I need advice selling my flat - Berlin

I want to sell my flat and don't have a clue as to the way the German housing market works.
I have been told that I can register my flat with as many agents as I choose and it will not cost me a penny, whereas in England you would have to pay multi-agency fees.
I have spoken to two agents who both asked me how much I wanted to price the flat at, isn't that their job?
Also is it the purchaser who is liable for all fees and costs?.
Am I entitled to get a free "Convenience Translation" of the sales contract before we sign as when I bought the flat a translator just read out what was written in German. Any help would be gratefully received.

Yes get some price suggestions from different agents. I found they varied widely. Some agents will understand your area better than others.
Bear in mind that agents add about 7% to the price, so you could even then think about selling without an agent, but agents can be worthwhile if they bring buyers who are contacts and they are good at selling.
The buyer pays the agent's fee, the Notar costs and the tax. You hardly pay anything.
The buyer has the right to choose the Notar for the contract. If you don't speak German then the Notar is duty bound to provide a translation, but you might have to pay something for it...

Many people just put an ad or two into the main newspaper, section Immobilien, and sell without Makler (real estate broker) involved. And many folks prefer to buy this way, thus eliminating the cost of 3% + MWSt for the broker.

So if you had a 77sqm three-room flat with fitted kitchen to sell for about 230'000 EUR, you could invest 30 or 40 EUR and put in an ad like this:

3-Zi-Whng.v.privat z.vk., 77 qm, EBK, 230T, Tel:123 456 987

(EBK = Einbaukueche, built-in kitchen) The real estate market runs usually in the weekend edition of the papers, so either look up the website of the main shops (Morgenpost, Taz, ???) or purchase some copy to get an idea about the value of your place in relation to others. Of interest would be the date of construction, or Baujahr, abbr: Bj.

Good luck.

If you want to sell it yourself, screw the papers - just post an ad at immobilienscout24.de. Or you could post through immonet.de and appear both online and in the Berliner Morgenpost (which has the biggest real estate supplement in the city), but IMHO that's more estate agents than "regular" people.

You can also use both these sites to research the asking prices for places near you - both have an "Umkreissuche" that lets you enter your address and search in a 1/2/5/etc.-km radius.

The important thing is to have good pictures to upload and an accurate description of all the selling points of the flat. This needs to be in comprehensible, error-free German or you might be mistaken for a Nigerian scammer.

Oh, and estate agents charge 6% (plus VAT), not 3%. If the seller is desperate, he might pay half/all of this fee, but if he's that desperate, he'd probably just sell it himself (without an agent) anyway.

Yeah that's a difference between Berlin and other parts of Germany. Here the buyer pays the full agent fee. It isn't split.

Sorry to have misstated the agent's cut above, which seems to be much higher than in Munich (where it comes to 3% plus tax). And usually it's the buyer paying for this expense. Another good chance to get information out would be an online ad with the free www.quoka.de, section Immobilien > Eigentumswohnungen. You are a privater Inserent there and want to do kostenlos Inserieren.

Hi it's Hooperski again,
So what if I do register with a host of estate agents and then find a buyer myself.
What sort of legwork would I need to do legally, e.g. land registry and legal stuff?

I believe the notar takes care of all that. Also, the translator does cost something. The cost will vary depending on how long the contract reading/signing takes. I actually just sold my apartment and the translator cost around 475 Euro. I think the contract reading/signing took around 2.5 hours (because it first has to be read in German by the notar and then in English by the translator).

You can ask for a convenience translation of the german contract and give the notary power of attorney to sign it for you, to avoid that 2.5 hour bore. It should also be cheaper as the translator isn't required.