How to Write the Best Property Description to Find Foreign Investors?

We have already established in the previous posts that during all those coronavirus restrictions in the world, we mostly can count on real estate foreign buyers who are investors and purchase properties based on the financials.

Yes, writing a home description to attract foreign investors is more complicated than doing it the old usual way everybody had been using for years: size, beauty, facilities, location… (unfortunately, often we can see lots of properties for sale with descriptions missing even some of these mandatory features…)

Now, let’s forget the old rules and start calculating the profit that an imaginary foreign investor could get from your property (if this is possible of course…). Treat the sale of your residential property as if it’s commercial.

There are actually 2 types of profiting from real estate: rental income and price appreciation with time. Look at both possibilities carefully, find the historic data of real estate prices in your area, rental prices and costs now, show some forecast maybe, etc. Calculate approximate financials of your property for sale, and if they look good you might be way ahead of any other real estate seller in these difficult times, and foreign buyers will come to you!

Happy blog reading,

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

Copyright © 2020 by Olga Kellen
All Rights Reserved

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Who are Perfect Foreign Buyers for Your Property for Sale during Covid-19?

While traveling is restricted all over the world, it’s obvious that just only international INVESTORS are still buying profit-making real estate in foreign countries – as buying for their own families vacations would usually require personal visits and viewing of the property they want to buy.

Let’s look at 2 recent descriptions of condos for sale in South Florida – both are 2 bedrooms/2 bathrooms, more or less the same asking price around $300k AND in the same very rare(!) building in Miami-Dade county that allows short-term rentals:

1. “ALLOWED SHORT TERM RENTALS, 1 block from the beautiful beaches, 2 bedrooms 2 bathrooms. The unit offers open views and very bright natural light, excellent for investors. LOW- EXPENSES WITH HIGH RETURNS, large balcony/terrace, open view of the park, assigned parking. The HOA includes maintenance of common areas, water, waste, cable, and internet. The areas close to restaurants, cafes, supermarkets, and more”

AND

2. “Here comes a great corner unit! These corners are almost never for sale. Now is the chance to acquire one! In absolutely perfect condition and furnished with high quality furniture. Good taste all over. One block to the beach, restaurants, shops, etc. Can make a 3rd bedroom with the den if desired”

So, being an investor, would you consider the first or the second condo??? The answer is obvious – what investor would care about the “good taste” of the previous owner of the second unit while the “short-term rentals are allowed” in the first one!!!

Pay attention to features attractive for investors and you’ll be able to sell your property successfully to foreign buyers even at the times of crisis.

Happy blog reading,

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

Copyright © 2020 by Olga Kellen
All Rights Reserved

Foreign Investors for Your Real Estate for Sale during Time of Crisis

Although the world seems to have stopped during these times of the coronavirus outbreak, many people are still making money and looking for real estate to invest it in. And properties are being sold, although the numbers of sales are down, of course.

Let’s see who is buying and what? Definitely the markets for homes where families are going to live in, are on hold due to travel bans and restrictions on social contacts, etc. But what about real estate INVESTORS? They are interested not in viewing a property for sale to discover its beauty, but exclusively in profit it can bring into their pockets, right?

If it was always obvious for commercial properties to calculate CAP and ROI, how about to do the same for your home for sale, for instance, – if renting it out is an option for a new future owner?

Thus, the today’s marketing idea for any property for sale is the following: try and describe it as a profit-making property first of all. (Yes, the seller or his agent should do some research for that – for example, to find out about rental prices, possibilities and trends in the area, etc.)

The profit-making option may attract INVESTORS to purchase your home for sale (and foreign investors including, of course, if you market properly – in the foreign internet too). Remember: while regular home buyers put their dreams on hold, INVESTORS are quietly buying in difficult times.

Later we’ll talk more about creating real estate listings that beat any competition by attracting the foreign investors in these times of crisis.

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

Copyright © 2020 by Olga Kellen
All Rights Reserved

2 types of Foreign Buyers and How to Reach Both with the Same Listing

There are 2 major groups of foreign buyers: 1. some are looking for the best way to invest in real estate abroad – never mind the area, country and type of property; and 2. others who have already made up their mind on a particular investment and are looking for a suitable property.

