Using the Web and social media to sell real estate

During the current real estate market situation, there is a definite benefit in selling US properties overseas. You can count on potentially higher prices, shorter closing terms and additional business in the form of support or management. This requires in the other end to create connections with people who can promote your products credibly in the foreign market: languages and cultural issues here are very relevant.

The Web is lending us a hand in this direction and I find Facebook particularly powerful for the following reasons:

1.It is an informal platform where you can meet other real estate professionals from other countries without having to talk about business from the get go

2.You can interact more easily using the integrated chat, videos, photos, comments and blog posts (linked on Facebook) so to create a story around yourself and allow the foreign real estate professionals to become familiar with you

3.Approximately two thirds of Facebook users are outside of the US, therefore you have a very big audience

4.You can collect some initial information about other people from their profile so that you have something to talk with them already in the initial contacts.

What is more difficult is bridging past this initial contact phase, that lays a good foundation, and move onto a more formal business relationship. Here you can follow the rule of establishing at least five to seven contacts with your prospect before getting down to real business.

I found very effective to first ask questions about what they would like to achieve, what are their ideas about international real estate and which markets they would consider and why. Don’t try to steer them right away, rather provide some valuable general advice that will show your competence and will get them curious about your specific market and what you have to offer.

Some foreign markets have some special liking for some definite locations in the US. Doing a bit of research on them will put you in the right stream and you won’t be bucking the trend. For exampe, Italians prefer to buy in New York and Miami for the most part. If you know nothing about a foreign market and don’t have the time to find out and you don’t even know the language, find another real estate professional that can bridge you over.

Roberto Mazzoni

P.S.

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Tags: "NEw York", "Roberto Mazzoni", "social media in real estate", International Real Estate, Miami