On august 1st 2009 we've translated and published house number 247 on Immogo. The cheapest house is now a village home of 15,000 euros, whereas the most expensive property has a price of 7,000,000 euros! But then, this is a luxury hotel, restaurant, bar, dancing at the foot of the ski slopes in a populair area. Brand new, turn key, ready for business.

So Immogo has a wide and varied offer. Still, every client gets the same treatment.

We do our best to motivate the private sellers to give us a great description and as many pictures as possible. We go after them with questions, stalk them for more pictures and will even go and steal photos from their private site! Anything to get the best possible presentation of their real estate offer.

This is an important advantage for buyers, who can study the offer online before embarking on a tour to visit. Especially important because Immogo caters to an international audience, with translations in German, French and Dutch. Many potential buyers have to travel quite a distance to visit an object for sale.

Anyway, Immogo tries - together with sellers and buyers - to create a positive atmosphere in the real estate business, suffering from a gray mood, lately. There are still some very lovely homes for sale out there and many houses have become quite affordable lately. If you use Immogo to do business directly with the vendor, there is no real estate agent fee to be paid. So everybody wins!

Check out the latest French houses for sale added!

Le premier août 2009 nous avons atteint les 247 maisons de particuliers à vendre sur Immogo. La plus modeste est une petite maison de village à restaurer de 15.000 euros. La plus chère est un bar, dancing, hotel, restaurant tout neuf et clés à main. Elle est mise à € 7.000.000!

Une grande diversité, mais toutes les offres sont traités de la même manière.

Immogo fait de son mieux pour avoir une bonne description et autant de photos possibles de chaque bien. Nous poursuivons les vendeurs avec des questions, les harcellent pour avoir plus de photos et parfois vont même sur leur site pour y voler des images. Immogo fait tout pour faire une publicité immobilière hors du commun.

Les acquéreurs en profitent, car une annonce détaillée et claire évite des déplacements inutiles. Et puisque Immogo est un site multilingue diffusé en Néerlandais, Anglais, Allemand et Français, parfois les acquéreurs viennent de l'étranger.

Ensemble, on essaye de battre l'atmosphère de grissaille qui entoure le marché immobilier.

Voir les dernieres 50 maisons à vendre par particulier ajoutées.

Immogo has been online for a couple of months now and we're doing great! At the moment, about one home a day is added by its owner. Unfortunately there are not many actual sales, but well, this is probably just a matter of biting the bullet for a while. I should count myself lucky. I may not make any money, but there are also people with double mortgages, unable to sell the house they have already left.

Bargains galore
It's hard to say wether the market is pulling itself together. It should, because I see a lot of houses coming in with real bargain prices. A sizeable farm in a wonderful location in South-Burgundy for less than 150.000. A big fixer upper that is already inhabitable and ideal for dog breeding or pension... only 85.000! That is not expensive at all. If you like to keep abreast of what's coming in... the lates homes added are here.

Coming soon: test with seller coach
At the moment I'm quite busy preparing a new partnership with a company that helps owners sell more quickly. They assist in almost all the steps of the selling process. Starting with a professional estimate, a good description, tips about home staging, professional pictures and an international advertising campaign on all major sitesm including Immogo. After a buyer was found, they also organise the entire selling process, paper work etc. All this for a fixed price way below what the agencies ask.
We'll soon start a test with eight houses in the South-East of France, at no costs for the owners. The results of the test will be published here, on the Immogo blog.

Follow Immogo on Twitter!
Another new devellopment is that Immogo has a Twitter Account: http://twitter.com/immogo. If you register with Twitter you can 'follow' Immogo to be kept in the loop for all new houses added.

It is almost ironic, but amusing as well. Because the French realtor federation FNAIM has lodged a complaint against me in 2005, now I have not just one real estate advertising site, but two! When the judge outlawed Immogo, I’ve succeeded in convincing a part of the sellers to move their ad to a new site: Zorro Immo. And after having won my trial in an appeal court, I’ve put Immogo back on line as well.

Zorro Immo
This is a rather straightforward traditional housing site. Offering classified home presentations for 50 euros each. If the owner wants to publish in more languages, he pays a modest 7 eurocents a word for translations. Zorro Immo does quite well. And this is important, because the income from Zorro helps paying for my revived Immogo, where I have to pay translations out of my own pocket.

