Is the estate agent profession regulated in Bulgaria?

No — and you should know this before trusting anyone. Unlike Germany, there is no trade regulation and no professional oversight for estate agents; anyone here can call themselves an agent or even a tax adviser. Do not expect the service standard of Central Europe, and professional indemnity insurance is practically unknown — if things go wrong, nobody is liable. Be especially alert with supposed compatriots who present themselves here as agents or advisers and often speak not a word of Bulgarian: with hollow promises they sell their own countrymen wildly overpriced properties and incompetent services. A simple test exposes them: whoever speaks no Bulgarian can neither check the registers nor negotiate with the notary, the municipality or the seller — and therefore cannot be a serious intermediary. Ask about language, references and local presence before you sign. Or simply ask Svetlana: she is at home here, speaks the language of the authorities and lives by her reputation on this coast. Two things are missing here that Germany takes for granted. The commission is freely negotiable: there is no fee schedule and no customary rate you could point to. And there is no safety net: no escrow account, no compensation fund, no chamber to complain to. Whoever takes your money is the only one who could give it back. So check for yourself before you sign: the current encumbrance certificate from the property register, the cadastral sketch and the tax valuation. The notary checks encumbrances only on explicit instruction. An intermediary who does not put these three papers in front of you unprompted is not working carefully. In the end one question remains that no register answers: who works honestly here? Those names are written down nowhere. Svetlana knows them, because she has lived on this coast for years and works with the same notaries, authorities and tradesmen.