International Home Buying is Up for 2014. Take Advantage with Translation Services

A study commissioned by the National Association of Realtors reveals that in the 12 months ending March 2014, home sales to international clients totaled $92.2 billion. This amount is 35 percent more than the $68.2 billion of the 12 months ending in March 2013.

Both the number of transactions and the average price went up for two types of international buyers: non-resident foreigners whose permanent residences are outside the US and resident foreigners who are recent immigrants or in the country for six months or less for professional or educational reasons.

While buyers came from around the world, five countries accounted for over half the transactions: Canada, Mexico, India, the UK, and China, including the People’s Republic, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Canadians showed the greatest number of transactions but Chinese buyers boasted the largest sales dollar volume. The Chinese also focused on higher-priced markets in California, Washington and New York. Their purchases alone accounted for 24 percent of the international sales and totaled $22 billion, up from $12.8 billion previously.

If you’re a real-estate professional and you want to take advantage of this growing market segment, you’ll need translation services. Whether you’re a realtor, a mortgage professional, or even a home stager, at the very least, you must have a foreign-language website to attract foreign buyers to service. Otherwise, when they’re browsing for US property services through foreign-language search engines, they’ll never find your business. Printed marketing materials must also be in their language. Finally, real-estate contracts must accurately be translated before signing.

We can provide these translation services in a variety of languages. Please contact us to see how we can help you.