Tara Estate Agency

However, in this Agent Focus we are looking at an extraordinary company called Tara, which was founded almost 30 years ago by Josephine Lambert de Pavon, an amazing lady who it must be said has helped to shape the face of property sales in Lanzarote for approaching three decades, making her perhaps a Matriarch of the Lanzarote property scene as Founding Mother simply doesn´t sound right.

Those of us who have only been around the Canary Islands for a few years (7 in my case) can only wonder at what it must have been like opening a Real Estate Office in those days; back home people were disco dancing to the Bee Gees, the Eighties were still a distant promise and most people had never even heard of Lanzarote.

As Josephine explains “Things were very different then in many ways, for example, when it came to setting up as a Real Estate Agent and opening an office it was a very serious business. Today anyone can simply rent an office, put out a sign, and say they are Real Estate Agents; back then we were very strictly regulated”

“For example we needed to have a qualified and titled Spanish Lawyer as part of the firm and that was just one of the requirements. The Spanish authorities at the time took the whole business of foreigners buying property very seriously and frankly so did the Real Estate Agents and the prospective purchasers”

“To be perfectly honest that is one of the greatest changes that I have witnessed over my time here and I don´t think it´s a change for the better. I know there are other good responsible agents out there but over the years, especially after the regulation of Real Estate Companies was relaxed, I have seen so many companies come and go”

“Many people in the past have thought that it was a quick and easy way to make money and I guess in the really good times some of them did, but sadly they often made their money at the expense of the poor clients who wanted nothing more than a dream home in the sun, but ended up with a nightmare”

“I have to say however that the attitude of prospective purchasers has also changed dramatically over the years and many of those that have found themselves with problems need look no further than the mirror to find the culprit!”

“People coming out to buy property in the early days took the whole process very seriously, they sought advice from proper, registered, qualified professionals and then heeded that advice and as a consequence very few transactions ever had serious problems”

“Today however, everybody is an expert and the vast majority of these experts can be found most days propping up the bar in one of the locals frequented by tourists. With no training, no qualifications and very little if any relevant experience, they seem to feel they are doing the world a favour by sharing their (usually very flawed!) opinions with those most in need of proper professional advice”

“Yet, amazingly, we still see on a regular basis that people actually listen to these bar room experts "BAR FLIES!" instead of a qualified professional. The fallout however hurts all of us professionals as when things go wrong for these people, it is the industry as a whole that receives the blame not the ill informed gossip or the foolhardy purchaser”

Then suddenly in mid sentence Josephine starts laughing; an infectious laugh which soon catches hold of everyone in the office. “I´m sorry” She chortles “It´s just that I was imagining somebody reading what I´ve been saying and it must sound like I´m having a terrible rant about everybody and everything and harking on about the ´Good old days´ and how things were better back then”

With her laughter now under control but a huge grin on her face, she continues “It´s not a rant and wishing it was 30 years ago at all, it´s just that I have always been passionate about this business and still am all these years later and I get frustrated sometimes when I think about how things have changed; but I suppose that progress is often a double edged sword”

“Years ago there were less than a handful of us; we were all regulated and did things by the book. But of course back then, in comparison to today, there were very few flights coming in and only small amounts of individuals that were over to look at buying property and as the Internet didn´t exist, we would need to start from scratch with people as they wouldn´t know anything about property here, prices, procedures, anything”

“That meant that the process of working with people was fairly slow and involved and very methodical as we needed to ensure they knew everything that was involved in buying and owning a property in Lanzarote. As I said earlier, buying a property in a foreign country is no joke, it´s a very serious business and you need to go into it well informed and with both eyes open”

“We would often spend weeks even longer with one client; we knew we needed to invest that amount of time and the clients were very grateful as they wanted and needed our knowledge and assistance. There was always a mutual respect and trust that built up between us and our clients as due to the amount of time spent together you would get to know each other very well”

“As a result of this approach; of both parties taking the whole business equally seriously, I can honestly say that we never had a ´bad´ deal. And despite the changing times, we still endeavour to operate our business in the same way, but you note I only said endeavour”

“Clients today are on the whole very different in their approach and as a result we find it quite frustrating at times that it is the clients themselves who make it difficult for us to do our jobs as thoroughly and responsibly as we would like. Today prospective purchasers are often very impatient; they seem to view Real Estate Agents as shops selling just another product, like for example a toaster”

“Many of them book several appointments in a single day with different agents, in order to cram in viewing as many properties as possible, with no agent therefore having the time needed to sit down properly and go through a proper structured process of actually finding out the clients personal circumstances, level of knowledge, real requirements and financial position”

“Without this detailed information it becomes very difficult to actually advise clients and to be honest many seem to not actually want advice; we are back to the toaster syndrome again. Also, by taking this approach the clients, I am sure quite unwittingly, actually set up an environment where they are least likely to gain balanced advice and more likely to be ´sold´ something that may turn out to be inappropriate”

“Real Estate these days is a very competitive business and companies want and need sales to keep the wheels turning. When faced with a client that is set on seeing as many properties as possible, with every agent in town, you don´t need to be Einstein to work out that some agents are likely to try just about anything to secure a sale before one of their competitors do”

“My advice to prospective purchasers therefore is to think very carefully about how they approach the whole endeavour. Take your time, do your research, only take advice from proper, registered professionals who have been established on the island for many years. Buying a home in Lanzarote can be both a wonderful enjoyable experience as well as a very good long term investment, but you do need to be careful”

For instance it is imperative that a purchaser understands once a transaction has been agreed by both parties the buyer and the seller and a deposit has been passed on and the seller has fulfilled his obligations, if the buyer does not honour the payments or breaches the contract in any way, the amount received will remain with the Vendor and any amount that is due to the agent. As the agent we have completed our obligation in preparing the transaction ready for the notary.

“Take the time to find professionals that you can trust completely and work closely with them, listening to their advice. I have been honoured over the years to work with a handful of clients, with whom I had such a level of mutual respect and trust that I have effectively managed their property investments for them”

“In some cases I have even bought the land, commissioned the architects, built the houses, dealt with the Notary and even furnished them, with the clients not visiting the site or the property until I could hand them the keys. I am very proud that not just myself but the excellent team that work alongside me here at Tara, all of whom have been with me for years, have this kind of strong trusting relationship with our clients”

To close the interview, I asked Josephine to talk about the future “Well right now is a great time to buy, there are some very good deals available although people are wrong when they say it is a buyers market and prices here are falling. Many people in the past were asking too high a price for their property so the vast majority of price reductions that I am seeing are merely overpriced properties coming in to line with what they should have been anyway”

“As for the future of Tara, well I hope our two offices will still be here helping people to securely buy their dream homes in another three decades although I somehow doubt it will be me running the show then! We have adapted in many ways with the changing times but it´s true that some people do call us and our approach to property sales old fashioned, and that we should become more modern in our approach”

“Well to those people I would say; Tara has been here for at least as long as any other company and much, much longer than most. And if becoming more modern means that we must compromise the integrity of the company or it´s staff or that we must put profit and sales before honest advice and the clients best interests, then frankly I am more than happy to stay old fashioned for another 30 years. It hasn´t done us or our clients any harm so far!”

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