A recent article in eyeonspain.com prompted me to write this article as reading the aforemetioned piece highlighted many of the mis-conception that have grown up in Europe regarding Multiple Listing and the inherent benefits to both clients and agents.

The first mis conception is what MLS actually is. Multiple Listing is a form of Agency contract. The most common agency contracts that you may have come across in the UK are sole agency and open agency, where the vendor, (seller) enters into a contract with an agent to sell their property under various terms and conditions. In the same way, a Multiple Listing Agency contract gives the listing agent the right to market the property through other co-operating agents as well as to the public in general.

A listing contract is a form of employment contract between the owner and the listing agent. The terms and conditions of the contract relate solely between the two parties. This includes the commission that the vendor, (seller) is willing to pay the agent for producing a buyer for the property.

“Some MLS systems effectively add over 9% to the desired selling price of a property in Spain. That’s just outrageous. If I want 200,000 Euros for my property then on an MLS system it could effectively be listed at 218,000. 18,000 Euros in commission seems an awful lot of money!”

In the above quotation from the eyeonspain article, any organisation that imposes a commission outside the terms of the listing agency contract is acting as an agent and not as an MLS. The MLS service provider may charge a fee to the agent for use of its database and allowing them to list their properties on it, but does not charge any additional cost to any member of the public using the service. Any website or service provider that does this is acting in the capacity of an agent and should not be considered an MLS.

In relation to the two systems quoted, I can state as fact that ‘Infocasa’ does not impose additional fees to potential buyers and as far as I am aware the IN Network is now operating as a single agency.

One of the other points mentioned in the article was that having two agents involved in a single transaction was at the detriment to the buyer. This I would suggest is one of the main benefits to an individual looking to purchase a property in Spain.

Having travelled to Spain to purchase a property under a decidely different legal system I find it a distinct advantage to have an agent acting seperately for the interests of the buyer, rather than relying on the information from an agent who has a contractual obligation to the seller and a financial interest in completing the transaction.

The main source of problems in property transactions in Europe arise due to the direct conflict of interest that a ‘one agent’ transaction occurs. Who’s interests does the agent act for in such a transaction? In a mature MLS property market such as the USA, single agent transactions, whilst rare, do still occur. When they do however, they are governed by much stricter rules to avoid the conflict of interest. In Spain, I would suggest, that having an agent act for your interests, seperate to the agent contractually obligated to the seller helps avoid conflicts and provides avenues of direct responsibility.

Ideally, a prospective purchaser should sign a Buyer Agent Agreement outlining the agents responsibility to the purchaser and the terms under which the purchaser agrees to pay his fee. This fee is usually negated by the sharing of the listing agents commission, but can be seperate.

The agent acting for the buyer then has the responsibilty of finding the most suitable property for the client and negotiating the best possible price for his client seperate from any responsibily or contractual obligation to the seller. Surely this is a much better scenario than being left to the control of a single conflicted agent.

It is not surprising that the article tries to criticize this system. In the UK, property transaction have always been governed under the one agent system with responsibility being thrown onto the buyer, not only in terms of the ‘Caveat Emptor’ rules or ‘Buyer Beware’, leaving sole responsibility on the buyer for determining any defects in the property. But also in terms of determining whether they are purchasing the property at the best possible price.

Another major benfit of a Multiple Listing Service is the ability to make direct comparisons of price against the available property on the market. This helps highlight any single property that may be overpriced as well as providing a choice of altenative comparable properties for a purchaser to choose from.

In conclusion I would say that the problems lay not within the way Multiple Listing Agency works, but in the understanding of what Multiple Listing is and how to decipher what is and what is not a proper Multiple Listing Service. It is also a matter for a prospective purchaser to decide under what conditions he or she wishes to enter into a property transaction and what level of responsibility they want to take themselves, or defer under contract, to an agent.

I believe that the underlying problems to be found in the system however, lie more in the non-regulatory nature of the market than anything else. With European harmonisation of contract law now in force, maybe a European wide directive imposing standard binding agency contracts would go some way to addressing the issues.

Neil Ebsworth is co-founder of AMLASpain . The Spanish Property MLS

Javea on the Costa Blanca is suffering from the same malaise that is prevelant in property markets across the globe. Following the credit and housing slump in the USA, confidence in property markets that had been rising for years came down to earth with a thud.

