This week, my husband and I bought a small farm in Uruguay (that’s it in the photo). I wrote about the experience here on my mindfulness blog, but I wanted to write a post here on the key element that made it such a simple, smooth, fast and utterly enjoyable experience: I found the property on MercadoLibre.com, the Latin American version of eBay, and dealt directly with the owners.
Why was this better? Well, besides saving several thousand dollars in realtor’s fees, I was able to connect directly with a motivated seller who was responsive and honest. Actually, in my case, the owners aren’t online, so they had a friend post the ad on MercadoLibre.com and handle the correspondence. They couldn’t have picked a better friend for the job–it would have been hard to find a realtor who was that attentive!
I know. I spent some time going through real estate sites in Uruguay. Since there isn’t one big RMLS sort of site that has all listings, you have to cruise through site after site, many with broken links and clunky navigation and most with forms to fill out rather than an email address for requesting more information. Several realtors got back to me quickly–but only to say that the property I was interested in had sold two months ago (they just hadn’t taken it off the site). Two offered to show me properties if I came to their office. I explained that I was two hours away and would rather look at some properties online before making the trip. No response. Other realtors never returned my messages at all.
That’s when I decided to see if I could find listings for sale by owner. I checked Craigslist–which has many international sites and can be a great source for finding real estate. My husband and I had a great experience selling a home in Oregon through Craigslist–it was all completed in less than a month and everyone was completely happy with the outcome. Unfortunately, there are only a few Craigslist real estate listings for Uruguay (and most are in Montevideo), so I headed over to MercadoLibre and found exactly what I wanted at a fraction of the price I was expecting to pay. I sent a message to the address listed, and within minutes, Julio got back to me with more photos and answers to my questions!
Don’t worry–you don’t have to be fluent in the language. I wrote short sentences in Spanish and asked very basic questions. I’m sure I didn’t express myself perfectly but Julio had no problem understanding me. I could understand his responses easily with a little help from an online Spanish/English dictionary (I don’t know much real estate vocabulary). Although I had worried that this might be a cumbersome or confusing way to get the info I needed, it turned out to be easy and fun.
If you’ve been dreaming of looking at real estate abroad but don’t want to get tied to a realtor, pestered by their regular emails or frustrated by a lack of response or updated info, try Craigslist or MercadoLibre (in South America). You’ll get an idea of the properties that are for sale by owner and in many cases, receive a lot more information about a listing than you’d ever find on a real estate website.
Even if you’re not completely committed to the idea of buying something abroad, checking the Craigslist or MercadoLibre sites is a great way to dip a toe in without taking the plunge. Take a look at the prices, compare listings, and get a feel for the area you are considering. You might just stumble upon the property of your dreams at a price you never imagined possible.
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