An interview with the founder of SSD.

To be invited to be interviewed on-line is not exactly akin to appearing on 'Parkinson' or 'Oprah'.

But none the less, it was a nice gesture of recognition for all of the hard work that everybody involved with the 'Spanish Sales Direct' project has put in in the last 18 months.

The 'Interviewer' was from Salt Lake City, Utah.

And this was how it went...

Name of your website?

Spanish Sales Direct (dot com).

Your name?

Neil Raymond

Your Location (city, etc)

Costa Almeria in the South East of Spain.

Please give us a short summary of your website?

Well, this is the website for property owners selling privately in Spain, commission free...

And for buyers who are not willing to pay more than they need, to own their dream home in the sun.

Estate agents have long made excessive profits from people buying and selling houses in Spain, but now that this Website is available People have an additional choice to using these agents, and things can begin to change...

What inspired you to launch your own website?

Our personal experiences of buying and selling in Spain using Estate Agents. As well as those of our family friends and neighbours.

We were left with a feeling that there must be a better way..... The feeling that agents were not doing their job as well as we had hoped, and/or not doing enough to earn the high commission rates being charged.

This led to a desire to give people a viable alternative.

When did you launch your first website, and what was it?

'Spanish Sales Direct' is our first website, and was in development for 8 months before its launch in September 2007.

How did you decide on a name for your website?

We wanted people to be able to find the website easily and we wanted to ensure that it was clear that we do 'exactly what it says on the tin'...

We looked at 'clever' names, 'catchy' names and 'trendy' names. but nothing seemd to quite fill the bill better than what has now become known as 'SSD'.

What makes it different from other, similar offerings?

It has an incredible amount of functionality without being complicated or looking 'fussy'.

There is a wealth of information, but is is 'discovered' in a very natural way, so as to avoid the user being overwhelmed with complicated layouts and difficult 'navigation'.

It has been formulated specifically with the ex-pat community in mind, who may not have extensive computing skills and/or knowledge

We designed it from the ground up to be very simple and intuitive to use. But it is still packed with a whole host of cutting edge, user friendly features, such as automatic photographic file size compression.

What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)

We hope to be the No.1 choice private property sales portal for the entire Iberian peninsular, and as such are already rolling out plans to increase awareness along every 'costa', as well as inland.

A whole host of exciting ventures which will accelerate our future growth will be developed and 'rolled out' over the coming months/years .

How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?

What you put in relates directly to what you get out of any business, and this is no exception!

Blood sweat and tears have already been shed and much more will be in meeting the challenges ahead. But we are looking forward to giving SSD our full commitment in order for us to fulfill our exciting potential.

If you had an unlimited budget for development, how would you change your site?

We would invest in large scale Spanish and UK advertising campaigns in order to increase awareness, and get our message out there.

For example, we already know from our market research, that many people do not even realize that they do not HAVE to use an agent when buying and selling in Spain.

If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?

Oh yes, we ware geared up for that very thing, because we are confident that this is the future of the real estate market (just as it is now in the US) and it will 'snowball' as awareness and popularity increase.

What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?

Lots, but what new business venture has not!

Bug fixing and development took a long time, but that is because a very good website has an awful lot of very complicated scripting and coding going on 'beneath the surface' which the end user (should) be unaware of...the downside to this is that there is a lot more to go wrong whilst in development and this takes lots of time and money to remedy.

What has been your biggest challenge?

Getting from initial concept - to 'live' launch.

Exciting...sure, but also all consuming (time/money/energy)...Absolutely!

What method has been most successful for promoting your website?

A combination of a full gamete of On-line and off-line marketing techniques has been (and will be) used. And we have been delighted with the response from all of these.

How has running your website differed from your expectations?

It is much more hard work, and more time consuming than we imagined, but as a result has been much more rewarding.

It has been a labour of love, but as it grew, and our ideas developed further, we just thought "wow, this is going to be incredible!"

How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?

This has been our 'baby' from birth, and will be for life!

I can assure you (and all of our future visitors) that this project has been given far too much investment, and has far too much potential to ever considered being 'dropped'

Why should people use your website to sell their Villa, Cortijo or Apartment privately...or indeed to find a private coastal or inland Spanish home to buy from its current owner?

* You will save thousands of Euro's if you handle the process yourself.

* You are the boss - you vet potential purchasers, and negotiate with them on your terms.

