Tips about buying new apartments:3. What should be the criteria to choose an apartment? | Ilias Papageorgiadis’ blog for Real Estate in Romania (and not only)

Tips about buying new apartments:
3. What should be the criteria to choose an apartment?

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

(part 2, for part 1 please press here)

6. What’s with the neighborhood?

Many people do not see the “big picture”, when investing in a new property. They see just their apartment, but not where this will be located. Especially women tend to love a place (due to arrangement of spaces, finishings, furniture etc) without focusing at all at what is around. Obviously you will check if there are schools in the area, maybe a Mall or a commercial center too. But except these basics, do something else as well. Before buying, walk around the new property. Find some time, once in a morning and once in an evening. Maybe during the weekend too. Ask around, talk to your future neighbors. Find an excuse and open a discussion. Are they happy? What are their problems? Most likely their happiness will be yours too, the same with their problems.

7. Constructed sq.m. and useful sq.m. are two completely different stories. And don’t forget your right on quota from the land where the building is built.

The old Romanian apartments are not measured by useful or built sq.m., there is just one surface, which is the useful one. The built one is not measured, because at the Communistic period the State was the one who undertook the loss of all common spaces in the building. So, if you want to compare the price of a new apartment with the price of

an old one, you should keep in mind that a new apartment contains much more than the old.

If you buy a property by loan, your bank will remind you that you also have rights on the land where the building is located. If you happen to buy paying cash, don’t forget this quota. You may find it secondary nowadays, but in case you don’t have it, it can be considered as serious missing part of your property’s title and your apartment’s value is decreased. (Needless to say that without the quota if the building collapses, no matter why, you remain with the furniture and the bathtub…)

8. Staircases, elevator and interior areas. The “make up”

If you see them in bad condition, it usually gives you a clear impression about what you should expect upstairs, at your apartment. Are the staircases clean? Are there any broken glasses somewhere? What about the collection of garbage? Does the place smell or not?

I am very scared of several old elevators though. I really think you should be quite suspicious if you want to buy an apartment at the 5^th floor or higher and the elevator looks like the ones they used during the previous world economic crisis (1929).

A building without elevator? It is a matter of taste. Not the taste of the majority for sure.

9. Parking lots and storage areas: We need them more than we admit

There are many people who appear “not interested” in the parking lots. “Yes, it is important but I don’t have sufficient budget”. But the reality is that we all need a secure place to park our cars. In the new blocks, inside the project (ideally). In the old ones, you should ask the help of the seller so as to rent a parking lot by the municipality. Don’t underestimate this issue. There are neighborhoods of Athens where people spend 30 - 45 minutes to find parking after their work. Romania follows Greece’s footsteps, so…

Don’t underestimate the storage areas too. All of us need extra space for some things we don’t need. They should be paid at low prices and they are useful to every end user.

10. Why does the owner sell?

“I don’t care, I just want to buy”. No, this is not correct. Find out why he wants to sell and you will have half of the answer about why you want to buy. Don’t consider it obvious, you may be surprised by the reasons he will let you know. If one of them is an obvious lie, then you should have second thoughts too. I know someone who wanted to sell because the building had a crazy administrator, he described him as “psycho”. So, would you like to buy his property and test your nerves too?

On Monday, 08.03.2010

Tips about buying new apartments:

4. What does a building tell us about the apartment we want to buy?