Questions & answers

Israel's Real Estate Brokers Law reserves the title “broker”, and the act of brokerage itself, for licence holders. Elizaveta Beylis works as a real estate consultant out of a RE/MAX office in Haifa, providing advisory and marketing services: preparing the property, photography, copy, distribution, price analysis and support through the process.

For a seller or buyer that changes what things are called, not who handles them: where an action requires a licence, it is carried out with a licence holder in the office. The licence itself is in progress, and you will not find a licence number on this site until there is one.

Haifa, and within it mainly Carmel, Ahuza, Denya, Neve Sha'anan, Bat Galim and Hadar. These neighbourhoods run on completely different market logic — Denya is measured in a handful of sales a year, Hadar in entry prices and the state of the shared parts of the building, Neve Sha'anan in the rental market around the Technion.

If your property is in another Haifa neighbourhood it is still a conversation — I will simply tell you up front whether I am the right person for it.

From transactions that actually closed and were reported to the Israel Tax Authority, not from asking prices on the portals. An asking price is a wish; a closed sale is a fact, and the gap between the two on the same street can run to tens of percent.

After the data come the differences a table does not show: aspect, floor, lift, parking, safe room, the condition of the building and what is planned nearby. I go through each one with you and explain which way it moves the number — including when the answer is that the price you wanted is not realistic.

The Bank of Israel caps financing by buyer status: up to 75% of value for a single home, up to 70% for people upgrading, and up to 50% for an additional or investment property. In practice that means 25%, 30% or 50% equity respectively — before costs.

Equity is only part of the cash you need. Alongside it come purchase tax, legal fees, an appraiser if the bank asks for one, a mortgage adviser and the move itself. That is worth calculating before you start viewing, not after you have found something you love.

An Israeli mortgage is built from tracks: fixed unlinked, fixed CPI-linked, and prime. Each has a different rate and behaves differently over time, and how you split between them is the decision that determines what you actually pay.

The Bank of Israel constrains the mix: the prime track may not exceed two thirds of the loan, and at least a third must be at a fixed rate. The calculator on this site lets you build a mix and see the monthly payment — it is an illustration, and the decision itself is made with a mortgage adviser and the bank.

Usually not a renovation — a tidy-up. Paint, lighting, handles, clearing out half the objects and a serious clean almost always pay for themselves. A new kitchen or bathroom almost never returns its full cost in the sale price.

The exception is anything a buyer reads as risk: damp, old wiring, a leak. Those are not renovation, they are removing a reason to knock the price down, and they are worth fixing before the camera arrives.

How the rights are registered (land registry, Israel Land Authority or a housing company), whether what is registered matches what is actually there, building permits and unpermitted works, liens and charges, building-committee and municipal-tax arrears, and what is planned nearby — a neighbour's building plan changes a property more than a kitchen does.

The legal due diligence itself is done by a real estate lawyer, not by me. My job is to make sure it happens on time and that the answers reach you before you sign, not after.

It depends far more on pricing and on the area than on the season. Ahuza or Neve Sha'anan have similar stock and steady movement; Denya closes only a handful of sales a year, and there a property can wait a long time without that saying anything about the property.

What can be said with certainty: the most expensive time is the first two weeks. A home enters the market once, and if it enters at an unrealistic price or with weak photographs, the buyers who mattered have already seen it and ruled it out — a price cut two months later meets a far smaller audience.

Professional stills and video, and a full walkthrough where the layout is hard to read from photographs; a dedicated page for the property that you can send to one person and that still opens properly after a WhatsApp forward; distribution to Yad2 and the portals, to the RE/MAX agent network, and paid social aimed at the audience that matters.

And on top of that, a written report every week: how many people looked at the page, how many came to view, what they said and what I think we should change. In writing, including when the news is not good.

Terms are agreed in advance and in writing, before any work starts, within the agreement signed with the office. There is no charge for an introductory conversation and no charge for a valuation.

What will not happen: you will not discover a cost halfway through, and you will not find a clause that was never explained to you before signing. If something in the agreement is unclear, ask me before you sign — that is exactly the question I want you to ask.