The problems in the Spanish property market have been further exacerbated by the dependancy on sales on the Uk market which has seen an unprecedented spell of nearly ten years of rising property values. As confidence hits hard in the UK, so it was reflected in the buying habits of those UK citizens looking to buy a property in the Sun.

Javea, nestled at the northern end of the Costa Blanca on the eastern coast of Spain, has long been a popular holiday and retirement resort for UK ex-patriates as well as many other European Nationalities. Its diversity between the Narrow streets of the old town and port and the more conventional holiday atmosphere of the arenal beach has always meant that Javea had a while appeal.

In recent years, development of Apartment Urbanisations between Javea port and the Arenal has created a new holiday village with row upon row of new apartment buildings set to cater for the increasing demand in property investment.

Herein lies the problem. With the sudden downturn in demand for property, javea has been left with an over abundance of new apartments in a market struggling to find buyers. many agents are see-ing buyers come and go without making a commitment to purchase as the majority sit on the fence waiting to see how far the market will fall.

As with most investment vehicles this can be a dangerous game to play. It is only necessary to look at the trading patterns of the individual investor on the stock market to discover that most individual investors waiting for a market to turn get left behind and miss out on the best opportunities.

The reason that institutional investors continue to buy in a falling market is that they buy on the basis of inherent value rather than a simple market trend. For the discerning investor, this should also ring true when considering a property investment.

If the underlying deal on a property purchase is of good solid value then it will buck the short term trend and provide above average returns in the medium to long term.

Whilst apartments in javea are currently in over supply, this should be seen as an opportunity rather than negative. Whilst the need to be discerning is more necessary than ever, those that look to find the value within the market will be tomorrows investment winners.

Living on the eastern coast of Spain, driving along the coast road with the deep blue sea in my sights has always been a blessing to me. My mind catches glimpses, from time to time of the life I led before as one of the drones. Up at six in the cold and dark, getting ready for work. An hour for lunch and then home in the dark to Eastenders and bed. God, what a life! On a clear day I can see Ibiza from the hills surrounding Moraira. The party island is only some 50 KM from the coast and you can travel by ferry from Denia, a town half an hour up the coast from me. Hotels in Ibiza can be found cheaply enough although the week-end party ferry goers tend to sleep on the beach. If you are looking for a cheap hotel to accompany your holiday travel whether it be hotels in Ibiza or hotels in the Costa Brava or Costa del Sol there are always plenty available. The Spanish motel system provides a great number of hotels in the Costa del Sol. In recessionary times there are likely to be fewer travellers from the UK this year but exchange rates have not affected the rest of the Euro Zone, so I expect it to be as busy as ever in our small corner of heaven.

If you are looking to sell your house or even if you have a holiday rental and are looking to manage the bookings yourself there are now a vast array of websites looking to offer services to you to advertise your site. Out of the thousands, maybe millions of websites out there, most will not provide what you are looking for. Website design these days is relatively cheap and a ‘pretty’ website is not an expensive product to produce. the key to success for you, the advertiser however, lies in the amount of traffic that visits the site, ( The number of individuals looking for what you are selling/or renting.) In the competitive world that the internet has now become, unique visitors are the domain of the Page 1 Club, or more specifically, the Google Page 1 Club.

The reasons for this are simple. Google now accounts for over 70% of all search traffic on the internet. Whilst from a website owners point of view the 30% shared between all the other search engines is important, from an advertisers point of view, looking to maximize your return on your advertising dollar or Euro, you can discount the minions and concentrate on the main event.

The other interesting statistic is that 85% of people searching on Google never look past the first page of results. 95% never go past page 3. So if you are looking for traffic and visitors to your house sale or rental advert you need to concentrate on the sites that occupy the Page 1 results on Google.

The next step is to find out which search terms are the most used for your rental or sale. the search terms are the keyword or phrase that you type in the box when you are looking for something on Google. Statistics are kept on who searches for what and how many times, so you can determine which terms are most relevant for your type of property and whether you are selling or renting.

