Selling property in Bulgaria - advice needed please

@lester081075

Welcome to the expat.com forum and good luck with your property sale!

I like (and have used several times) BulgarianProperties (dot com) as they are a large and reputable agent and deal with a lot of expats.  (And they deal with remote so, if you were feeling particularly lazy, you could just send them your keys, and do a POA at the Bulgarian Embassy in London.)

My understanding is the buyer pays the transaction costs (notary fees, transfer tax, and so on). But that real estate agent commission is separate, and typically they charge both the seller and the buyer.

I'm not sure there's much due diligence required on a sale, the buyer either has the money or doesn't. :-)

Officially, the notary will prepare the sale document (Notary Act), so you don't necessarily need a separate attorney. But some like the extra comfort of having someone check things over.

If you will be signing the Notary Act, then you should be receiving the money directly, and not much to worry about. But if you want to go back to the UK and give someone a POA to sign on your behalf, then that needs a bit of due diligence to decide who you trust to handle the money appropriately.

There's also a housing section here, I think it's free. So can't hurt to do a quick description with a few photos. Sveti Vlas is a nice location, so there might be some members interested.

Thank you very much -  this is great advice!

I the last 14 months we've bought five properties - two apartments, two garages and a parking space.  All of which we used the following services to complete the purchases...

Freelance estate agent, who worked with the mainstream estate agents

Independent solicitor

Independent translator (government registered)

The same Notary for all purchases

We would, undoubtedly, do the same if we were selling.

During our purchases we did meet some issues with one of the vendors - tried to alter plan drawings and entitlements! Our solicitor scorned her and put her right!

When we were looking for property, we experienced two issues that we didn't expect...   One vendor was trying to sell his property, without his wife's consent - the sale did not happen and we looked elsewhere.

Another vendor wanted to declare the property sale for much less than the actual price paid (common practice in Bulgaria, where vendors are trying to avoid tax) this sale did not happen either.

When you sell, you need to know you'll get the money, so, yes an independent solicitor is essential in my view.  Whether you employ a translator is up to you, but I did, as I can't read Bulgarian contracts, which are always issued for property sales. We paid 50 Leva each time we used her (twice per sale).

As for notaries, there are many. It would be a good idea to ask your solicitor to recommend one.

We bought a house in Dryanovets for £6K from an online site only to find out at  Byala Civic Centre that it was valued around £2,500.  Too far down the lane to object.  The agent then offered to renovate for £10K.  We refused.  If he'd scammed us on the price £10K for renovation was probably overpriced as well.  It is what it is I suppose.

@lesleyelalami what agent did you buy from please only we are looking at places at the moment  do you know roughly how much things cost ie bathroom suite are the expensive ?

@lesleyelalami

Any valuation at the municipality is just a valuation for property taxes, it doesn't necessarily correspond with the market value. There's certainly almost nothing available for 6k, let alone 2.5k.

It's a new country with strange new people and customs, so it can be tempting to assume everyone's a scammer and every deal is a scam. :-) But 6K for a village house doesn't sound bad, and nor does 10k to renovate it. But, of course, it depends on the exact state of the property, and the extent of the renovation.

Lesley, I'm sorry you've had a bad experience.  But I agree with what Gwyn said. Council tax value and sales price are very different things. It's a well known thing in Bulgaria to underestimate the price with with council to avoid paying tax. There are not a lot of houses available for less than 6k now, and those that are so low priced are likely to be in quite poor condition.

IMO, 10k for renovation may not be overpriced. It depends very much what was included, the size of the house, and the quality of the work. I would expect a 6K house would need almost everything doing, so a 10k renovation really doesn't sound excessive. Prices for both properties and building materials/ renovation work have risen significantly in the past few years.

I paid 7,500 GBP just for a new roof earlier this year, after shopping around with the help of my trusted Bulgarian neighbour to get the best price!