What a Tbilisi buying agency actually does
The Georgian market has no MLS and no licensing regime for agents. Anyone can print a card. That single fact shapes everything about how you should choose here: an agency's value is not access to listings, because the listings are all public on the portals anyway. The value is negotiation, title verification, and someone who will read a Georgian-language contract line by line before you sign it.
Most local agents work seller-side and get paid by the seller. A smaller group sell buyer representation, where you pay them and they are supposed to argue against the seller's price. Know which one you are hiring before the first viewing.
What it costs
Commission is not regulated. Expect the following ranges, and confirm in writing:
- Resale apartments: commonly 2% to 5% of the purchase price, sometimes split between the sides, sometimes charged only to the seller
- Buyer representation packages: ExpatHub publishes 2.5% with a 7,500 GEL minimum plus VAT, which is the most transparent number we found
- New builds: frequently zero to the buyer, because the developer pays the agency a marketing commission
- Registration: roughly 150 to 350 GEL at the Public Registry, depending on processing speed
- Independent legal review: commonly 500 to 1,000 USD for a standard flat
Those figures move. Ask for a total, not a percentage, before you commit.
How to choose
Ask who pays them
If the answer is the seller or the developer, treat their price advice as advertising. That is not disqualifying, but it changes what you should trust them on.
Ask what happens after the offer is accepted
The purchase itself is administratively simple in Georgia. The work is in the gap between handshake and registration: title extract, encumbrance check, escrow or safe payment mechanism, and the contract itself. An agency that goes quiet at this point has effectively handed you the risky part.
Ask for the fee in a message you can keep
Verbal commission quotes drift upward at signing. A written figure, with what it does and does not include, is the single most useful thing you can extract from a first call.
Red flags
- Refusal to name a fee until after you have viewed properties
- Pressure to pay a deposit before the title extract has been pulled
- The same person acting for you and the seller without disclosing it
- No written contract with the agency itself
- Cash-only payment requests, or an unusually complicated payment route
- Claiming a specific flat guarantees residency without written legal confirmation
When you do not need to pay for one
If you speak Russian or Georgian, are buying a resale flat under 100,000 USD, and have time to view in person over several weeks, you can run the search yourself off the portals and spend your money on a good property lawyer instead. The lawyer is the part you should never skip. The agent is the part you can sometimes replace with legwork.
If you are buying from abroad, buying off-plan, or buying at a price where a 3% mistake outweighs a 2.5% fee, hire representation.
