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Post by darcy on Dec 16, 2006 7:29:39 GMT 1
I am about to (hopefully) find and purchase right property in HR and I would like to know what is the right approach during the price negotiations. Too often I could not see the buyer prepared to negotiate the asking price. I tried with the real estate agent recently asking her to "sharpen the pen" and try again with her client and it looks to me I will pass yet another property.
What is your experience with the RE market in HR? Is it Ok to bargain in HR?
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Post by irac on Dec 16, 2006 8:20:14 GMT 1
You need to approach negotiations having already visited the local Opcine and gotten a decent outline of land and property prices, otherwise you'll be handing money to greedy vendors or agents. Always offer 20% below the asking price and make sure to pay 10% less than the original price, depending on where you are and what company you deal with, you will be paying the vendors commission for them.
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Post by Ribaric on Dec 16, 2006 9:42:24 GMT 1
I've just finished this and, like you Darcy, I'd found plenty of suitable places but with unrealistic owners.
Generally, sellers are convinced that someone will turn up with an offer too good to refuse, so they expect a sale to take 3/4/5 years, perhaps longer. When I made realistic offers (based on other similar real sales), the sellers never did budge. I walked away with the line "If you change your mind, call me" - but none ever did.
Patience Darcy, plenty of it.
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Post by Carol on Dec 17, 2006 21:11:32 GMT 1
Talking of the times when the property prices are fair, there is a cultural element at play. Often Croatian sellers are insulted to recieve a below asking price offer, so if you really want the property think twice before making a cheeky low offer as you could back yourself into a situation that they wouldn't sell it to you if you were the last man on earth. We notice a big diffreence between the nationalisties we deal with. e.g. Russians by and large accept the advertised price, Italians always think they are being ripped off and some english cannot bring themselves to pay the full asking price.
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Post by mambo on Dec 17, 2006 22:37:40 GMT 1
Only the ones who have money to spare will pay the asking price.
Recently heard another nice one of how they come up with the price. Someone knows someone who knows someone who has a friend and that person was asking X amount for a house.
If that person is asking that then they can ask the same !
Negotiating with Croatians is completely useless, don't even try it. Simply ask whether this is the final price and if the answer is yes, you might as well forget about it, they will never ever come to their senses.
Indeed they have the idea that one day the ship with gold will sail into port and they are prepared to wait.
It is time this country is hit by an economical disaster of major proportions and perhaps then they will see the light and become more realistic. Until that time.................forget about negotiating with them.
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Post by darcy on Dec 17, 2006 23:18:31 GMT 1
Often Croatian sellers are insulted to recieve a below asking price offer, so if you really want the property think .... Thanks Carol. Do we all agree with this? Does not make sense to me - (if buyer agrees on the asking price that means he/she would pay more if was asked...) and that was exactly what happened to me some time ago (as soon as I accepted the price, the buyer asked for more) and why I decided I have to bargain to exclude the sellers just fishing on the market. So far I am not lucky ... nobody wants to sell ... |
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Post by Ribaric on Dec 17, 2006 23:54:49 GMT 1
Yes. I did the rounds and looked at dozens of places. On later visits I took to asking about flexibility in price but they were ready for it. Regular answers were... - They need to pay off a mortgage, buy a flat and get new car/furniture so that's what drives the asking price.
- They know someone who's house is for sale and is not as good as this one, so they added 10% to to an already unrealistic price.
- Friends and neighbours told them what to ask for.
It's clear to me that market value in terms of what people are actually paying doesn't enter into it. There is also a personal trait going on that dictates that any drop in price is regarded as a personal failure on their part. Unless they achieve a high price, there is a great fear that friends and neighbours will say they've sold too cheaply - looking silly in any such way is not something to be contemplated. My experience is that expectations are too high in many cases and sellers (should I say "prospective" sellers) continue to wait for the gravy train despite their life circumstances dictating that they really should move. Many of them expect the sale to take about five years, I'm not surprised. Indeed, a good friend of mine shares ownership with her two sisters of a big house in Èakovec. The chances of the three of them agreeing a price is nil as each has a different set of requirements. The result is that one 60+ lady lives in a huge crumbling house with no money for upkeep and has big utility bills. She's unhappy, the sisters are unhappy and prospective buyers can't get a deal. Stalemate. Luckily for me, my seller has lived in Germany for many years and was well aware of the realities of buying and selling. She probably added the 10% I negotiated off so we're both happy and the deal happened. |
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Post by mambo on Dec 18, 2006 3:12:29 GMT 1
I am dealing with a guy in jail in Germany, but he does not want to give way at all. He does not understand that the house, which he just bought before he went to jail, will not be his for a very long time (goverment has still not approved the sale), but he refuses to sell.
He bought it for 50,000 DM, but is now asking 175,000 euro !
It is still in the exact state as he bought it, a ruin.
ONly change is that the place is now covered with plants and trees.
Worst part is that it is registered on a company and ...................his companion is also in jail.
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Post by Carol on Dec 18, 2006 10:39:25 GMT 1
Mambo - how come they need govt permission if they own it through a company?
Re: my comments above i was talking about the times when the seller has set a reasonable price, or those rare occassions when they are actually selling it cheap. But ti is true (I've seen it happen) when sellers get thoroughly insulted by the "cheeky low offer" which is very normal in Britian when a property has been stuck on the market for a few months.
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Post by mambo on Dec 18, 2006 12:36:59 GMT 1
Apparently they also set up their company at the same time and both of them are foreigners (Croatians with a German passport) according to the local officials, who gave me all the documents about the owners, former owners, selling price etc the two guys don't have approval yet, because both of them are in prison in Germany for quite a long sentence.
I wanted to buy this house/ruin in 2004, it took quite some time to get all the paperwork (handed to me by friends of friends, officially you cannot get these papers) and before I had found the 'contact' person for these two guys it almost took a year.
But as far as I know the acquisition of the house (or perhaps the whole company itself) has still not been approved by the goverment.
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Post by Carol on Dec 18, 2006 13:01:36 GMT 1
A croatian company (irrespective of who owns it) does not require govt permission to buy property, only private foreign individuals do.
Central bank permission has to obtained before you can loan your company money. the point of this is to avoid money laundering and I'm guessing that prisoners money would be much more suspect than anyone else's. However if they haven't been able to get that permission, then they can't have loaned their company money and therefore their company couldn't have paid for the property.
Maybe what you are refering to is the situation where the property has to be offered to the govt under their pre-emptive rights but the govt only has 60 days to decide whether to accept or reject these rights, so that should all have been resolved long ago too.
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Post by mambo on Dec 18, 2006 15:25:12 GMT 1
Carol,
According to the local officials there is a difference between a company owned by Croatian citizens and a company owned by foreigners. Our company is also owned by a foreign company, but we don't have the same rights as a Croatian owned company.
Borrowing money to your company can be achieved real easy if you want to bypass the system. You simply find a local accomplish (and for money they do everything), he/she will, on paper, borrow that money to your company (if he has a house that is more than enough) and nobody will ask where the money came from. You simply hand the money to the bank with the statement that you borrowed it from Mr X and the problem is solved.
Another way of borrowing is using a tax structure with an SPF behind it.
But in all, if they bought the house for 50,000 DM it is not a lot of money for 2 persons, the bank will not have any problems with that at all.
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