How best to negotiate an overseas property show? Top tips to maximise your day!
With Covid restrictions lifting, and spring now here, Overseas Property Exhibitions are back! But with all of us out of the habit of entering a huge space packed full of people, noise and an overwhelming amount of information, how best to negotiate your way around hundreds of stands? AIPP member and property marketing specialist Chris Thompson has some great tips on how to maximise your visit…
It’s Saturday 5th March 2022, and I’m finally back visiting a Property Exhibition with one of the largest and well known overseas property brands in the UK – A Place in the Sun. It’s lunchtime, and having finally managed to find a table for a quick sandwich, I struck up a conversation with two lovely couples who had visited the show to speak with Agents about Buying Property in France and Spain, so it got me thinking – If you are going to visit an exhibition, what’s the best way to take advantage of it, and ensure that you maximise your time at the exhibition, whilst also ensuring that you come away with the information you want?
Complete your ‘fact finding’ mission
Firstly, exhibitions provide a fabulous space for potential buyers in which to meet all the necessary people and companies on a face to face basis, who can help you buy the home of your dreams such as Agents, Lawyers, Property Finders/Relocation Specialists and currency companies, plus an exhibition also provides a platform in which you can ask all the questions you have and essentially complete your ‘fact finding’ mission, before flying out to view properties. It’s an ideal way to complete potentially as much as 50% of the work, before you leave your home, leaving you free to focus on just the property when you arrive in your destination of choice.
Most exhibitions will also put on Seminars and Expert talks from people & companies within the industry talking about the Do’s and Don’ts of Buying Property, Legal Aspects, Finance and Tax & Lifestyle, and these will be held throughout the day, so no matter whether you are looking for a holiday home, permanent home or rental investment, and no matter how long you decide to walk around for, there’s always plenty of good & relevant information for you.
People Buy From People
Going back to my conversation with the two couples at A Place in the Sun, they happened to ask if I had any advice for them whilst they were there, and whilst I wasn’t able to advise them on the in’s and outs of their property search, I was able to give them a valuable insight which is this: There’s an ‘old’ saying which I feel is still extremely relevant, especially in the world of a ‘customer service based’ industry like Property Sales, and put simply it’s ‘People Buy From People’. You need to find the experts & the agents you connect with best, and that’s who you give your business to.
Dream journey
Let me explain in more detail… just due to the sheer nature of these exhibitions, it’s more than likely that you’re going to find more than one agent who is selling property in your chosen area (especially if it’s Spain) so naturally you’re going to want to visit them all and, just as naturally they will ask for your details, including your search requirements and contact details. When they ask for these details, you are more than likely going to give it to them without a second thought. However, this is probably doing you as much harm as good, as you can be sure that within the next few days you’re going to receive communication from everyone that you’ve spoken to, which could mean 15-20 agents getting in touch. Not only will this be extremely time consuming going through each and everyone answering the same questions, but it will also get rather mundane, rather stressful and potentially irritating, plus it will undoubtedly get confusing in the longer term.
A good way of counteracting this, is actually to hold onto your information, wait until you’ve spoken to everyone you’d like to speak with at the exhibition, then sit down for a few moments, maybe grab a coffee, and have a think about the ones you connected with the most. Only then do you re-visit that company and register your details. Not only will you come away from the exhibition with more peace of mind, but more importantly you’ll also come away from the exhibition with a few companies that you feel are fully invested in you and your ’dream home’ journey.
AIPO Safer Property Search
I’d like to add if I may, that this type of approach also works really well for the companies at the exhibition too because from their side, if you do re-visit them and choose them as your partner, they end up dealing with a much higher quality enquiry and know that you are invested in them as much as they are invested in you.
If you worry that by taking this approach, you will lose choice, then don’t fear too much, because another thing to remember, especially when dealing with agents in Spain, is that many of them will collaborate with each other. This means that you may end up getting the same properties from those 15-20 agents when they contact you. If you only deal with one or a few, you are less likely to have this problem, and through their connections with partner agents they will have access to hundreds more properties, and therefore be in a good position to find you the home that you want.
A prime example of the above, is that many of the agents you will find on our Property Search page are members of the exclusive, agent-only AIPP MLS (multi-listing-system) where they can check all the available properties from other AIPP members and collaborate with them to find you the perfect home.
Of course, you can use this approach online too, although it’s a little bit harder to keep your details to yourself whilst you find the agents or partners that you want to work with… but if you can do it, it’s definitely beneficial.
In summary, finding the right agent, the right lawyer, the right currency partner, is just as important as finding the right property, so if you change your approach even slightly, you might find the journey becomes even easier, and you end up with your dream home even quicker.
A Place in the Sun Live next exhibition takes place in London 6-8th May – get your tickets here