounding area).
The SKIP agency will help you avoid all the pitfalls and make a profitable deal on the real estate market. The SKIP agency is always ready to help you purchase apartments in new buildings, on the secondary market, land plots in the Moscow region and abroad, as well as non-residential premises.
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Pitfalls when buying real estate in Montenegro
1. In Montenegro, everyone is involved in real estate - from taxi drivers and waiters to hotel receptionists and maids. Any passerby, saleswoman and even government employee will be happy to match you with their neighbor’s house, adding their 20-50% commission to the cost. Sometimes such a “taxi driver” markup can double the price of a real estate offer!!! The pension in Montenegro is 140-200 EURO, the average salary is 300-400 EURO, so everyone tries to increase their income through mediation in the purchase of real estate. At the same time, they are unlikely to tell you about problems with the documentation of the facility, and if they come to light, they will promise to solve them as soon as possible due to their relationship with the President, Prime Minister, Mayor, etc. Every second waiter will call himself a relative of the President. Naturally, all lawyers and officials are involved in real estate speculation. However, not all of them know all the objects along the entire coast, track them, check their documentation daily and make deals. Therefore, no one will ever replace a professional here. The first rule of buying real estate in Montenegro: beware of random advice, random acquaintances and random connections!
2. Every first Russian client who bought even a small apartment in Montenegro through an agency already considers himself a specialist in the field of real estate, sometimes gives incompetent advice and positions himself almost as an independent agency, regardless of his own education and training. Therefore, you have a chance to purchase real estate in Montenegro with the help of professional Russian veterinarians and dentures. At the same time, it is obvious that despite the extraordinary activity of Russians, they encounter local “nepotism”, ignorance of customs and traditions, family and clan ties, as well as increased prices from Montenegrin sellers, who are accustomed to seeing Russians and their Russian “helpers” very rich buyers, for whom an extra 10-20 thousand or more EURO means nothing. We are also faced with an amazing feature of our compatriots - they do not just advise real estate to their friends and relatives, but try to make money on them, having previously agreed with a neighboring seller on their commission, which is often 2-3 times higher than the average Montenegrin commission of 5%. Gullible Russians, buying real estate through friends, thus overpay for it without knowing it. Therefore, if “friends” have offered you this or that option, do not rush to grab it, check the price for the same real estate offer from the agencies. The second rule of buying real estate in Montenegro: trust, but verify.
3. Up to 80% of objects in Montenegro do not have clean documentation. There are a variety of problems: the rights of heirs not participating in the transaction to plots of land, the construction of objects on other people’s plots, construction without a building permit, without paying a utility fee, in the Morsko Dobro zone, with deviations from the building permit, in violation of the functional type of development for tax savings (a block of apartments for sale was built instead of a cafe), etc. This applies not only to old buildings built during the troubled war and post-war times. The chaos in the development continues to this day. A non-professional may encounter fraud and buy an object not from the owner, but from a fake seller, a fraudster who sells the same object to different people twice, three times or four times. Sometimes there are very complex options, with many owners on the Seller’s side, with an unaccepted urbanization plan, with a revoked urbanization plan, etc. Such options can be difficult to understand even for a professional realtor. The third rule of buying real estate in Montenegro: never trust the agent’s words 100%, engage a lawyer to check the documentation.
4. If you think you will find answers to all the questions in Montenegro that you have compiled for yourself after studying the sites, you will be severely disappointed. Montenegrin lawyers, notaries, and accountants suffer from an organic inability to give specific answers to specifically posed questions. In many cases, you will encounter a manifestation of the Mediterranean siesta, when the question can be answered after “some time”, when a free minute appears. Don’t be surprised if for the simplest legal advice you are asked to pay an hourly rate of 50-100 EUROS per hour. Even paying this fee does not guarantee that you will receive a competent answer. Often it is designed to scare away an overly annoying, curious client and thereby hide one’s own incompetence. Different lawyers may give you completely different answers to the same question, ultimately leaving you confused. Therefore, we recommend that you carefully study the materials on our website so that by the time you arrive in Montenegro you already know the answers to almost all your questions. We also recommend that you contact not just any lawyers or accountants that the waiter will recommend to you, but rather trusted individuals who deal with a narrow range of special issues that interest you. If you choose a lawyer, do not contact just any lawyers who handle criminal cases, but rather those who specialize in real estate issues and work with real estate agencies. The fourth rule when buying real estate in Montenegro: choose professionals in their field.
