When considering buying Real Estate overseas in general and in Israel especially there are certain legal precautions that can be followed throughout the procedure in order to protect your interests and ensure your purchase goes successfully.

This article will outline the necessary steps and precautions recommended by us to be taken when buying a property in Israel.

First Step: outline for yourself the goals and desires you have with relate to the property you wish to purchase

Buying a house overseas is like any other investment in Real Estate – you need to know your resources and reasons for the purchase, your requirements from the property and the time period you wish to invest or buy the property for.
There are many reasons for you to purchase a property in Israel: it may be for sentimental reasons, you may be looking out for a resident in Israel (permanent, for vacations or for business), you may be considering “Aliya” (immigration to Israel) or you may be looking for a good investment and may want to explorer Israel’s Real Estate opportunities.

Whatever reason you have it will reflect in the choice of property, the amount you are willing to pay, the location, its management afterwards etc.
Deciding you want to purchase a property in Israel is a good decision but before acting upon it you have to know your expectations from it.

Seek Local Professional Advice

Buying a house in Israel is not much different than buying a house anywhere else in the world provided that the appropriate precautions are taken, especially with regard to legalities.
Remember – every country in the world has it’s own laws, regulations, customs and procedures. When purchasing a property overseas there are 4 major elements to consider:
Time difference – people and services overseas are going to operate on their local time which may differ from yours making communication more difficult.
Language barrier – if you are not speaking the local language (in our case Hebrew and in some cases in Israel even Arabic and Russian) you are going to have a hard time communicating both with the sellers and the authorities.
Availability and accessibility – Real Estate transaction takes time. You have to find the right property, suiting your needs, negotiate the price and follow all the legal procedures. It is virtually impossible to complete all that properly and accurately in a week or two of staying in Israel and flying costs will make the deal more expensive (and sometimes even not worthy).
The “know how” – there is no doubt that such a transaction will involve a great amount of money. In cases like that you'd want to be escorted and represented by professionals skilled and experienced in the local market.

For those reasons you should contact a professional handling your business here in Israel, following you trough the procedure and representing you.
Our advice is to have a local independent lawyer who is motivated solely by your desires and needs to make sure that the property you purchase has good title, appropriate planning consent, is free of debt, charges and other burdens. An independent lawyer will be able to both consult you and represent you on every aspect of the deal and will not bear the same conflict of interests as a Real Estate agent or an agency.

Your relations with your Israeli lawyer

Your lawyer should be there to help you, consult you and represent you on every aspect of the deal. You can and even must discuss with your lawyer all aspects of the property you want and all your guidelines and desires you have from the property.
It’s your Israeli lawyer’s job to work with your guidelines and help you find and manage the best property suited to your needs and desires- this means that it is his job to locate, through real-estate agents or by other means, to locate the best suited proposals for you, negotiate the deal, go trough all the legal and procedural processes and finalize the deal for you. It is to you to lay the guidelines as clearly as possible and make the final decision- to buy or not to buy.

Flying over to Israel

While it is always nice to fly over for a vacation in Israel buying a property is no vacation.
As a matter of fact you don’t have to be in Israel throughout the process. Usually you don’t have to be in Israel for more than a couple of time for 2-3 business  days at a time (notice that although Friday is not a business day in Israel Sunday is).
Your first meeting with your Israeli lawyer should be after you’ve gathered your guidelines and even discussed them with your chosen lawyer over the phone. At this meeting your lawyer will be able to present you with several general options and you will grant him/her Power of Attorney.
Your second arrival to Israel on this matter will usually be at two optional time points: Before the beginning of the specific negotiation. Many customers choose to come over and examine the proposed property before the actual negotiation starts. Or just before finalizing the specific deal. By this time you’ve received all the information from your lawyer and usually all the details have been agreed upon. Some customers, however, choose to come over and make their final decision “on the spot” before closing the deal.  
It’s important to mention that you don’t have to make that second trip over to Israel – some customers make only the first fly over while others come over several times in different time points of the procedure.

Costs

As any Real Estate deal buying a property in Israel has its costs which can be divided into 3 main categories: The actual property’s cost;
State Tax and Fees; Administration costs.
The actual property’s cost and the tax and fees cost depends on the realization of the deal and the property itself.  
The administration costs, however, are divided into objective costs that are not depended on the realization of the deal and dependent costs which you will have to pay only if the deal goes through and derive from it.
The administration objectives costs are those you spend in order to locate the property, negotiate the deal, investigation of the property and owner for frauds and on-line consultant throughout the procedure up until the final negotiation. These costs depend on the kind of property you are looking for and its complexity and are paid in advance.
The administration depended costs are those you have to pay other then the seller if you purchase the property.
Always make sure you have signed, when signing the P.o.A., a contract specifying all of you obligations and costs you take upon yourself. Calculate and check that the Administration costs aren’t breaching your budget and that they are reasonable and fair.