THE APARTMENT SALE ON ZAVADILKA HOUSING ESTATE IN THE CITY OF CESKE BUDEJOVICE

The sale of the apartment on Zavadilka housing estate in Ceske Budejovice is over. It was an incredibly rewarding real estate episode, which is worth sharing in detail. It shows that in the real estate market you can really encounter anything, that there is no shortage of coincidences, but that even if you keep believing, success will come sooner or later.

The background to the whole event is that at the turn of the year, a long-time friend approached me to ask if I would help her and her partner sell their apartment if they decided to do so. I agreed, of course, but had to wait a little longer for final instructions. The point of the sale was that the clients would use the proceeds to buy their dream house near their hometown of Jindrichuv Hradec. The final decision was made in February 2022 and the sale was given the green light. We put together the necessary materials with the team and shortly afterwards the sales process began. It should be noted that it was not as easy as it might have seemed at first, because even though it was a really beautiful apartment, it was already clear that the market conditions had begun to change through the conflict in Ukraine and through the rising interest rates on mortgages.

The first viewings went quickly, but we still couldn’t find the right buyer. To make matters worse, the ideal house to buy had already come up, but we needed to at least reserve the apartment for sale first to get things moving in the right direction. But that would be to avoid further entanglements. First, there was a similar apartment for sale in the same building that had a private garage. And a competing broker put it on the market for several hundred thousand cheaper. The only thing that could have flattered us was that, according to my home stager, he tried to copy the apartment’s refinement through its promotion, in order to further increase the chances of attracting more buyers besides dumping the price. Another pitfall would then seem to be that the house the clients wanted to buy was booked by someone else. But the last imaginary nail in the coffin was the news from the client’s employer who told her that he would not allow her to work from home after coming back from maternity leave, which she had originally counted on, and so her plans to buy a house in the Jindrichuv Hradec region fell apart. It was basically decided that if my clients were going to buy a house somewhere, it had to be in Ceske Budejovice and its surroundings, where prices are of course significantly higher than in the Jindrichuv Hradec area, for it to make sense.

And that’s why we had to meet to figure out what to do next. I asked myself in my mind whether it was worth selling further, since on the one hand the coveted property had been reserved, on the other hand we had to focus on a different and more expensive location, and on top of that the potential buyers at that moment probably preferred the cheaper flat next door, which is why the demand for ours had dropped. It didn’t seem as nice as the one I offered, but it must be admitted that price is what determines the speed of sale. But neither I nor the clients wanted to give up. They believed that there would be another house to buy, because that was the way it was supposed to be. And if not right away, they still had the option to go live with family after the sale and look for a house on the fly. And then I personally wanted to see it through at any cost to make their dream come true.

It didn’t take long before everything seemed to start moving in the right direction. As expected, the second broker booked the apartment, but this ironically played into our hands. I was contacted by a lady who was looking for an apartment for her son in Zavadilka location, while it was already too late for the competitors through the aforementioned reservation. So we arranged a viewing, which was to take place in a few days. In the meantime, the client called me that she and her partner had found another house to buy that was even better than the original one. And that if the apartment could be booked, they would book the house. However, I was instructed that it had to be done at the asking price and not a penny less because that was the only way they could finance the house. I have to admit that this put me in a difficult situation, but that is part of why clients hire me. After all, the whole point of the real estate business is to negotiate a sale on the best possible terms for clients. So, the challenge was clear. And it was finally fulfilled during the tour! And so it was that within about two weeks, everything turned around, we were able to book the apartment at the asking price, and the clients were still working on booking the house. We were also a bit lucky in terms of speed, as the buyers financed in cash. But there was still one tricky issue to resolve.

The original plan was that if the clients found a property to buy, they would transfer the mortgage from their flat to another family flat or possibly directly to a new property. But this would be purely up to the seller to allow this, as it is the seller alone who can place a charge on their property, as they are the owner of the property at the time. And certainly not every seller is willing to do so. After all, it makes sense, because the seller is mortgaging thieir property at the time, and if the entire success depends on the prospective buyers selling their property to buy another, there are risks of failing to sell. In short, anything is possible in the market, and even if it looks promising at first, it can cool down, as we have seen in recent weeks, or a buyer of a property on which everything depends can have a sudden accident… There are more of these possibilities and associated risks. But as mentioned, we were lucky enough to have the buyer finance the apartment on Zavadilka housing estate in cash. And since we had a signed reservation, a deposit and basically only needed to sign the purchase contract, the owner of the desired house agreed to transfer the pledge directly to his house. The fact that he was in a hurry to sell himself through other downstream plans also played a role, so it all came together as best it could. This essentially meant a dramatic acceleration of the whole process. Everything still needed to be handled correctly legally, but our wonderful attorney Hana Grinacova prepared an excellent new purchase agreement that captured everything so that each party was as secure as possible.

And what was next? My clients, the buyers of the Zavadilka apartment and the sellers of the house just had to sign the appropriate purchase agreement, which included a provision that the funds would be sent from one attorney’s escrow to the other instead of to the sellers’ account. I.e. in the “first round” the transfer of ownership from my clients to the buyers of the apartment on Zavadilka (our interested party) was dealt with and in the “second round” the transfer of ownership from the owner of the house to my clients. And after several weeks of waiting, everyone got what they had been waiting for. The buyer got a condo for her son in her preferred location, the home seller had the security of money, and my clients bought their dream home. In the end, everything went very smoothly for how much was going on. And I am able to move on again because of this incredible experience.

So, if you too have been thinking about selling your property or know of someone who has, do not hesitate to contact me at any time. Together we will find the most ideal solution and then I will make sure that you have to worry about anything at all!