Weird/unrelated anecdote: Nobody in Greece uses realtors.
I can't remember the exact historical reasoning, but it starts with the Ottomans. The Ottomans controlled the Greeks since about 1453, and when they were finally overthrown after the Greek War of Independence, there began about 120 years of political turmoil until the end of the Greek Civil War.
So, post-civil war time. Tons of people are in exile, the country is torn by rival factions, and everything is in an even worse state than when the Germans occupied it. After hundreds of years of being occupied by foreign powers, there isn't really a clear indication of who owns what piece of property. Most of what you went by was "Well, somebody in my family used to own it." Cool.
When it comes time to buying or selling property, there aren't really well defined "properties" per-se, or even a market for them. Somebody might just come up to you and tell you somebody else wants to buy your land, and if you just give them some cash up front, they'll get you a really good deal. So you give them some cash, and either they never return, or they come back with a really horrible deal. If they claim they're going to help you with the legal paperwork, they'll almost definitely sabotage it.
Today, if somebody tries to help buy or sell a home in Greece, the average Greek will think they're a grifter trying to make a quick buck. To make matters more difficult, apparently there's been multiple confusing ways of legally registering and searching properties, and the red tape involved with completing the title transfer is crazy.
So there's very few registered realtors in Greece, and basically nobody uses or trusts them. Meanwhile, the country is fucking stunning and there's abandoned property all over the place that nobody can shift. An ocean front property in the Peloponnese can go for a hundred grand. But good luck finding it or having any help in acquiring it, because they're all FSBOs that pin an advertisement on a telephone pole in the nearest city.
I can't remember the exact historical reasoning, but it starts with the Ottomans. The Ottomans controlled the Greeks since about 1453, and when they were finally overthrown after the Greek War of Independence, there began about 120 years of political turmoil until the end of the Greek Civil War.
So, post-civil war time. Tons of people are in exile, the country is torn by rival factions, and everything is in an even worse state than when the Germans occupied it. After hundreds of years of being occupied by foreign powers, there isn't really a clear indication of who owns what piece of property. Most of what you went by was "Well, somebody in my family used to own it." Cool.
When it comes time to buying or selling property, there aren't really well defined "properties" per-se, or even a market for them. Somebody might just come up to you and tell you somebody else wants to buy your land, and if you just give them some cash up front, they'll get you a really good deal. So you give them some cash, and either they never return, or they come back with a really horrible deal. If they claim they're going to help you with the legal paperwork, they'll almost definitely sabotage it.
Today, if somebody tries to help buy or sell a home in Greece, the average Greek will think they're a grifter trying to make a quick buck. To make matters more difficult, apparently there's been multiple confusing ways of legally registering and searching properties, and the red tape involved with completing the title transfer is crazy.
So there's very few registered realtors in Greece, and basically nobody uses or trusts them. Meanwhile, the country is fucking stunning and there's abandoned property all over the place that nobody can shift. An ocean front property in the Peloponnese can go for a hundred grand. But good luck finding it or having any help in acquiring it, because they're all FSBOs that pin an advertisement on a telephone pole in the nearest city.