Not to waste our online presentation (a listing on a portal or webpage or ad) and to reach the both groups of foreign buyers at the same time, we have to combine in the presentation all the property’s features that are attractive to the both types of the foreign buyers.

Potential foreign investors looking for the best harbor for their money abroad will be definitely interested in what privileges and profits their investment might bring them: return-on-investment for a hotel or rental property, citizenship-for-investment for a property of a certain price, etc. Even for a condo or single family home mentioning their rental possibility (if any existing, of course) must be done.

The foreign buyers who already know in what country and area and what type of property they want, will be interested in all details about the property for sale: location, size, age, renovations, exclusive features, etc. Plenty of photos and video are a must.

So, why not to combine all of the above mentioned in one and the same property presentation? Then both types of the foreign buyers will be yours. 

Happy blog reading,

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

 

Copyright © 2020 by Olga Kellen
All Rights Reserved

Marketing to Foreign Buyers is a Way to Increase Real Estate Sales in Slow Market

We know that in the Seller’s market realtors and developers do not need to do a lot of marketing actually as homes sell themselves, while in the Buyer’s market the situation is quite the opposite: to sell a home would be a hard task to complete.

We remember the good times about 15 years ago when leaving the door of your condo building in Florida we saw people hanging around and asking whether somebody could sell something here – they were ready to buy anything at all.

Then we also remember the bad times about 10 years ago when the market was down and realtors who didn’t do an adequate marketing went to drive a taxi to make a living.

So, real estate markets go up and down and a wise seller should be always ready for any situation.

One of the best ideas for slow times is Marketing Real Estate to Foreign Buyers.

Of course, to sell a particular property would require some research: is it in demand by international investors and from what country or countries?

An example: there had been a financial crisis in Greece and the locals didn’t buy even when the real estate prices were low. What helped the sellers? International marketing. Some sources say that about one third of Greek properties are being sold to the foreign buyers.

Another example: the number of the Chinese buyers of the US homes went down, but they still had bought American homes for a billion of dollars in each quarter of the year. An intelligent US seller would increase his marketing efforts in China in such circumstances – to be ahead of the competition, right?

Happy blog reading,

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

Copyright © 2019 by Olga Kellen
All Rights Reserved

Marketing Real Estate to Foreign Buyers: In What Language?

Once a year, when the high winter visitors’ season ends in Florida and realtors may consider assigning more time to marketing, Florida Realtor Magazine publishes an issue entirely devoted to selling real estate to foreign buyers.

It makes a lot of sense, as Florida is the #1 destination for real estate foreign investors in the U.S., and last year they purchased residential properties worth $23B, thus it’s rightly believed that every realtor would want a piece of the pie.

I’ve read this issue from cover to cover to see what’s offered. It’s full of useful interviews, tips, advice, etc. – all about getting into selling real estate to foreign buyers, overseas investors, or dealing with international clients.

BUT there is almost no mentioning of the LANGUAGE(S) in which to market. Only on one of the last pages there is a little excerpt from a NAR’s blog “Communication is everything”. Great, I thought, at last the most useful advice was coming up.

And what a disappointment as it actually says: 1. Learn some basic phrases in your international buyers’ language (Good!), 2. Hire a native foreign language speaker to translate your marketing material (Bad! Not just any native speaker you need, but one with a proven record of writing marketing texts in the foreign language you wish to use), and 3. If nobody is available, use free online translation tools (Awful! Free translation can completely kill your marketing message – we’ve talked a lot about it in this blog already and with real life examples).

Even the article “Reaching Chinese Buyers” doesn’t say a word about the language, although names websites to use for marketing to the Chinese buyers. Okay, how many Chinese do really know English? Wikipedia: Less than 1% (!) Hmmm…

This near-sighted approach to marketing to foreigners reflects the usual American mistake: the whole world knows English. Nope. Do not fall into this trap, but market to foreign buyers in their language!

