Learning from the US RE.net in Central America
January 20, 2009
By: Claudia Gonella
Author's Website: http://www.revealrealestate.com
The actual process of buying real estate in emerging markets like Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua and Belize is similar to the US, and fairly straight-forward. But finding the right property, at the right price, is an altogether different proposition.
There’s no Zillow to help you follow market values, no neighborhood APIs for developers to use and Google Street View does not extend to Central America. There are a few fledgling MLS systems but nothing comprehensive. And, perhaps most significantly, market comps are not readily available from property institutes, registries or central bank databases.
In the US the real estate buyer goes to the market armed with a mountain of data. Not just market comparatives and price trends but school data, neighborhood outlines, tax records, walk scores and crime statistics. Just look at the data Redfin is serving up or the richness of one of Bloodhound Realty’s single property websites.
But, if you are looking for property in Nicaragua or Panama you are data starved in comparison. Yes, Google will serve up thousands of listings in just 0.25 seconds, but you wont find a comprehensive source of market comps, trend data or lifestyle information. Without these additional layers of information it can be hard for investors to move forward in confidence.
On top of the obvious concerns about political instability, the lack of data makes the job of buying property in emerging markets more scary than it needs to be.
The good news is that the situation is starting to change, albeit slowly. We’re seeing more quality blogs with breaking news stories and market commentaries. There were more posts on ActiveRain on international real estate than the previous year. International property portals like enormo are approaching brokers in Central America for listings. You may not be able to get a walk score or drive score, but sites like revealrealestate (Disclosure: Revealrealestate is my employer) have measured the driving time to the international airport from major real estate developments. They don’t offer a sophisticated lifestyle search but can tell you if a development is walking distance from a surf spot.
You just need to look at what is happening in the US RE.net to anticipate the type of web properties that are going to emerge in the Central American real estate scene. We’re still a long way away from arming consumers with the kind of data they have in the US. But the data supply is increasing slowly, search is becoming more advanced, and transparency is improving.
Competence and cool-headedness may be the watch words for real estate in the US in 2009, but in Central America, the clarion call is still for more transparency.
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Tom Dibaja on January 20, 2009 1:05 pm
Very much agree. I think we’ll begin to see more listings aggregators making a move to emerging Central American markets this year, followed by trend data and lifestyle information according to the features they make available for consumers.
Thanks for the mention!
Shelly Righter on January 20, 2009 7:03 pm
It’s really hard to find benchmarks of prices between emerging real estate markets in a standardized format. And there is so much hype – a little less now perhaps. So any progress in this are is to be welcomed.
Megan Murphy on January 21, 2009 10:36 am
Great post Claudia. I work with Onboard Informatics, the company announcing the new sophisticated Lifestyle Search you linked to.
It seems you are an industry expert and I just wanted to let you know about the Essay Contest we’re holding regarding lifestyle search/the future of real estate search and what that looks like.
The winning essay will receive a $500 AmEx Giftcard!
Check out our blog for all the details and other post regard Lifestyle Search, Onblog: http://blog.onboardinformatics.com/
Hope to see your Essay!
Samantha on January 21, 2009 4:14 pm
I really enjoyed the article. Having purchased property in Central America it was defnitely a different experience than in the US and I found it hard to find what I needed. I had to talk to a lot of people to be sure that I found all the areas that might suit me and then look at all the realtor sites after that. I’m interested in more property so m looking forward to how the new sites can help me search.
Steve Hasz on January 22, 2009 8:10 am
Hi from Sunny Roatan Island Claudia,
Great article. We were just bemoaning the lack of Zillow and Google Base for our area the other day. It would be very handy to be able to syndicate our listings out to some of these websites, but they seem to have currently overlooked our corner of the world.
Roatan island, which is off the North Coast of Honduras in the Western Caribbean, is apparently the exception to the rule for Central America. We use the FlexMLS service, have over 700 active listings, many of which include Google Street and Satellite View, and 59 active agents, which are a nice mix of islanders, mainland Hondurans, North Americans and Europeans.
I reviewed revealrealestate.com and look forward to your adding Roatan and the Bay Islands at minimum. It would great if we could do a direct syndication through openrealty.org, since many of us use that system in addition to the MLS and it has a syndication module.
We are also currently underway with the Honduran mainland chamber of real estate to get them involved in an MLS system.
Please let me know on any questions and if I can assist you in the future.
Best regards,
Steve
Steve Hasz – Broker/Owner
Roatan Life Real Estate
Claudia Gonella on January 22, 2009 8:46 am
Steve – Thanks very much for the information on Roatan – I’ll contact you to discuss further. Claudia
Brooke on January 23, 2009 7:22 pm
A central source of market data offering search functions for lifestyle factors and comps is definitely needed in the industry. Sites like Revealrealestate will prove very useful to investors, developers and brokerage firms.
Mike Price on January 27, 2009 7:21 pm
Claudia,
I’m really happy you’re sharing some Int’l insight with the RE.Net. I’d love to hear more of what your counterparts in other markets across the world have to say as well. Your participation here will certainly help motivate them to do so. Looking forward to your next post!