First impressions matter.  Don’t waste the opportunity to attract, seduce and provoke a response.  A well thought out listing that’s interesting and unique is a hugely important part of selling an international property.  And given the way the market operates in Central America, don’t assume a local real estate agent will do what it takes to make your listing stand out.

Here are five ways to create a listing for your international property to draw the buyer closer:

1) Use photos that provoke

Most of the guidance on real estate photography will tell you to display as many photos as you can. Marketing gurus will tell you that photos sell a property better than words; that the more photos you have, the better qualified your buyers, and the more efficient your sales process.

But is the goal of real estate photography about efficiency or is it really about provoking an emotional response from the buyer? Should your photos do the job of documenting all the features of your property or should they be focused on advertising?

The best advice on real estate photography is more nuanced than the ‘more is better’ mantra. For each photo ask yourself; “Will it resonate with the buyer?”  “Will it arouse an emotion?”   “Will it motivate them to ask for more information, to set up a viewing?” “Is the photo advertising the property or merely documenting it?”

Don’t use every photo you have just for the sake of it.  You may do more harm than good.

2) Seduce with your listing headline

Your listing headline has only one purpose: To get the buyer to read the first sentence of your property description.

You won’t be able to do this with a watered down headline that appeals to the masses.  Clumsy real estate copy like “Hurry, this won’t last long”  ”Serious offers only”  ”Very special”  ”By appointment only” won’t work either.

You have to be laser focused and define your target buyer precisely.  Fix them in your mind and use the listing headline to write them  - and only them - a compelling promise.

Practice doing this by starting off your headline with the word “why” and follow with a statement describing the benefit of owning your property.   You’ll find that the benefit comes down to lifestyle (e.g. becoming a better golfer, living like a jet-setter, fulfilling a retirement dream) or an investment goal (e.g. investing for profit, a lower cost of living).

3) Follow up your headline with a persuasive description

Assume your buyer has attention deficit and your challenge is to write your copy to make them linger on your property listing.  You’ll need to satisfy their logical left-brain by listing all the facts and features of the property and then deliver an equal measure of benefits to entice their emotional right-brain.

Don’t forget what buyers are really interested in. They’re not buying walls, a carpet, concrete or a roof.  What they’re buying is a lifestyle, a dream, a sense of community, a way to impress their friends, a means to make money….  These are the benefits your property will deliver.

It may help to think of the reasons why you bought the property in the first place and try and distill this into words.  Be direct. Use short sentences. Sell with the benefits and don’t get bogged down in the features.

4) Choose a price that entices

The mechanics of pricing your property to the current market is difficult in Central America due to the lack of an MLS and market comparables.  In fact, this lack of data is one of the reasons why we set up this site.

But don’t let this daunt you.  The key to setting a price is looking at your house like a buyer would. Search listing sites on the Internet for comparable properties, read our post on understanding the real estate market in Central America in 10 seconds, build a spreadsheet of asking prices in your area and use this information to ensure you are priced competitively.

Think creatively about incentives that you can offer buyers such as absorbing some of the closing costs or offering seller financing.   And don’t forget to add this in your listing description.

5) Include extras like video, maps and neighborhood information

Contextual information is important when selling overseas property because your buyer will know less about the market, the neighborhood and the local amenities than for places closer to home. This unfamiliarity breeds lots of questions.

Think through every objection they may have (e.g. quality of health care, proximity to amenities, neighborhood type, travel times, local attractions, cultural details) and try and address each one in your listing.   Neighborhood information, video tours and location maps work especially well when selling international property.

You property listing is an important part of marketing your property.  Get it right and you should provoke your target market into taking the next step. But what about you?  Do you have experience with selling a property your own  in Central America? Have you found any tactics that get your property listings noticed quickly?  Share them in the comments.  For more tips, here’s another post on selling property from the series.

Tags: Selling a property
Posted in Sell your international property | 2 Comments »

If you’re interested in selling property you own in Central America, you may find the listing process confusing – especially if you are used to a MLS-type system.   Selling in Central America requires a different mindset and if you understand how the system works, you’ll find it easier to get results.

This post is the first in a series designed to help sellers get the best results when selling a property they own overseas.  Here we tackle the question of listing your property with the main real estate agencies operating in your market.

Yes, we’ve used the plural.  In fact, if you can, list your property with every real estate agent in town.  Why?  Well let’s start with a bit of background.

In the absence of an MLS, ’open listings’ are the norm in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama and many other parts of Central America.  You’ll find a considerable overlap between the listings held by different real estate agencies and the best way of getting exposure for your property is to make sure that as many agencies as possible know it’s for sale.

At a minimum make sure you list with the major players.  They should be easy to find.  Let’s say your property is in Nicaragua.  Type ‘Nicaragua real estate’ into Google and make sure your property is listed with all the brokers appearing in the top 5. Good brokers will also have a prominent office location in the area where you’re selling (or close to it) and a smattering of property signs (unless of course they’re trying to ‘hide’ a particular listing from competing brokers).

Your goal is to keep your property front of mind so that it is presented to all possible prospects.  Remember that in the absence of a MLS your broker is trying to ‘list’ as many properties as possible – taking a volume approach – in the hope that one or two will sell.  They are unlikely to be particularly vested in your listing and any time and expense spent on marketing your property can easily go un-rewarded if a competing broker sells the property first.

So it makes sense to make the listing process as easy as possible.  You don’t want your property withering away in a “to-do” pile. So expect to take on some of the leg work yourself. 

Write a compelling description of your property (we’ll go into what makes a compelling listing in later posts), set out the viewing instructions, gather your paperwork and collect together some good photos. Then send the information to each agency and follow up on a regular basis.   Some sellers even take the extra step to prepare a set of electronic and printed flyers for each agency.  (If you do this, remember not to put your own contact details on the materials as brokers will be reluctant to pass this out.)

You may think that you can shortcut this process of multiple listings by offering one agency an exclusive living.  But, unless you own the last beachfront property on a hugely popular beach, or broker collaboration is the norm in the area, singing an exclusive listing may not be in your best interest.  In the absence of an MLS, there is no guarantee that the agent will share the listing with other agencies.  And even if they do, all agencies with the exception of the listing agency will view the exclusive listing as one that does not pay a ‘full’ commission, as the listing agency will expect a commission share.  So check how things work in your region before you decide to sign an exclusive agreement.

Part of getting the listing right is, of course, getting the price right.  In later posts in this series on selling property written for international real estate owners, we’ll look at how to find the pricing sweet spot for your property, how to make your listing convert like crazy, catching buyers on the web, structuring the deal to be attractive and issues to look out for in sales contracts. Our goal: To help you sell property quickly. Stay tuned.

If you have experience - good or bad - of selling foreign property that you own, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us with your story or sound off in the comments.

Tags: Selling a property
Posted in Sell your international property | 1 Comment »