“Individual selling land, cheap, in Brasov, the urban area, parceled, with nearby utilities. Tel: 074.xxx.xxx”
In the first stage such advertisement shares nothing special. An uninformed reader might think that behind it lies just an owner who wants constrained by current circumstances, to sell a piece of land.
Here is a review of some less pleasant surprises that such an advertisement can hide :
A. “Individual, …”
Calling at the other end you find a jovial and kind person who immediately offers you a meeting, to give you all the details.
At the meeting, when the question: “Are you the owner of the land?” the answer comes like this:
– Oh well, it’s actually a property of my cousin, who is out of the country and left me to take care of the purchase. He’s pretty busy and asked me to keep his place, instead and do all the paperwork. But fear not, I have the trust deed and everything you need for the papers!
– Well, show me some the trust deed …
– Um, I cannot, is still at the notary’s office, but be sure that everything is okay and it’s 100% legal!
What is actually this situation hiding:
The cousin does not exist; your speaker is one of the intermediaries who went, or will go to the true owner of the land, when he finds a buyer. Let’s say that you have made a deal at 10 euro / sqm, for 500 sqm, meaning 5,000 EUR.
The intermediary will make a pre-contract take an advance of 1,000 € and tells the owner he found a serious buyer at 4 euro / sqm, will give a deposit of 500 euros from your money and then will get the famous trust deed from the owner, for the 500 sqm.
The price he will negotiate with you will be shared with the owner. From this business him alone, wins – 3,000 euro, big money, out of just one deal. You have paid 5,000 euros for a land that the real owner sells at less than half!
B. “… parceled …”
Question: – What kind of plots do you have?
Formal response: – A, well … it’s to be seen by a topo expert and is working on a separation. We have lots of any size … 500 sqm and 1000 sqm. How much do you want to buy?
Real Answer: – The land is NOT dismembered.
It will be dismembered when we find a buyer (a.k.a “stupid”) with the money to do so. If a breakup is “in progress” that area is measured and plots established and documents lodged at OCPI, the surfaces cannot be changed at the will of the buyer.
“… in the urban area …”
Question: – Do you have an extract from the Land Registry to mention the plot?
Formal answer: – Not yet, but you … see, things are arranged with the City Hall. It’s a PUZ in the City Hall, I made it myself and it will be admitted for sure … it’s just that things like this take time. When you will be ready to build the PUZ will receive approval and the land will be urban area.
Real Answer: – The land is NOT urban area and even if the situation described is real, many years will pass until it will be. Most likely, if the character sells all the land in the area, the changing into urban area will be done on your expense and believe us, it is not cheap!
D: “… utilities nearby …”
Question: – What about utilities?
Formal response: – They’re just at the edge of the plot. You can connect at anytime
Real Answer: – At the edge of the 100 ha plot which includes your area, about 4 km from your land there is a high voltage power line. The neighbors (a warehouse located in the opposite direction, 3 km) have the running water. Gas … maybe a field pipe crossing over.. (the implications of this in a future post)
So, these might be some of the traps in ads listed by this type of Pinocchio intermediates! Be careful what you buy because buying land is a serious business and carefully select your ads. Look especially in websites (Businesses-properties.com), newspapers magazines meant especially for this niche.
