As the U.S continues to struggle with issues created by the sub prime crisis, the lending climate in the U.S (confused) is encouraging more and more American real estate agents and owners to market their inventory overseas.
The Wall Street Journal is suggesting this as a good strategy and have some suggestions for attracting an overseas buyer. We think this is a great idea, but are not sure about some of their suggestions.
They suggest that one good way of doing this is to advertise in foreign newspapers, but this is an impractical option for several reasons – just try making an international telephone call to an Italian newspaper and explain that you wish to use your U.S based credit card to purchase a classified advertisement in their paper. And it may not have escaped your attention that many non-U.S websites are not exactly state of the art.
If, perhaps, you plan on targeting several International newspapers that have a strong online presence, possibly this would work, but on the whole – this approach is completely impractical and expensive.
There are any number of websites offering the facility to advertise property for free on their site – unfortunately, they are rarely visited, cumbersome to use and often have a charge to pay – at the end of the registration process.
Also, they are suggesting using websites such as forsalebyowner. Trust us, if you are looking for foreign interest, this is not the place to go – this website is not visited by a significant amount of visitors from overseas looking for a property investment opportunity. A small amount of visitors from Canada and the U.K. perhaps.
Most British buyers are looking for property in Las Vegas, New York city and Florida – that’s where the U.S. stops as far as they are concerned. A few perhaps are more aware and will be looking at the outer banks or California, but far and away the majority will stick to what they know.
So, if you have property to sell outside the most well known areas, the first thing you will have to do is sell the locale – very few outside the U.S will have heard of most of the towns you have property to sell in.
There are a few exceptions off the beaten track – and if you have a property in somewhere like Ashville, NC or Charlottesville, VA or in the Ozarks, you already know that you get some UK visitors. It is of course unlikely that a UAE property development company will be interested in a house in suburban Missouri ☺
Here are a few suggestions as to sensible places to advertise if you are looking for overseas buyers, bearing in mind that a good proportion of these will come from the UK, Russia and Western Europe:
The London Times
The Times online has a good classified section with an overseas section (the US counts as overseas) and the Sunday Times is particularly well read. You can place ads here both online and the print version – the best bet if you have a high quality property is the Sunday Times print version.
The New York Times
The New York Times is also well read outside the US and foreign property buyers are more likely to look here than forsalebyowner etc.
Totally Property.com
This company rightly points out that if you are trying to sell in to the Russian market, you will need representation on the ground.
Mondialhouse.com
Mondial is a French property company that offers the facility to advertise on their site. Well used with properties from most European countries – except the US - They do have this facility, but are listing no properties from the US as yet. They also have an English language interface.
