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International Investments- Meeting Agents- Expanding our Network

International Investment opportunities for Americans are plentiful abroad in Europe, Asia and in Central and South America.

One of the highlights of our NAR, National Association of Realtors® conference this year was the power networking sessions in the International Division of the Exhibition hall on Saturday and Sunday. Each hour, there were a set of different tables set up with agents or representatives of real estate from different sections of the world.

International Real estate investing

For instance, one hour there would be the South American countries and then the next hour there were Western European countries. This went on for a few hours each day.

Nestor and I made our rounds of meeting many different agents who are approved by NAR to do business with agents here in the states. There are still many countries who do not have real estate agents and those selling real estate have no standards of practise or ethical guidelines to follow. This is changing as many of the countries want investors from the United States to come and buy resort, vacation or retirement homes, villas and condos to feel comfortable through the buying process.

International Real estate investing

Living and working in Florida gives us access to a lot of international investments. Out of all the International buyer that buy real estate in the United States one out of every four buys in Florida. We are a prime location for International buyers of real estate.

We networked with many agents and had fun learning more about different cultures and countries. This lady here wanted to take a photo with Nestor, she is from the Philippines.

International Real estate investing in florida

Here I am with one of the first real estate agents in Vietnam who is just now having a law passed that you must be licensed in order to represent buyers or sellers in real estate purchases.

Here Nestor is meeting with an agent from France who works for a developer there. We are now the agents for US buyers in our area who may wish to buy a great resort villa in France. I am working on a press release regarding this resort which I will post on our blog here.

International Real estate investing

Canadians are a large percentage of home buyers here in South Florida. The last 3 short sale listings we closed on were all to Canadian buyers. Our buyer's agent Lisa, just found a home for a client who works in Indonesia and is a UK citizen. Many of our sellers are International clients also. International Real Estate has been one of niches since we both received our CIPS designations back in 1998. That is where Nestor and I met for the first time.

International Real estate investing in florida

If you are looking for an investment opportunity in another country- we would be happy to help you. If you are a citizen of another country and want to buy property in the United States of America, we can help you with the entire process including obtaining financing, providing translators and immigration attorneys.

Contact Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset, CIPS, Realtors®, International Properties and Investments, Inc. Licensed Realtors® in Florida at 561-753-0135 to list your property for sale or to purchase a property in Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Loxahatchee, Lake Worth, Hypoluxo Island, Lantana, West Palm Beach and the rest of Palm Beach County Florida and Port St Lucie Florida. We are accepting referrals.

Call us today at 561.753.0135 or Toll Free 800.444.3316. Contact us by email if you prefer by clicking on email me on the right side of this page under our profile.

To view all the Wellington Florida Luxury Homes For Sale Click here and then click on Search For Homes We know Palm Beach County and St Lucie Country; we will help you get your home Sold if you need to Sell your home and help you buy your Wellington Home or Land ; call us today.

Disclaimer:The information provided herein is supplied by several sources and is subject to change without notice. Wellington Homes Blog does not guarantee or is any way responsible for its accuracy, and provides said information without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. Entries on Wellington Homes Blog represent the opinions and ideas of the author(s). Wellington Homes Blog does not express the views of International Properties and Investments, Inc or those of the broker.

P.S. If you are listing your home as a short sale in Palm Beach County Florida and Port St Lucie Florida make sure you hire an agent who knows how to do short sales and has the experience to get the job done. We are doing successful short sale packages. Call us at 561-753-0135 to find out more about Palm Beach County Short Sales and Port St Lucie Short Sales.

International Investments-Meeting Agents-Expanding Our Network by Katerina Gasset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Posted by Nestor & Katerina Gasset Realtors® Wellington Florida Luxury Homes on 11/22/2008 11:17 AM

Comments (43)

International Real Estate in the Real Estate Investing Channel

international buyers, international listings, international properties and investments, international real estate transactions

Originally posted at: South Florida Real Estate and...: International Investments- Meeting Agents- Expanding our Network

This post has been included in Florida Information Palm Beach County, FL Information Wellington, FL Information
Post is included in group: Posts to Localism
Post is included in group: Local Expert
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Post is included in group: INTERNATIONAL REAL ESTATE - Become a global agent rather than a local agent
Post is included in group: All Things Florida

43 Comments on International Investments- Meeting Agents- Expanding our Network

NOV

2008

Katerina - Looks like it was a very productive conference to attend.

