Comments on: Missoula, Montana, Sergeant Mulvaney, and How I Fell in Love with Redfin’s Clients http://blog.redfin.com/blog/2008/06/missoula_montana_sergeant_mulvaney_and_how_i_fell_in_love_with_redfins_clients.html Redfin Corporate Blog Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:09:04 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.1 hourly 1 By: Claudiu http://blog.redfin.com/blog/2008/06/missoula_montana_sergeant_mulvaney_and_how_i_fell_in_love_with_redfins_clients.html/comment-page-1#comment-3153 Claudiu Thu, 19 Jun 2008 11:32:24 +0000 http://blog.redfin.com/blog/2008/06/missoula_montana_sergeant_mulvaney_and_how_i_fell_in_love_with_redfins_clients.html#comment-3153 Long and Short Term Rentals Help La Costa “Ride the Storm” As a small Marbella Real Estate agency, the last 12 months have been very difficult. Property sales have gone down significantly as over supply and the credit crunch (amongst other reasons) have turned the Spanish property market upside down. Every day we hear of another local Estate Agent which has had to close, and we are not just talking about the smaller agencies, the larger well known Property companies on the coast are also being forced to close branches and lay off staff. We are perhaps fortunate in that we provide a “complete property solution” to our clients by offering rental , property maintenance and project management and renovation services. This means that we do not rely entirely on selling property as the rentals and property maintenance provide a steady income stream when there are no sales being made. The long term rental market seems to very buoyant at the moment as many people are preferring to rent a property before committing to buying and are also waiting to see if property prices drop. The majority of the enquiries we receive from our website -and other property portals in which we have listed our properties- are for long term rentals with sales leads few and far between. We won’t become millionaires with long term rentals, however, it does help us to pay the bills and keep those ever threatening overheads under control. Our main problem at the moment is finding enough good listings to meet demand. We specialize in property in the Rio Real and Los Monteros area and have now rented out all the good properties we had available and are desperately trying to find more properties to satisfy demand, in particular, we have found that three bedroom properties are scarce and have had to turn down clients on various occasions due to lack of this type of property. Short term and holiday lets also provide some steady income, especially in the higher occupancy months (May to October). The only problem with this type of rental is that it involves hours of work for relatively small returns as the properties have to be cleaned and maintained and you have to be available 24 hours day in case tenants have a problem with the property they are renting. We initially offered short term rentals as an added service to the owners of the properties we manage, however, due to the present market conditions, we have decided to push holiday rentals a little more this year by actively advertising on various specialized web portals and magazines. Although competition is fierce- with many people who purchased property on the coast in order to flip it over for a quick profit now trying to rent them out to try and cover expenses – we are fortunate to have a small but high quality portfolio of properties for short term rental. We have luxury villas that rent out for €6000 a week in the summer, 2 Bed apartments which are literally on the beach, apartments overlooking golf courses. Because of the quality of these properties and the areas they are in, they are considerably easier to rent out than properties in less desirable locations which have been flooded with new construction. There is no doubt that we are in for a rough ride until the market picks up again, but until then we will continue to concentrate on the rental side of our business which will continue to provide an interesting source of leads for when property sales start to pick up again. Long and Short Term Rentals Help La Costa “Ride the Storm”
As a small Marbella Real Estate agency, the last 12 months have been very difficult. Property sales have gone down significantly as over supply and the credit crunch (amongst other reasons) have turned the Spanish property market upside down. Every day we hear of another local Estate Agent which has had to close, and we are not just talking about the smaller agencies, the larger well known Property companies on the coast are also being forced to close branches and lay off staff.
We are perhaps fortunate in that we provide a “complete property solution” to our clients by offering rental , property maintenance and project management and renovation services. This means that we do not rely entirely on selling property as the rentals and property maintenance provide a steady income stream when there are no sales being made.
The long term rental market seems to very buoyant at the moment as many people are preferring to rent a property before committing to buying and are also waiting to see if property prices drop. The majority of the enquiries we receive from our website -and other property portals in which we have listed our properties- are for long term rentals with sales leads few and far between. We won’t become millionaires with long term rentals, however, it does help us to pay the bills and keep those ever threatening overheads under control.
Our main problem at the moment is finding enough good listings to meet demand. We specialize in property in the Rio Real and Los Monteros area and have now rented out all the good properties we had available and are desperately trying to find more properties to satisfy demand, in particular, we have found that three bedroom properties are scarce and have had to turn down clients on various occasions due to lack of this type of property.
Short term and holiday lets also provide some steady income, especially in the higher occupancy months (May to October). The only problem with this type of rental is that it involves hours of work for relatively small returns as the properties have to be cleaned and maintained and you have to be available 24 hours day in case tenants have a problem with the property they are renting.
We initially offered short term rentals as an added service to the owners of the properties we manage, however, due to the present market conditions, we have decided to push holiday rentals a little more this year by actively advertising on various specialized web portals and magazines. Although competition is fierce- with many people who purchased property on the coast in order to flip it over for a quick profit now trying to rent them out to try and cover expenses – we are fortunate to have a small but high quality portfolio of properties for short term rental. We have luxury villas that rent out for €6000 a week in the summer, 2 Bed apartments which are literally on the beach, apartments overlooking golf courses. Because of the quality of these properties and the areas they are in, they are considerably easier to rent out than properties in less desirable locations which have been flooded with new construction.
There is no doubt that we are in for a rough ride until the market picks up again, but until then we will continue to concentrate on the rental side of our business which will continue to provide an interesting source of leads for when property sales start to pick up again.

