Raison d'être

That's the fancy French phrase for "reason for being", of course.

 

So, what are we up to?

Providing an international service to both San Miguel de Allende and the world. And, we hope to make our website so indispensable, so useful, such a win-win situation for everyone, Buyer, Seller, Broker, and us, too, that everybody is happy that we went to all this effort.

Up until now, the spring of 2007, the real estate market in San Miguel de Allende has been a hodge-podge of confusion in some senses. There have been some traditional real estate agencies in town who continue, by preference or inability to view the at-hand future, to operate in the same way they always have. Meaning that they want to keep listings to themselves for their agents only, unwilling to participate in a Multiple Listing System or service.

It is their right and perogative, of course. If that is their business model and what they are most comfortable doing because it is what they know and how they have always done business here in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Yet, in other parts of the world, most particularly, just north of the border in the United States of America and Canada, the internet is driving a new model of listing, marketing, selling, and buying real estate. And, it makes sense for everyone.

Here's how we are thinking:

We don't want to sell real estate. It's just not "our thing". We want to be independent of the process and the responsibilities. So, we do NOT sell real estate. Simple.

But, if we can solve an exisitng problem that has existed for years in San Miguel de Allende regarding its most important, most prized "product", then maybe we have a business! And by providing a way for Buyer and Seller to connect with each other from any part of the world we provide a nice little service. And, if we can figure out ways to support the thousand plus hours we have spent on creating this website over the past year then we can keep this service going and expand on its capabilities.

That would be really nice for everybody.

So, first, we approached a friend, a trusted longtime realtor in town who saw the vision. The vision was this: truthfully, the unvarnished truth about buying and selling real estate anywhere in the world, people ultimately do not care HOW they get the deal done. They just want to market their property for the least amount of money, sell it, usually, as soon as they can, and will consider any reasonable offer.

The Buyer wants to have choices and to be able to investigate interesting properties from the comfort of their own home and computer. They would rather not spend the time searching for and browsing through real estate website after website after website. And, every real estate website you go to as a Buyer has things set up all differently. You have to spend time figuring out what the heck THEY have done to organize their website and once you have assimilated that then begins the next task of browsing one listing after the other and saving the listing or printing it out and trying to compare apples with oranges when every website has a different way of showing property information.

It is quite a task for the Buyer online. And in San Miguel de Allende because a MLS has not been instituted here, but not for lack of trying, it is quite a job for the interested, serious Buyer to wade through all the separate real estate websites trying to get a complete picture of everything available in their price range and preference.

The Buyer is always left wondering, rightly, whether they have seen "everything". What are they missing? Well, frankly, folks, that is nonsense and self-defeating for the real estate market in San Miguel de Allende.

Okay, so can we fix this situation? Yes, absolutely, given time and the cooperation of both agents/brokers and, most importantly, the property owners of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

www.San-Miguel-de-Allende.com now offers property owners ONE PLACE to LIST their property to the world. Sellers can now simply Sign Up for free, for FREE, and start writing descriptions, posting pictures, adding all the information needed to market their properties. They don't need to walk into a real estate agency, they don't need to make a verbal or written commitment to get that property or those properties listed online, and they can take their own sweet time deciding in the meantime HOW they want to handle inquiries that come back to their email address (which remains private so the Buyer does not get a lot of unrelated junk).

How's that so far? Make sense? Simple enough?

For the existing real estate agent or broker or even long-standing real estate agency there are clear benefits:

• listings they post at www.San-Miguel-de-Allende.com refer back to THEM
• their hottest properties are carried on the site that has THE most identifiable name of every website about San Miguel de Allende
• independent brokers can work exclusively, if they want, posting just to this website alone!
  
• real estate brokers and agencies who want to post more than 3 listings can contact us for a special arrangement that will allow them to post practically any number of listings for a reasonable payment (somewhere along the way WE have to make some income to pay for all our hard work and continued maintenance and improvements to this service)
• there are also opportunities to purchase small logo ads that advertise their agency or broker service so that they get higher visibility at this website

So, over time, as more listings are added, www.San-Miguel-de-Allende.com will achieve our goal. One-stop shopping for Buyers, one-stop marketing for Sellers.

And everybody is happy, or happier, anyway. And we will make enough income for having the vision, the persistence, for spending all night many times, working on code, modifying things, hashing out the technical details, writing out the copy that clearly conveys the concept, and for sticking our necks out financially to expend so much time, effort, sweat, and money to put this site up on the internet.

Obviously, www.San-Miguel-de-Allende.com will expand, change, grow, and improve over time. Your impressions and feedback are the MOST IMPORTANT part of our growth and refinement.

We solicit your comments and suggestions and every single one of your communications will be thoughtfully read and considered. Sometimes you will see changes made practically immediately based on what you have suggested.

Other ideas from our public may take longer to implement, but, if they are of value to everyone then we will be doing our best to modify this website to accommodate your suggested improvements.

Congusto,

David