Knowledge of International Real Estate Markets is Important
As we have mentioned in other articles, developing a Real Estate Niche is important. Most real estate professoinals will focus on a certain area, a specific type of home, or a certain service that relates to a process in real estate. What about international real estate markets?? Who does a resident in Los Angeles California, looking for a vacation chalet in Switzerland turn to?
Chances are there aren’t any agents in California that specialize in vacation homes in Switzerland. The idea of trying to find someone qualified in Switzerland is probably not to appealing to the prospective buyer.
This is why having a working knowledge of international property is important. There is an excellent site for researching real estate in international markets. PropertyMagnate.com is a very useful site that has a plethora of information on this subject. If you have a client that asks if you can help them finding a property abroad, you can now confidently answer “Yes!” with the help of Property Magnate!
December 20th, 2007 at 2:50 am
CIPS is also a great group to be a part of if you are looking to know more about international real estate. You can check out the info on CIPS here http://www.realtor.org/cipshome.nsf/pages/membership.
Hope that provides some interesting data!
Joe
http://www.joecline.com
December 21st, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Way to go… i had the same dilemma of not knowing anything outside my comfort zone.
-Ian
http://renohomeblog.com
December 29th, 2007 at 8:24 am
I’ll check out the site you reference, but I’m not sure why i wouldn’t just get on the internet and find a good agent in Switzerland who has an informative blog. why is buying in a foreign country different than buying in a different state within the U.S.?
For instance, I sell real estate exclusively in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, specifically the communities of Alpharetta, Roswell, Milton and Johns Creek. People looking to buy or sell real estate in those communities find me all the time via a google search with returns my blog. They read my posts, relate to me and contact me because I’m the local expert.
It should be the same when buying in Switzerland. I want the local expert…and most speak English, too.
March 15th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
I think real estate is still very much a local business. People depend on local knowledge from their Realtors. Thus, I agree very much that it is very important to develop a niche, but in most cases I think that focusing on a geographic area that you live in or nearby is an important to place start.