Hard To Find A Real Estate Agent In Our Area?

[dbserv]

Good morning all! Due to health problems slowing the ability to travel, we need to sell our home in Playa Azule. I am a Canadian, – there are other Canadians here and many Americans. We have all purchased for the same reasons.

We see PA as charming, local, friendly, safe and relaxed.

However when I ask any of them about a realtor, I am told “Forget it! You will never find a Realtor that will agree to even look at your place here let alone sell it!” I think that’s crap, as we bought from one, and another would have listed it if it had been in his servicing area.

Yes, I agree there are potential buyers who will see “poverty and shacks”. Just don’t bring them here! There are a lot of us here who saw beyond that!

Is there a Realtor out there who is willing to see the positive here? 😀

[barbara ann]

I am sympathetic to you because we are in the same position, there is no such thing as a Realtor here, they do not belong to a MLS to market your home, are not educated or licensed here as far as I know.

The majority will not cooperate with each other so if you sign a listing they wont market it with other people that sell real estate. there are people that sold real estate in the states and are here but usually it is anyone with a pulse that needs money, when we were buying our house we went with three different people in jaco.

We drove by houses we had seen with one or the other and they prices were all different, I guess depending on how much money that selling person needed over what the price the owner would accept.

If you list these people want 6 per cent plus paying the taxes on the commission you pay them. So we have used craigslist, and we love costa rica, there is a market that has a display where we place a flyer.

We were overpriced in the beginning but are realistic now.

The neighbor listed with an agency and have had no showings. Good Luck to you. There might be someone out there that is honest and hard working.

[Andrew]

Please allow me to make a couple of observations here based on your comments:

1. dbserv:

Playa Azul may indeed be “charming, local, friendly, safe and relaxed” however it’s also a little remote so even though you may have a lovely home in a beautiful area naturally it will be more difficult and time consuming for any Realtor to cover.

The real estate market in Costa Rica has improved significantly in 2015 however, overall interest in this little country has declined as is apparent when you look at Google Trends.

This chart below shows the global activity for people searching for ‘Costa Rica real estate for sale’.

As you can clearly see, overall activity is lower than it has been in ten years.

[img]https://www.welovecostarica.com/public/images/CRREFS.jpg[/img]

Having said that, you only need one serious buyer – someone similar to yourselves who sees the beauty of the area – in order to sell your home, right?

Can you not use the same Realtor who sold you the home in the first place?

2. barbara ann

There are indeed Realtors here in Costa Rica, although not many. Most of them, are ‘real estate agents’ and not Realtors and although your experience may differ, all of the ‘Realtors’ I recommend on this site are “honest and hard working.”

There are a couple of different Multiple Listing Systems here but the vast majority of real estate sales people simply aren’t interested in them.

You can’t blame Realtors for charging a tax that the government requires them to collect.

Scott

[dbserv]

Thank you Scott and Barbara Ann!
Scott, you’re 100% correct All we need is “one serious buyer”. The “Realtor” who sold it to us in the first place has gone back to the states. I really don’t think of it as all that “remote” though . . . . half hour to Jaco and about 40 minutes to Orotina. Tarcoles has pretty decent groceries. We’ve been truly happy with our visits to our home here, but sometimes you get bit in the ass and your life takes a huge direction change.
Thank you Barb for the Kijiji connection. Will try that as well. Selling it online makes it pretty hard for viewings though . . . .
Have a GREAT day you two! 😀

[Author]

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