durch Tjeerd Geerts
The brokerage works differently in Spain than in the Netherlands, in fact there are no official sales and purchase brokers here than in the Netherlands. The Spanish broker often takes on both tasks at the same time, something that is unthinkable in the Netherlands and also not permitted. The broker in Spain takes properties into its portfolio and tries to sell them, directly or in collaboration. In this article I explain why it is wise to work with a purchase broker in Spain, and also why this does not entail any costs.
How the brokerage works in Spain
A broker in Spain takes a property for sale and signs an agreement with the owner, or a “mandate” in order to be allowed to publish the property on behalf of the owner and in some cases also to be allowed to draw up contracts for it, to sign them, and to receive down payments. The extent to which these authorizations go depends on the agreements in the signed mandate. The sales price and the commission are also included in the mandate. The agent now goes in search of a potential buyer for the property by means of advertising.
In Spain, however, there is no self-evident exclusivity of the agent on the sale of the property. This can certainly be included in the mandate, but in most cases this does not happen. It is therefore possible that several agents have the property for sale and are offering it.
As a rule, agents prefer to choose money today for sure rather than more money later perhaps. This applies to both exclusive and non-exclusive sales.
Most agents are therefore prepared to work with other agents and in this case share their commission with the agent who supplies the client. It is estimated that approximately 10-30% of all properties in Spain are sold in this way. If you know that approximately 60% of all properties in Spain are sold by agents, this could amount to as much as 50% of all properties sold by agents.
From one agent to another, without a purchasing agent, what happens?
The agents will do everything they can to present the properties in their portfolio in the best possible light, or to “sell” them. In this case, an agent can even give a false opinion about a property that the client has seen with another agent, in order to try to change the prospective buyer’s mind and abandon the purchase of this property, while he/she knows that this property is actually more suitable than the property he/she is trying to sell.
Working with one purchasing agent solves this problem. Because there is a promise from the purchasing client, the purchasing agent knows that the client will make a purchase through him or her and he or she will give his or her unvarnished opinion about any property, from any agent.
Searching for suitable properties.
The range of properties for sale on the Costa Blanca and in the rest of Spain is large, and sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees. Writing to all those agents one by one with your wishes is an impossible task. As purchasing agents, we work with 150 agents on the Costa Blanca, who have all known us for more than 20 years and can email them all your wishes with one click. They then send us the links to the suitable properties and we then email them to you. We can then make a selection together and make a schedule for viewings.
Scheduling and carrying out viewings
Scheduling viewings is a lot of work, it is always taken too lightly, agreements have to be made with the agent, and they in turn with the owners, the route has to be taken into account, not that you always have to drive from north to south, but that everything follows each other nicely. You then have to know where the houses are and know how long it takes to get from one viewing to the next. A purchasing agent can do that work. This also prevents double appointments, because real estate agents often say: I have another house for sale around the corner, let’s go and view that too, and that just happens to be a property that will have to be viewed next with another real estate agent.
Carrying out online viewings
For our exclusive clients, if there is a lot of interest in a particular property, we are prepared to schedule a virtual viewing for you/you, where we go to the property and show the house via a WhatsApp video chat. In this way, we have even sold properties because there was a lot of interest in them at that time
The costs
As a collaborating broker, we are paid by the broker who has the property for sale here. The costs for this service are therefore zero. However, an agreement is made to be loyal and ultimately make the purchase through our office. This agreement is made on the basis of trust, no contracts need to be signed for this.
We hope that we have aroused your interest in using Casas Real as a purchasing broker for you. You can contact Tjeerd Geerts directly on +34 688883183 with all your questions and wishes, or fill in the contact form here.
