• About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • Unsubscribe
No Result
View All Result
Live and Invest Overseas
FREE REPORT
BEST PLACES TO RETIRE
*No spam: We will NEVER give your email address to anyone else.
  • HOME
  • COUNTRIES
    • Top Destinations
      • Portugal
      • Panama
      • Belize
      • France
      • Colombia
      • Dominican Republic
      • Thailand
      • Mexico
      • Spain
      • Argentina
    • Browse All Countries
    • Best For
      • Retire Overseas Index
      • Health Care
      • Cost of Living
      • Investing in Real Estate
      • Editor’s Picks For Retirement
      • Establishing Residency
      • Starting an Online Business
      • Single Women
      • Playing Golf
  • BUDGETS
    • Super Cheap ($)
      • Cuenca, Ecuador
      • Chiang Mai, Thailand
      • The Philippines
      • Las Tablas, Panama
      • Granada, Nicaragua
    • Cheap ($$)
      • Algarve, Portugal
      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Carcassone, France
      • Buenos Aires, Argentina
    • Affordable ($$$)
      • Abruzzo, Italy
      • Barcelona, Spain
      • Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
      • Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
      • Costa de Oro, Uruguay
    • Luxury On A Budget ($$$$)
      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Paris, France
      • Panama City Beach Area
  • Real Estate
  • ARCHIVES
    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore Diversification
    • Our Latest On Coronavirus ⚠️
  • Making Money
    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing
  • CONFERENCES
  • BOOKSTORE
Live and Invest Overseas
  • HOME
  • COUNTRIES
    • Top Destinations
      • Portugal
      • Panama
      • Belize
      • France
      • Colombia
      • Dominican Republic
      • Thailand
      • Mexico
      • Spain
      • Argentina
    • Browse All Countries
    • Best For
      • Retire Overseas Index
      • Health Care
      • Cost of Living
      • Investing in Real Estate
      • Editor’s Picks For Retirement
      • Establishing Residency
      • Starting an Online Business
      • Single Women
      • Playing Golf
  • BUDGETS
    • Super Cheap ($)
      • Cuenca, Ecuador
      • Chiang Mai, Thailand
      • The Philippines
      • Las Tablas, Panama
      • Granada, Nicaragua
    • Cheap ($$)
      • Algarve, Portugal
      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Carcassone, France
      • Buenos Aires, Argentina
    • Affordable ($$$)
      • Abruzzo, Italy
      • Barcelona, Spain
      • Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
      • Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
      • Costa de Oro, Uruguay
    • Luxury On A Budget ($$$$)
      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Paris, France
      • Panama City Beach Area
  • Real Estate
  • ARCHIVES
    • Living & Retiring Overseas
    • Raising A Family Abroad
    • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
    • Offshore Diversification
    • Our Latest On Coronavirus ⚠️
  • Making Money
    • International Real Estate
    • Banking
    • Employment
    • Investing
  • CONFERENCES
  • BOOKSTORE
No Result
View All Result
Live and Invest Overseas
No Result
View All Result
Home Real Estate

How To Shop For Real Estate

Lief Simon by Lief Simon
Nov 02, 2012
in Real Estate
0
A property in Panama with a red tile roof, bright green lawn, and beautiful blue sky
214
SHARES
3.1k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

You’d Think We’d Be Used To This By Now

Trying to buy a piece of property in a market without an MLS.

Having invested now in real estate in 21 countries, you’d think I’d have gotten used to what that means, but I haven’t.

Kathleen and I have been looking for a house to buy in Panama City for the past year or longer. Even here in Panama, where agents will work together and split commissions (not a likely prospect in many other destinations around the world), you have to engage more than one agent. We’ve been working with three. That’s not only inefficient and complicated for us, but for the agents, too. In one house we viewed, we noticed the business card of one of the other agents we’re working with on the kitchen counter. He’d been by to check the place out thinking it might be something of interest to us. The owners informed him, when he explained who he was working for, that we already had an appointment to see the house with another agent.

After finally deciding that no house exists in this city that we want to buy (the prices for the few we’ve found that we like are more than we want to spend), we’ve moved on to the apartment market.

Buying an apartment in Panama City can be even more complicated than buying a house. Without an MLS system, it’s impossible to figure out what is actually for sale. Properties for sale are advertised online with classified listing services. These are all but impossible to decipher. Real estate agents list apartments with these services and then renew their listings forever (it seems) without adjusting the price. Sometimes each renewal appears as a separate listing, so it can seem there are a dozen apartments of the same description for sale in a particular building. But it’s just the one apartment, relisted again and again to try to keep its listing position near the top. We’ve also seen the same apartments listed on these sites by several different agencies and also by the owner…all at different prices.