* It is your property....who knows it better than you do? Nobody is better equipped to sell your house than you!

* Deal with the property owner face to face and avoid 'middle-man' misunderstandings.

* Get to know all you need to know, from the person who knows it best...the current owner...directly.

* Negotiate at a true value, not an inflated asking price bolstered by an agent’s commission fee.

With Spanish Sales Direct private spanish property purchasing just became more pleasant, far easier….and a lot cheaper too!

What is your website address?

http//www.spanishsalesdirect.com

Information overload.

Having been recently 'reviewed' by another internet website, Spanish Sales Direct was considered to be "One of the big boys".
Well, that was very nice....Thank you.

But the review then went on say that there were "virtually no guides or advice" present!

Hmmm...

Something was very wrong, because we have worked painstakingly during the development of the website to ensure that there is copious quantities of information for visitors who would visit us with a view to either buying OR selling a Spanish property.
(And we continue to do so, to ensure that the content remains up-to-date and relevant.)

This content was developed specifically to be not only very rich in terms of helpfulness to human beings, but also 'keyword loaded' in terms of what potential users of the sight might be punching into their 'Yahoo' or 'Google' search boxes.
Our SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) team considered the 15-20 pages or so of information which is liberally distributed throughout all of the sites internal links, to be an essential part of feeding the various internet spiders and bots that they were encouraging.
As a result of this regular crawling through all of our pages, the search engines are obviously harvesting lots of keyword information which is resulting in many appearances in search results of SSD on peoples computer screens.

So why couldn't all this be found???

After conducting research with some clever technology which told us exactly where on our pages visitors were clicking their mice, we found that the two 'lounge' buttons on the front page were not being recognised as entry points through which to access all of the information pages!

We concluded that the reviewer of the website obviously fell into this trap also...

"So lets change em!"

They are now bigger, with a cleaner crisper font which is more easily read. And the wording has changed to plain english "BUYERS/SELLERS INFORMATION CLICK HERE"



Now everybody can enjoy finding out as much (or as little) as they want to about every aspect of buying and selling privately in Spain.

And hopefully we can look forward to some more accurate reviews in future!!!

Update of our progress.

REVIEW

The 'SSD' website has seen an incredibly encouraging amount of traffic since its launch in 2006.

Whilst we expected winter to be as deadly quiet it traditionally is, it seemed that people were in Christmas and new year mode for much longer this year. But, despite this, the website has maintained a respectable level of visitor numbers.

The Analytic review of the site carried out by our admin team recently, shows thousands of visitors making tens of thousands of page views.

The target audience of potential private buyers is certainly using the site to the full, and seems to be finding the site quite 'sticky'...... and why not.

With pages and pages laden with all sorts of useful information about buying and selling privately in Spain, and lots of internal links on those pages to even more information deeper within the multitude of sections of both buyers & sellers 'lounges', there is something useful for everyone.
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ADVERTISING

The new advertising campaign commenced with the vehicles being sign written with our slogan , logo and contact details...

... and the sales team getting the nice pink corporate polo shirts!

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LEAFLET/FLYER


Now that the first twenty thousand flyer leaflets have been distributed we are seeing a further increased number of enquiries, and we are thrilled to say that the number of positive comments we have received bodes very well for the future.

The design and content of the Flyer/leaflet was well conceived and well received, and has created quite a 'buzz' about this fresh approach to Spanish Real Estate. - Our thanks to all involved in this project.

A second print run is planned for Q2 to sustain the momentum of this campaign, and we will also be increasing the number of distribution points fourfold to spread the word even further than before.

RADIO AND MAGAZINE

"Now is a good time to commence advertising on the radio!" Said our marketing manager at the new years party....
"OK", we said. But with caution, as this is a new medium for us to work with and one which is notoriously difficult to measure the effectiveness of.

Well, in partnership with 'Valle Radio' we went 'On-Air' at last, alongside some more traditional print advertising in the station's sister publication, the popular coffee table '89.8 Magazine'.

Our radio slogan/background music?????
Ultra-Nate: "Cos your freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, to do what you want to do!"

It was annoyingly catchy, and hopefully made at least some listeners prick up their ears.
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WHAT'S COMING UP

And finally for now, the final stages of pre-publication of our brand new advertising campaign for Q2 can be unveiled....
"STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD"

These new ads will get exposure in several full colour publications throughout lots of different inland and coastal areas of Spain, as well as the UK.

