American Realtor Launches MLS in Panama

(thevisitorpanama.com) Panama now has a Multiple Listing Service (MLS) which, its promoters hope, will rationalise the local real estate market.  The founder of SLMPanama.com.pa   is Greg Godin, an American real estate agent who married a Panamanian seven years ago.  He told the Visitor:  ‘I have only known a world with a Multiple Listing Service and I couldn’t imagine working without it and I could never figure out why anyone else would either’.  He is setting out to help others and desires to spend a lot more time in Panama.  On his site, real estate agents can register and put as many properties as they want for free.  He calls this his ‘try before you buy’ promotion.

The mission of SLM Panama, is to create a win-win-win situation for sellers, buyers, and real estate agents.  Real estate in Panama is attractive, says Greg, but the means of selling can seem extremely disorganised and become frustrating without a free flow of information.

He says the MLS is the most efficient way of selling real estate.  When real estate agents co-operate properties sell faster and buyers will consult a real estate agent.  If the real estate agent doesn’t have access to all of the properties available, it takes longer to sell a property.  The buyer must also spend more time contacting different real estate agents to find what they are looking for.

Real estate agents rarely co-operate with one another because there is no protection to stop one agent from contacting the owner direct and bypassing the other real estate agent, and this is because sellers rarely sign exclusive listing contracts.  Sellers don’t like to sign exclusive listing contracts because they assume that the real estate agent will not co-operate with other agents.  That means that they will be stuck with only one ‘advertiser’ and if another person found a buyer, they will not be able to work with them.

When www.slmpanama.com.pa first went live, Greg deliberately withheld any announcements to the general public because he wanted the opportunity to visit with many real estate agents around the country.  He asked them how they felt about having an MLS in Panama and almost every single one of them welcomed the idea and said that they would be more than willing to share commissions because they would sell more properties.

Now, with SLM Panama, agent can access every real estate agent in the entire country and 600,000 agents around the world that are linked to the system.  The information is translated into 13 different languages.

The MLS has already received interested sellers since they began marketing last wee to the public.  SLM Panama – Servicio de Listado Multipe – Panama (507) 215-0051, David (507) 774-7077.