Search terms can be split into two categories, major traffic keywords and more specific minor keywords. There is a line of thinking that people start there search for a product or service by using general keyword searches. As they become more focussed on what they are looking for they also become more specific in their keyword search terms. Therefore, when considering the search terms that apply to you, you need to consider not only the high traffic keyword searches that will get the site you advertise on, the highest number of visitors. but also cross-reference the sites against the websites found on the more specific keyword searches. Ideally you are looking for a site or sites that appear on Page 1 for both. Alternatively, look to split your marketing between sites that cover both areas.

Once you have decided on a website, the single biggest mistake made by advertisers is rushing their advert, thinking that if they get it up and running with the minimum of information it will attract visitors and enquiries. There is a simple rule in the internet game- Content is King. This means that you should provide the maximum amount of descriptive information that the website will allow. Turn your advert into an essay about your property and its benefits. Talk about the local amenities, the area, the town etc. The more content you provide, the more small keyword terms will register with the search engines and it is quite possible that your advert page will rank by its own for some of these terms that match identically with your description. If someone searches for the term, - A pretty little house with a dock in Mount Pleasant SC, - and this was part of your description, its quite likely you will be on Page 1 for this term. It could be the difference between a sale or enquiry.

The internet is governed by content, so use the space provided to the maximum and good luck.

Neil Ebsworth is the founder of AMLASpain, The Spanish Property MLS for properties in Spain and Villa Rental Spain

Millions of people are now choosing to rent their holiday villa or apartment directly to their prospective clients through advertising on the internet. In the first of our series of articles we looked at how to choose which sites to use through the use of search traffic statistic provided by the major search engines. Search traffic represents the volume of visitors that are searching the internet for specific keywords and phrases as is an indicator of how many visitor a particular site may attract because of their positioning on the first page of the results for a given term.

Keywords are only an indicator. To fully benefit from a websites traffic it is also important that the page you create has as much information formatted in the most optimized manner so that your ‘advert’ has the best chance of being listed independently on the search engines. This will help drive traffic not just to the website you have advertised with but also send traffic directly to the page showing the advert of your holiday home.

The premise is, that if the page you create is properly formatted and contains the correct information you are able with a little work to make it visible for some of the most targeted keyword searches, sending visitors who are specifically looking for your type of property in your resort location, straight to your villa.This is much more preferable than hoping they click on your villa as one of many in a database search from the websites homepage. This type of search will send traffic to your page but the ratio of enquiries will be much higher in the former scenario than the latter.

The first thing to look for having chosen a number of sites to consider is the landing page. This is the page on the website that you land on when clicking on the link in Google. This should be a page specific to your resort or property type. This being well search for a villa such as yours and click onto one or two of the properties. There are several things to look out for on the ‘advert page’.

First, compare the title of the page between two or more properties. The title is the description you will find in the blue bar at the top of your screen. Check to see if the title is the same or different for each property. The title of any page on a website should be specific to that page. It is one of the most important things that the search engines look at when they index a page. If the website you are looking at has the same title on every page of the site, forget it and move onto the next website in your list for consideration.

If the title are different they should contain some specific information. This includes, The name of the resort, the property type and the rental status. By this I mean for example, a villa for rent in Moraira, Costa Blanca, Spain should have the minimum included phrases of Moraira, Villa, and rental or holiday rental in the title. You can check the actual title against the list of most popular keywords that you have made from the Google keywords tool. If the page title matches up well with a well search phrase then you can look further.

You should also then look to see if the page has a headline. Usually in bold at the top of the page. If the site is doing its job properly, this headline will be whats known as a h1 tag. You can check this by going to the menu bar at the top of your browser. If you are viewing in Internet Explorer, go to ‘View’ and click on the link in the drop down menu for ‘page source’. In Firefox this say just ’source’. A page will appear with the code used to create the page. It looks confusing, but do not be alarmed. Just slowly scan the top third of the page looking for the text used in the headline. Once you have found it, check to see if at either end of the text there is a <h1 symbol. If there is, good, if not, just make a note, a negative point if you will for this site.

Slowly you will be able to build a picture of which sites are most suited to bringing you the most traffic for your villa or apartment advertisement.

About the Author

Neil Ebsworth is the founder of AMLASpain, the Spanish Property MLS for property for sale in Spain and Villa Rentals Spain