Best Real Estate Agency in Yucatan 2008
If you are living here in Yucatan, chances are one of the first things you did was to buy or rent a home.
While some of us were savvy enough or spoke Spanish well enough to trato directo (deal direct) with the sellers or landlords, many of us spent our initial days here with a helpful real estate agent. So we're pretty sure that almost every reader of Yucatan Living has something to contribute to this poll.
In order for a real estate agency to qualify for this poll, it must list and sell properties in and around the state of Yucatan. And it must also have at least one bilingual employee who can deal competently with English-speaking extranjeros.
Please consider a few other things when voting for the best real estate agency. Naturally, the best agency should hire and employ knowledgeable agents. They should know the territory, the process of buying and selling a house here in the Yucatan and how to get things done in this environment. They should treat customers well, with both patience and respect. They should have integrity (loosely defined as doing what they say they are going to do). They should be pleasant to work with, and after the deal is done, you should feel comfortable recommending them to family and friends.
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Some things we feel are not in the real estate agent's control, especially here in the Yucatan. We believe you can’t judge a real estate agent on how long it takes to buy or sell a house, for instance. Or on whether or not the seller or buyer had integrity. Or on how happy or unhappy you are with the house once you move in. Sometimes, forces of nature (or forces of Mexico) create havoc for the best of professionals.
We open this poll with five real estate agencies that work regularly with extranjeros, but this is certainly not an exhaustive list. New agencies appear on the scene all the time, and we are not the best judges... that's why the Poll is here for our readers to make their favorites known. So please vote (one person - one vote, please) and may the best agency win!
The Nominees Are...
Here in alphabetical order are the initial 2008 nominees for Yucatan Living's Readers Choice Award for Best Real Estate Agency in Yucatan:
Buena Vida Realtors – Run by Rupert Millautz, Buena Vida Realtors is a small agency that prides itself on providing good service.
Casa Blanca Real Estate – Probably the oldest agency that works with English-speaking extranjeros, the agency is run by Jorge Caceres with offices on the corner of Calle 55 and Calle 66.
Mexico International – Founded by Mitch Keenan, the first extranjero to set up a real estate agency in Merida. His team of agents is based out of their offices in the Fiesta Americana building next to the Sanborn’s restaurant.
Real Estate Yucatan – The husband and wife team of Gabriela Isaac and Alec Stephens, and Gabriela's brother Isaac Salim, run this agency. Gabriela and Isaac are Yucatecos and Alec hails from Mexico City, but spent many years working and living in the USA.
Tierra Yucatan – This agency is represented by Jennifer Lytle, her socio, David Palomo and a team of agents. Jen has traveled and lived in Mexico for over 30 years after moving here from San Antonio, Texas. Jennifer’s team works out of their renovated colonial office on Calle 66 in Merida’s centro historico.
Nominate Your Favorite
If you know the name of an agency that deserves to be nominated for the 2008 award, please leave a comment with the name of the company, the agent and the website address. We'll add them to the Poll. Nominations will be accepted until September 1st, giving everyone plenty of time to add their favorite agency. Voting will continue under the very end of 2008, and not a minute sooner!
Reader's Nominations:
Mayan Living - Jim Mann has run this very successful real estate firm for as long as we've been in Merida.
Mayan Realty - A local real estate firm owned by Jorge Mazún.
Bookmark Yucatan Living and come back often to see how your favorite agency is doing. Then, come back again in early 2009 to read about the winners of the 2008 Yucatan Living Readers Choice Awards for Best Real Estate Agency in Yucatan.
Comments
Anny 17 years ago
Hey, thanks, Khaki!!!! I don't know who you are, or even if you're male or female, but I LOVE your events column on Merida every week...I'm your biggest fan!I!
I answer e-mails 18 hours a day, too! ;-)
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jenifer williams 17 years ago
Mayan Living should be recognized for outstanding sales and public relations!
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Paula 17 years ago
Jimmy Mann at Mayan Living gets my vote.....they have been helpful, attentive, responsive and professional in selling my home. Another, although lesser known agency. is Merida Homes...honest and good people.
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Khaki 17 years ago
Hey Anny! For anyone who is interested, Anny's right - she always answers e-mail (and works 7 days a week to do it!).
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CasiYucateco 17 years ago
For consistency over time and perhaps the biggest list of satisfied clients, you cannot miss Mexico International. The head of the company, Mitch Keenan started web-based real estate in Merida many years ago (as "Miguel's Mexico" at the time). He and his group of agents have provided good service for years and years. Many of the other independent agencies started out working with Mitch and then split off into their own companies. He encourages his agents to have their own sites as well as work with him at the master site.
For knowing all the ins and outs, and staying consistent over long periods of time, Mexico International just cannot be beat.
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Jim Ellison 17 years ago
I had a good experience for the most part with Real Estate Yucatan, dealing directly with Alec Stevens when purchasing a house in Santiago in 2006.
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Linda Newell 17 years ago
Our vote goes to Tierra Yucatan and their agent Carlos Hassey who is a credit
to his country as well as his company.
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W.J. Barnet 17 years ago
What a marvelous idea! I gave this puppy all five stars.
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Brooks Adams 17 years ago
Yucatan Living: I suggest that you add: Jim Mann, MayanLiving.com. Jim represented me and my European partners with a high level of professionalism in the purchase of the charming Hacienda Mulsay de la Magdalena in Merida.
Brooks Adams, Richmond, Virgina
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Anny 17 years ago
Great article, and very timely.
I'm surprised by terob 1's comment. 80% of us just refused to answer his letter? I personally answer ALL the letters at Casa Blanca, whether I think this is going to be a potential customer or not, and I suspect most of the others do, too. I answer usually up to 50 letters per day, sometimes writing 5 or 10 times to the same person who will have one question after another about a particular property or about proceedures in buying land in Mexico.
Perhaps there was some kind of clash with terob 1's e-mail at this time. Sometimes I have to go into the metatags to correct addresses that have been rejected when I tried to respond...I know that I have one client who keeps writing to ask why I haven't answered his letters, and I've tried every address possible to get in touch with him.
Please, terob, don't assume that we didn't answer. Really, I find it hard to believe that people would pay to put up a web page and have e-mail addresses and then not answer. I know that we are not "agent number two" because we never charge for our gas or our time.
By the way, we're at the corner of 57 and 66, not 55. Jorge might count as an "extranjero," since he lived in Los Angeles for 20 years as a young man before he returned to Yucatan some 30 years ago to set up his office on that corner.
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Lizard 17 years ago
Mayan Realty is a new business (1 yr) run by Jorge (George) Mazun who has been selling realestate in the area for years for some of the compainies on your list.
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