Colombia Real Estate Fees

Terms and Conditions of My Services

3% for housing ( apartments, houses, urban lots, lofts) upon final value of the deal.

5% for commercial property ( Warehouses, commercial stores, farms, plots of land, rural land) upon final value of the deal..

Who pays the commission?

According to who request the brokerage service, real estate fees can be paid by seller, buyer or share by both of them. The only way to avoid paying a real estate fee is when the deal is made between direct parties.

When someone doesn’t want to pay for real estate fees, simply makes the deal by his own. People who go for this alternative are usually well experienced investors, who have made several transactions before. However, if you as a seller or buyer want to deal directly, keep in mind all the risks involved.

Just to mention an example. A lady came to me after realizing that the house she has bought 10 years back, was registered in someone else’s name . This happens this way because at the time the sale was registered, nobody checked the title certificate to be aware that the register’s office had typed wrong a single ID number. She discovered it 10 years later when she try to transfer the property to her sons. Luckly for her it took only eight months to fix the problem. Similar cases can take years of legal battles!

Unfortunately in Colombia there is not a strict regulation about the real estate profession. Whoever can create a real estate agency by selling his/her own house. That’s why I’ve found really bad comments at some forums from foreign people who had deal with no professional persons who give a completely bad image to the business.

I think that I’m not as many other real estate agents. In fact I consider my self more than a real estate agent, a market matchmaker. I connect buyers with sellers and use my knowledge and expertise to go through all the buying process. My value added and expertise is about everything you have readed in this website.

I try to be as clear as I can. You also know my personal details so my honesty and integrity is a stake. I don’t work just take advantage of the moment, my vision of service is in the long run. So for me the most important is to work honestly. That is my best legacy to my children. So if you decide to work with me, you can trust that you are in good hands.

My job ethics is the same regardless of the part I’m representing. My job as a consulting goes further of just a commission. That’s why I consider my remuneration as professional fees more than a commission rate.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF MY SERVICES

As Buyer's Representative

Normally BUYER must pay total commission (whether the 3 or the 5 per cent).

This should mean an adjusting downward of the final price, because certainly the seller would be saving that real estate fees. However, in most of the cases, this is not such obvious, and it must be negotiated with the seller.

For my past experiences and to avoid that buyer should pay all the real estate fees additional to the final price, I work in the following way:

BUYER only pays 1% over the final deal, as buyer representative’s fees.

I try to negotiate the difference with sellers and developers, in order to complete the normal commission rate.

In any case, this would be stated clearly before signing a purchase agreement.

Using my services as your representative, gives you the following benefits:

• Assisting you with law and tax paperwork requirements during the whole buying process.
• Organizing, negotiating and monitoring the financing of your investment
• Interpretation and translation of documents involved in the transaction.
• Independence. I don’t depend on any developer or seller and stay free to offer whatever project may be best for you.
• Give you my professional advice about properties that match with your requirements. Keep in mind that is a professional opinion and not a personal one. Choosing a property is a very personal experience. What you like, may not appeal to me, or visa verse .You are the one who evaluate and makes the final choice.
• My expertise and knowledge of the local market. I can have access to information provided by local organizations as well as services designed exclusively for real estate professionals.

I believe that a documented and informed decision turns into a long lasting and fruitful relationship with my clients.

CONDITIONS:
I used to ask for an advanced fee, just to make sure about buyer’s commitment. But I’m aware of the risk to send money to a person you don’t know personally, and even if you are not coming to Colombia yet!.

So I’m not going to ask you for advanced fees, deposits or money transfers.

However, If you decide to use my services as your representative, I will ask you to comply strictly with this two things:

1. Exclusiveness. In this way we create a commitment between both parts. I know that you are a serious buyer and you are not going to make me waste my time and efforts.

2. Seriousness. If you are not sure yet about what you want to buy, take your time to analyze your decision. Once you confirm by email your request, I assume that you are really going to buy a property.

Do you want me to represent you as a Buyer? Send me an email with your request.

To provide you more efficiently my real estate services, please fill in also our buyer’s service request form, giving us the most accurate information you can provide about property preferences.

Include in the general comments any other specific information not included in the form. In this way my results will be more effective. Once you can come to Colombia, you don’t waste your time watching properties that do not fulfill your expectations.

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Representing the Sellers

Our value added to Sellers is that we receive pre-qualified buyers, people contact us because they really want to buy a property in Colombia. We save buyer’s time and we offer all the information they need about the buying process.

My services
In this case I charged normal commission rate once the property is sold, and it has to be paid 100% by the SELLER.

If you want me to act as your representative to sale your property or project in BuyColombiaRealty.com, please contact me and I send you back an email, in which you can send the following information ( I don’t post my email here for anti-spam reasons):

• Property Location
• General characteristics ( area size, description of the zone, particular advantages, etc)
• List of features (# bathrooms, # bedrooms, amenities, etc)
• Price (USD or COP at most)
• Minimum 3 photos up to whatever you want, size not bigger than 100 Kb.

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If you also want to show your property in Online video, throughout our network of international video sites in the U.S, Brazil, Central America and Europe, please click here.

As Intermediary Between Buyer And Seller.

When this happen, there must be an agreement between buyer and seller to appoint someone to act as intermediary in order to expedite the buying process.

Once I'm authorized by both parties, my job as an intermediary is to become the proper channel to communicate the wishes of both parts; to help to negotiate a fair and satisfactory price to both of them; to give my professional advice about issues that can be found on title, the sales contract; to verify the conditions of the property and to communicate everything related to the sale to both parties without no favoritism to either party .

In this case real estate fees or commission rate is split 50-50 by Buyer and Seller.

The Commission Plan used and the peso amount of real estate fees is detailed in the Purchase agreement or Sales Contract which is signed by all parties: Buyer, Seller, and real estate agents involved in the sale. Commissions should be payable 50% when signing the purchase agreement, and 50% at time of closing with the sign of the deed, in cash, or certified bank check.

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Do you want me to represent you as Intermediary? Send me an email with your request

The Value Of The Word

For me the "value of the word" is also important. Sounds like ingenuous and old fashion these days, but that’s the way I was raised.

Not only Colombians try to find the way to scam other people. Non-ethical people can be found all over the world.

That’s why It could happen that for any reason a Buyer and Seller that have been introduced by BuyColombiaRealty.com site, agree to make a deal between themselves in order to avoid paying our legally entitled commission. Even though there are several legal procedures to block the sale, or delay the signing of the deed in order to comply with agreed (and it’s our choice to opt for them), our penalty is more simple as effective.

Internet is becoming less an anonymous source. Social networking like facebook, Xing, and a lot of other important sites gives opportunity for people to be known.

So without exception, we will make sure to let every one know through the net and in all related business forums, the dishonest way this kind of people use to make businesses.

And obviously they will not be able to do businesses with us never again. They are the ones who lose in the long run. It’s not nice to talk about these things, but we’re living in a REAL world and not in a VIRTUAL world.

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