Estoy Buscando Inmobiliaria en Medellin-Looking for Real Estate Agents in Medellin

kenblanquito says on Mar 24, 2009, 12:30:

Por favor, no hay vendedores en Medellin que quisieran ganar 10 millon de Pesos en comision?

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kenblanquito says on Mar 24, 2009, 13:35:

I do not believe you, gringoloid! Numerous posts regarding Gringos and Brits not making the effort to write in Spanish and now I receive this; quite amusing really. Or is my Spanish that incomprehendable?
Jokes aside, I wrote the post in Spanish because I just assumed that the majority of agents here did not speak English but I stand to be corrected over that matter.

I need a real estate agent who can demonstrate a good degree of success in selling houses in the Laureles/Castellana/Estadio/ Velodromo area of Medellin. It is not totally necessary that they speak English but it would help a lot. If their English is poor, I need them to be patient and speak slowly as I should understand enough then.
It would be appreciated if they would write to me via a Private Message and I will respond quickly.
Details that should be included are years of experience in that field, how are you going to advertise my house, if there is an office which can exhibit these details and if so where, how many personnel are there in the company and the percentage of commission charged on the achieved selling price. Does this price include other services such as the sales agreement and contract and full completion of the sale etc?
I already have 2 agents working for me and I have no intention of terminating those agreements. Therefore, they need to be OK knowing that there will be some competition.
I would like to receive the responses by 26th March latest in order to make a decision this week.

Strange feeling thinking about writing this post and then trying to translate it into Spanish and then going backwards again.
If the original post had been in English, it would have looked very different to this.

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kenblanquito says on Mar 24, 2009, 15:10:

See your point elSapo.
I have already had dealings with one Gringo realtor in Antioquia and I was not impressed.
I really want a Paisa company because the chances are, a local is more likely to purchase the house than a foreigner. If somebody there can speak English, it would be better for me. As far as the selling goes, probably not important. Gringos would not want to buy my house. It does not have a pool or a view of El Poblado!

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whitewidow says on Mar 24, 2009, 15:29:

sapo is crazy. all medallo real estate agencies read pbh.

I'm no doper! I just play one on TV.

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whitewidow says on Mar 24, 2009, 15:32:

pm sent

I'm no doper! I just play one on TV.

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kenblanquito says on Mar 24, 2009, 16:43:

elSapo,
Appreciate your comments but having already tried several agents in the past who had plenty of front but were full of bullshit, I am very reluctant to use random sampling again. One agency, who I will not name, had been trying to sell an apartment for nearly a year without success. The same one also had 2 "purchasers" for a local but after arriving at their offices to sign the compraventa on what we thought was a certain sale, the people did not turn up and made stupid excuses. They were theoretically the "most experienced" realtors in Medellin and have existed for 50 years. Make suggestions to them on how one would like one's place marketed, the arrogant reply was "we have been doing it this way for 50 years and we are not going to change now". What is that in the modern world? Pathetic! OK, things are different here but one would expect a better reply and service than that.
We have also used El Colombiano for advertising. Unfortunately, more people just ring out of curiosity than for buying purposes. At least with an agent, there are accompanied viewings, which are particularly important if my wife is in the house on her own. Also, hopefully, one is more likely to obtain a better percentage of genuine viewers who are really looking to move and may even have the funds to do it!
We are looking to find a minimum of 3 agents but would be happier with 30! Increases the chances of something happening.
By the way, my comment re the foreigners was probably a little harsh and there are indeed Gringos and Brits who do live outside of Poblado!

whitewidow, I have replied to your PM, thanks. I would have thought that the majority of agents would read PBH: if they have not heard of it by now, they should have done! It is called progress and using the internet as the powerful tool that it is.
Strangely, the "biggest" agent that I am using at the moment probably does not know of it but the fact that none of the staff can speak more than 10 words of English does not help: apart from that they are decent though and one member of staff sold the house to us 2 years ago and we know her well. She even visited our house periodically during the renovations, so she knows how much the place has improved. Every little bit helps!