5. Prices in Montenegro change weekly. We try to keep track of the current prices of items in our database based on the physical capabilities and availability of sellers, however, when showing an item, the seller may notify of some price increases. At the same time, one should not discount the crisis situation in the market, which allows you to bargain on any property you like, reducing the price by 15-20% during negotiations. You can bargain with the developer for furniture (at least kitchen furniture), air conditioners (if not installed), a parking space (which can really come in handy), a garage (if you are very lucky and the purchase price is high) and other bonuses (for example, deferred payment for management services company for 1-2 years). The fifth rule of buying real estate in Montenegro: bargain, trying to bargain can only lead to a positive result for you.
6. If most Russians imagine that the Adriatic coast from the northern border with Italy to the southern border with Albania is almost a single territory of the former Yugoslavia, then in fact this is very far from the truth. The two states occupying the coastline, namely Croatia and Montenegro, are separated from each other by more than just a border. They share fresh memories of the recent war. Almost the entire male population aged 30 to 50 years (and this is the most economically active category that you will directly encounter when choosing objects on the Adriatic) participated directly in the war. In Croatia, there are even special tax breaks for veterans, which allow them to successfully develop a business. If in Croatia the attitude towards Montenegrins can be called wary, then the attitude of Montenegrins towards Croats is characterized by complete intransigence, rejection and hostility. Therefore, we recommend that clients do not confuse the two now completely different countries with each other and decide in advance which one to give preference to. Any comparisons openly expressed by you in favor of one or another Slavic country (but in Croatia..... but in Bulgaria....) will be interpreted not in your favor. Even comparisons with Spain and Italy are unpleasant for sellers. There is no need to tell them that a month ago you saw a luxury villa in Spain for the price of a small apartment with a mountain view. This may push the seller away, but not at all sway him in price. The sixth rule of buying real estate in Montenegro: respect the Seller and his representatives and their national dignity.
7. The real cheapness of Montenegro is the reality of 6-7 years ago. Now prices have approached their critical market maximum for the current level of development of the country and its post-crisis situation. There are no prices of 500-600 EURO per m2 in Montenegro and the crisis is unlikely to lower them that much. Therefore, if you come across hot offers for 1000-1300 EURO per m2, you should pay attention to them, these are really objects of good investment potential. The seventh rule of buying real estate in Montenegro: pay attention to hot offers, agencies advise really interesting options in terms of price-quality ratio.
8. You cannot select a country and offers for inspection based on pictures. Pictures can either create a false rosy picture or turn out to be a failure. The picture itself will not give you a complete idea of the surroundings, the infrastructure around, the neighbors, the quality of construction and many other important factors. The options offered remotely can only give you a correct understanding of the market situation, price level, and types of offers. For a complete understanding, a trip to Montenegro is necessary, because... only you can understand whether you feel good in this country. We believe that each client has his own worldview. For one person, Greece is optimal, for another - Spain, for a third, Montenegro was created. But only you yourself can understand this. Therefore, if you have not been to the country and do not imagine real estate in a specific locality, we do not recommend remote purchase. Technically it is possible. It is practically better to look at the purchased option yourself, with your own eyes. No photo or video materials can replace a personal inspection. Even if you know well the building where, for example, you are offered to buy an apartment, even if you were inside once, try to inspect the option yourself, in case you don’t like some little thing... the soundproofing of the building, the view from a certain window, the decoration premises... Do not regret 500 euros and four days of your life, so as not to miss and blindly make the wrong choice. The eighth rule of buying real estate in Montenegro: it is better to see the property once for yourself than 100 times in the picture.