How about IMMOGO?
Immogo surprises me. The site has been offline for a year, which of course is very bad for its Google ranking. Fortunately, my victory in the court case against the mighty FNAIM has resulted in a lot of publicity and external links to the site. Immogo is back among the best with a lot of search keywords. It actually scores better in the English and French market than it ever did.

Chances for every seller
The houses that were originally published on Immogo and were not sold yet, could return to the ‘No Cure No Pay’-site. And of course they can stay on Zorro Immo as well.
Now I see new houses coming in on both sites. Different houses, because in the case of Zorro Immo the sellers prefer to invest 50 euros in advance, whereas with Immogo the owners like to take the chance of putting their house for free with the ‘risk’ of having to pay about 1% after a successful sale.

Advantages for house hunters
Of course for those looking for a house in France, the advantage is clear: on the two sites they find more houses from private owners. With good presentations, lots of pictures and clear, well-translated descriptions. I promise to stay critical when accepting new ads. I need a minimum of 3 photos and will keep hounding the sellers for more info, better pictures, and clearer descriptions. Exactly what buyers are looking for.

Direct contact
On both sites, the reaction form under each presentation sends a message straight to the owner. So you can do business without passing through a real estate agent or other expensive intermediary.

The latest added houses are here:
Newest added on Immogo
Latest new houses on Zorro Immo

Enjoy your visit to my sites and please tell everyone about them.
Your support will help me grow!

Het is bijna ironisch, maar ook wel amusant. Doordat de Franse makelaarsfederatie FNAIM in 2005 met een klacht bij justitie een proces tegen Immogo in gang zette, heb ik nu twee huizensites in plaats van één! Toen Immogo verboden werd, heb ik immers een deel van de verkopers kunnen overtuigen hun advertentie te verhuizen naar een nieuwe site: Zorro Immo. En na het winnen van mijn hoger beroep kon ook Immogo weer terug online.

Zorro Immo
Dit is een 'traditionele' huizensite waar eigenaars tegen betaling hun huis te koop zetten. Een presentatie op Zorro Immo kost 50 euro. Willen de verkopers meer talenversies, dan betalen zij voor de vertalingen een zeer schappelijke 7 cent er woord. Zorro Immo loopt heel aardig. En dat komt goed uit, want ik kan de inkomsten weer investeren in het uit de as herrezen Immogo, waar ik immers de vertalers uit eigen zak moet betalen.

Hoe is het met Immogo?
Naar omstandigheden zeer goed. De site is een jaar uit de lucht geweest en dat is natuurlijk niet goed voor de prestatie bij de zoekmachines. Gelukkig heb ik aardig door de winst op de FNAIM veel persaandacht gekregen, met veel linkjes, waardoor Immogo al binnen een paar weken als vanouds in de bovenste regionen bij Google meedraaide. Bovendien scoort de site beter dan voorheen op buitenlandse versies van Google.

Kansen voor iedere verkoper
De huizen die oorspronkelijk op Immogo stonden en die nog niet verkocht zijn, mochten terug naar deze 'No Cure No Pays'-site. Ze zijn overigens ook op Zorro Immo blijven staan. Nu komen er dus nieuwe huizen binnen op twee sites. Bij Zorro Immo gaat het om verkopers die liever 50 euro vooruit betalen dan duizenden euro's na geslaagde verkoop. Bij Immogo adverteren mensen die wel houden van een gokje. Ze investeren niks, maar betalen meer na succes.

Voordelen voor huizenzoekers
Het voordeel voor huizenzoekers is duidelijk: op beide sites samen staan steeds méér huizen van particulieren, met op beide sites prima presentaties en uitgebreide beschrijvingen. We blijven kritisch op de kwaliteit van de foto's en teksten. En zitten de verkopers achter de broek om toch vooral de advertenties zo duidelijk mogelijk te maken. Precies wat huizenzoekers wensen.

Rechtstreeks contact
Voor beide sites geldt ook dat geïnteresseerde huizenzoekers via het formulier onder elke advertentie rechtstreeks contact met de eigenaar kan krijgen. Direct zaken doen met de eigenaar, zonder tussenkomst van makelaars of andere dure bemiddelende types.

De nieuwste aanwinsten op beide sites staan hier:
De laatste 50 op Immogo
De laatste 50 op Zorro Immo

Ik zou zeggen: profiteer er van en vertel het uw vrienden.
Immogo en Zorro Immo kunnen uw steun goed gebruiken.