15 Mar
How to find your new home with Living on leasing
Where to look for a new property, what is important in the search and how to get the property you really would love to live in?
There are a few extra obstacles as a foreigner when you are looking for your new home and we are here to guide you through them and make your search much easier with a real chance to get the home you dreamed of!
First of all let’s take a look where to look for a property, where you can divide those places into two categories:
- Real estate listings – property offer made by real estate agencies
- Private listings – property offer made by direct owners
Real estate listings
Most of the real estate agencies have their properties listed on the most used real estate advertising portal called sReality (www.sreality.cz).
Advantages in using a real estate listings are that you will have the contractual documentation already prepared by the agency (reservation contract, purchase contract, and lawyer deposit for safety of the money transaction). In general, the process of buying a new property is safe, because outside the contractual documentation the real estate agent has to create a local technical investigation of the property to analyze the state of the property both on the technical side and possible legal defects. In good real estate agencies, you have someone who is able to communicate at least in English.
Disadvantages in using a real estate listing is that, unlike in other countries, sometimes the commission is paid by the buyer and not always is the amount acknowledged in the listing.
Private listings
Most of the private listings are situated on advertising portals such as BezRealitky (www.bezrealitky.cz) and Bazoš (www.bazos.cz).
Advantages in using a private listing are obviously in not paying the commission so sometimes, on the first look, it can seem to be a bit cheaper way.
Disadvantages in buying a property from a private listing are that you have to do the whole verification of the property by yourself (both technical and legal), creating or verification of contractual documentation, including financial deposit of the money transaction. And there is a smaller percentage of English speaking direct owners so that might create a language barrier which can lead to preferring another buyer from a foreigner.
What is important and what works to get your property?
Advice number one:
Find a professional agency to guide you through the process in the Czech republic, because a property transaction is not an easy task due to a lot of variable complications which can occur and you want to have a safe deal.
Advice number two:
Find a real estate agent who can help you in the search of your new home, is able to represent you (for a commission), is able to overcome the communication barrier, can make a technical and legal verification of the property and is able to provide contractual documentation when you find a great home from a private listing (don’t limit yourself to only one of the two types of listings).
Advice number three (but definitely not least):
Be financially prepared to buy a new property – the situation in the Czech real estate market is that the offer is highly under the demand of properties so the priority of picking the right buyer goes to the one who is financially prepared for the transaction (either having sufficient own funds or having ready your real estate financing).
