Ôkam: An innovative real estate company to make you feel at home

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

After five years of experience in the sector, Alejandro, David and Álvaro decided to launch their own brand. Since March they have been working to offer a "service à la carte" to anyone interested in buying, selling or renting a home.

"Home Sweet Home." This famous expression that we have all once said upon entering our house could perfectly summarize the philosophy of Ôkam, a different real estate services company.

This new company born of the efforts of three young experts in the real estate world seeks to combine, on the one hand, the "closeness" of traditional real estate and, on the other, the "professionalism" offered by major brands.

After working for five years as franchisees for the real estate services company Remax in Madrid and A Coruña, Alejandro Vázquez, Álvaro Losada and David Vázquez decided to launch their own brand. And to do so they chose a term that perfectly defines the spirit of this company.

The term ÔKAM comes from the oldest language in history: the Macedonian. It means fire, which was the sacred place of the house in which those who lived there met, so a house with fire became a Home.

The fire of a home

"The difference between a house and the home lies in the Okam," explains Losada, about the brand that these three young people, two from La Coruña and another of adoption, brought to the market last March.

Only five months of life, but the sensations are already very good. So much so that in the face of a future do not rule out growing, especially to the metropolitan area of ​​A Coruña, then, as we have, the herculean city has great potential as far as real estate market is concerned. "Here the rents fly," says Álvaro Losada, who says that a house for rent in the city of A Coruña is rented in a very short time and, in addition, does so "at unimaginable prices".

Ôkam's team

In addition to making purchase-sale and rental transactions, one of the big differences of Ôkam with respect to traditional real estate is that they offer consulting services to the real estate agents themselves. But not only the thirty people who work in their offices in A Coruña and Madrid, but they train all those real estate agents interested in taking "the best version of himself".

Another of the differentiated aspects of Ôkam, as their partners confess, is that they offer a "service à la carte". 

"We do not do the same for all clients, we study each case and based on the needs of each client, we execute a work strategy," explains Losada, for whom "the greatest differentiation is that we look for quality in quantity".

And how is it achieved? In Ôkam, they have a clear viewpoint: "working with fewer clients but offering a more personalized service," says Alejandro. This company does not follow the line of many real estate "to throw the hook and wait for them to bite". Do not wait for an answer, you have to be "proactive". You have to go beyond the Internet to sell a house.

"Sometimes the private individual believes that by putting his home on the internet he is going to sell it, but it is not, the data say that approximately between 25 and 30% of the properties that are closed come through the Internet," comments Losada.

The latest in innovation

Ôkam knows that to sell a property, you have to go beyond the images on the internet. For this reason, in the descriptions of their homes we find videos, virtual tours and plans before they talk about virtual reality.

"We are constantly searching for new techniques." The subject of virtual reality is a reality that will soon be normalized in the real estate sector," says Álvaro Losada, who tells us that today's customers prefer to see large texts.

Despite the facilities of the new technology, people want to continue seeing the houses, and that is that the houses have a "very emotional" connotation, as Alejandro explains. "Virtual reality is very good but people want to feel the house," he says.

"Virtual reality is very good but people want to feel the house," concludes Alejandro Vázquez

"The moment a person decides to put their property for sale, it's like it's going out to flirt, that is, we are in a market where there are many people who want to sell their homes and not so many people who want to buy," says Losada, betting to provide the house with something different that gets the attention of the buyer. This will make it easier to close the transaction.

Days of open doors in chalets

Innovation and Ôkam go hand in hand. In addition to including other types of graphic elements in the descriptions of the buildings, Ôkam also carries out a series of actions that are reminiscent of American films.

In their effort to "go further" in the real estate sector, they present themselves as "a collaborative company". What does this mean? Ôkam puts all their properties at the disposal of "any real estate agent".

"When we capture a property we put it in a joint database," explains Alejandro about the method that leads them to share fees with external agents. But at the end of the matter it is about the client being satisfied.

But beyond this, the marketing actions of Ôkam are very striking. Can you imagine going to a day of open doors in a chalet? Well, with this real estate it is possible. Although they are aware that many neighbors come to gossip the house that the neighbor is putting on sale, they also know that at least they will get the house talked about. And so they manage to attract and publicize the house for sale.

In Ôkam they also go on safari. But not Africa. In your case they are professional safaris. What is this initiative? Alejandro explains: "We organize a route of two or three properties, we bring together different professionals from this or another office so that they can see homes and then they can offer it." Both in the open days and in the safaris "there is always something to eat and drink. It's about networking," says Alejandro.

In Ôkam they are also experts in Home Staging, the technique to accelerate the sale of a house through the care of decoration. "Sometimes with little investment you can get more visits and, therefore, more buyers," says Alejandro.

A Coruña leaves the big pothole

How is the real estate market in A Coruña? Álvaro, who is most responsible for the A Coruña office, explains that in the city of A Coruña, "we are coming out of a big hole" and trusts that a good rhythm will be reached in a couple of years, although it is far from what was before the crisis. Right now "it is a market that has just stabilized to start growing," he confesses.

This in terms of the world of sales, and the rent? "The world of rent is separate," replies Álvaro, who does not rule out that the great demand that is currently causing the explosion of "a bubble" in A Coruña, a city in which rental housing is reaching unimaginable prices.

"Everything is rented," he says. "There is a lot of demand and very little supply, and the (offer) that there is as it is rented so quickly is usually of low quality," he says.

"In A Coruña everything is rented," Álvaro Losada

In the middle of this real estate panorama is born Ôkam, a real estate services company that seeks to put an end to the "bad image" that this sector has been gaining. How? With professionalism and transparency

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

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