Win Over Foreign Clients With RPR®

Posted in Being a REALTOR®, International Real Estate, Technology, Working with Clients, by Charlee Gibson on August 25, 2017

Standing out to foreign buyers in a sea of REALTORS® can be challenging. With so many buyers moving from abroad it can be overwhelming to know the exact steps to proving you are a global expert, worthy of their business. NAR offers numerous tools, resources and educational opportunities to help you stand out in the global marketplace. One of these is the REALTORS® Property Resource (RPR®).

RPR® is a free tool available to REALTORS®, featuring detailed property data from over 160 million U.S. properties. RPR® combines public and REALTOR® specific MLS data in order to deliver property snapshots to your clients all in a single detailed report. Better yet, each report can be customized with your photo and personal details. This information can then be used to help clients make more informed decisions when buying in the U.S.

This data can be especially helpful for buyers abroad who have little to no preexisting knowledge of U.S. real estate. Some of the information included in these snapshots are:

• Estimated value
• Mortgage information
• Tax data
• Census, demographic and lifestyle data
• Foreclosure and distressed data
• Historic data
• Flood zones

These snapshots are tailored by you to include the property information most important to your clients. Including additional information that impacts their everyday life can help foreign buyers prepare and adjust to life in a new country. Showing these clients you care about them beyond the closing can result in repeat business and referrals from their family and friends. Below are a few ways you can use RPR® to address their needs:

• Mapping features: Relocating homes can mean relocating careers. Map out the drive from a potential home to a client’s place of employment to find out their commute time.

• Education: Search by school zones, and help identify a school that might fit their needs (both public and private, K-12). Also search K-12 by school data, test scores and parent reviews. International schools are also labeled and included in the search results.

• Walkability Score:This can be especially helpful for students.Search for the walkability between a property and university. Also view nearby businesses such as restaurants or retail shops.

Whether a client is purchasing in the U.S. for work, education, vacation or investments, RPR® can be optimized to assist each. By going beyond and leveraging RPR® you will shine as a global expert.

Read the full article at blogs.realtor.org