New Vallarta/Nayarit MLS Search launched!

We’ve been working on an upgrade to our MLS Search, featured at MLSVallarta.com, for the past few months and its now ready to go live.

We’ve built it around Google Maps, which is definitely the best and most accurate mapping system for the region. You’ll find properties from Multi-List Vallarta (the re-sale MLS) and Multi-Dev Vallarta (the pre-sale or new properties MLS) included. We also have a view to see just developments; where they are located and what amenities and features the property has. You can click on the full information view to see more photos of the development and see its current inventory.

We’ve also cleaned up our Puerto Vallarta and Riviera Nayarit Maps and Regions page, with descriptions, photos and maps, outlining the borders of each region, on the website as well. And our Articles section features more articles about real estate than you’ll find anywhere else.

Building on this new platform allows us to improve it in many ways going forward. And this is now the most comprehensive and most sophisticated MLS Search available in Mexico, for any destination.

The next update will have an Advanced Search feature, allowing to refine your searches even more. For realtors that are members of  Multi-List Vallarta, we are also updating some features in the Member’s Only section. We’ve increased the map size, so its much easier for you to pinpoint where your new listing is located. And we will be adding this week another feature that calculates Average Listing Price and average Cost per Meter. We certainly welcome comments and suggestions.

Real Estate Offices: Getting found on Google Searches

If AMPI decides to establish their own MLS system (and from the feedback we’ve been getting, that seems to be the direction they are going in), it is going to take some time to get it up and running properly. So you’ll want to continue with our service at least until it working and they’ve worked the bugs out of the system. But you’ll also want to continue with our service to ensure that your listing information is found on Google Searches.

Right now, if people search for “vallarta real estate”, or “vallarta MLS” or many, many other key search words or phrases, out websites come out in top position. That means if people use our MLS search available on these sites, your listing information with YOUR contact information, is there. Even if you company website with your listings and MLV Interface comes way down in Google searches, you know that at least your information will appear on www.mlsvallarta.com.

If you look at which other websites come up during these searches, you’ll see that they are either you (if you are one of the lucky one’s!) or your competition. Your listings appear on your competitive sites with the MLV interface, but your contact information is NOT included. However, as long as you have your listings with Multi-List Vallarta, your listings will be in good positions with Google.

So now what about is AMPI goes with First American?

Well, they certainly will not be in the top positions with Google. This takes time, money and a lot of work. They are competing not just against our sites, but 70 other real estate offices and as many real estate developments, who are spending the time, money and doing the work to ensure they show up well. Its going to take time, if they decide to go with a public AMPI search website, to get good positioning.

So you are going to want to continue being a part of Multi-List Vallarta, even after AMPI’s system is up and running, to ensure your listings have the best exposure possible. Even the offices that do have good positioning should do so, as they don’t show up for all key words or phrases. Nobody completely dominates this, but we do come out very well, and we are the only public option available – you can’t advertise on your competitor’s website!

Mexico Luxury Real Estate Symposium

Every year the following symposium takes place in Mexico City. I’ve attended and found it very rewarding, educational and a great way to network. This year should be especially interesting with all that is going on in the real estate industry. I highly recommend it.

Luxury Markets Symposium – Mexico, October 6th and 7th, Mexico City

Luxury Markets Symposium is the forum to learn about the current state of the luxury leisure real estate industry. The results, the changes we face and the newest trends which will drive our future. Luxury Markets Symposium is a unique forum in Latin America in which you can hear from international speakers, learn from their experience and discuss the options for growth and development for the industry.

Some of the opportunities to be discussed this year are:
• Mixed-use projects
• The Mega development experience
• Active Living (new and attractive wellness and lifestyle options for retirees).
• Marketing 360°. Communication and product positioning.
• Potential growth in the luxury segment of the leisure-oriented real-estate industry.

Widen your networking opportunities and generate growth for your business.

Luxury Markets Symposium will take place at: Club de Banqueros in Mexico City www.luxurymarketsymposium.com

Call them to register: +52 (55) 5005 6345 México City,
or email at registro@luxurymarketsymposium.com

Changes to Real Estate Guide MLV property listings

To MLV Premium Members,

For many years we listed all MLV listings in the Vallarta Real Estate Guide. It was part of the Premium package where you get these listings (unlimited) and your office listed on our online directory at mlsvallarta.com. This worked fine when there were only 350 MLS listings and the Guide had more than 50 pages. Well, things changed. The MLS inventory shot up to over 1,100 listings last year and the Real Estate Guide fell to less than 40 pages. To include all the listings it would have taken up 12 pages!

So we decided to look at this a little closer. We noticed that 60% of the offices have less than 10 listings but that one office had over 100 listings. The system wasn’t fair. The larger office was paying something like  2.5 pesos for each property included. Using that figure, we were making less than 20 USD per page in the Real Estate Guide, when an advertising page costs $600 USD. It was clearly not sustainable . And, going to a layout like we now have, where photos aren’t included, isn’t fair either, nor does it look good. So we decided to make it more fair.