And with a circulation of circa 25,000+ will definitely help us to get the message out loud and clear, that www.spanishsalesdirect.com is the place to visit now, if you want to sell your home in Spain, or find one at a sensible price!

Updates & upgrades to the SSD website.

Exciting weeks these.....we are getting lots of great feedback from users and registered members alike, all of which is constructive and useful.
Over the last little while we have been working hard on the continued development of the site
and to that end there have been a number of improvements that are all now live and 100% beta tested:

• Live Weather forecasting is now active on the new home page. It has been set to record weather at Almeria, this being a fairly central point along the South East coast of Spain.
• RSS feed of new properties is now on-line and active on both Internet Explorer, Firefox and all other popular web browsers. See how it works here
  
• The feed can be viewed in a selection of your favorite feed readers and is also being fed onto our popular E-magazine here
  
• An 8 language page translation 'widget' has been added also for our Spanish, Portuguese, German, French Italian friends etc... Muy bien!
  

• We heard them cry......

  "Please make it easier to navigate directly to your listings page and search all of your properties..."

  So we have added a BIG "View All Listings" button to the main navigation box. There you go. Sorted!

• A currency converter now spins it's little golden logo of delight on the home page too. And not just any currency converter either...XE.com, the daddy of all converters (thanks XE).
• And finally for now, the 'holy grail' of the Spanish Sales Direct website...A.P.C. (Automatic Photograph Compression) is nearly here! Beta testing is well underway, and we are frantically ironing out the wrinkles so that all of our users can benefit from fast loading images very soon.......... And that means the admin team wont spend all of their time crunching the photos uploaded onto the site down to usable file sizes. Hooray!
  

A-Z of Spanish real estate phrases.

You may come across various key phrases and descriptions either on documents or in correspondence, that it will be helpful to have an awareness of, when selling or buying property in Spain privately.

N.B. This list is not exhaustive, but does cover some of the more commonly encountered terms used by various people within the Spanish Real estate industry.

Abogado - Lawyer/solicitor

Administrador de fincas - Spanish licensed property administrator

Agente de la Propiedad - Property Agent

Amortización - Repayment of loan/mortgage, depreciation

Arbitraje - Arbitration

Arras - Down Payment, deposit

Arrendador - Landlord

Arrendatario - Tenant

Aval - Loan guarantee

Avalista - Guarantor (of a loan)

Caja de ahorros - Spanish savings bank

Catastro - Spanish Land Register

Cláusula - Clause in a contract

Cláusula abusive - Unfair clause in a contract usually to the detriment of the consumer

Cédula de habitabilidad - Certificate of occupancy

Certificado registral - Certificate informing about debts of a specific property

Chalet - Villa

Compra sobre plano - Off-plan property purchase

Comunidad de propietarios - Association of property owners

Contrato de arrendamiento - Letting/renting contract

Contrato de compraventa de vivienda - Private property sales contract

Cooperativa de viviendas - Housing co-operative

Cuenta de ahorro vivienda - Housing savings account with special tax benefits

Derecho de tanteo - Right of first refusal

Derecho de retracto - Right of repurchase

Desahucio - Eviction

División horizontal - Official document describing division of property between
multiple owners

Documento privado - Private document

Documento público - Public document

Escritura - Deeds

Escritura pública de compraventa - Title deeds

Euribor - Official Euro Interbank offered interest rate

Fianza - Deposit

Finca - Estate

Folleto informativo - Information leaflet/brochure

Gestoría - Firm specialising in obtaining official authorisations, permits, licences etc

Gestoras de cooperatives - Firm specialising in obtaining official paperwork in relation
to housing co-operatives

Hipoteca - Mortgage in Spain

Hipotecar – The act of mortgaging

Hipoteca de inversión - Endowment mortgage

Hipotecable - Mortgageable

IBI Impuesto sobre Bienes Inmuebles - Spanish yearly property tax

Impuesto sobre actos jurídicos documentados - Legal documentation tax

Impuesto sobre el Incremento del Valor de Terrenos - Tax on the increase of land
value

Impuesto sobre el patrimonio - Capital gains tax Spain

Inmobiliaira -Estate agent

IVA Vivienda - Property VAT

Libre de cargas - Free of debts

Libro del edificio – Releasing of documents by the promoter when a building is
finished

