What To Expect When Dealing with Real Estate Agents in Ecuador

Real Estate Practices in Ecuador are far from what other countries are used to. There's a Federal Real Estate Association in Ecuador, and there is a Real Estate Law and a Code of Ethics and these two are the core of its origin just like any US Real Estate Law and Code of Ethics. The problem is that the government pay little attention to the Federal Real Estate Association.

This is about to change and one of the major requirements is going to enforce licenses.

If you are thinking about buying o selling Real Estate in Ecuador through a Real Estate Agency these are the things you must know:

Real Estate Talk

1. Art. 2 of the Federal Real Estate Association states the following: In order to represent a seller the real estate professional must list the property in writing, under a written contract.
2. When you are thinking about selling your property, verify that the Real Estate Professional possess a valid license. It  is not necessary that the agent possess a license if  he or she works under a licensed Professional or Real Estate Company, but if the individual is an "Independent" Professional who works for himself, then he or she must have a valid license.
3. The Federal Real Estate Association, promotes Real Estate Professionals  to market properties under an Exclusive Right to Sell or Rent Agreement for one main reason: To avoid confusion and misunderstandings with clients and among Real Estate Professionals. Another very important reason is that if you have more than one company marketing your property, all of them use the same channels to promote the sale or rent of real estate, so, it doesn't make sense to have more than one agency since the listing is going to be in the same channel.  One thing that is going to have a negative impact is to have more than one agency marketing the property. Homeowners have this misconception that "the property is  going to sell  faster by having 3 or 4 agencies marketing the property when in fact, having 3 or 4 listing of the same property will "burn" the property 3 or 4 times faster! specially if all of the companies involved have a different price for the property. It is very common to have this issue
4. It is very common the use of Verbal Agreements, but it is not "safe" for any of the parties involved. The most common of all Agreements is a Verbal Open Agreement, where the real estate professional lists a property, and then, he refers it to his "friend" whom is a real estate agent as well  and this goes on and on until you start to see a parade of real estate agents coming through, your property coming through your home. Not too secure since there's not control of who has come to see your home, and if there's something missing or stolen, there's no one to blame but yourself.  (It happened to me) It is  better to have one Real Estate company working for you in that way there is more control of traffic, prospecting, visits, even, bringing other agents from different companies.
5. Companies such as RE/MAX in Ecuador, work under the same structure as RE/MAX anywhere in the world. The success of this company is due to its professionalism. Is the largest Real Estate Company with almost 90000 agents worldwide and chances are that you will be able to find a RE/MAX agent in your home town whom will get in touch with the RE/MAX Real Estate Agent in the country where you want to relocate. 
6. Use a professional photographer i. As I stated before, Real Estate Professionals use the same internet channels. I am a Real Estate Photographer and a Virtual Tour Provider in Ecuador. The reason for using professional photos is simple: Open a newspaper in the classified section, what are the ads that cause an impact on you? The ones with the pictures. Although I don't personally use the newspapers to market my properties, same thing happens in the internet, the difference is that more likely 95% of the ads have pictures, right? So, do exactly the same thing, open your browser and do a home search and more likely you are going to get a long list of listings, all of them with pictures. But what pictures are the ones that caused an impact on you the most? The good pictures, right?  Remember a first good impression is by far one of the most important things when it comes to sell Real Estate. So, if your Real Estate Agent doesn't make suggestions about image, show them the door.

I am not trying to bad mouth other real estate professionals, but ever since I arrived to Ecuador, I have had lots of issues with these real estate practices, to the point that I had to report two real estate agents with the Real Estate Commission for interfering with two of my Clients. One of them was preparing a written document with the intention of breaking a contract between my client and I, This type of procedure is illegal since she was trying to take unfair business advantage by instigating our client to break a legal contract. Her case is in hands of the Federal Real Estate Association of Ecuador.