Who is selling my property?

After 10 years of living and working in the Osa Peninsula, and having to meet new and old ” citizens” of this weird conglomeration of races, cultures, social classes and professions, all the days for one or the other of the activities that we have here, I can say that I have a quite good knowledge of the area and its people.

Obviously, in a relative world, a good knowledge is, maybe, in absolute terms, a knowledge about the 2 percent of the total population, and the 20 percent of the territory.

In the last couple of years, as we sayd in another post, the number of people and ” agencies ” that entered in the real estate arena, grew exponentially, without any relation to the real availability of good, clean and safe pieces of land for to sell.

In some moment, if you take this business seriously, it is a good behaviour to spend some time for to go to see how your competitors are working, just to feel the pulse of the market and…. to see if that damned have some more interesting property, that you didn’t found!!

The most of the time is a boring duty, but sometime, a surprise is waiting for you, just back the corner.

For example, I remained very, very surprised to find in a local Realtor listing, the property of a good friend from Miami, a property where I create and build the most magnificent ethnical roof of the Osa Peninsula, for sale, and for sale at a ridiculous price.

In the following three minutes an e-mail was flying through the cyberspace, directed to that Friend, with the question: why you didn’t told me that you was selling your property? and why at a so cheap price??

The next days, the first message in the mailbox was one of my USA friend that began in this way: – What??!!….Who is selling my property??!!…              He never had the lesser idea of selling hid jewel house with a breath taking view of the Ocean, and much less for the price that was listed for in that site.

In other ” investigations “  I made in other site I found:

- one downtown hotel that is listed with a big “SOLD” sign in top the     picture, and the Owner, another friend, never even dream of selling     it.

- an oceanfront property with some cabins with the same sign, and a     price of 100,000 dollars more the price we have for the same listing,     and that never had been sold.

-  an Oceanfront  lot that is for sale at 200,000 dollars, that appear in     another major site for only 18,000.

- a property that is owned by a very close friend that appear listed   together a beachfront house property of a client that gave us the exclusivity for the sale and a big land in the back, just for to put together enough land and offer it like an unique opportunity perfect for the development of a beachfront golf course. My friend told me; “I hope that if they sell it, they sell it for a really good price….”

And this having the knowledge about only the 2 percent of the population and some information about less than the 20 percent of the territory, and having surfed only few web sites!!…..what is the real  dimension of  of this iceberg??….. Huge, really huge…and scaring!

I can understand that some SOB is trying to cheat some naive buyer, offering him some incredible property, obtaining some money for to put in some “escrow” managed by some friendly lawyer, put together enough money for to spend some years on a Brazilian beach, in good company, I hope, and…snap….disappearing…..

I can understand this, but I can’t understand the poor minded guys that short in term of listing or in quality of their property, they think that is a strategic move to add some nice picture of some really nice property to their poor pages, and less than this attitude, I really hate the habit of insert some fake “SOLD” property, just for to appear like an active and successful agency.

Talking about this kind of issues, somebody told me, can be counterproductive for the whole business , but I believe that if somebody can’t play clean in this kind of game, is obbligation of the clean player try to change the situation, both pushing over the poor minded, and /or advising the possible buyers of the existing risks.

I believe that a clean field where to play, make the game more interesting for the players and for the clients too, and I am sure that a satisfied client will bring more clients and more business to the whole market.

I don’t do any name here, but if somebody ask to me in a private conversation I can support each example I was talking before with the pages where to find the felonies at work .