WHAT YOU PAY FOR

A property agent in Bulgaria does nothing a buyer or a developer couldn't do themselves. The information the buyer receives from this mediator is easy to obtain and in fact much of it is available on internet, usually both in English and Bulgarian. Obviously this information is published by none other, but the developers. However the typical buyer is no professional merchant when it comes to buying houses, land or apartments in a foreign country. Naturally he needs psychological reassurance. It is not the other party's place to give him this reassurance. Besides this developers are inexperienced when dealing with foreigners. Sometimes, due to lack of English speaking personal, they are slow in answering the potential buyers. And here comes the agent who is prompt and polished. He is always around, leading the buyer by the hand. He has to make the client feel cared for. He has to make sure the latter will not give up or find another. And he has to justify his well paid participation. Here providing legal aid comes handy although it's none of his business. He provides it finding a lawyer (or a person posing as lawyer) paid for by the buyer. The agent also translates, although the official translations are made by professional translating agencies that are paid by the buyer as well. The abilities of the agents in this area are rudimentary, their translations inaccurate as they don't understand the text they are translating. The agent also finds the buyer a hotel accommodation, something the latter could do himself easily.

If this was all the agent does, he would be doing his clients a favor. But, alas, the agent knows full well that this would not justify the 5 to 10 thousand Euro per apartment he gets from the purchaser. So the agent enters into the part of a helper. He answers the buyer's questions. The agent does this by relaying the buyer's questions to the lawyer he recommends. The lawyer answers not directly to the buyer, although the latter is his client as well, but to the agent instead. Then the agent relays these answers to the buyer as his own. Or he says that “his” lawyer has prepared the answer.

The agent also plays organizer. Once I worked with an agent and thanks to his help what could have been done by me alone in two months was done for a year! The delay in such cases is more than waiting because it's delaying the signing of the title deed. And this makes buying more risky than it needs to be.

Many agents don't know how things work. For example they don't know what it takes to assemble the documentation necessary for the transfer of property. How could one expect that an agent would know that it takes two weeks to get a Tax evaluation certificate from the municipality if the same agent has no clear idea what this certificate is! And getting a Tax evaluation certificate is a routine most Bulgarians obtain it themselves, no jurist is needed here.

The agents have a lot of delusions. Some of them think that a preliminary contract reserves the property; that signing of a title deed transfers it; that everything is surely o. k if a notary has no objection to sign the title deed; that a foreigner whose company has bought land in Bulgaria owns himself this land and so on. By law no special training is required of the agents. And actually no special training is needed because the law never envisaged that some property agents will assume the role agents here have unofficially assumed. This ignorance would not be a problem if the agent doesn't meddle in the lawyer's business and doesn't hinder him to give the buyer a straight picture. However it is not in the agent's interest to disengage himself because it would become clear that he is not really needed. An agent may be careless about the securities, but he is diligent about the impressions. There's one thing he is good at and that's advertising. Thus receiving distorted picture is what the client pays for. The agent knows how to play on his client's emotions. He tells him what the latter wants to hear: that he has nothing to worry about as the agent worries for him. However if something is too good to be true, it probably is!