Buying Consultancy
Independent support before one of the biggest financial decisions of your life.
Buying consultancy is for buyers who want independent support before making one of the biggest financial decisions of their life, whether the property is from our listings or another seller entirely.
See our buying property page for the wider process, and our valuation service for the property you are considering.
Need advice before buying property in Zagreb? Contact Hermes Nekretnine.
The moment you decide to seek independent consultation is often just as important as the advice itself. Buyers benefit most when they reach out before signing any document that creates an obligation, including a reservation payment or preliminary contract. After signing, room for negotiation and exit options narrows significantly, so the right time to consult is as soon as a property enters your shortlist.
Consultation is especially valuable in the following situations: buying your first property without prior experience of the process, buying a property in another city or country where you cannot regularly visit the site, buying from a private seller without agency involvement where there is no third party checking the documentation, and situations where you already have an offer on the table and need a fast, independent opinion before deciding.
The process usually begins with a short conversation to establish what the buyer is looking for, what the budget is, and whether specific properties are already under consideration. If the client already has a property in mind, the next step is a review of available documentation: the land registry extract, confirmation of no encumbrances, the occupancy permit and the energy certificate. This check often reveals details not visible in the listing, such as unresolved ownership shares, undisclosed mortgages or illegally built parts of the structure.
After the legal check comes a market analysis: comparing the asking price with recent transactions for similar properties in the same neighbourhood, taking into account floor, building condition, orientation and energy class. Based on this analysis, the buyer gets a clear picture of whether the price is realistic, whether there is room to negotiate, and how much. In the final phase we help the client formulate a negotiation strategy, whether that means requesting a discount, agreeing on renovation costs covered by the seller, or flexibility around the handover date.
Buyers who enter the process without independent advice often repeat the same mistakes. The first is relying solely on information from the seller's agency, which by the nature of its role represents the seller's interests, not the buyer's. The second common mistake is underestimating the costs that come on top of the purchase price itself: real estate transfer tax, notary fees, registration costs and any loan-related expenses. The third mistake is emotional buying without verifying the real market value, which happens especially often with properties that "must" be bought quickly due to competition from other interested parties.
Independent consultation reduces the risk of all these scenarios, because it introduces a third, unbiased perspective into a process that is otherwise structured so that the seller and their agency hold an information advantage.
The specifics of consultation vary depending on the property type. For apartments in older buildings, the focus is on the condition of installations, the roof and shared parts of the building, as well as any planned costs for facade renovation or lift replacement. For houses, the focus additionally extends to the condition of the roof structure, foundations, insulation and infrastructure such as sewage and water connections. For land, the key check is the intended use under the spatial plan, building possibilities and access roads, while for commercial properties consultation also includes an assessment of profitability relative to the planned business activity.
Whatever property type you are considering, the principle remains the same: before making a final decision, it pays to have an expert on your side with no stake in the outcome of the transaction other than your satisfaction with the final result.
Many buyers enter the purchasing process without a clear picture of how much financing they can actually secure and what the accompanying costs of financing are. Consultation includes this aspect as well: a review of indicative loan conditions, an assessment of monthly repayment burden relative to income, and connecting you with trusted loan brokers who can prepare offers from multiple banks at once. This is especially useful because it lets the buyer enter negotiations with the seller knowing exactly what their real budget is, instead of figuring that out along the way, after already finding a property they like.
Preparation before starting an active search also includes agreeing on the approach: how much time the buyer is willing to invest in searching, which criteria are non-negotiable (location, number of rooms, floor, parking), and which are desirable but not decisive. Clearly defined criteria significantly shorten the process and reduce the likelihood that a buyer makes a decision under pressure, simply because a property that "almost" meets the criteria happens to be available right now.
It is important to clarify the difference between this service and standard brokerage when buying a property from our own listings. When a buyer chooses a property from the Hermes Nekretnine portfolio, the agency naturally participates in the whole process as the authorised broker, and the advisory component is included in that service at no extra charge. Consultation as a standalone service is primarily intended for situations where the property was found outside our listings, through another agency or directly from a private seller, and the buyer wants an independent, professional second party acting solely in their interest.
This distinction also matters legally: in standard brokerage, the agency often has obligations to the seller as well, whereas in consultation the buyer is our only client, to whom we owe loyalty, advice and discretion. This means the recommendation will always align with what is best for the buyer, including advising against the purchase if the assessment shows the property is not worth the asking price or carries too much legal risk.
The scope of consultation is tailored individually to each client, depending on whether it involves a one-off consultation before signing a preliminary contract, or ongoing support throughout the entire search and negotiation process. For an exact quote and an estimate of the time required for your situation, it is best to get in touch directly so we can discuss the specific property or stage you are at. The initial conversation is always free and without obligation, and only after that do we agree on further steps if you find the service useful.
The Zagreb real estate market is not a single market, but a collection of smaller, very different markets that align with the boundaries of the city's neighbourhoods. The price per square metre in Donji grad tells you almost nothing about what is realistic to pay in Trnje or Peščenica, because every neighbourhood has its own dynamics of supply and demand, its own age structure of the housing stock, and its own reasons why one property is overpriced while another is underpriced relative to its surroundings. An agency that operates across the whole city on a daily basis, rather than relying solely on generic statistics, can give buyers a concrete, verified insight into what is actually happening in the neighbourhood that interests them.
This local knowledge is especially valuable in negotiations: knowing how long a property has been on the market, whether the price has already been reduced once, what the turnover is like in that part of the city, and what the outcomes of similar transactions have been in recent months gives buyers concrete arguments for their negotiating position that they cannot find in online listings. That is precisely why we recommend that buyers inform themselves about the location itself, not just the property, before making a decision, so they have the full picture before signing.