This material was written by Igor Tulkanov, a practicing realtor. You can ask your questions in the comments, Igor will answer them.
Fraud is gradually losing relevance, due to the ease of identifying scammers, but so far some have fallen for their tricks.
The most common method of fraud mainly works with visitors who do not understand the peculiarities of the real estate market, and who want to save money on finding an apartment. You pay money in advance for getting "information" about new apartments that appear, or, alternatively, about getting the number of a grandmother who rents an apartment in the center for 20 thousand rubles, and as a result, the "grandmother" is sick, then tired, and leaves the meeting with you within a couple of days, and the information to you no one provides. When trying to return the money, the scammers refer to the contract, which states that they do not owe anything) The easiest way to deal with such fraud is to write a statement to the police.
The second most common option is renting an apartment to several tenants at once. It is easily calculated by the fact that you are asked to leave a deposit / deposit / pay money in advance, without signing a contract or a pledge receipt, motivated by a "queue of people" standing behind you and waiting for the opportunity to withdraw).
Knowing how the Moscow real estate market works, such scams are easy to identify. For example, severely understated offers for no good reason (sale, short-term rental) are a bait for scammers, or an attempt by the agency to attract attention to itself and force you to call. Which brings us to the next point.
The main resource for finding an apartment in Moscow is the Cian website (cian.ru ). With it, you can easily determine the price spread in the area of interest.
Also, knowing the market, you can easily filter out inadequate offers that are above the market, thereby a couple of hours on the Internet can save you several tens of thousands of rubles in the long run.
Knowing the prices in the area of your search, you can start searching for suitable offers. Be sure to check with the agents all the details about the apartment, because the data may be outdated or inaccurate.
Do not forget to specify the price. Due to the current situation (when the owner works with 5-10 agencies, trying to deliver faster), many agents reduce the cost in order to be higher in the search, and, for example, in the elite segment, the spread can reach tens of thousands of rubles.
After calling the options that suit you and making sure that the information provided in the ads is true, do not forget to specify the amount of the agency fee. Many of the agents, trying to earn as much as possible, put an unreasonably high percentage. If the apartment you are interested in is offered by several agencies at once, choose the 2 lowest percentages (if any), and focusing on the fact that you can go to a competitor, ask for a discount. It is likely that you will get it.
In the elite segment, agents are increasingly refusing commissions from clients because expensive apartments are rented out much less often, and it is better to rent an apartment after receiving a commission from the owner than not to rent it at all because of an unreasonably high commission.
Finding an apartment with an agent is not a method for everyone. Tune in to the fact that you will not be able to save money. The main benefits for you are saving time, access to the agent's knowledge, assistance in the execution of contracts, consultations on negotiations and advice on issues that arise along the way.
There are two options here – ask a familiar agent to give you advice, then search for options, make appointments, prepare a contract and negotiate yourself. Or, if you value your time and nerves, hire a realtor. Often, at the end of the whole process, the value of the time and nerves spent exceeds the commission that agents ask for their work.
In short, the search for an apartment without an agent fits into a simple scheme:
The Moscow market is characterized by a strong spread of demand depending on the price of an apartment. For an apartment on the outskirts, worth 20 thousand on the same evening after its appearance, there may be a queue of 10 people, while an apartment for 80 can stand on the market for several months. This spread is due to the fact that there are a very large number of visitors in Moscow who need cheap housing, but with the increase in cost, the purchasing power is greatly reduced.
The quality of service increases in proportion to the cost, in the segment of cheap real estate, it is not uncommon to meet rudeness on the part of both the realtor and the owner, but with the increase in the cost of apartments, this comes to naught.
In cheap apartments, the owner does not need to look for clients himself, so the owner never pays a commission to the realtor, the realtor's work is paid by the client renting the apartment, it is much more difficult to bargain on commission at the same time, because 5-6 more people can breathe in your back, ready to rent an apartment, paying the entire commission. In the expensive segment, on the contrary, 5-6 vacant apartments account for one or two clients who can afford to make a choice and bargain for weeks.
When viewing, you should definitely pay attention to the condition of plumbing, household appliances, furniture. Be sure to check the compliance of the property documents with the passport data, find out if there are still owners, how many people are registered, if there are several owners, whether there is a power of attorney, where they are, how long it will take them to get to the apartment. If you like the apartment, then you should find out in advance the basic conditions on which it is rented – the cost, payment terms, additional conditions, the cost of utilities in the house.
After reviewing all the options, there are usually one or two that are most suitable. Call them, make an offer that you think the owner will accept, at the same time, it should be understood in advance that the owner may not agree to your conditions, and either make a counter-offer, or completely refuse. In this case, it is worth asking what concessions he can make, and on what terms. It is likely that he will meet you halfway.
Even during the viewing, you can ask the agent to provide you with a copy of the contracts under which the agent is currently working. In general, the contracts of large agencies are similar to each other, differing only in formatting and wording, but it is worth asking the agent (or the owner) in advance, the special conditions that they would like to prescribe. Often, only at the negotiation stage, it turns out that the conditions offered by the owner are absolutely not suitable for the tenant (for example, payment in dollars, double deposit, visits more than once a month, etc.)
Also, ask the agent about the standard conditions used in their contracts – some of the agencies by default prescribe penalties in the contract for moving out of the apartment earlier than 6 months, the agents know the company's contract by heart, and can tell in all details what exactly is described in it.
As a separate item, I would single out an inventory made after signing a lease or lease agreement.
By leaving a deposit, you thus guarantee the safety of the furniture transferred to you by the owner, so treat the inventory with all attention, and be sure to check that all possible comments have been made. By agreement with the owner, you can take photos by sending them to him as well.
Having received a lease agreement signed by the owner, you just have to pay him (usually the first month of rent and deposit are paid). At the same time, you can ask the agent in advance to bring a receipt form for the money you have deposited to the owner.
You give money, you are given a receipt, keys, instructions for household appliances and contacts of service personnel and service.
Now you are the lucky owner of a rented apartment in Moscow!
This is a brief description of the rental procedure.
If you have any questions, you can always contact me, I will be happy to answer them in the comments.
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