Hello Nester and Katerina, This is excellent. I was about to recommend that you consider joining CIPS and then I realized you are already a member. You will likely make some great contact friendships. In your post you discussed the foreign Buyers in FLA. and wondered if you have heard of any financing available for foreign nationals?

How exciting and interesting! I always love watching "International House Hunters" on HGTV, the style of housing, what is available, what is included, and pricing fascinates me! As a stager I am also interested in how things are presented.

Katerina, what great photos and telling of yours and Nestor's experience at NAR conference and the international relationships. I didn't know Florida had that high a percentage of international investors.

I'm sure you all learned much and gained much in the way of networking for referrals as well. :)

Katerina - The Internation Networking Center was one of the highlights of the NAR Convention I attended in New Orleans. You get to meet and network with some wonderful agents and get to learn so much about their cultures and their countries. I'm so glad that you and Nestor were able to make some good contacts.

NOV

2008

Donna- It is the highlight of all the events we attend at NAR each time we go.

Sally- We really enjoy the International networking. Each time we go we learn about new countries learning how to do real estate. The last NAR we went to, Vietnam was not even there because only countries that adhere to a code of ethics are invited and Vietnam just now is changing the ways in which they do real estate. It is very interesting and so different than what we are used to here.

Gary- Yes, interesting stats. Funny- we get calls from sellers who are unreasonable in their pricing and they will ask us if we can sell their overpriced property to people from other countries because they don't know any better! HMMM, I ask them, what planet are you from? Don't you think the Europeans are reading the newspapers and know what values are and that they are going to expect us to be ethical?

Chastity- Yes it was, engaging and interesting. We made some more great connections this year.

William- Yes, there is special financing for foreign nationals although even that has gotten tougher these days. Most foreign nationals buy with cash. Out of the 3 Canadians only one was financing. Nestor and I took the very first CIPS course and got the designation back in 1998 when it first started. We were the first graduates.

Re: Fresh- I love that show too but have not watched TV in months!

Katerina. What a wonderful adventure. You're in a perfect location for working with an international market.

Katerina - it was nice to see our Del Pacifico friends there at the International Networking Center. The more times we see our international friends and colleagues, the more it's like seeing family.

this is a great way to promote yourselves. I like the way you tie into events.

Lenn- We enjoy those kinds of adventures. We were invited to France, all expenses paid except airline tickets by the resort agents. Sounds tempting..

Sharon- Yes, this is true. Also, the more countries get involved.

Scott- Thanks, I used to do tons of press releases for us before the internet became so prevalent. I had to create a press spin on everything in order to turn a photo opp into a story our papers would want to print:) I am doing that again this next year.

Katerina- I loved reading this post and looking at your photos. I love your and Nestor's drive for this business, you are continuously networking and building- the definition of a succesful business.

Nice that you can work with International sales. Great networking posibilites for sure.

Interesting post -- my area also attracts that international buyer profile.

Thanks for an interesting and eye opening post. We don't have many international buyers in my area, but it may well be a niche to investigate. We are close to the mountains and also the beach, plus we have a lot of very affordable golf courses in our area or close by.

Our contacts have to be from all over because people know people everywhere. We just never know who our next great introduction will come from.

Katerina, I was there for the Saturday sessions and you are right, they were very informative and productive. I also made some good contacts that otherwise I would not have been able to make.

Katerina, Great post. We too go to networking events like this, one is coming up soon for the tri-star area. We currently have a similar setup where we represent 4 different resorts in florida for our area and 4 more in Belize. It's a great way to do business and as mentioned Canadians love Florida and International Real Estate in general. Keep up the good work, you guys are definetely proving this to be a good real estate opportunity.

This was very interesting! We just build a 2nd home in Costa Rica and I have gotten very interested in the Real Estate companies and agents there. Looks like you had a really good time and met lots of people from a lot of countries!