Licencia de obra - Building permission

Notario - Notary

Nota simple registral - Certificate from a property register

Novación - Renegotiation of mortgage terms

Obra Nueva - Document certifying a brand new building

Oferta vinculante - Bank document certifying the exact mortgage conditions

Pago en efectivo - Cash payment

Parcela - Plot of land

Piso - Flat

Poder - Power of attorney

Préstamo con techo - Loan with variable interest rates with a fixed minimum and
maximum

Préstamo cualificado VPO - Special loan given only for the purchase of low-cost
housing

Préstamo hipotecario - Mortgage loan

Plusvalía Municipal - Capital gains tax on the sale of property

Proindiviso - Co-ownership, when a property has more that one owner

Promotor - Property developer

Registro de la propiedad - Property ownership register

Representante fiscal - Official tax representative

Residencia (permiso) - Residency permit

Residente - Resident

Segunda vivienda - Second home

Seguro multirreisgo hogar - House insurance

Se alquila - For rent

Se vende - For sale

Seguro de amortización de préstamos - Loan repayment insurance

Señal - Deposit, down payment

Superficie útil - Useable square metres in a property

Tasación - Independent valuation of property

Terreno - Plot of land

Tipo de interés- Interest rate

Tipo sustitutivo de referencia- Substitution of the official interest rate - for example the euribor

Titulo de propiedad - Deeds stating the ownership of property, date of sale etc...

Valor catastral - Registered value of land

Reasons to use the Internet to sell your Spanish home.

Huge numbers of people now wish to market their own property. And it's true, you are the best person to sell your own home on the internet...

• Millions of Spanish properties are sold each year 'on-line'. But on average 88% of sellers paid agency commission fees!
• Last year approximately 12% of all sellers saved by selling their properties privately on-line…and the numbers are growing.
• There is no legal obligation to use an agent when selling, and you usually break no contractual agreement by selling privately even if you have an agent.
• 82% of people looking to move house within the next 12 months say they WILL use the Internet to search for properties.
• Every month, thousands of home buyers are hunting for dream homes in Spain on the internet...They are hunting for homes like yours!
• The Internet is now the easiest way for buyers to search for available properties in the areas of their choice.
• Even estate agents have recognized that advertising their houses for sale on the Internet is a service expected by most vendors.
• The key benefit to you is that there is No Commission.

MORE REASONS TO USE AN ON-LINE ADVERTISER.

Low Stress:-

Moving home is stressful. The key is to eliminate the causes. e.g. when an agent calls saying he has a "customer with him", and "can they pop round for a viewing now?"

By selling privately you eliminate this nonsense. You set your schedule, you decide who you're going to see, and when. It's all on your terms.

Whose house?

No one knows your home better than you. You know your views are fantastic, and your pool is the envy of your neighbours. You also know that the tarnished fittings in the Bathroom need to be played down. A home with a fair sale price will sell itself, but there is nobody better than you to talk up its strengths.

And, because you pay the bills and know the area, you're the best person to answer questions buyers have. And the more information you send them away with, the more informed and quick their decision will likely be.

You're in charge:-

We all like control. Selling privately means decisions like what type of people you want to vet more carefully, and what asking price you want to publish, are down to you alone. And if you decide to change any details, or cool off the viewings for a while that's up to you too, as you are not obligated to any contract. And you'll never feel frustrated that your agent isn't doing enough, because you are your agent!

It's cheap:-

If you employ an agent then you will lose LOTS of money. When your home is sold they'll get a BIG cut of your profits. And if you think about just how much, in return for showing a few people around your home and making some phone calls…did they really earn it? But for only around 100€ an on-line adveriser can help you keep 100% of the sale funds!

Save time:-

It's not unheard of for an estate agent to inflate an asking price. It's also not unheard of for the seller to go along with this in an effort to cover the inevitable commission costs. But then, because the price is too high, the property remains unsold. And that time spent sitting on the market harms the chances of selling at a fair price later on!

So sell privately...You can then ask for a fair price from the outset, because you don't have to take any commission into account.

Reach more buyers:-

Advertising on the World Wide Web exposes your property to millions of potential buyers. By advertising on-line you could reach an international audience. An advert in the agent's window could never do that, nor could any ‘enquire within’ board nailed to your garden gate! Advertising privately means your home will be seen by as wider an audience as is possible.

