real estate

[sreed]

I am thinking about opening a real estate office in Sosua. Any thoughts out there on if that would be a good idea? I have been to the north coast serveral times and love the people and the land. I think that area is ready to to be bigger than Cancun! Any thoughts????

[Tamborista]

What a great idea, you have very little competition!

Except maybe Century 21, ReMax, North Coast Reality, Hispaniola, Coldwell Banker, West Indies, Palm Hills, Kornbluth.......get my drift?

[sreed]

do you live in sosua?

[John Evans]

if i say its not a good idea would you take any notice

[DRob]

I'm not sure where Tamborista lives, but he is nevertheless correct. You'll have an enormous number of well-entrenched agents and brokers (as well as part-and-spare-timers) to compete against in Sosua, Cabarete, and most of the North Coast for that matter.

I'm neither an agent nor broker, but would strongly encourage you to get the pulse of the industry before you try and start up that (or any) business.

Good luck.

[Lambada]

Buyers wanting to use the services of an RE agent will need to ask questions about the DR, how 'this and that' is done etc & I'm not sure how knowledgeable sreed is. Sellers will want someone with a proven track record of ability to sell. There are hordes of people dabbling in RE in the area, some well established, good companies, professionally run, others mom-and-pop outfits (2 couples for example) fairly recently arrived, knowing very little. Not only does the OP need to get the pulse of the industry he/she needs to learn about all the tricks in the book which the less reputable RE firms might pull on him, he needs to know who are the reputable lawyers and who are not, he needs to be able to explain processes like deslinde, he needs to understand how to form a company, taxation RNCs, NCFs etc etc. Loving the people and the land is regrettably not enough . I also wonder how much he/she knows about the development and expansion which has already taken place in Sosua? The Cancun remark led me to believe that a study of the history of the area might be beneficial, for example.

[STEVE G.]

Originally Posted by Tamborista

What a great idea, you have very little competition!

Except maybe Century 21, ReMax, North Coast Reality, Hispaniola, Coldwell Banker, West Indies, Palm Hills, Kornbluth.......get my drift?

Funny ... but why not one more in the line to compete , probably will be offered something different from others . Why not , go for a try !

[Lambada]

Originally Posted by STEVE G.

but why not one more in the line to compete , probably will be offered something different from others . Why not , go for a try !

Because.............there are too many as it is, the less good ones give the good ones a bad name, the less good ones have financial problems and sometimes resort to pretty inexcusable behaviour which in turn reflects badly on the business as a whole. And someone who thinks that Sosua 'is ready to to be bigger than Cancun' is displaying a lack of knowledge about what has been going on in Sosua for at least 5 years. OK so they can rectify their lack of knowledge, but would they take the time to really understand the country before selling property to people for whom this is not the right place? Or would they be more interested in the sale and the income it generates? So then you have ill-prepared, ill-informed people buying property here when a bit of integrity on the part of the RE agent might have at least made them think twice. Ill-prepared, ill-informed new residents sets up another cycle of unhappiness which could have been avoided.

Personally, I steer people away from RE companies whose owners have not lived here at least 5 years, do not possess a demonstrable track record for professionalism and integrity and do not make that little extra effort to provide information about what it is like to live here which the buyer should be asking, even when he doesn't.