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Hard Data About International Home Buyers In The U.S.: NAR 2007 National Association of REALTORS® Profile of International Home Buying Activity

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with Vidlisting.com

Hard data is starting to surface about international buyers within the United States.

I recently spoke at the South Florida REALTOR Profitability Conference sponsored by the REALTOR Association of Greater Miami and the Beaches (RAMB). When I was not teaching my real estate video workshop, I sat in the very other interesting workshops. One such workshop talked about the resources available on the RAMB website (http://miamire.com).

Hard Data About International Buying Activity In The U.S. Now Available

One resource that I learned about in the other sessions is the 2007 National Association of REALTORS® Profile of International Home Buying Activity. RAMB has made the study available to everyone on their website at http://miamire.com/07IntlSurveyProflie-final-07-27-07.pdf (PDF file)

Gold Mine Of Information: Change Or Wither Away

This proactive study by NAR study is beneficial to its members and is a virtual gold mine of information for the REALTOR that is looking for new groups of buyers for properties that need to be sold. Some high points include:

- "Almost one third of REALTORS® - 32 percent - report having had at least one international client between April 2006 and April 2007.

- "More than fifty percent of those who did have international clients had successful home sales transactions with those customers."

- "Although more than two thirds of REALTORS® report that their international clientele accounts for about the same level of business during the past five years, fully a quarter of them indicate that their international business has increased."

- "In Florida, for instance, 65 percent of REALTORS® brokered at least one home sales transaction with an international buyer; nearly half - 48 percent - of those REALTORS® who brokered foreign-buyer purchases reported that one to four of all their transactions were with international clients"

The report also includes a profile of the typical foreign buyer including such data as "the median sales price paid by the typical foreign buyer was $299,500 and was financed through a mortgage loan"

Resources To Help REALTORS Attract International Buyers

NAR has published this study for the direct of its members. Perhaps its time to rethink portions of your marketing strategy... Much of this study confirms what we have been saying for some time.

The RAMB website, http://miamire.com is a great resource for REALTORS in many areas and much of the information (for instance the link to this study is available to non-members)

The ForSaleByLocals Blog: Our daily blog, http://forsalebylocals.wordpress.com has a large amount of information available about how to attract international buyers and informative links on the right side bar. Consider subscribing to the RSS feed to get the latest information.

Vidlisting.com: Our website, http://vidlisting.com, is a real estate video site that provides professional narration in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. We have a large number of agreements with international real estate portals and organizations that can bring prospective international buyers to your properties. We also maintain active participation in large international real estate fairs that bring offline access to international buyers.

We'll be providing a more comprehensive list of resources in a future blog post.

Like the idea of attracting international buyers for your properties? Consider joining the new "Marketing To International Buyers" group here on Active Rain

See Also:

Put Money In Your Pocket With Commissions Or Referrals From Foreign Buyers
Florida, Brazil, and Bolivia: Real Estate Event Participation In The Americas in English, Spanish, and Portuguese
Measuring Online Engagement With Real Estate Video
"Why Are Video Views In Different Languages Counted Separately?"
NAR CEO International Roundtable Comments At SIMA 2007 (Video)
The REALTOR Association of Greater Miami And The Beaches (RAMB) Partners With Vidlisting.com To Exclusively Provide Online Real Estate Video Services And Training To Members
Llavetex.com In Europe Partners With the Vidlisting.com Family For Distribution Of Property Videos From The Americas
Attracting Buyers With European Currencies To The Americas: Europe's TheMoveChannel.com Partners With Vidlisting.com
Exclusive Agreement Provides Real Estate Video From Panama To NAR Members And The Rest Of The World

Charlie Ragonesi
AllMountainRealty.com - Big Canoe, GA
Homes - Big Canoe, Jasper, North Georgia Pros
This is a great blog and we are looking internationally for buyers. Great timimg you are vindicating us
Sep 28, 2007 12:24 AM
A. Grey
Vidlisting.com - Bremerton, WA
Real Estate Video Mentor - Vidlisting.com

Charlie: Thanks for stopping by and we agree.  Between now and the end of the year, there are a number of specific opportunities to highlight US properties internationally - we'll be using our U.S. property video inventory to leverage these opportunities. 

As a side note, Vidlisting.com has just gotten started in Georgia.  We have just finished filming a number of properties in the Atlanta area and have a video team ready to deploy immediately.  I will personally be back there in the second week of October. I'm always up for meeting with REALTORS and developers about the international marketing benefits that few other companies are able to offer to U.S. REALTORS. If interested, just shoot me an email and we can have coffee.

If there is sufficient interest in the Greater Atlanta area, we can also organize a short seminar on short notice. 

Tony

Sep 28, 2007 12:43 AM
Gita Bantwal
RE/MAX Centre Realtors - Warwick, PA
REALTOR,ABR,CRS,SRES,GRI - Bucks County & Philadel
I have bookmarked this and will read it later.Thanks for the info.
Sep 28, 2007 12:45 AM
A. Grey
Vidlisting.com - Bremerton, WA
Real Estate Video Mentor - Vidlisting.com

Gita:  Thats the beauty of the internet.  Thanks for stopping by.

Tony

Sep 28, 2007 02:12 AM
real estate real estate
Providence, RI

Great post. I am starting a firm for international buyers of business and properties. This blog comes up handy.

Aug 25, 2008 01:06 AM
Jill Watts
Realty Pro, Inc. - Vancouver, WA
A Luxury Experience at Every Price Point!

I just received a call from a gentleman in British Columbia to purchase in WA state. Are there documents, rules and regulations, etc. that I need to be aware of? I want to make it a smooth process and legal process for him. Thanks!

Jul 19, 2009 04:22 AM
Art Ramsey
Seattle, WA

For those with REALTOR designations ...

Did NAR disclose to you before you took the class that you would need to pay them every year to rent your designation? Did they disclose to you how much the annual renewal would be before you took the class? We are talking ethics here. 

Mar 03, 2010 12:31 AM