Transparency:-

If a buyer makes an offer, they make it to you directly. You can (and should) still take time to think about offers, then accept or reject them, but the process is quicker because there is no third party and no conflict of interests. Agreements between private sellers and buyers are always reached far more quickly and easily

Less uncertainty:-

Because you meet buyers, you get instant feedback. You can tell whether they're interested or not, whether they're serious or getting a feel for the market. And you'll find out what their situation is. If the purchase of your next home is riding on the sale of your present one, then this kind of direct contact with your potential buyers is invaluable.

Using an Estate Agent alone to sell your property?…here are some things to consider...

The traditional method to sell property is of course to use an estate agent, in fact many people do not even realise that you don’t have to use an estate agent at all.

There are some excellent agents out there – BUT ask yourself these questions:-

"How much will it cost?" ... "Is it value for money?"

"What advice do they provide on actually selling or buying a property?"

"How pro-active are they?" ... "How often do they keep in touch?"

"What guidelines do you receive on presentation or what to look for when viewing a property?"

And think about the last time you somebody you know used an Estate Agent...

What was the experience like?

What did they do to 'earn' their money?

How much did you trust them?

What aftercare and level of service did you receive?

And once you and a buyer have agreed a price, it is the solicitors who see the selling and buying process through to completion NOT an agent.

And if agent's are restricting you in any way from trying to sell your property privately, ask yourself..."Why?"

If you have answered the above questions honestly, you should already be as convinced as I am that the traditional method is not the best......here is a summary of why.

The Traditional Method	The 'pro-active' Method
Estate Agents provide you with an accurate valuation???...Don't they?	Most people have an idea. Estate agents will give you options…but ultimately you decide what price to go to market at.
Estate Agents have to write property details and take photos???...Don't they?	Who knows your property better than you? Don't you wish you had taken those photo's yourself, and included all those important details?
You need an Estate Agent to deal with Solicitors??...Don't you?	There is no legal requirement to use an agent at all. Solicitors understand and deal regularly with private sales.
The Estate Agents negotiate the price though??...By themselves?	They are only a 'go-between' when agreeing price. In reality the buyer decides what to offer & the seller accepts or declines the offer.
The Estate Agents advertises in local press….that's important??...Isn't it?	How often though? Once a month? Think about the amount of properties on their books! How can they keep your home seen by large numbers? Nothing can compare to the internet for this!
Estate Agents will 'vet' buyers and gain feedback??...Won't they?	Easily done with emails or on the phone by you. Modern communication makes it easy. When was the last time you received any feedback from an agent?
Charging 10% commission is value for money???...How much!!!???	Is it? You can sell your property privately with an on-line publisher like spanishsalesdirect.com & pay 0% commission!

Why sell privately?

"The single most expensive asset for most people is their home. I believe that you should have the option to sell that asset privately. Many people just do not even realise that they can sell this way, with or without an Estate Agent."

• Buying or selling privately does not conflict with any normal estate agency contracts. You do not have to give up an existing agent either, but you WILL save the commission if you find your buyer yourself.

• You are in charge, and eliminate all estate agency selling fees... If you sell privately – you keep 100% of the sale funds.

My family and I have already been through the Spanish buying/selling process, and I beleive that using the private route provides you with a wonderful opportunity to take control of your move and save huge sums of money.

We remember when house prices in some parts of the UK averaged around £60,000 to £70,000. The average fee then payable to agents was only about £1,200 and £1,400...

But since then, values have rocketed in Spain, and so have the Agent fees.
(Now: €12,000-€28,000). That's up to TWENTY times the fee of less than a decade ago!

Are you getting TWENTY times the service??? .........The answer is probably not.

BUT WHAT IF I'M ALREADY WITH AN ESTATE AGENT?

No problem! Keep on using one or more agents, it doesn’t matter….. BUT, if you find a private buyer, then you will NOT have to pay any Estate Agents commission.

NO COMMISSION FEES…?

Estate Agents throughout Spain now charge anywhere up to 20% in commission fees to sell your property.

hundreds of thousands of properties are sold each year (That's millions of euro's worth of commission!), and recent surveys have shown that a large majority of these people would have considered selling themselves given the chance. And with the average property price now estimated to be around €300,000 and the Estate Agents commission at say 15% of that, you have the potential to save up-to an incredible €45,000 in commission fees by selling your home privately.

You take the enquiries – then you conduct the viewings, you negotiate the sale details and you keep 100% of the funds from that sale!

'Read my next post to find out how & why you should sell privately on the internet?'