Name of your website?First American Realty Medellin
Your name?
Rich Holman
Your Location (city, etc)
Medellin
Please give us a short summary of your website?
First American Realty Medellin was developed to be a trusted on the ground resource for American and other foreigners to assist with their real estate investments and apartment rentals. We offer total turn-key real estate services including furnished office rentals. All agents are bi-lingual and we have over $50,000,000 USD in listings.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
The reason I launched my web site is because Americans and other foreigner go first to the Internet to research Medellin before coming to visit. Many of these visitors want a trusted resource to help them rent a furnished apartment at about 1/2 the cost of a hotel and others want honest fair treatment in looking for excellent real estate buying opportunities.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
I launched the web site in Dec 2007.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
We wanted a name that exuded trust and appealed to North American buyers and investors.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
We plan to expand the business to eight other cities and then either take the company public, sell it or merge it by 2014.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
It always is a fine line between growth, capitalization and time with the most important part being adding quality employees. So far I believe that we have managed all of these goals with the exception of the bosses 70 hour work weeks.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I would open my other offices more quickly and find several key partners for development and commercial activities.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Yes because we are blessed with a very educated, hard working dedicated labor pool in Medellin.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Cost are in line. Headaches are mostly confined to certain inefficiences such as routine items like paying bills, getting repairs done in a timely manner and finding good people.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Trying to get to the gym 3-5 times a week.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
SEO and Google AdWords
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
It has not.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
Site has been running abuot 15 months and we expect to have it up indefinetely.
Are you glad you moved from the US to Medellin
Best move I ever made. Medellin is the best kept real estate and lifestyle secret in the world.
What is your website address?
First American Realty Medellin