Thanks for your contributions PBH's!
Ken

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durito2 says on Mar 24, 2009, 17:17:

real estate sells itself when it's priced properly. otherwise all the agents in the world aren't going to do you any good.

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kenblanquito says on Mar 24, 2009, 17:25:

Very true durito2. We have so far had 3 price recommendations and they all fall within 5 million of one another, which is pretty good on a house that is hardly cheap.
We do not expect to achieve this asking price but on the other hand do not expect to drop too much either. I am sure that it will be a real game of bartering with the Paisas! Help!

PS to Brians, I am an english Gringo.

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kenblanquito says on Mar 24, 2009, 17:47:

Hi Brian
Unfortunately, all of the photos that we have were taken before/during and immediately after the renovations and the place looks different now (for the better, of course).
Like the comment about bartering fincas/taxis/etc which would definitely not interest us at all.
I had drawn up a specification of the house in both languages which are stored somewhere on wifey's computer. If I can find them, I will PM them to you for a starter. Cheers for the tentative interest but it is not cheap!

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kenblanquito says on Mar 25, 2009, 07:37:

Frank
It is a house which in its present format can have anything between 3 and 6 bedrooms. Sounds mysterious, well it is! That is the beauty of it; one can use it for work, rest and play (sounds like an old UK advert for Mars Bars)
Essentially, 2 upstairs bedrooms have been united, with dividing arch, to form a large office space and wifey and I use that: her for more serious work that earns us money, me writing bullshit on PBH etc. Easy to reform the 2 bedrooms by means of "drywall" or whatever. Downstairs, there is a 2 room area, which could be used for a servant, which are presently used as office space and a workshop, where wifey can play with her arty stuff without wrecking the remainder of the house. Large open-plan lounge/diner, superb kitchen, 3 bathrooms and social toilet. Single garage and driveway for one more car. Garden with roof-covered patio. Tons of renovations. 24 hour street security.
You want to buy it? More details available if you are interested.
To sum it up, a 60's house that has, thanks to us, been modernized. It is not perfect by any means but no house of that age in this country would be. However, I have learnt that to be too critical here with property, as I always was in the UK, does not work and one would never buy anything.
Sorry moderators, I suppose that I have now placed an advertisement for my property on this site, which was not the intention when I first wrote the post. But somebody did ask, did they not?

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kenblanquito says on Mar 25, 2009, 08:16:

gringoloid
I thought it was something that would not meet the approval of the site and its moderators.
I did PM a moderator regarding this issue but I heard nothing back so I assumed that it was not OK. HELP!

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kenblanquito says on Mar 25, 2009, 09:09:

elSapo
What are you suggesting?
It does not worry me at all if people like to see my house and subsequently make rediculously low offers, redicule it or whatever. I know somebody out there, on this site or wherever, will adore it: it all comes down to taste! I will achieve a fair price on it and if necessary I will wait a long time to do that.
At present, I am in a semi-limbo situation when I am spending a lot of time in the house anyway and if there are timewasters or whatever, I can take it!
What is "the gringo price crowd"?
I am sure that your comment is very well-meaning; fortunately I have a thick skin! That is the advantage of having gone through the agonies of buying and selling homes many times during my lifetime. To be perfectly honest, if my wife and I need to remain here in this house, it will not be a hardship because we have put a lot of time and effort into customizing it to our personal requirements and we have a lot of affection for our bricks and mortar now!

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whitewidow says on Mar 25, 2009, 09:58:

i'l give you 70% of market value right now!

I'm no doper! I just play one on TV.

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kenblanquito says on Mar 25, 2009, 10:42:

That is OK whitewidow if you pay the other 30% 5 days before you receive the deeds!

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whitewidow says on Mar 25, 2009, 20:35:

deeds? more than 1 parcel?

I'm no doper! I just play one on TV.

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kenblanquito says on Mar 25, 2009, 21:48:

OK, possibly escritoras in this country. You know what I mean! The things that say that "you" are the owner.
Actually, your offer of 70% of the 800 million pesos sounds good. You can forget about the other 30% as I am feeling particularly generous today.
Sorry, my English humour is horrible.

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