Interview with Real Estate Agent Petr Koukal

Which services do you offer to your clients in Next Reality Exclusice and what really make you exclusive?

In general, our clients are all those who deal with housing or investment properties, who want to get a completely professional services and at the same time require fair and decent approach. Most clients reach to us for real estate sales. Recently, the number of clients we help to sell real estate and find new housing at the same time has been growing. Thanks to our partners, we are able to ensure the construction of a new house and handle all the necessary documentation for our clients or, in extreme cases, we are able to buy their property. We can also help with real estate financing, even for clients who might not be able to get a mortgage, thanks to cooperative financing.

If I were to specify what makes us exclusive and different, it is definitely our approach to work, communication with clients and, of course, the quality of work and the presentation of the listed properties. If you look at our listings, you'll see what I'm talking about. For a successful sale, 2 things are needed in particular, an engaging presentation and targeted marketing. That's why we do it, and it increases the probability of selling at a higher price. The fact that we drive tens of kilometers for a single home seeing, even during the weekends or holidays, is probably not quite standard, but at our Exclusive office, you can expect that. We do our job to the maximum.

How important is the quality of the presentation of the property for sale?

The quality of the presentation is divided into 2 main points, which are absolutely crucial for a successful sale. First of all, it is necessary to impress the client with the given presentation. That is why we have a team of people who help us with the preparation and realization of the presentation. First, we will consult the current state of the property with our designer and give recommendations to the owner on how the property should be "roughly" prepared.

After that, we will come to the property with the whole team and our home stagers will prepare the apartment/house for the photo shoot using their decorative elements or their furniture so the property attracts more buyers. You can think of it like choosing a hotel for a vacation. The rooms are also nice and clean, a bottle of champagne and glasses are ready and they are trying to entice you. It is the same with real estate.

Once the property is ready, a professional photographer and videographer goes on the scene. It should be noted that we do not only sell real estate, but also the surroundings (drone footage) and its possibilities. That is why in our presentations you can see samples from the surroundings, nature, transport connections, shops, restaurants, etc. We also make a 3D model of the property for clients for better imagination in space. If we present older properties before renovation, we usually supplement the presentation with visualizations, so that we can show the client a possible future state right away.

Shortly, eyes sell, if it didn't work, we wouldn't do it.

How important is the choice of correct strategy when selling real estate?

It’s absolutely vital. Every client has different expectations and different requirements. Different a strategy is set for the sale of real estate when the client needs money within a few days. In such a case, we recommend a buyout, where the client will not receive 100% of the current market price of the property, but will receive part of the money within a few days and the rest after depositing at the cadastre. In such a case, clients do not have to deal with and risk the current trend of falling real estate prices, and the investor (fund) takes the risk of future sales at a lower price.

If the client needs money within approx. 1-2 months, starting price corresponds to the amount which is approx. 15% lower than the market price, and if we have more interested parties, we implement a certain form of auction in the form of "the highest bid wins" without the buyers seeing the offers of others. Marketing is designed to target more at older people, as there is a higher probability of financing using their own resources. All advertising campaigns are always made specifically for the particular property by our marketer. And then we have a standard 3-6 month sales strategy, where we usually start slightly above the market price of the property and work with the price over a regular time horizon.

Nowadays, it is definitely not enough to place an order on real estate portals and wait. It is necessary to realize what possibilities we have thanks to social media networks. Millions of people are online, so why not use this channel? Many brokers still do not use this form, probably because of the high costs. It must be noted, however, that many brokers are already aware of this, and networks are one of the main distribution channels. As of online marketing, we use paid and targeted advertising campaigns on the social platforms Facebook and Instagram in the form of a collection, rotating format or classic sponsored posts. 

Offline marketing in the form of paper advertisement or distribution of leaflets in the given area is another form of distribution. Offline marketing, in my experience, is not worth doing everywhere. It mostly makes sense in villages or places where there is a high fluctuation of people and the advertisement can be easily seen. For example, offline marketing worked very well for a property in Prague 8, where I am selling a house, which I recently added to my listings, you can view the presentation of this property HERE. Once I even rented a billboard on the main highway to Prague as part of offline support for the sale of a luxury house. Online marketing in the form of targeted campaigns is significantly more effective, more accurate, but also many times more expensive than other distribution channels. We decide with the owner how we will advertize the property. It's always about the sales budget, according to which everything is set.

How do you perceive the current situation on the real estate market in the Czech Republic?

That’s a good question. The situation has changed significantly compared to last summer, and I can say with certainty that the market is cooling down notably. At this time, the situation is definitely more favorable for buyers and we are witnessing the so-called deferred demand of clients. Interest in property seeing has decreased by approx. 70%, the offer of real estate on the Sreality.cz portal has increased by approx. 25,000 in the last 3 months and will probably continue to rise, interest rates are at 6%, the price of energy is going up and in general there is a lot of uncertainty among people. Length of sales is also significantly extending. A certain part of buyers postpones the purchase of real estate until next year. We also record almost 40% of canceled visits, or even cancellation of contract signatures at the last minute.

This period is also reflected in the prices. I work in the Central Bohemia region, and especially in Prague, and the biggest drop in prices is in properties which are large and before reconstruction; this also affects more luxurious real estate over CZK 10 million and recreational properties, which, especially during the covid period, have significantly increased their price. For flats in Prague, I rather perceive price stagnation, and if someone is not willing to accept a longer period of sales due to the current situation, then the price can be decreased as well, but it is rather a small correction. Low-energy, smaller family houses are holding their price very well so far.

What also prolongs sales is a fairly common phenomenon these days regarding chaining property purchases, where a buyer needs to sell something first in order to buy something else. In such cases, we can sign a reservation contract for 6 months reservation period and take care of the sale to the buyer and the seller as well under previously agreed conditions. Today, it is no longer enough to have an engaging presentation and targeted marketing, but also to have a correctly set price that must be worked with according to the market, and that is exactly what I do with my clients. Nowadays, it is more important than ever to be represented by a broker who does his job 100% and describes the current situation realistically.

However, it is important to mention that properties are still being sold and will continue to be sold. There are still many people who currently have to solve their housing needs, or investors who never "sleep". This time brings us great opportunities, and it is probably right that the real estate market has slowed down a bit and is getting back on track. At least the number of current real estate offers is increasing and buyers will finally have the chance to choose the right property. I certainly don't expect property prices to go up in the coming months, I'd be surprised if they did. And when will the real estate market "start up" again? I think that a better mood and optimism among people is necessary (the end of the war in Ukraine) and secondly, there must be more available financing (a reduction in interest rates).

Why did you choose the profession of real estate broker and what do you like the most about it?

It took me 3 years of my life to realize that I wanted to work in real estate. It all started during the 5th year at Czech Technical University in Prague, when I realized as part of the Mentoring project (practice in an international company) that this is not a job I want to do every day. I didn't want to go to a job that didn't fulfill me, so I decided to find myself and travel abroad. I lived 6 months in Denmark and 2.5 years in Australia, namely Sydney, which changed my life. I gained a lot of experience, met interesting people, started a business and, among other things, I started to discover the real estate business for the first time. I saw the absolute fairness of the word, the way of business and the quality of work of people abroad. I realized that I want to work in real estate, I want to able to meet interesting people, listen to their stories and help people with housing and in the future invest in real estate. If a person devotes 3 years of his life to finding themselves, then the enthusiasm, drive, quality of work and taste are simply different and every morning you wake up with the feeling that you are going to do something you love. It makes the results of my work look the way it does.