FAQ

Selling does not only consist in promoting your product but also in knowing the needs and constraints of your interlocutor in order to be able to project the candidate.

These are all questions whose answers are important:

• Do they have the necessary budget?
• Do the potential buyers have to take out a credit? How much? Have they already consulted one or more banks? Do they have a good chance of obtaining a credit?
• Do they agree to consider refreshment works?
• What are the most important criteria for the candidate?
• What is their family composition ?
• What are their daily routes (schools, offices, etc.)?
• and so on

Can a seller :

• Be in the candidate's confidence?
• Follow the candidate, get him back on track?
• Defend the value of the property in comparison with other goods sold?
• Advise for credit and check the solvency?
• Screening candidates ?
• Advising in the drafting of the offer?
• Attract candidates by more than just the property itself (an estate agency offers other properties and therefore attracts more candidates)?
• Attract candidates who do not consult the Internet or who do not consult it very often (a real estate agency has a waiting room for candidates)?

They are many things that a real estate agency brings, which explains why the price obtained is better.

In addition, we have a set of properties for sale, many real estate ads and thus benefit from a real waiting room of potential candidates.

Does choosing well mean asking the right questions?

Some agencies will say that they have many clients waiting, that they have a client interested in your property or even that they already have the buyer. Why don't you ask the agency a few questions?

• Since when does your agency exist?
• What are you going to do for me on a daily basis? Specific actions and how can I verify it?
• How often and how will I be advised during the sale process?
• How many people will be visiting my property?
• Who can I contact if I have questions?
• Who is responsible for drawing up the preliminary sales agreement? How does this work?
• If I am not satisfied, who can I contact and what guarantees are there that I can be understood and that an intervention will take place to satisfy me? Do you have an external and independent quality service that I can use?
• What are you going to do to enhance my property?
• What publicity are you going to do and on which sites?
• What else can you do other than advertise on real estate sites?
• How do you manage several offers?
• If the agency claims to have an interested buyer: how can someone be interested since he has not visited? When can he come to visit?

You will then just have to compare and your choice will be made.

Our agency exists since 1981 and already benefits from a wide experience. The management has been in the family for 3 generations. We are part of a network of 190 agencies in Belgium and more than 10,000 worldwide.

Our strength? A close-knit, serene team of about ten people who care about your satisfaction and your legal security.

We offer:

• Enhancement of your property allowing to improve the attraction of the property and thus its obtained price (drone, dollhouse (3D), HDR technologies, Retouching, virtual home staging, etc);
• A marketing plan with :
  • Local site (immodewaele.be),
  • National website (century21.be)
  • International site (century21global.com), expressed in dollars and euros
  • Immoweb
  • Social networks (Facebook + Instagram + Youtube)
• Pre-selection of candidates on the basis of solvency, professional/family situation and search criteria
• Follow-up of your file 24/24 7/7 by our Intranet including: emails received/sent, tel. received/data, visits made with reports, visits to come, etc.
• Regular comprehensive intermediate reports
• A structure with a manager, office manager, office-manager assistants, real estate agents approved by the IPI
• Specialized and regularly trained experts
• Free legal assistance from professional lawyers
• Drafting of the lease or compromise of sale in consultation with the parties and their notary
• Experience, having regard to the number of years of practice
• A toll-free number 0800 135 29 (quality department at CENTURY 21's head office) if there is any problem to be solved.
• A permanence open on Saturdays
• And many other things, including our good mood.

You have access to our INTRANET (available 24/7) with all the information you need: visit reports, emails sent/received, calls made, schedule of visits, next visits already scheduled, etc.

Of course, our office manager as well as the adviser in charge of the follow-up of your file will also be able to answer all your questions.

We offer you tools to enhance the value of your property. From professional photography to video, drone and virtual reality to virtual tour. These tools improve the presentation of your property and are an incentive for the potential buyer.

We also organize "Open House" days to boost the sale of your property.

Our properties are also highlighted on the national CENTURY 21 website as well as the international website, expressed in $ and €. The international site is consulted from abroad.

We do not forget the social medias on which we can share your property.

We take care of all the administrative steps necessary for the sale of your property.

We work closely with your notary, who will also look after you.

Simply follow the sales process and select the best offer.

You are guaranteed to benefit from an accidental death insurance of the purchaser (physical pers.) up to 250,000 euros. This insurance is free and is taken out by our agency.

This will allow, in case of accidental death, the heirs to have the financial capacity to complete the sale.

Of course they are justified because the price obtained will always be better with an intermediary.

Don't forget that putting on sale is free. No fee is due until the property is sold at a price that satisfies you.

Each property is unique! Interior decoration, views, age of equipment, etc. It's like a work of art in a nutshell.

Take the example of a piece of art, where do you think it will sell best? In an antique shop, a sales room or through a private ad?