Happy blog reading,

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

Copyright © 2019 by Olga Kellen
All Rights Reserved

How to Build Trust with Real Estate Foreign Buyers and Partners (Foreign Brokers)

During the summer holiday I’ve completed and published the new e-book on Amazon: *Build Trust with Buyers and Partners: Practical Advice to Achieve Success in International Real Estate Sales* http://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FZ86G93

Why is the topic really important to get success with the foreign buyers and realtors (if you want to bring them on board)?

As Forbes says: “Trust is the most valuable business commodity”, thus we take it for granted that without establishing trust with your foreign buyers directly or with the cooperating foreign brokers first, who in their turn would be trusted by the buyers they send you, there will be no sale.

Ok, what do the international real estate buyers want? Actually the same as your local buyers want: to purchase great properties for great prices, from a seller or realtor they can trust.

But how are the foreign buyers different from your local buyers? Three major aspects: language, culture and distance. To achieve trust (and thus sales!) you have to meet the buyers’ expectations in all three: marketing to them in their language, adjusting your message culturally if required, and disclosing full information about the property for sale upfront.

Throughout the e-book we call our target real estate buyers: “international”, “overseas”, “foreign” or “foreigners” as a general large group. But in real life they are Chinese, Russian, German, and French and so on, and each nationality of buyers (a sub-group) would require a specific approach in terms of their own language, culture, and internet, if you want to market and sell real estate to them. Find your own promising niche of the international buyers (nationality) and address them accordingly.

Establishing trust with your international buyers before being able to close a real property sale is a very significant factor of your success in this business, and hopefully you will find all six parts of this e-book helpful in this regard.

They cover the following topics:

-Why trust is the most essential ingredient in being able to close the real estate deal with a foreigner eventually?

-How has language become not only a tool of communication, but trust building too?

-How are the foreign buyers different from the real estate buyers from your own country?

-What’s the difference between realtors, their duties and work in various countries?

-How can your first email to the foreign realtors become the first step to building trust?

-How can you make your property listing (online presentation) instilling trust remotely?

Happy blog reading,

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

Copyright © 2018 by Olga Kellen
All Rights Reserved

Knowledge vs. Information in Marketing Real Estate to Foreign Buyers

We are all overwhelmed with information nowadays. But we still strive for knowledge! You are going to ask: what’s the difference?

You may find many definitions of knowledge and information on the internet and in print dictionaries. Some even might say that these two words mean the same – I would disagree though.

My formula is the following “Information (raw facts) + Analysis = Knowledge (awareness that’s ready to apply to practice)”.

In terms of marketing and selling real estate to the foreign buyers, information is plentiful on one hand and at the same time is not enough on the other. Why so? Let’s look at the issue with the help of the case study below.

Case Study

As an example, we want to evaluate our chances to sell a property in Finland to a foreign buyer.

The quick internet search brings us an article Transaction volumes in the Finnish property market reached a record high of €10.4 billion in 2017. It states that “the proportion of foreign buyers in the Finnish real estate market amounts to 70 percent in 2017. It shows a significant increase to 2016 when foreign investors accounted for only 29 percent” – sounds great for our projected sales!

Another article also comes to our attention Growing market: Foreign buyers behind 4 percent of Finland’s 2017 real estate sales. It states that “of the 133,000 properties sold in Finland last year, some 5,200 were bought by international customers, with Estonian, Russian and Chinese buyers topping the list, according to a Finnish real estate firm” – what’s that? So, how many foreign buyers did we have in Finland last year? 70% or 4%???

It’s not really my goal here to fully explore the recent market of the foreign buyers in Finnish real estate – you see that we would need much more research, although some facts seem already appealing. We’ll have to find out how the cited sources measured the percentages, how reliable the sources are, what the dates of the publications are, etc.

(Also we’ll have to look for some historic data to understand the trend and where it heads. And of course, the more accurate and fine analysis needed if we want to know how popular our property’s area with the foreign buyers is.)

Thus, this post is just a try to show the difference between the raw information and the knowledge that can really justify and support your marketing to the foreign buyers’ efforts.

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

Copyright © 2018 by Olga Kellen
All Rights Reserved

Who Else Can Help You with Selling Investment Properties to Foreign Buyers?

In the previous post we have discussed how foreign travel agents might be capable and willing to help you with selling real estate (especially vacation properties) to the foreign buyers.

