Our team
Besides Robert Snapper, we have Enid F. Hut who is the office manager and also responsible for the Management department and furthermore deals with most of the legal matters related to real estate. She is born in South-Africa, has the Dutch Nationality but has been living in Portugal since 1977 and speaks fluently Portuguese, English and Dutch and masters some German.
Dennis L. Snapper is an assistant in sales and deals with real estate as well as rentals. Furthermore he is in charge of marketing and public relations and maintains our web-sites. He has the Dutch Nationality but has been living his whole life in Portugal. He is fluent in English, Dutch and Portuguese.
This year the team was re-inforced with João Vieira, a Portuguese national who will also be an assistant-sales person, mostly dealing with the Portuguese market. João also speaks English.
Estate Agents and who to deal with
For many years, estate agents did not have a good reputation in Portugal. There are many reasons for this. The main one that in the seventies and eighties there was no legislation in place dealing with this profession and anybody could call themselves an estate agent, which many did and in fact still do!
During the eighties new legislation was introduced for the very first time. This legislation was revised March 16th 1999 with stricter new rules to protect the buyer and seller.
New legislation come ino effect in August 2004.Our main advice to you as a buyer:
Do not deal with non-licensed estate agents, as it could become an expensive experience!
How to recognize a qualified estate agent
Real Estate agents are licensed by the state after they have fulfilled many requirements and have proven to be complying with all requirements set in the new law. This means that they should be capable of running a business and have the professional capacities of dealing with real estate matters. In order to get a license they have to pass exams first. Each agent gets a registration number from the Ministry issuing the licenses. This Department is called IMOPPI and the license carries their stamp and the number of the agent, which in our case is 1206-AMI. The license is only valid for 3 years and has to be renewed prior to expiring. It will be only renewed on proof that you have kept your knowledge up to date or have to do a new exam. As from 2003 onwards, all estate agents are only allowed to have a license in the name of a limited company in order to further protect client’s interest. As from 1-1-2004 , even all estate agents who were licensed before March 1998 had to go back to school. In fact that was the majority of the approx. 5,500 licenses been issued to agents. In the Algarve some 500 licensed agents operate, the majority situated in the centre of the Algarve however in N.E. part of the Algarve there is not one officially registered agent. You as buyers and sellers are now protected by law and each agent has to take out liability insurance and has to place a bond with the Ministry. Lagos has according to the latest figures 44 licensed agents and the Algarve 443.
Each agent should have a complaint book available.
Task of the agent and their fees
As in many other countries estate agents are involved in selling properties on behalf of the property owners, and therefore finding a potential buyer or tenant. When acting for the buyer the agent’s duties is to find the ideal property.
However, the commission is normally paid by the seller although the potential buyer is his client as well. In other countries, this is considered as a conflict of interest but that is the way things are organized now.
The buyer will only pay in case the agent acts exclusively on his behalf in finding a property if he does not have something suitable on his books.
The majority of the agents in the Algarve charge 5% + VAT and that is our normal fee as well for properties in the lower price bracket. In case of higher values we are willing to negotiate individual terms depending on individual situations. Sometimes exclusivity is given for a certain period.
Commissions in Portugal are in general higher compared to other countries in Northern Europe, this is due to the fact that normally one does not have exclusivity, which means no cure no pay. In general all publicity expenses are for the account of the agent, unless agreed otherwise. It therefore is common practise that you can see the same property advertised with different agents. They all should of course have the same selling price although that is not always the case due to various reasons.
Expenses for the buyer
Like anywhere else, there are costs involved in the purchase of a property for the buyer. See the special info sheet of Cost of Buying and Selling on my web site.
• Transfer tax now called I.M.T. but previously known as SISA
• Notary cost
• Registration cost
• Legal expenses
• Some costs to connect Utilities.
Real Estate Organizations
The biggest and basically only National organisation is called the APEMIP and has over 3,000 members. They are based in Lisbon as 80% of the national estate agents operate in the Greater Lisbon and Porto area.
APEMIP is a merge between APEMI and AMIP, which was based in North of Portugal.
The Algarve also had their own regional organisation, which was called the AMA, but due to lack of interest is not active at the moment.
Why use us?
THE SELLERS:
One would expect that a seller is interested to work with a reliable and knowledgeable agent who can protect and defend his interests. Besides looking at the object owners want to sell, one of the first tasks of the agent is to establish if the property is in the possession of all legal documentation, and also to see if the registered details are in fact in line with reality. This is very often not the case, especially not with older properties. This is essential for a sale to proceed smoothly.
The seller has to provide the agent the following documents:
• Caderneta Predial Urbana and/or Rustico (these are documents issued by the local tax department describing the object and the rateable value it has in their books)
• Certidão de Teor, which is the registration obtained from the Conservatório.
• Licença de Habitação or Utilização (Habitation License)
• If possible, a floor plan of the house and location plan of the property.
• A copy of the Escritura – title deed when the seller bought or became owner.
• Other documents in case necessary for the sale.
MARKETING:
The seller obviously wants to know how the agent is going to promote his property, in other words what his marketing strategy is.
Mainly it is our aim to reach a worldwide audience in buying property in Portugal although we have to say that the majority of our clients come from the following countries:
• United Kingdom (has always been the greatest interest group)
• Holland (most likely the third biggest due to the fact that Dutch is also spoken in our office)
• Portugal (we generally work with more with Portuguese sellers than buyers but we hope to change that)
We've put them in this order as this is the reality in our case. We always have been dealing mostly with British and Dutch potential buyers, although we hope that the Portuguese market will be growing rapidly now mortgages are available and the average Portuguese person will have more money to spend as salaries and wages are hoped to be in line with the rest of Europe in the future.
Have questions or comments on this article?
