The last five months have been rather hectic in my property businesses, Valencia Property and Houses for Sale in Spain. While the Spanish economy burns around me and I have been asked many times by other agents how are you doing it? How are you so busy and making sales while we are sat around wondering when the next client will walk in through the door? About 80% of Spanish Estate agents have closed down and more are closing on a weekly basis as the harsh reality of a market that has contracted greatly since the boom days of the early 2000′s were around. To answer this we need to go back to the Pareto Principle I talked about here and look at the 80/20 rule again.
So how do I do it and how can you do it too if you are involved in Spanish property? It is called fishing in the right pond of course. Fishing in the pond where the 20% of clients are rather than the 80% who although I would love to sell to them is not going to happen in the near future. I wrote about what I do earlier last year in my Web Marketing For Estate Agents book. That is how I do it but some of the background is below.
Fishing in the Wrong Place
When there is a market where people may want to buy but are unable to, the current Spanish Property Market for Spanish people, there isn’t much point in fishing in that pond. However much you want to help people to move if there is no finance available and prices are out of range of the limited savings of the majority of the Spanish people then really you are wasting your time trying. And guess what, the 80% of Spanish estate agents who have disappeared and those who are on the point of doing so are fishing in that particular pond. It is like trying to catch a marlin in a swimming pool. Very unlikely to happen in truth especially when the marlin doesn’t happen to be there.
Another pond you might not want to fish is that containing foreigners who want or need a large mortgage. Again good luck with that one. I say this with a huge caveat though. If you specialise in bank repossessed properties then the banks are likely to finance those people up to 100% of cost price of the property because the truth is they need to get them off the books. However I work for my clients of course and want to get them the best deal possible. The majority of the bank owned stock is not of the best quality or as good value as property that can be found on the general market in my opinion so I tend to avoid it. There are exceptions and I get them for those clients but I don’t go out of my way to do it. So if you have properties that are privately owned and clients that need large mortgages, good luck. However it will not happen (And it is a lot more work of course because the paperwork and such for a mortgage take a lot of effort)
Where do I fish then?
1) Foreign buyers wanting to get a great deal on property in Spain.
2) People who have money available after selling their property already elsewhere, either in Spain or abroad.
3) Deals I have in place with property portals to supply me with leads.
4) Collaborations with other agents to be their “go to person” in the Valencia region.
5) A few other deals I have in place with businesses in other countries that send me clients. (The secret sauce but think of countries where there is a boom and money)
Now I know this is totally based on the Spanish real estate market but my question here is more generic. How can you apply the concept of fishing in the right pond to your business? Are the clients you are chasing the 80% who will have no interest in your business or the 20% who could be raving fans of your service? Think about it. And if you need to change then you really should check out Who Moved My Cheese?
Are You Fishing In This Pond Even Though There Are No Buyers
