1. Before submitting an offer think about consulting a lawyer

Before you make an offer, you may wish to first consult with a lawyer. You should find a professional with knowledge in the real estate process and the real estate market of Chania who can also outline your rights and obligations.

An official placed offer can become a legally binding pre-contract agreement if it’s accepted from the seller. Thus, by hiring an attorney early in the property purchase process, you can avoid any uncertainty of the deed – if any – and you can also get advice and guidance for any concern or misunderstanding surrounding the agreement.

ARENCORES can suggest professional attorneys who do have a far better understanding of real estate law in any given jurisdiction and legal doctrines to establish a smooth property transaction.

2. Learn how the property offer process works

Before you submit your offer you should know what to expect. Here’s how the property offer process in the real estate market of Crete typically goes:

• Your real estate agent sends your offer to the seller.
• The seller could:
  • Accept the offer.
  • Decline the offer. This happens if the property seller doesn’t think your offer was close enough to their expectations to negotiate. Sometimes a real estate agent who exclusively lists the property on behalf of a client can also reject the offer.
  • Counteroffer. Typically, a counteroffer states that the seller has accepted the buyer’s offer subject to one or more changes. These changes usually include the property price, the deposit or the closing date among other options.
• If the seller counteroffers, you can then accept, negotiate until you reach an agreement or decline your interest on the property.
• Once your offer is accepted, you sign a pre-contract agreement. During this period any inspections, appraisals, or anything else required to ensure that this property is absolutely fine will take place.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

3. Work out your bidding strategy with your agent’s help

Before entering into the negotiation process decide on how much you want to spend for your property purchase and think realistically before exceeding your red line. Do not forget the extra costs of buying a property (see The costs of buying and owning a property in Chania).

A plethora of things involved when making an offer on a property: your budget, the real estate market of your interest and the latest trends, the seller’s situation, the condition of the property, and more. Finding a good real estate agent with good knowledge to the property market of Crete and with good critical thinking and negation skills can not only facilitate your decision making but can also plan the most effective strategy to close the deal.  Feel free to ask lots of questions and do your own research in the market, but also trust your real estate agent’s experience.

Typically, there are two methods to submit your offer:

The first method is to make your first offer your best and most reliable offer. This will show the property seller that you’re a serious buyer. A good rule of thumb though is to offer 5% to 10% lower than the asking price but this does not always work because each seller has different needs and willingness to negotiate.

The second method and the most risky one is to submit a lower offer. Circumstances can be in your side, making it more likely the property seller will accept a lower offer than the asking price especially if the property has been on the market for a long time, if you are the only person who has expressed interest in the property or if the seller wants to sell quickly.

10 in 100 property buyers who submitted a lower offer have experienced the seller decline the deal after accepting their offer because (the seller) received a higher offer from someone else –especially if the property is listed with multiple real estate agents.

4. Deposit

Your pre-contract purchase agreement will include the agreed price and the amount of the deposit. The pre-contract and deposit indicate that you are really interested in the buy of the property.

The main purpose of the deposit is to establish a sense of trust between the buyer and seller and start the preparation procedure for the final contract. Sometimes offering a bigger deposit than the common one (deposits are often 3-5 percent of the purchase price of the property) can help your offer stand out.