]]> By: trevor.smith http://blog.redfin.com/blog/2008/06/missoula_montana_sergeant_mulvaney_and_how_i_fell_in_love_with_redfins_clients.html/comment-page-1#comment-3128 trevor.smith Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:19:58 +0000 http://blog.redfin.com/blog/2008/06/missoula_montana_sergeant_mulvaney_and_how_i_fell_in_love_with_redfins_clients.html#comment-3128 Tom ~ All sorts of Mortgage Lenders fit in with Redfin. (That is, as long as they are the legit, upstanding, get customers an awesome loan sort of lenders) Do you do loans in WA? If so, I would love to talk with you. You can always email me at trevor(dot)smith(at)redfin.com ---- Kelly ~ You're the best :) Tom ~

All sorts of Mortgage Lenders fit in with Redfin. (That is, as long as they are the legit, upstanding, get customers an awesome loan sort of lenders) Do you do loans in WA? If so, I would love to talk with you. You can always email me at trevor(dot)smith(at)redfin.com
—-
Kelly ~
You’re the best :)

]]> By: Kelly http://blog.redfin.com/blog/2008/06/missoula_montana_sergeant_mulvaney_and_how_i_fell_in_love_with_redfins_clients.html/comment-page-1#comment-3126 Kelly Tue, 10 Jun 2008 06:48:44 +0000 http://blog.redfin.com/blog/2008/06/missoula_montana_sergeant_mulvaney_and_how_i_fell_in_love_with_redfins_clients.html#comment-3126 I miss you Trevor! You are an amazing agent and a wonderful person:) I miss you Trevor! You are an amazing agent and a wonderful person:)

]]> By: x http://blog.redfin.com/blog/2008/06/missoula_montana_sergeant_mulvaney_and_how_i_fell_in_love_with_redfins_clients.html/comment-page-1#comment-3125 x Tue, 10 Jun 2008 06:45:41 +0000 http://blog.redfin.com/blog/2008/06/missoula_montana_sergeant_mulvaney_and_how_i_fell_in_love_with_redfins_clients.html#comment-3125 Dr Seuss! Dr Seuss!

]]> By: Tom Vanderwell http://blog.redfin.com/blog/2008/06/missoula_montana_sergeant_mulvaney_and_how_i_fell_in_love_with_redfins_clients.html/comment-page-1#comment-3124 Tom Vanderwell Tue, 10 Jun 2008 03:27:19 +0000 http://blog.redfin.com/blog/2008/06/missoula_montana_sergeant_mulvaney_and_how_i_fell_in_love_with_redfins_clients.html#comment-3124 I like it and I love the Dr. Suess books. We "started over" and adopted two more kids and one of the side benefits of that is I get to read the Dr. Suess books some more. So what sort of mortgage lenders fit in well with Redfin clients and their agents? I'm curious.... Tom I like it and I love the Dr. Suess books. We “started over” and adopted two more kids and one of the side benefits of that is I get to read the Dr. Suess books some more.

So what sort of mortgage lenders fit in well with Redfin clients and their agents? I’m curious….

Tom

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