Sell an apartment, house or commercial property in Odesa

The document of title: a purchase contract, a certificate of inheritance, a deed of gift or a court decision. The technical passport. An extract from the State Register of Property Rights, which the notary orders. A certificate of the people registered in the apartment. Spousal consent if the apartment was bought during the marriage, and permission from the guardianship authority if a minor is among the owners. If something is missing, restoring it takes from a few days to a few weeks, and it is better to start before a buyer appears.

You can sell on your own, nothing forbids it. An agent is worth it where an owner loses money and time: the price is set by guesswork, viewings happen during working hours, the buyer negotiates from preparation and the seller does not, and the documents are checked only at the deal itself. We take on the valuation based on actual deals, the advertising, the viewings, checking the buyer, and support through to registration of title. If you do it yourself, the one thing not to economise on is the document check: that is where losses cost most.

Yes. The lease passes to the new owner along with the apartment: a sale does not end it, and the new owner becomes the landlord on the same terms. So the buyer sees the lease before the deposit, not after. Selling is faster and dearer when the apartment is empty: there are more buyers looking for a home than investors. If the tenant stays, give them written notice, agree viewing times, and either return their deposit or hand it to the new owner against a receipt.

From the seller: income tax of 5 per cent and a military levy of 1.5 per cent if the apartment has been owned for less than three years, or if this is not the first sale of property in the year. A first sale of a property owned for more than three years is exempt. From the buyer: a Pension Fund contribution of 1 per cent. The state duty of 1 per cent is paid as the parties agree. The notary, the extracts, the valuation and the agency fee are separate. The rates are as they stand this year and are confirmed by the notary on the date of the deal.

The price comes from completed deals rather than similar listings: a listing shows what is asked, not what is paid. We take apartments in the same district with the same room count, floor and condition, look at what they actually sold for and how long they sat on the market, and build the price from that. A separate valuer report is needed for the notary and for tax, and that is a different figure, not a market one. A metre across city apartments is now 1 227 $, but by district and condition the spread reaches twofold.

The deal at the notary takes a day once the documents are together. The timing is set by finding a buyer, and there the price decides: an apartment listed at the market finds a buyer faster than one listed with room to negotiate that then drifts down. Add time for preparing documents if something is missing, and for registering title after signing. The slowest to sell are apartments with a problem in the documents, with ownership shares, or with unlegalised alterations: there a buyer either walks away or asks for a discount.

From five per cent of the deal, and only after it: you pay nothing before the deal closes. We name the exact figure before starting work and put it in the contract. Advertising, photography and viewings are not charged separately, they are included.

No, we work without one too. With an exclusive agreement we spend more on advertising because we know the work will not be wasted, and that usually shortens the sale. But the choice is yours, and declining it does not mean the property gets less attention.

Yes. The scheme depends on the bank: either the buyer settles the balance and the charge is removed, or the deal goes through the bank. We agree it with the bank before the deposit, not after: its terms set both the timing and how much the buyer has to bring to the deal.

An agent does the market valuation free of charge from completed deals in your district, and it answers what the apartment sells for now. The valuation for the deal is an official document whose figure the notary uses to calculate the tax, and it comes from the state database. An agent market valuation does not replace the valuation for the deal: both are needed, at different times.