Because of the strong demand for properties in Mallorca, and real estate agents capturing properties to sell, we can affirm that the real estate market has become a “jungle”, not at all safe if you do not go hand in hand with a professional who will exclusively defend your interests.
When we adopt the idea that we are going to buy a property, we find ourselves in a moment of euphoria and illusion that can lead us to make mistakes.
Nowadays, due to internet, we live in an information era. Information about everything, or rather, almost everything, can be found on the internet. Even if you want to buy a house in Mallorca, you have a multitude of real estate portals where an infinite number of properties for sale are published. Therefore, the first step in the buying process could be to search for properties on the internet. However, have you ever stopped to think about what information is correct? There are many advertisements for properties that do not really exist or if they do exist, they are not for sale or the information published does not correspond to reality. There is no doubt that the internet and social networks can be a place to search and find good professionals, but not for what they publish, but for the services they actually provide.
Once we have discarded the internet search, we could decide to visit a traditional real estate agency. It is a moment of happiness nd excitement because they are going to show us properties, and with the excitement, surely we have not stopped to think that these real estate agents manage properties on behalf of their clients (the sellers) who pay them a commission if they get a buyer. Do you really believe that a real estate agent is going to take the trouble to search in the entire property market for the house you really want? Is it not more logical to think that the properties they are going to offer you are the ones they have in their management portfolio? It is true that it may happen that one of the properties they have under management is the house of your dreams. Let’s imagine for a moment that this is the case. Do you think that the agent is going to be transparent with you regarding all the matters related to that property, if his client is the seller, who is in turn the one who is going to pay him a commission? And what about the price? It would be naive to think that this real estate agent is going to help us negotiate the price in our favour, or in other words to buy the house at the best price.
We are not saying that estate agents do not do their job, but that their clients are the sellers and not us, the buyers.
Searching for and selecting a property is not an easy task. We all know that one neighbourhood or area is not the same as another, and one street or another within the same neighbourhood can be very different. The orientation of the house, the neighbours, the existence of noise, or the installations and constructive elements of the house, can determine that a house may seem ideal in the beginning, but becomes a bad choice later.
In order to have a fair balance between the seller and the buyer, there must be a professional real estate expert and a lawyer who represents and defends the buyer exclusively, even before the property search begins.
In Spain and in Mallorca, the only official Association that guarantees that a real estate agent will exclusively and decisively represent and defend the interests of their client, BUYER or INVESTOR, is AEPSI: Asociación Española de Personal Shopper Inmobiliario (Spanish Association of Real Estate Personal Shoppers).
AEPSI is equivalent to NAEBA in the United States or NAPB: The National Association of Property Buyers in Great Britain. Or Akkreditierte Käufervertreter (ABRs) in Germany.
HOUSETROPIA is a project that was born taking into account the great disadvantage and imbalance that exists between the seller and the buyer, as well as the lack of a real estate advisor to guide the buyer in the search for the perfect property. We know Mallorca well, we are members of AEPSI as Real Estate Personal Shopper and as lawyers.
