Best Real Estate Agency
The Yucatan Living Reader’s Choice Poll gives the expatriate community a chance to express their preferences for local merchants and service providers in Merida and Yucatan.
Reader’s Choice Polls are open for voting until the end of the year. Readers may vote in any of the polls that interest them, voting for the designated nominees, or recommending a nominee of their own during the opening week of the poll.
After the polls close, special awards will be beautifully produced and awarded to the winners sometime in January. We hope that the winners will proudly display their awards in the knowledge that they have provided an outstanding service to the community.
Best Real Estate Agency in Merida
If you are living here in Yucatan, chances are one of the first things you had to do 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.
Please consider many things when voting for the best real estate agency. Naturally, the best agency should hire and employ knowledgeable agents. They should know the territory and the business. 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 would recommend them to family and friends.
We believe you can’t judge a real estate agent on how long it takes to buy or sell a house, for instance. On whether or not the seller or buyer had integrity. Or on whether or not you are happy 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 by nominating the five largest and most popular real estate agencies used by gringos and other expatriates moving to Merida and Yucatan State. This is certainly not an exhaustive list.
Here in alphabetical order are the initial nominees:
Casa Blanca Real Estate – Operated by Jorge Caceres, a Yucateco by birth who lived and worked for years in the USA, this agency has been around longer than any others on our initial list. Located on Calle 55 at Calle 66.
Mayan Living – Established by Jim Mann, an expatriate who has been working and selling real estate here for about five years.
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 run this agency. Gabriela is a Yucateca and Alec hails from Mexico City, but spent many years working and living in the USA.
Tierra Yucatan – This agency is run by Jennifer Lytle and her able-bodied socio, David Palomo. Jen has traveled and lived in Mexico for over 30 years from her former home in San Antonio, Texas. Jennifer’s team works out of their renovated colonial office on Calle 66 in Merida’s centro historico.
Reader Nominees:
Casa Barbarita – For the past several years, Gabriella Kretsch has been helping people from around the world find their dream home in Yucatan. Her real estate agency is the first reader nominee.
Comments
Jesse Cates 17 years ago
There is absolutely no doubt who is the best Real Estate Agent in the Yucatan and that honor goes to TierraYucatan, the one and only real estate agency who introduced Merida to the world. Jen and all of her staff are just wonderful to work with and most importantly they are always communicating with you as you are going through the buying process and they have the best website.
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Lic. Paola Sarabia 17 years ago
My vote is for Tierra Yucatan. I have worked with Jen and David Palomo, both excellent people, involved with their work and an excellent treatment and human quality.
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Peter 17 years ago
Strongly recommend Jen Lytle and her company. Being a fellow Brit makes me somewhat biased perhaps?
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Chuburnaman 17 years ago
To us the real measure of an agency is the service before AND after the sale. David Palomo at Tierra Yucatan was excellent in making the entire purchase process flawless. Then the Services of Jorge E. Bustillos and the entire staff of Tierra Yucatan were absolutely fabulous in helping us Gringos finding caretakers, needed household repair services, fideocomiso fillings and just about anything we needed to make our transition smooth.
We also had some dealing with Mitch Keenan at Mexico International. He was extremely professional, personable and knowledgable. We just happened to find the right house with Tierra Yucatan. Would be nice if all could receive awards for their great services provided to their customers.
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Bob 17 years ago
Our vote goes to Tierra Yucatan. Working with David Palomo was great. He's knowledgeable, efficent and very personable.
Bob
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Kathie p 17 years ago
I just found this part of the site. You Working Gringos really are amazing. Well, as each have said it is difficult, but my vote goes to Alec Stephens (Real Estate Yucatan). Alec spent a great deal of time and energy with us as we made our way through the phenomenal choices available in Merida, and he always had a way of bringing out the laughter in a situation. If you need a true guide, a friend and someone to bring out the laughter in some difficult situations then Alec is your man. He speaks wonderful English and is very kind to the folks whose houses you will visit. Give him a call and tell him Kathie and Holly send abrazos grandes.
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John R. Thompson 17 years ago
Thanks 'big brother" for keeping us all honest. I'm pleased to know that we won't be stuck with any 'sanjayas'.
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Working Gringos 17 years ago
Hola, John... Actually, no. Our computers are watching! Only one vote per computer will actually register. It might LOOK like you are voting multiple times, but we'll only count one vote. This is how polls are set up on most major websites.
It is our intention to be able, as a result of these votes, to give a community recommendation for these categories, rather than a personal one.
Of course, a person can go around to a lot of different computers and vote multiple times. If someone feels it is necessary to do that, well... we can only trust that their karma will catch up with them eventually.
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John R. Thompson 17 years ago
hola,
is this like "american idol" and i can vote as many times as i want?
just checking.
john
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Working Gringos 17 years ago
Thanks, Grant, Ron and Steve. We really appreciate the feedback, and we know our other readers will too.
Our idea is to keep this poll open for a long time so that plenty of people will have a chance to vote. Obviously, nobody will have worked with all the candidates, so coming in 2nd or 3rd place doesn't mean the agency isn't a good one. Our hope is that many people will vote based on their experience, and that the results will serve as a guide for our readers in the months and years to come.
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Ron Atkinson 17 years ago
Well, I am forced to agree with Grant and his conclusion that it is hard to pick the best when we may have only utilized the services of one. For me it is impossible, I have not used any, yet. We have some land on the coast, south of Tulum but, need someplace inland to call home. I will be sure to give a vote in the near future, if I use the services of one of these realtors.
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