In an antique shop or auction house of course!!!

There will be a commission only if it is sold and the price obtained is appropriate. This is also the case for a property where the intervention of an intermediary is decisive.

The sale of a property sometimes leads to the nightmare of having to completely empty the property of many worthless, bulky items and clean it up. We are used to seeing sellers facing these difficult situations.

Our advisor will help you prepare for it and offer you a "Vide-Grenier" cheque, which will provide you with significant support.

Of course!

Moving is a stressful moment. The purchase of crates, crating, dismantling of certain furniture, use of a "LIFT", transport, etc. Our adviser will help you with it and offer you a "Moving Voucher". It provides you with services as part of your move to Belgium.

The enhancement of your property will sometimes involve alterations, virtual home staging, etc..

Won't a clean, shiny, depersonalized car sell better than the car that is presented while it is still in use?

Our advisor will be able to recommend improvements and/or actions to be undertaken to make your property as attractive as possible. He will even be able to offer you a "Chèque travaux", which offers the services to make the property more attractive.

The value of an asset is not the value that is given before it is sold. The value of the property is the price obtained for it. There are so many parameters that can intervene in a price.

Let's take some examples:

1. a candidate who has just made an offer on another property and was not selected because another candidate offered more.
   When he takes an interest in another property, he will remember this experience and will be reluctant to negotiate the price too much or even sometimes will no longer discuss it, fearing that he will miss out on his purchase.
2. a candidate lives in Brussels where the market is significantly higher. He searches in our region and discovers a property that he likes and for which the price is high. Nevertheless, compared to the Brussels market which he knows better, this price does not shock him and he does not make comparisons or seek advice. Above all, he does not want to lose the property and does not delay in making an offer at a higher price than other offers or the estimated price.

In these 2 examples, and there may be many others, the property ends up being sold at a better price than initially estimated.

Where's the mistake? In the person who initially estimated it or in the buyer who finally paid dearly for the property?

In conclusion, it is important to remember that a property valuation is an opinion, a prediction but which will be confronted with a reality.

The important thing is therefore not the estimated value but rather the final price!

Many owners encounter this difficulty in being able to acquire another property to replace a property for sale.

How to approach such a project if you don't have the financial capacity to buy first and sell later?

Putting your property up for sale also means finding another suitable property. It is therefore necessary to research actively and to visit many properties for sale.

What if a property appeals to you and you want to acquire it? Will you dare to sign a provisional sale agreement without knowing how you are going to finance this purchase since your property is not sold?

You're thinking of selling first but what if you don't find a suitable property afterwards?

It's the snake that bites its own tail.

Let's look at the two scenarios:

1) I do not wish to sell until I have found it.

In this case, you will undertake research and visits until you finally find the property that suits you.

It will then be up to you to sign the preliminary sales agreement after having paid the deposit (usually 10%). Then, the usual maximum period of 4 months will elapse to sign the deed of sale and pay the balance of the price.

You will immediately begin the sale of your property by praying to find a buyer as soon as possible and at the expected price to be able to financially assume your purchase. Therein lies the problem.

You are in fact engaged in a purchase based on an assumption of price that you hope to obtain from your property. What happens if you can't get that price and you overvalued your property? What happens if your property takes a long time to sell and your future buyer will only pass the deed of sale after your deed of purchase. As time goes by, won't you be put under pressure and inclined to end up accepting a price offer that is lower than the desired price?

This last question can be answered when looking for a bridging loan! It is a credit that the bank will grant you under certain conditions (with the costs that this implies). This credit will be reimbursed from the proceeds of the sale of your property and if your property has not sold at the expected price to complete your financing, it will be up to you to find additional financing.

2) I prefer to sell before committing to a purchase

Putting up for sale does not mean you've sold yet.

Putting the property up for sale before you buy will allow you to take the necessary time and only commit to the sale if you get the price you want.

In addition, the sales process will teach you a lot about your property, the perception of the candidates, the estimates mentioned by the candidates and will help you direct your search.

During this time of the sale, you will use your time to visit other properties.

If your property is the subject of an offer that suits you before you have found another property, either you do not accept it, if you are not reassured by your search, or you accept it, knowing that there will be a first delay for the drafting of a preliminary sales agreement and then the classic maximum period of 4 months.

If you have sold your property, you will have the advantage of knowing the price and thus be able to budget your purchase with the greatest precision.

What if the deed of sale approaches and you can't find it? One solution is to rent a property while waiting to buy. By renting, you will easily find a property and during this rental period, you will be able to search serenely, without pressure, for another property.

If, on the other hand, you should fall under the spell of a property while it is not yet sold, you will at least have the advantage of already being in the process of being put up for sale and of benefiting from a lot of information from potential buyers (estimations mentioned, perceptions, etc.)