In Nicaragua it is not possible to access a complete listing of all properties for sale in any given market. We’ve already explored some of the implications of this for Nicaragua property buyers, and in this article we turn our attention to property sellers. Our focus is primarily sellers looking to sell to the international buyer rather than selling to the local market.
A feature of a non-MLS environment combined with the un-regulated nature of the market is that exclusive listings are rare. It’s hard for an agent to “keep track” of their listings when the only way they can check on the status is by visiting the property registry and retrieving the information manually. There are also few checks and balances to manage split commissions and referrals fees that normally would oil the workings of exclusive listing arrangements.
The result is that agents take a wholesale approach to listing, trying to add as many listings as possible to their database, but without spending a great deal of time and effort into marketing individual listings. Often a new listing will receive a website entry (with vague location information to keep other agents guessing) and perhaps a paragraph in a newsletter, but little more. This is because it doesn’t make much sense for an agent to spend a great deal of effort marketing a particular listing when another agent can easily sell it from under them. Given the nature of the market it makes more sense to market the country on a general basis and act more like a buyers agent than a listing agent.
In this environment giving an agent an exclusive does not make sense for many buyers. Even if the exclusive agent provides information to other active agents about the listing they may be less motivated to sell the listing for a split commission than an alternative listing for a full commission. Open listings often work better from a seller’s point of view.
Sellers who have property for sale in a real estate development have another set of factors to contend with. As there is no MLS, the only way buyers will learn about the property for sale is either from a real estate agent or from the real estate developer. Each has a conflict of interest in situations where there are developer-direct listings for sale in the same development. The developer will of course be more motivated to sell their own listings and may not advise buyers about any re-sales. And the agent will want to keep a positive relationship with the developer to be able to continue to access their inventory. Furthermore, in some development agents rarely are able to run property viewings without the developer or a representative of the development being present.