Apartment sale through an agent - what to pay attention to?

Hello everyone,

I plan to market my apartment through the real estate agent from whom we also purchased our plot of land. The land purchase was almost 2 years ago; at that time the agent already viewed and priced my apartment. The actual transfer of ownership is planned for April/May 2017.

We had a good relationship with the agent back then, otherwise we naturally would not want to commission him now. Since I have never done something like this before, I would like to know what to pay attention to, what is customary, and which agreements one should possibly definitely not agree to.

I assume one concludes a contract for x months during which the agent has the exclusive right to market the property, meaning neither I nor another agent may be active, is that correct? What contract duration is usual here? By the way, we are talking about a 30-year-old 2-room apartment in a central location in a big city. In two weeks the agent will come by to take photos and fill out paperwork.

Is the commission desired by the agent also part of the contract? Whether he wants to earn 1x or 3x 3.57% can also affect me, especially since the apartment’s value is manageable.

What else should be considered? For further orientation I have a 5-year-old appraisal (the apartment was not renovated then). I have since completely renovated it. I have been the owner for about 4 years; I have used the apartment myself the whole time (keyword profit taxation handled); the apartment is fully paid off, but the mortgage has not yet been cancelled in the land register (I think cancelling/transferring in one go is more practical). The agent’s preferred notary is coincidentally also "our" family notary.

What tips do you have, what special features should be noted?

Thanks and best regards

Hi,

I suspect that one signs a contract for x months during which the agent has the exclusive right to market the property, meaning neither I nor any other agent is allowed to be active, is that correct? What contract duration is usual? By the way, we’re talking about a 30-year-old 2-room apartment near the city center of a large city. In two weeks, the agent is coming by to take photos and fill out paperwork.

We have tried several times (unsuccessfully) to sell something through agents. The first attempt was my parents' house; it had a contract for 3 months, and during that time he failed to sell the house. My mother then sold the house herself later at a higher price.
The second attempt was our holiday apartment on the coast. The agent seriously offered us a buyer for XXXX €... we later sold the apartment ourselves for more than double that!!! The buyer was probably the agent himself or his wife; in any case, he didn’t want to tell us.
Interestingly, this agent is also the manager of the holiday apartment, and he then badmouthed the buyers, saying it was outrageous to sell such an apartment without an agent since he was the manager and so on... unbelievable scenes...

As you can see, our experiences with agents are very politely described as "not positive." What I think about this profession I cannot write publicly here, as that would constitute insult.

To your questions:

[*]During the term (usually 3-6 months, but there is freedom of arrangement in the contract), the agent has the exclusive right to sell. Even if you find a buyer yourself while buying bread at the baker’s, the agent is entitled to his commission.

[*]No matter what brokerage fee is stated in the contract, be aware that you ultimately pay it! Most buyers are quite capable of adding up the total costs. And if there is an extra €10,000 for the agent included, the price must simply be €10,000 lower.

[*]Whether you can go to your preferred notary, I don’t know; here in Bavaria, notaries have exclusive representation rights for certain areas.

If I were you, I would sign a contract with him only for a few months at most, if at all. If it’s not a totally bad location, a self-organized sale should not be a problem. It’s a sale, not a rental. So you have no risk with problem tenants or the like. Once the money has landed in your account, the rest can be completely irrelevant to you.

Best regards,

Andreas

try it first without a broker. if the buyer has to pay a cent, they will deduct these costs from the purchase price. if this is not possible due to supply and demand, you will still sell the property without a broker without any problems.

I am honestly surprised about the feedback so far, because otherwise people generally always recommend getting help from the respective expert. :)

It is definitely the case that I am not good at negotiating and also that I do not want the "last price clientele" to have direct access to me / my private contact details.

But another question just occurred to me. The agent certainly needs to know my price expectation / pain threshold in order to be able to negotiate on my behalf. If these are met, can he insist on a sale? What impact does it have on the contract situation if, for example, I suddenly think that the apartment must fetch 10% more?

As already mentioned, if the situation is right, there will hardly be any negotiation. You just have to take a bit of a gamble.

Hi,
don’t worry "wasch isch letzte Preise" usually only buys cars, not apartments.
Invest one or two hours in front of the computer and check for which prices comparable apartments are listed on the internet. Then you basically have a good orientation. Then think about the price you would like to have, add a bit (=negotiation room) and put up an ad on the internet. If nobody responds, the price was clearly too high, if your phone doesn’t stop ringing, it was clearly too low.

Best regards,

Andreas