Debbie

Katarina, I really enjoyed your story. It was more of a story of your NAR experiences than 'just a post'. I feel that foreign buyers/investors will certainly become more of a force in our coming market.

Sounds like lots of fun! Saw on CNN today that Hong Kong's real estate is down by 30% just since July and still falling... OUCH!

Sounds like a great event, hope to be there next year. I have just joined the CIPS network as a designee and hope to have the "real deal" wrapped up before the end of 2009. I already do a lot of international business and am glad to see that the CIPS network will help me further my goals. For most of the past year it was the perfect time for Europeans and others to invest in the US (actually it still is...) but now that the dollar has climbed a bit, Americans can begin thinking of buying overseas again.

D**n, I didnot they have this session. If only I knew they have this session, I would have ben there.

Rebecca- Thank you. I like to add the story style to facts. It is funner that way and more interesting.

Hi Katerina! Congrats on that little gold star! Wonderful post about international real estate and networking with others from around the world. It's nice to know that you have the connections should I have a client moving out of the country. You know that in the past, we've always used the CIPS list but, to know that you've made many personal contacts, it would be nice to have that connection for us all here in the RAIN! It looks like you guys had a wonderful time too!

Debe in Charlotte

Katerina, What a wonderful opportunity for you! How impressive! Just goes to show it pays to network!

Katerina & Nestor,

Congrats on the start. I was there on Sunday, it was Latin America. This is not the only show lately where you can see reps from Costa Rica, Panama, Mexico. That means they exect to get business here, so this is definitely an opportunity.

God stuff, thanks

That is a great opportunity for you. There might be an opportunity for me with Canadian agents

It is a great idea to know Realtors in other countries as well. You never know when you could have a referral oppotunity.

Currency being strong for foriegn investors for quite some time has fueled investment in the U.S.

That has been changing, however dropping prices may be offsetting the currency lost with the dollar's new strength.

Richard

Lizette- Nestor and I met in the very first CIPS class put on by NAR way back when. Living here you are really missing out if you don't know how to work with International Buyers.

NOV

2008

Katerina,

Florida obviously has been a hotbed of international home buyers for a while. Las Vegas is slowly getting in the game and drawing a fair amount of foreign citizens now looking for second homes to purchase.

Katerina & Nestor -- That seems like a PERFECT conference for your real estate market in Florida. In the next 5 to 10 years, I think we are going to see more and more non-US investors scooping up US property.

being a single guy, I gues I should spend a little more time getting training and designation , like CIPS, who knows maybe I will be as lucky as you guys where and meet my future wife :)

Katerina,

An agent friend of mine recently moved to Mexico to work for a high-end developer--international is definitely a growing segment of the real estate market.

Some of our agents went to the conference but I didn't hear anything about this segment. What a great idea!

Hi Katerina~ You both amaze me. Is there anything you can't do? Never thought much about International Investors! I am certain you are both tremendously successful in everything you do!

What a great event. Im sad that I wasn't able to go. We work with a lot of foreign investors, this would be a perfect event for us to go to, next year.

Vickie- That was so very kind of you:) We love what we do, and that is why we do it. I love coaching and learning all I can about different cultures and languages. People feel that I am interested and then they want to work with us. We are going to be doing some really fun international things in marketing in 2009.

Li- Thank you for commenting.

Morgan- Next year NAR will be in San Diego.

Diane- It is always held at every NAR conference for 2 days. This is the main event for us.

Kim- You never know, perhaps you can start up a marketing campaign with your local chambers and market to International agents to get them interested in your area. You could also participate in becoming a sister city for a town abroad.

NOV

2008

Katerina and Nestor - why did not we meet there?!! That was the great networking event. I was there with my partner from Russia - she owns Real Estate firm in Moscow and sends Russian buyers all over the world.

That was a plenty of opportunities to meet right prople there in Orlando. You are right about absence of rules and regulations about the Real Estate industry in many countries - but in many cases it's not that bad as it sounds. It's just different. The key is still working with the right people.

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