No commission? What about the Bulgarian market
It seems that the selling rules and tactics that are valid all over the world are not applied well in Bulgaria and are more an advertisement trick rather than a working practice. In the United States and some other countries, the entire commission is paid by the buyer and is usually officially included in the selling price. The size of that commission is known to all parties of the deal and it is split between the real estate agent of the seller and the real estate agent of the buyer. This system however, could be only applied if a certain property is offered by only one agent. This property is placed in a system and is available to see by all other real estate agents that have clients willing to purchase a property.
In Bulgaria this system is not possible to be used yet. This may become possible when the new Property Register starts working well but it will take time. Thus the system that applies the “no commission from the buyer rule” is usually applied for those properties that come from long-term partners, developers and investors who have proven themselves through the years. The market is now filtering out the numerous real estate companies and agents in Bulgaria, and those that are most qualified, best certified and most dynamic will survive. These would be those real estate agencies that are usually based in Sofia and have numerous branches all over the country. They have very informative, easy to work with websites with information that is updated on a daily basis, friendly staff that is well-informed and ready to help or find a specialist who can answer the questions of the potential buyer.
The buyers on the other side are split into two main groups. One of the groups comprises of those buyers who are looking to get the lowest possible price and are ready to vault over the agency and thus not to pay the commission due. This group is not as strong as it used to be as the buyers are slowly realizing that they could do better with the help of a broker, who can negotiate a better price, find a more suitable offer and make the necessary document research right. The second group comprises of the buyers who know they can do much better with an experienced agency and are aware that they are paying for a long-collected and know-how.
