Today in Russia, all transactions for the purchase and sale, rental of real estate occur with the help of realtors. Accordingly, it has become a profitable business. Not everyone has the time to independently collect all the papers, conclude contracts and go through dozens of offices a day. It is not surprising that everyone will say that it is much better to pay money to a specialist, saving time and nerves. Unfortunately, from time to time we encounter disappointment, as realtors cheat. Moreover, they have more than enough ways to do this. Today we’ll talk about what you need to pay attention to in order not to become a victim of fraudulent schemes, not to overpay and not to be left without your home.
The pursuit of profit
The cost of assistance in organizing various real estate transactions is quite high, from 2% to 9% of the price of the apartment itself. Amounts are rather big. Since realtors are deceiving and why do they need it, because the profit is already rather big? Let's figure out who pays for the services of a specialist or agency? That's right, the citizen who turned to him for help. And to increase the size of his remuneration, a realtor can resort to all kinds of fraud. Some of them may seem obvious, others, on the contrary, with complex and sophisticated schemes.
Bait or bait
This is the easiest option of how realtors deceive. In this case, an advertisement for the sale of an apartment with good parameters is published. This is already a somewhat hackneyed trick that customers who have had to work with similar agencies are well aware of. However, every time I meet an attractive offer, I want to believe that the last time it was just a coincidence. Suddenly, you're lucky now. No - because realtors are cheating. If you call the indicated number, the specialist will inform you that this apartment has already been sold and will offer to consider similar offers. But in fact this housing either does not exist, or it has never been put up for auction.
Too attractive price
This trick is not new either. To attract as many potential buyers as possible, the price is specifically indicated an order of magnitude lower. Since realtors are deceiving when selling an apartment with knowledge of the matter, it is rather difficult to present them with something. In a personal meeting, you will be announced that the price does not include a few more points, so the final figure will be higher. It’s not worth specifying that we can talk about this at the very last stages of the transaction. The desire to buy cheaper is understandable, but the acquisition of housing is clearly not the option.
Lower cost of services
And we continue to talk about how realtors deceive when selling an apartment. Their services cannot be free, therefore, a prerequisite for cooperation is the conclusion of an agreement. It will be written in it in percentage terms how much you will have to pay for the services provided. The announcement may indicate a minimum threshold, that is, 2% of the cheapest apartment sold through this agency. Do not take a realtor’s word for word, first carefully study the contract, and only then put your signature. Then you will know exactly how much you must give in the end.
Fulfillment of obligations in full
This is another option, as realtors deceive customers. And again we appeal to the need to carefully study the contract. The standard form implies a condition on the need for the agency to provide the client with several housing options suitable for the parameters indicated by him. This is the footage, district, floor, cost. Most often, the client is offered to inspect five objects, and an act is drawn up for each of them.
What does an unscrupulous employee of the agency do? He can draw up acts of inspection or refusal of the client from the options provided without his knowledge. Such actions are illegal, that is, the realtor did not fulfill his obligations and violated the terms of the contract.
And again we read the contract
This time we suggest paying attention to the obligations of the parties. It would not be so easy to deceive us if we were at least a little literate in legal terms. Most of us simply sign the contract, with a maximum of a glance over the amount of payment for services and checking the details of the parties. Therefore, it is important to know how realtors deceive sellers. No complicated schemes are required, just a few sentences are removed from the text of the contract, and the responsibility of the parties changes dramatically.
If you are waiting for certain actions to search for potential buyers of your property from a realtor, and he does nothing, do not rush to assume that he is violating the terms of the contract. The organization could go for a trick and simply not indicate important services in the text of the document. For example, if the contract does not contain a clause on the collection of documentation for processing a purchase and sale transaction, the seller himself will search for the necessary securities.
To whom and how much to pay?
Since realtors are deceiving when selling real estate both sellers and buyers, it is imperative to be careful and carefully weigh each step. When the parties have agreed to conclude a transaction, a preliminary contract of sale is drawn up. In this case, the transfer of an advance or a deposit is agreed. In practice, this amount is equal to the amount of remuneration of the realtor. That is, the buyer actually pays the transaction for the seller.
There are two points here. First, the agency can take payment from the seller too, after which the buyer will remain for a long time at a loss why he overpaid the extra 70,000 rubles. The second option - in case of cancellation of the transaction, it will be almost impossible to return this amount.