For the November issue we are going to allow offices to include 12 properties in the Real Estate Guide with the Premium plan. And, we are going to increase the size of the MLV ad by nearly double; increasing the photo size and the text size so it is easier to read. This way 2/3s of the offices will be able to include ALL their listings. You will be able to check off, in the Member’s Only section of MLSVallarta.com, which properties you want to list. Check off 12, and next issue they will appear. If you want to list more, there will be a small extra charge per property.

For Premium MLV members, we will also be listing your online office contact information in a much better way, including your logo, contact info, description of services offered and space for you to describe your business services. You will control this information, inside the Member’s Only portal. We are also adding icons for affiliations you may have, or awards you have won. You will be able to control this as well (just be honest about it, we’ll check!). This will be ready in November as well.

Buying “Pre-Sale” in Mexico; The Risks and Benefits

The following article by local Mexican attorney David Connell of Connell & Associates outlines well potential pitfalls but also the benefits that come with buying pre-sale real estate. With the current state of the world economy, there are more reasons to be concerned about pre-sale purchasing of real estate. Some markets have been relatively unscathed, while others have seen serious problems arise, areas such as in Las Vegas and Florida. What  really hurt these markets is the amount of credit availability, for both developers and purchasers, as well as “flipper” who never intends to live in the units purchased but just wants to make some money off of the developer’s initial low pricing. This is all fine in a healthy, up-swinging economy, but when it starts turning down, well, the results are all over the news.

 

A “pre-sale” purchase exists when a buyer enters into an agreement with a developer to purchase a unit that has not yet been built or finished. Inherently this type of purchase is risky. In Mexico over the last 10 years the real estate market has seen a major boom, especially in developed or developing costal areas. Between 1995 and 2005 prices skyrocketed and fueled an increased number of new projects, the majority of which were sold as “pre-sales”. The first of these projects brought great returns to the buyers, who often times purchased at a 30% discount off the finished sales price. Furthermore, many of these projects went up in value 20 or 30% per year prior to being delivered, which made the investment even more profitable. 

Vallarta Real Estate Guide Website Updates

A little commercial here…

We’ve been doing some updates to our website www.vallartarealestateguide.com over the past couple of weeks. A while back we installed Google Maps as another way to search for properties. It is now connected with the database for Multi-Dev Vallarta, the MLS for developments in and around Vallarta. If you go to the search page, and click on Google Search, you’ll see what we’ve done. If you want to watch a short video to see how it works and how to get the most of it, just scroll down this page a bit. 

You can click on a development name on the left side and you’ll be taken to the development’s location. On the pop-up info box you’ll get information and a photo. Click on the (+) and you get more information. Click on “Inventory”, and, if they are part of MLV and have entered their inventory, you’ll see what units they have for sale. Or just, click on any of the balloon markets on the page or scroll over them. Purple markets are for aerial images and red one’s are for developments.

They’ll be a few more improvements coming along in the next couple of weeks.

Financing in Vallarta

At the recent PV AMPI Chapter monthly meeting Terence Reilly of MexLend spoke about how financing has been going for his and other mortgage brokers and lenders in the Puerto Vallarta area. He said that in previous years, the market had been driven by people taking out home equity loans (HELOCS) on their homes in the USA or Canada, or cashing in stocks. In today’s market, this is no longer a valid option. So financing in Mexico has become more popular.

In 2007 his company did $20 million in real estate transactions. However, in 2008 they more than doubled their business with $47 million in transactions. The industry has lost some lenders, but also picked up some new one’s, such as Deutche Bank. One lender has a program to lend against your stock portfolio – very creative. And he mentioned that they can now do loans for property owners that want to have the property in a corporation.

Good news is that in 2008 only two foreclosures were reported. This is primarily because there just haven’t been many loans that could be foreclosed on! But that’s certainly good to see against what’s happening north of the border.

Getting to Know VREG.com

Our site www.vallartarealestateguide.com is packed with excellent information that really every realtor should visit regularly to ensure they are up-to-date and fully aware of what’s available on the real estate market in Puerto Vallarta and the surrounding regions.

On the “Development” Tab you’ll find information on many of the real estate developments around the bay, more than you’ll find in any one place on the Internet. Its easy to use and browse, and quickly become familiar with where each project is, what it has to offer and what its price points are.

Under the Tab “Vallarta” you’ll find the primary regions listed with a photo and description of each. If you look to the right-hand side column, you’ll see that the developments that are listed in the region are listed. They are also live links, taking you to the information page of this development.

Under the Tab “MLS Search” you’ll find three unique ways that you can search the two MLS databases. One is our standard format that allows you to enter in search criteria and search for properties. Another is using a large map of the bay to go around and find out about regions, developments and properties for sale. There are also aerial, ground and 360º images to view to get to know what the area looks like. This is a great tool for showing people around the bay when making presentations.

And we also include many of the real estate articles that have been printed in the Real Estate Guide or Vallarta Lifestyles as well.

There’s more information on local real estate than you will find anywhere else.