Real Estate Companies listing same property at difference prices

Welcome to Ecuador

Good one Nards, hope everybody will do the same and then real state prices will keep low and real.
Expats please, check twice before buying or renting and check for real prices. Don't create a housing problem like in the States or Europe.

Vinny

Also, a good idea would be to get rid of that gringo look and speak perfect Spanish, but thatŽs impossible, isnŽt it?
I usually send my girlfriend to do this kind of shopping, and when the numbers are spoken, show myself. I just looove the surprise look on ecuadorian faces: their little trick didnŽt work this time... Try it, it is amusing...

I had to laugh at this one.

The American guy posts every couple days an ad for this house on Craigslist. The price is currently $187,000. In fact he posted an ad today for it.

Since he promotes the fact he works with brokers, his house is listed on a number of realtor's websites. One of those realtors posted a Craigslist ad yesterday with a list price of $200,000.

http://quito.en.craigslist.org/reb/3211625164.html

vinny66 wrote:

Good one Nards, hope everybody will do the same and then real state prices will keep low and real.
Expats please, check twice before buying or renting and check for real prices. Don't create a housing problem like in the States or Europe.

Yep, I agree completely. Some guys try to spoil the property market there like in some other Middle American Countries.  High prices helps only a minority and keeps the expats away.
But expats are important for Ecuador's economy.

Where I'm now living, the property market is completely spoiled. locals and realtors dreaming from high prices, like a lottery win. But the expats don't now even think about to pay the asked prices. They prefer to stay at home or looking for other countries. We are here in a end of a bubble, shortly before a crash.  Many stupid and ignorant people will loose a lot of money!

Nards Barley wrote:

I had to laugh at this one.

The American guy posts every couple days an ad for this house on Craigslist. The price is currently $187,000. 
...
One of those realtors posted a Craigslist ad yesterday with a list price of $200,000.

Nards, what do you think is the fair price?

Globetrotter,

I actually think the price of 187,000 may be reasonable given the location (Puertas del Sol), size and furnishings. 

What I found funny was that there was a competing ad on Craigslist for the same house from a broker at $200,000. Either the broker is oblivious to the fact the owner is trying to sell direct on Craigslist or that it doesn't matter.

The other day on Craiglist, I was redirected to this new real estate listing

Today I stumbled on the same property here.

While of course property prices drop, and there can be a lack of communication of that fact to the people running these real estate websites, I think in some of these cases, it is simply the discretion of the real estate broker to decide what to list it at.

Possibly their arrangement with the client is simply they are entitled to as a commission, an amount above and beyond what the buyer is asking for it, as opposed to a percentage of the total sale. But who knows.

QueHayenCuenca                 117,000
Biences Raices Yanuncay       109,500

This is a fairly new listing on CuencaRealestate.com


CuencaRealestate.com    115,000
AAACuencaRealestate     105,000

/begin outburst

If this town's bloggers (frugal, Canadian or otherwise)  were as responsive to my comments on their blogs as this individual was to my email, we might have a better informed expat community

/end outburst

Here is the reply I received to an email inquiry which I also posted below.

Thanks. We'll make the adjustment. Glad the hear the boys down at the Coffee Tree are on the ball.

Hello,

I am an expat living in Cuenca.  My friends and I often get together at the Coffee Tree to discuss investment opportunities.  Many of us browse the various Cuenca real estate websites each week and we sometimes see the same property listed at different prices. For instance,

http://www.cuencarealestate.com/Buy/810

While your listing is for $115,000 the following web page has it listed for $105,000

http://www.cuencarealtors.com/index.php … Itemid=163

While I am sure you have a very good business reason for offering this property at $10,000 more than a competitor, it does leave us with the impression that you are padding the listing price, possibly as part of an overall sales strategy.

In any case, I wanted to give you the opportunity to clear up our confusion and to make the case why we should use your firm to purchase this and/or other properties, despite the fact that you may have higher listing prices.

regards

Anyone seeing a pattern here with a particular realtor?

Cuenca RealEstate  129,000
Fabian Carvallo       121,500