Pay for your peace of mind
We all want the deal to go quickly and without any problems. And for this it is important that the documents are in perfect order. And the prospect that the real owner will appear tomorrow and begin to claim the rights to the apartment is not at all encouraging. Therefore, quite often, clients request a service from a real estate agency such as checking the legal purity of a transaction. Of course, they expect that the specialist will check all the documentation, make inquiries to certain authorities, that is, they will receive complete information about the property, owner and buyer. So all participants in the transaction receive a guarantee that it is safe. But in practice, specialists are too lazy to do such a great job, and they are limited to checking the authenticity of the documents provided and studying the archival certificate or extract from the house book. That is, this is another option, as realtors deceive customers when selling an apartment. They just sell you a non-existent service.
Raise bids
Sometimes customers decide that it is much better to find a single agent according to the recommendations and use his services. This is justified in a number of cases, because agencies specifically teach various schemes in order to attract as many people as possible and get the maximum profit. For example, three advances were brought for one apartment. Do you think people will immediately be told that a deal is already being drawn up for this property? Nothing like this. Everyone will accept the money. And then they will call customers and tell them that the seller has changed his mind, but if you pay 100, 200, 300 000, then he is quite ready to continue processing the transaction.
Dishonest clients
Indeed, agents often have to deal with a situation where they are trying to underpay commissions or not pay anything at all. All people want to save money, which means to refuse services at any stage of the transaction. At the same time, the agent worked honestly, drove in his car, showed different apartments, wasted time. And now the seller and the buyer decide that the realtor did nothing and they do not need at all.
Demanded service, rental housing
While we were talking about sales transactions. However, it is much more often that such assistant organizations turn to a person to quickly find an apartment suitable for housing. And the problems here are also more than enough. If a person is arranged for housing, he pays for the services of the agency, then the cost of a monthly stay, and also pays for the last month, as a guarantee that he will not run away with keys and household items. He settles, does the cleaning, sometimes even starts a small repair, if necessary, and after three days the owner comes and offers to move out, because his son is getting married, circumstances have changed, the apartment is for sale or something else.
And again free cheese
That is, such tempting offers that you simply can’t get past. The hand itself reaches for the phone to call. The answer will not be original, this apartment has already been rented out, but there is another one, even better, but at a market price. Let's look at how realtors cheat when renting an apartment.
There are several factors to consider. There is an average price for the region, which everyone will adhere to. If the cost is lower, then there is a "catch". Or the apartment is for sale and you will be put up immediately as soon as there is a buyer. Either it is rented only for the summer period, while the owners are in the country, or an advance payment is required immediately for 12 months. But these are more harmless options. There is a chance to get into outright scammers.
News agencies
We are talking about how realtors deceive when renting, but we could not get past this topic either. This is an organization that often hides in a small office or works in a private apartment. Clients are offered informational assistance. That is, for a certain price you will be given a list of contacts of owners who rent apartments at attractive prices. The client pays about 5,000 rubles and receives a set of phone numbers. For persuasiveness, the manager calls one of them and makes an appointment. The client is going to a meeting, but no one is waiting for him there. Calling the entire list, he understands that there are no people who rent out housing at all, either the information is outdated or the prices are completely different. No complaints are accepted at the office, because when you receive the list of telephones, you have already signed the contract and confirmed that you received the service in full and are satisfied with everything.
Where to look for help?
Finally, I want to discuss another important issue. What to do if realtors cheated? First of all, write a complaint or complaint addressed to the agency management. Indicate in the appeal text the reasons for dissatisfaction, as well as the clauses of the contract that were violated by an unscrupulous specialist. If a written response has not been received within 10 days, then you can submit a statement of claim to the court.
The second case, if the realtors deceived. Where to contact if you have received money, but did not provide the promised service? Feel free to write a statement and bring it to the police or the prosecutor. Employees will be required to verify information about the crime and take action.
Some tips
Of course, lack of time contributes to the fact that we turn to realtors. Let me cry, but everything will be done quickly and without unnecessary nerves, the client thinks. And everything will really be so, if only you can choose a good agency on the market that values its reputation. Do not forget that no matter what recommendations you receive, no one will exempt from the need to carefully check documents and weigh the information received.
The conclusion of the contract is not a formal procedure, but a clear delineation of responsibilities and duties. If something in this document is unclear, you can take it home and study it with a lawyer. In any case, we must remember that they can only deceive us if we give this opportunity. And, of course, it is worthwhile to cautiously study too tempting offers. It is possible that you are just unbelievably lucky, but in most cases this is just a realtor trick.