Sellers often complain that real estate agents only promote a property on their website and don’t do anything else.
Well, yes, that’s where buyers look for real estate nowadays. AND, it’s not so simple as it looks.
Yes, the past is gone, it is no more. The time that we had no more options than to promote a property in an ad in the Tico Times and in La Nación, the leading newspapers in English and Spanish is something of the past.
An agent could spend $20 to promote a property in La Nación and get some great leads out of it. A $10 ad in The Tico Times always got some serious leads for an agent. The computer era started changing everything.
Magazines and newspapers
In the old days, a property buyer shopping for a property for sale had the following options:
- Drive around the neighborhood
- Call a real estate agent/office
- Check the classified ads in the newspapers
- Pick up a magazine at the grocery store
Especially the magazines were attractive to a lot of people. Unfortunately, most readers were window shoppers and not in the market to purchase the property. For sellers and agencies, to promote a property in those magazines was expensive and not cost-effective at all. But, it was cheaper than launching a well-organized and ranking website.
All those great-looking magazines that you could pick up in the grocery stores. I remember a few because I still have some copies in my office:
- General real estate
- Costa Rica real estate & Tourism Guide
- Inmobilia
- 4 Sale by owner
- CR Property Hunters
- Property Magazine
- Inversión Inmobiliaria
- Inteligencia Inmobiliaria
- Asesorías E Inversión
- Buscando mi casa
- The Costa Rica real estate handbook
- Costa Rica Realty Guide
And the glossy magazines:
- Casa Galería
- Lifestyle Costa Rica
Advertising and marketing today
To promote a property for sale here and there doesn’t make any sense anymore in today’s market. Advertising is expensive, although running a well-functioning website that buyers can find is not so cheap either.
Having a website where an agent can promote property online requires a lot of time and effort. To be able to rank high in search engines, good content and professional search engine optimization are necessary.
Internet shopping
The NAR 2017 Home buyer and seller profile show the following:
Where buyers found the home they purchased:
- Internet: 51%
- Real estate agent: 30%
- Yard sign/open house sign: 7%
- Friend, relative, or neighbor: 6%
- Homebuilder or their agent: 5%
- Directly from sellers/Knew the sellers: 2%
- Print newspaper advertisement: Less than 1%
Ranking a website on Google
Many home sellers do not realize that a real estate agency might have a nice website but are very hard to find online.
Search engines change their metrics constantly, to make sure that everyone works hard at getting and keeping a high ranking. To give you a better idea, see how many results Google gives for a certain search online:
- Costa Rica real estate = 122,000,000 results
- Costa Rica bienes raíces = 10,800,000 results
- Escazu real estate = 1,180,000 results
- Escazu bienes raíces = 772,000 results
- Tamarindo real estate = 2,110,000 results
- Tamarindo bienes raíces = 350,000 results
- Costa Rica homes for sale = 21,600,000 results
- Costa Rica casas se vende = 179,000,000 results
Do you think your home for sale can be found somewhere in those results? So how can you make sure we promote your property the best way possible?
Visitors on a website
A company with a high-ranking website on Google can probably boast over 10,000 visitors a month on its website. That doesn’t mean that those 10,000 visitors are all ready to purchase your home. There is a huge percentage of window shoppers and even sellers like you.
How to sell fast?
As you probably know, it is important to find an agent who will promote a property the right way.
Here are a few tips on how to find the right agency to list your property with:
- Search on Google for high-ranking websites for the area where your property is located.
- Check on the social media for real estate brokers that are very active in promoting property
- Look for real estate related topics on the search engines and who published those articles
- Unless an agency works well with other agencies in your area, do not sign an exclusive with anyone.
- Have patience because property in Costa Rica does NOT sell in seconds.
Ready to put your property on the market? Contact us now and talk to the experts.
