What Are the Sources of Referrals or Leads on Foreign Buyers?

In the previous post we talked about the comprehensive report 2017 PROFILE OF INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITY IN U.S. RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE, surveying about 6,000 American realtors, that has been published by NAR, The National Association of Realtors (U.S.).

It also has some answers to a million dollar question: Where to find the foreign buyers for your properties? And the answers look like the following:

Sources of Referrals or Leads on International Buyers

24% – Personal Contacts

23% – Referred by Previous Client

11% – Website / Internet Organic Search

10% – Was a Former Client

6% – Walk-in / Open House / Phone Call

6% – Website / Internet (Paid Ad)

6% – From a Business Contact in the U.S.

5% – Signs / Ads on Boards or Yard

1% – From a Business Contact outside the U.S.

8% – Other

The survey has been conducted regarding international buyers in American residential real estate market, but certainly, the major results may be applied to international sales in any other markets.

Thus, we can see that the famous “word-of-mouth” brings 64% of the international buyers to the real estate agents who had been in this business for a while (personal contacts, former clients, and referrals from former clients and business contacts).

To get to this stage, when people already know you and your services internationally, you have to start somewhere, right? And we can see that 17% of the new foreign buyers come from the internet (website and online listings or ads).

Obviously, internet is the way to go for the realtors who are about to begin selling real estate to the foreign buyers – to get international connections, first clients and eventually referrals from them.

Happy blog reading,

Olga Kellen,
The Amazon Author
International Marketing Consultant and English-Russian Translator

Copyright © 2017 by Olga Kellen
All Rights Reserved

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