Can anyone tell me about GLM estate agents, i may be using them to purchase a cottage near lake balaton. Coming over in March for a wee look round.
Thanks
Gregg

Hi Greg,

I don't know anything about GLM but their site infirmation seems a bit thin. I have no financial interest, but over time it is clear that Rural Hungary is dead straight - honest. She runs a search & aquisition service. See http://www.balatonbase.com . Also check out www.ingatlan.com for houses near the Balaton. It is all about buying in the right village - some are good & some very bad.

Regards

John

Hello Greg,

Like you, I have just joined this forum and have only joined in order to warn you to have a very good look at the dozens of alternative estate agents and property portals before even thinking of dealing with GLM.

I became aware of GLM three years ago when I started to look for a house in Hungary, still looking for one after several visits, and GLM are not at all what they may at first seem to be.

As already mentioned by John Gilbert, Rural Hungary, will be able to give you good advice and also help if required.

Good houses in good locations can be very hard to find.

Regards

Russell

If you do a search of this site you will find several mentions of GLM.

Take John Gilbert's advice. You won't find anyone better than Rural Hungary to help and advise you.

She has helped me on a number of occasions and I couldn't recommend her more highly. I trust her implicitly.

We had a terrible experience with them. To be honest, for us, it was down to a particular couple who work there. I keep on rewording this reply as even the very mention of this outfit make me angry. Enough said.

I discovered very quickly to avoid almost any agent that offered houses in either Sterling or Euros.
They all seemed very interested to show me houses they wanted to sell, not houses I wanted to buy.

I can only recommend deciding on the area you like and then spend some time looking locally, as mentioned there are many here who will offer assistance in many forms.

We all now know what a lovely country Hungary is and would not like anyone left disappointed or down hearted by their experiences here.

Am starting to get a bit jittery, what should we look out for ALL HELP GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED

Hi Gegg, welcome to the BE forums, pleased to see some of our regular members have already replied to you, we're typically a friendly little group here so if you need any help or advise, just ask away. This thread might be of use to you.

Thanks for kind comment John. I was actually about to give up on anything to do with property as the market is changing here and swimming with sharks was never on my bucket list! I was in fact applying for my license for a new venture when somebody tried to take my business down as I was apparently "in their market". Need I say more than I'm a Scot whose clan motto is "this I'll defend"....

Undoubtably, you will understand my surprise at seeing you on the forum though I am pleased you have decided to join us and trust that my faith in you is not misjudged.
I hope you don't get too much grief from Cara for mentioning me in a positive light?
You mention property portals and indeed there are good Hungarian sites, my issues come with UK portals charging clients a fee as well as adding a percentage onto the price of a property. I have spoken out against the excessive charges by some agents and their disregard for where they sell properties for the past three years and will continue to do so until I am ran out of town because I have seen too many people with their dreams in tatters due to agents motivated purely by money. Hope you eventually realise your dream.

Thanks Shotgun, you and your family are lovely and we enjoy helping you.


Thanks duztee, this vindicates my point above. I list in sterling because it is easier for British buyers but I also state the forint price as the buyer will pay the sterling equivalent of this on the day of purchase. Properties that I list are either from the seller direct or from two trusted Hungarian agents, who do not target foreign markets. The price paid for the property is the same as the Hungarian list price. Too many times I have seen a UK agent or portal list a property at an inflated price, one price on the agents site, higher price on theirs - I had a problem recently with two different companies picking up properties I had listed and advertising them on their site with a fee pegged on....
My motivation is seeing too many people distraught, some on the verge of a breakdown because of their experiences here and it doesn't need to be like that, Hungary is a beautiful country and no village is perfect goodness, my little village has its fair share of warts, pot holes getting bigger by the day, Friday night drunken sing songs as locals stagger home which, since giving out the gifts at Xmas, seems to now be personalised and we are "sung to" as they go by - singing appears to be a gift to be given! However, I feel safe and secure here, everybody knows everybody and looks out for each other. We have never had a problem and felt we had nobody to turn to, at times the help comes from the least expected places. So despite being a bit rough around the edges, which is compensated for by the stunning view from my porch, we lucked out but unfortunately, many have not been so lucky.

The people I dealt with pretended to be our "friends" and sold us a house which was basically in serious disrepair and took a large commission on the price (although they made out they were not working for GLM). We were sold the house for 3 times what is was worth. Not only that, before we moved here we entrusted these people with some repairs which they did not do, and the little what they did do had to be redone....oh and they kept the money with some cock and bull story that the builder had "ran off". I could go on....

On the plus side, we love living here and in the end things have turned out okay for us. BUT it was VERY difficult at first due to the fact we were misled and ripped off in the first place.

I would add a word of caution,....
Be careful not to rip yourself off! :-)

I bought my house from a sign in the window, outside looked nice, inside looked good. I didn't like the floor tiles or kitchen but took remodelling cost into consideration.

Like all Hungarian houses it had heavy net curtains at all the windows when we looked around, when I moved in the curtains were gone, along with light fittings and everything else not cemented in, that was when I realised how bad a state the windows were in.

So whether you go it alone or through an agent, always have a good look at the house with your head as well as your heart, and try to get some form of understanding as to just what the seller is taking or leaving.

Finally I would add that doing it yourself leaves more room for negotiation, I bought for 4 million less than the original asking price, and I thought the original price was actually a bargain!

Yes, they don't seem to do the list of what is being taken or left like they have in UK but there is nothing to stop you writing out your own list and either translate it on Google Translate or get your official translation service to do it with the legal documents. In my case I had wrongly assumed that the wood burning stove would be left, as they had lit it when we went to view the house.
It was not left but that was only a short term inconvenience, as I had planned to replace it with a solid fuel boiler and radiators anyway. Also the walls appeared relatively free from cracks but in reality there were quite serious cracks, hidden under a thin skim of new plaster. I still consider that the price I paid was fair though and am on good terms with the family that sold the house.

Very easy to have fixtures and fittings included in contract.

Anyhow, lets keep this one on topic for the OP

Sorry, only trying to prevent others from making the same mistakes I made through ignorance of the Hungarian house buying system.

Oh Fib, now you made me feel bad I wasn't telling you off, just that this is a topic I think we should keep as clean as possible so that relevant information can be easily found. Some threads are okay to go off tangents, I do enough of it myself but on some it's good to keep them on point.