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Selling to Russians - just updated free e-book for real estate agents

By Olga Kellen

Services for Real Estate Pros with English-and-Russian.com, English-Russian Translation & Russian Internet Marketing ATA Member, Amazon Author

April 17, 2009 05:28 AM

Updated!

Selling to Russians

Selling to Russians is the way to increase sales in the slow real estate market

Go fishing where the fish is: sell properties to Russian Buyers with cash to invest

"Gov. Charlie Crist pitches

Florida real estate to Russians"

---St. Petersburg Times

"From Russia With Cash -

Oligarchs Buy Homes in Chic U.S. Enclaves"

---The Wall Street Journal

How to increase sales in the slow real estate market

The unsold inventory of homes and condos in the US is huge and will take several years to unload even when the real estate market recovers. The Buyer's market will be here for quite awhile. The e-book "Selling to Russians" is for those who are willing to have more sales NOW instead of passively waiting for better times to come.

In the Buyer's market the most important task is to bring more Buyers to your listings. Where do you get Buyers while you've done everything possible to promote your listings and yet - locals don't buy? The answer is - look where Buyers are, and Russia is one of these promising places.

Even at these slow times Russians have the money and willingness to invest in real estate abroad. And they do buy a lot; resort areas and big cities all over the world are very popular among Russian Buyers and also properties with some growth potential as investment.

Some analysts say that Russians pull funds away from the stock market to invest more in foreign real estate now. Middle-class Russians see investment in real estate abroad as a future security for their retirement as there is still no reliable pension system in Russia if any at all. Russians used to have savings in foreign currencies (US Dollar and Euro), so most of the time they are cash buyers, no financing problem with them.

From The New York Times, April 2009:

Real Estate Agents Look Across Borders for Buyers

"With the property market in turmoil, especially in the United States, real estate agents around the country are increasing their efforts to woo the Russian oligarchs and other international buyers who have been making news with splashy top-dollar purchases.

''They are the most aggressive buyers in the market right now,'' said Kevin McBride, an agent with Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby's International in Atlanta. In international hubs like Atlanta, overseas clients now account for anywhere from 10 to 30 percent of sales, industry experts say.

"The dollar has gotten stronger and that makes the investment appeal that much weaker,'' said Melissa Cohn, president of Manhattan Mortgage Company. That is not good news in Manhattan, where international buyers typically buy a third or more of the apartments in new buildings, local experts say.

"But international buyers continue to play an important role in the local market. For the W New York Downtown, a 56-story project under development in Manhattan, 74 percent of the initial sales have been to foreign buyers, a project spokesman said.

"In Miami, which has been particularly hard hit by the market slowdown, as many as 50 percent of sales in some neighborhoods are to overseas clients, despite the credit crunch and strengthening dollar, said Teresa Kinney, chief executive of the Greater Realtor Association of Miami and the Beaches. The organization was host to a contingent of 150 international agents, including 103 from Russia, who toured properties and networked with Miami agents. And in the past year group members have traveled to events in Paris, Madrid and Moscow to forge alliances.

''It's our biggest source for new business in Miami,'' Ms. Kinney said.

"Around the country, industry executives are organizing similar initiatives.

"In Hawaii, Dano Sayles of Coldwell Banker Island Properties is expanding his participation in international groups and attending conferences around the world to make new contacts.

"As global markets slow, agents say different types of international buyers have been emerging. In many markets, ''vultures'' are going after depressed and foreclosed properties, sensing that the bottom is near. Others are looking at luxury real estate as a safe investment, more than simply a second home.

''People are buying in the U.S. not necessarily because they think it's cheap. They're buying because they see it as a safe haven for their money. Many of those buyers aren't affected by credit problems -- they're paying in cash, agents say."

Marketing foreign real estate to Russian Buyers has some specifics that we'll discuss in the FREE e-book "Selling to Russians". You'll find advice on the following:

1. How to present your foreign properties to Russian Buyers