Know what to do when it’s time to buy a property

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For almost half of Brazilians, the most difficult part of the property purchase process is finding the ideal product, which combines location, features and price, according to the survey Jornada da Compra de Imóvel, carried out by the Brain consultancy for Abrainc (Brazilian Association of real estate developers). Made in 2021, the study heard 14,000 people.

Experts indicate that the most efficient method is to merge all forms of search. Searching on ad portals, real estate websites and proptechs will lead the interested party to talk to brokers and real estate agents, who can indicate other suitable properties. Seeing a for sale sign on the street and calling the number or knocking on the building’s concierge can also lead to the same path.

But it is necessary to understand what you are looking for, in terms of location, number of rooms, size and common areas, among other characteristics. “It seems like something easy, but many times you leave some need aside and you will realize later on how much it is missed”, says Cyro Naufel, institutional director of real estate Lopes.

According to Ricardo Paixão, director of Secovi-SP (Sindicato da Habitação), the pandemic and the greater difficulty in visiting properties ended up improving the quality of ads on the internet, which now have more photos and even a virtual tour.

Failing to visit in person, however, is not recommended. It is at this moment that the interested party can understand the deficiencies and qualities of the property.

Lawyer Isabela Pannunzio, 28, was already eyeing a 1950s building in Pinheiros (western São Paulo) when she saw an ad for an apartment for sale on a portal. From the photos, it looked like it was in a bad state of repair, but she decided to visit it.

Pannunzio tried to contact four real estate agents listed on the property, but none were able to contact the owner. Tired of waiting, she went to the building’s entrance and asked for the resident’s contact, who replied to her messages.

Upon entering, he saw the potential. “It was a shock. The ceiling is very high, it seems bigger than the 80 m² it has, the walls are super thick. I had just left a new apartment where the walls looked like cardboard, so I was very happy”, he says. .

The lawyer followed a guideline given by specialists when she became interested in an old property: to evaluate with a professional the need for renovations and what can be done there. She hired the architect Sofia Etcheverry, from Estudio Cuentame, to evaluate the apartment.

According to the architect, the most important thing to observe in a visit is what no renovation will be able to fix, such as the size of the windows —you cannot change the facade of the buildings— and the ceiling height of the property, ventilation and incidence. solar.

“It is important to look for infiltration stains on the wall and ceiling, if there are hollow tiles in the bathroom, the state of the electrical wiring, if there are no termites on doors, windows and floors, but all this can be solved”, he says.

In older properties, Etcheverry always considers that the electrical and hydraulic systems will need to be replaced to bring them up to date with today’s uses.

Even if the property appears to have new wiring, you need to investigate. “Sometimes they just change the covers of the switches, but when you open the light box, the circuit breakers are old and need to be replaced”, says the architect.

Knowing what kind of renovation will be needed is a negotiating weapon for the buyer. The architect says that a client managed to reduce the value of an apartment from R$ 1.1 million to R$ 850 thousand by detailing the works that would be carried out, an amount to be invested in the renovation, which costs, on average, R$ 3,500 at R$ 4,000 per square meter.

With the endorsement of Etcheverry and an engineer, Pannunzio proceeded with the purchase. Contrary to what is most indicated, she and her boyfriend closed the deal directly with the owner, which generated R$ 60 thousand in savings.

The direct purchase with the owner of the property was used by 16% of buyers, according to the Brain survey with Abrainc, but it carries risks: it is necessary to make sure that the property and owner documentation is correct and that there are no legal disputes. In case of a problem, having an intermediary in the process can help the buyer.

As a lawyer, Pannunzio felt confident to do this process on her own. “We started in the most modern way, trying to buy online, and we ended up in the oldest way, knocking on the owner’s door and saying ‘excuse me, I wanted to buy your apartment.'”

The lawyer and her boyfriend were already residents of Pinheiros and knew the neighborhood. If they were not, it would be advisable to make several visits to the property, on different days and times, to understand what the region is like.

“We are more available to visit on weekends, but then you don’t notice the real traffic in the region, if there is noise on a certain day, such as a nearby school, for example”, says Naufel.

When you are in the building, it is interesting to talk to employees to understand the possible problems of the place. A good broker also helps the buyer to gather this kind of information.

Something that many buyers forget to give due attention to is the value of the condo. In addition to being a monthly expense, the fee influences the liquidity of the sale or lease in the future, experts recall. Apartments in condominiums with many units and few leisure areas tend to have cheaper rates.

After the stages of searching for the property and negotiation, comes the payment. Financing is the choice of the vast majority of Brazilian buyers, and Naufel says that there is a habit of looking for banks only at the last moment, while the ideal would be to know how much financing can be obtained even before starting the search for the property.

In addition to the financing, the buyer must also remember the expenses with ITBI (Immovable Property Transfer Tax) and with the registration of the property, paid in cash.

“My suggestion is that the person first find out about their financial capacity, even to avoid disappointment if they discover that they cannot finance”, says the director of Lopes.

Quintela advises you to make financing simulations, present on sales websites and financial institutions. “When you have a simulation or pre-approval of this value, you can negotiate the purchase more easily, it’s bargaining power”.

Real estate ads can be scam attempts

Real estate portals, also called marketplaces, are the choice of 37% of those interested in buying real estate when looking for their new home or apartment, according to a survey carried out with 1,000 consumers by Capterra, a software comparison system.

The ease of uploading ads on these platforms increases the diversity of offers, but also the risk of falling into scams, warns Igor Marchetti, a lawyer at Idec (Brazilian Institute for Consumer Protection).

Angelica Quintela, marketing manager at Imovelweb, says that the portal has the technology to identify most frauds, but that there are daily attempts to insert this type of advertisement into the system.

To avoid problems, the user interested in the property must check which real estate agency the advertisement belongs to and if it really exists, look for the broker’s professional record, verify that the property is also real and never pass personal data or passwords, nor transfer values ​​before have a personal contact with the seller. “There is no such thing as paying an amount to take the ad off the air”, emphasizes the manager.

Quintela says that an advertisement for a property with a value far below the market is not necessarily an attempt at a financial coup, but that advertisers use this device to obtain data from interested parties and try to sell other properties to them. In any case, prices that are too low are a warning sign.

According to Marchetti, upon finding a fake ad, the user can report it to the site and to the police. Once informed of the problem, the portal needs to act and take the content down. “You have to take action as soon as possible and, if you don’t, you can be held responsible for these violations that occur with consumers,” he says.

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