Call to inquire and the agency responds with, “Let me check and get back to you.” Eight or nine times out of ten, when they call you back, it’s to inform you that the apartment has been sold or that it was listed at the wrong price. Agents use these listings as feeder ads to bring in clients. They don’t see it as a problem that the actual price for an advertised property is almost never what was advertised.

Sometimes the seller lists a property at an inflated price just to see if he gets any bites. In one building, we viewed two apartments for sale, identical units. The listing price for one was 33% more than the listing price for the other. When asked about his price, the owner of the higher priced apartment replied, “I’ll sell if I get my price. Otherwise, I’m happy to stay put.”

The way to manage a market like this is with a three-pronged approach. Work with more than one agent/agency, check online listings yourself both to source options and to familiarize yourself with the market, and drive around the neighborhood where you’re interested in buying looking for “se vende” signs.

Working this way, you’ll find most of the options that fit your parameters. You’ll also invest an enormous amount of time, but you have no choice. Not every agency will have the same listings, not every property will be listed online, and not every property for sale will have a “se vende” sign out front. Employing all three strategies gives you the best chance of finding what you want at a price that makes sense. The key is narrowing your search to a manageable neighborhood or area.

Thinking this through, it means that you can’t expect to fly into a market like this one (that is, a market without an MLS) for a long weekend and find the property of your dreams. You might not be able to see any properties if you haven’t organized meetings with agents ahead of time. It can take them days to schedule showings, as most listings aren’t exclusive and owners don’t give keys to agents or use lockboxes as they do in the United States.

After more than a year of sometimes maddening effort, we’ve finally made an offer on an apartment.

Lief Simon

Continue Reading: Crime And Safety In Ecuador

Tags: 'How To Buy Real Estate Overseas'how to buy real estateLief SimonMLSMLS SystemMultiple listing service
Share86Tweet54
Previous Post

Panama-United States Free Trade Agreement Comes Into Force

Next Post

Top 10 Countries In The World To Be A Woman

Lief Simon

Lief Simon

Lief Simon has lived and worked on five continents and traveled to more than 60 countries. In his long career as a global property investor, Lief has also managed multimillion-dollar portfolios of rental properties, for others and for himself. He offers advice on international diversification in his twice-weekly Offshore Living Letter and monthly Simon Letter dispatches.

Related Posts

Beautiful panorama over the cityscape of Camara de Lobos in Madeira island, Portugal
How to

Keep Your Money From The IRS With Overseas Real Estate

by Kathleen Peddicord
May 15, 2022
0

8938. That is the number of the IRS form you have to fill out to report foreign financial assets. If...

Read more
Scenic view of traditional cycladic houses on small street with flowers in foreground, Oia village, Santorini, Greece.

Questions You Must Ask Before Buying A Home Overseas

May 12, 2022
Cefalu is city in Italian Metropolitan City of Palermo located on Tyrrhenian coast of Sicily, Italy

Find Out How To Buy Real Estate Overseas For Cash Flow

May 11, 2022
View of Puerto Vallarta city

Top 10 Reasons To Buy Property In Mexico Today

May 2, 2022
The city of Fortaleza, State of Ceara, Brazil

Invest Now, Earn Later: Best Places To Invest In Real Estate

April 14, 2022
8 Tips To Get Maximum Profit Selling Your Overseas Property

8 Tips To Get Maximum Profit Selling Your Overseas Property

April 13, 2022
9 Reasons Why Real Estate Overseas Is A Great Investment

9 Reasons Why Real Estate Overseas Is A Great Investment

April 12, 2022
Next Post
gay retirement overseas

Top 10 Countries In The World To Be A Woman

A world full of fun, adventure, and profit awaits! Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and we'll send you a FREE report on the 10 Best Places To Retire In Style Overseas Today.

Start Your New Life Today, Overseas

LIOS Resources


  • New To LIOS
  • Ask An Expert
  • Media Center
  • Contact Us
  • FAQs

Quick Links


  • Best Places To Live
  • Best Places To Retire
  • Finding A Job Overseas
  • Real Estate

Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and get your FREE report: The 10 Best Places To Retire Overseas In 2022

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • Unsubscribe

© 2008-2021 - Live and Invest Overseas - All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Countries
  • Budgets
  • Archives
  • News
  • Events
  • Bookstore
  • Newsletters
  • About Us
  • Members Area
  • Contact Us

© 2008-2021 - Live and Invest Overseas - All Rights Reserved.

The World’s Best Places To Be In 2022?

Discover Them Here…

WANT TO RETIRE OVERSEAS?

Sign up for our free daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter, and we’ll immediately send you a free report on the 10 BEST PLACES TO RETIRE in style overseas. Each day you’ll learn about the best opportunities for international living, retiring overseas, offshore diversification and asset protection, and investing in real estate around the world.