There is one more group of professionals in the foreign countries that can help you with selling investment properties to the foreign investors. Would you like an expert in investing to recommend your property to his clients who are looking for the best opportunities to invest their money? Yes!

These professionals go under various names: investment consultants, financial planners, wealth managers, and the like. They help their clients with analyzing various options of investing, and real estate is one of them.

You have to research the playing field of such consultants in the foreign countries that you have chosen as your target to get the foreign buyers for your investment property.

I can talk about Russia from the position of authority, for example. The profession of an investment consultant is rather new over there, but there are already schools for their education, and institutions and private persons start to understand the value of using their services.

Not all of such consultants deal with real estate though, some only concentrate on paper investing like domestic and international stocks, etc. So, you have to look through the list of services that each one of the investment consultants provide and choose wisely.

No doubt, you have to prepare a good detailed financial description of your investment property to make sure that the consultants you approach would be convinced that it’s a solid and profitable investment for their clients – then they would be able to offer your property for sale to their clients, and you’ll be a happy camper selling to the foreign buyers.

Note: Of course, the foreign realtors might be your major cooperating partners in real estate sales, also having international sales without your own spending on marketing in the foreign countries. A condensed knowledge on the subject has been published as an e-book on Amazon, here’s the link: How to Find the Best Foreign Realtors and Make Your Offer of Cooperation in Sale Irresistible to Them (E-Series: How to Beat Your Competition Selling Real Estate to Foreign Buyers Book 1)

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

Copyright © 2018 by Olga Kellen
All Rights Reserved

What Questions Foreign Buyers Ask

In the previous post we have talked about becoming a real estate expert in the eyes of foreign buyers answering their questions about your country’s real estate on a foreign real estate portal. And getting a highly motivated traffic of potential buyers to your website this way that will definitely lead to sales.

Now you are probably interested: what kind of questions do the foreign buyers usually ask?

As a sample, let’s look at some of the latest visitors questions (May 2018) answered on one of the top Russian real estate portals that offers international properties from all over the world to the Russian buyers (sorted by countries, but in no particular order of the date or popularity).

I’ve omitted questions that describe too specific situations and are too long. (Such type of questions can bring you a really strong lead for your real estate practice of course, but I wanted to make this article more general in nature.)

Questions about real estate in Finland:
-How to calculate the real estate tax?
-Who can help me with evaluating and selling two properties in Muurame?
-How can I get a mortgage?

Questions about real estate in Turkey:
-How to start a process of obtaining a residency permit?

Questions about real estate in Spain:
-I’d like to invest up to 350k in a rental property with a possibility to rent it out all year around. What region of the country is the best for such a purchase?
-I’d like to buy a property up to 200k in Malaga (first to rent it out for some time and possibly to use it for my family later). Lots of things to know: mortgages, down payments, taxes, real estate commissions and rental incomes. Any properties for sale to offer?

Questions about real estate in Bulgaria:
-We’d like to move to Bulgaria to live there as retirees. How do we go about buying a home?
-I am 60 and live in Israel now. How can I buy a rural home in Bulgaria to live there as a retiree?
-I have two underage kids. Can I obtain residency rights?

Questions about real estate in Thailand:
-How to buy a property in Thailand?
-What is possible to purchase for up to 150k? Preferably for my family own use and renting out as well. What kind of rental income to expect?

Questions about real estate in Greece:
-I’d like to purchase a small villa or townhouse at the seashore and get the residency. Is it possible?
-I’d like to buy a rental condo for up 100k in Salonika. If it’s near the university, I’ve heard it’s possible to have tenants all year round, is it true? How much would be the closing costs and taxes?

Questions about real estate in Poland:
-I’ve inherited a property in Poland, please help with the process.
-I’m a retired doctor from Russia, my son has started business in Poland. I’d like to buy a condo around there and move closer to him. How do I go about that?

We can see that many (if not all) of the askers may become a very solid leads for your real estate business if you are looking for the foreign buyers from Russia. Just answer their questions and offer your services and properties – they are really interested!

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

Copyright © 2018 by Olga Kellen
All Rights Reserved