Private Sales & Auctions

I started off working in conjunction with a small agency in Stara Zagora to promote a few properties for sale after I had bought one or two rural houses here. From there I moved on to renting an office of my own in Stara Zagora and working in conjunction with 2 or 3 agencies in the area as well as listing properties for sale in other regions of Bulgaria through contacts with other agents. Then as the recession started to take hold and Bulgaria received negative press in the media, no longer the hot spot to buy in, I gave up the office and scaled down the website listings to those from people who had personally contacted me hoping to sell their properties in Bulgaria and those properties I knew personally and had visited.

We are now at a strange time in the property market in Bulgaria. Many people who bought several properties over the last few years are now looking to offload one or two of these, others who renovated an old Bulgaria house into their dream home are trying to sell up and move back to the UK. But on the other hand there are green shoots in the property market with enquiries and sales picking up slightly in 2010 and 2011 showing definite promise. With many sick of the rain and rat race of the UK, they are looking to move to sunnier climates and due to low property prices and long hot summers, considering Bulgaria. It is thought that the bottom has been reached with regard to the Bulgarian property market and that prices will now level off and start to slowly increase again in the later part of 2011. I have personally sold 3 properties through late 2010 and 2011, all be it at low prices. 

Whilst I am happy to give advice and help where I can to anyone thinking of buying in Bulgaria, I do not want to be involved in the actual sales process (unless it is a property I am personally selling) and intend to develop the website into a place where people can advertise their properties for sale. My aim is to turn TheTravelBug website into mainly an advice site for Bulgaria, living abroad and expat issues and just have private paid listings of properties for sale, where all enquiries go to the owner. 

 I have done a large amount of promotion for the site and continue to do so. I have had articles (linking back to this website) published on a number of popular websites and blogs. These include the InternationalPropertyInvestment blog, The New York Times 'Raising the Roof' Blog, the OverSeasProperty Mall amongst other. This website now receives over 150,000 hits a month and close to 4000 unique visitors. After recent website optimisation and an ongoing campaign the site is listed in the top 10 of google for many popular keywords such as 'houses for sale in Bulgaria' (6th), 'Bulgaria property investments' (7th), "Bulgarian property investing' (6th), 'property for sale in Bulgaria' (10th), 'houses in Bulgaria' (13th), 'buying property in Bulgaria' (14th) and 'property in Bulgaria' (25th).  The site is constantly promoted through various means - search engines, facebook, articles, blogs and forums. 

I charge a small fee for advertising and promoting private sales. I do not simply list your property for sale and forget about it as many other websites and agents do, I place it for sale on my website, as well as on my forum and let all my current newsletter and forum subscribers know about your property (around 800 people in total). I try and match people looking for houses with suitable properties so will always keep your property in mind if someone is looking for something like what you are offering.

MyBulgaria charge 50 GBP for a 6 month listing of one property, RightMove Overseas.co.uk charge 75 GPB a month and Viviun International Property Listings charge $19.95 a month. So I think you will agree that 55 Euros for a listing until your property is sold, along with continual marketing of your property(s) is a good deal.

For 55 Euros (£50) I offer the following:

1. Your property detailed on this website under the appropriate price section.
2. Your property detailed on my forum under the appropriate section.
3. Your property detailed on thetravelbug blog as a feature article and pinged to all blog broadcast places as well as the latest headlines being visible on my website and forum.
4. Details of your property sent by e-newsletter to all my mailing list and forum subscribers (around 800 people)
5. Your property listed on TheTravelbug FaceBook page 

You can include more or less as many photos as you like (4 to 6 ideal) and video footage if you have it for showing on this website.

Your contact details will be listed with your advert details and enquiries will go directly to you. I charge no commission on a sale as all enquiries and negotiations will be dealt with by you.

Multiple Listings:

For two or more properties there is a 10% discount so each property will basically be 50 Euros per listing.

Payment can be made by moneybookers (preferred method for overseas payments (i.e. from UK) and cheapest in terms of fees) at http://www.moneybookers.com to rachel@thetravelbug.org. You can simply open an account and fund your moneybookers account by bank transfer or debit card and then send money directly to me using my email address. Or you can pay by paypal to the same address and pay by credit card.

Or you can deposit the money directly into my UK Natwest account or by cheque in the UK or to my Bulgarian bank account. Email me for details.