We're pleased to share this special edition of “The Scoop – Power Hour” where we discussed the opportunities to be found in international real estate. View the recording of the event below.
Our final "Scoop - Power Hour" for the year is coming up Wednesday, December 9, at 2:00 p.m. Tune in for an exclusive update focused on San Diego's housing market and hot topics. Register here.
Highlights from Yesterday's Briefing Included:
FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN THE UNITED STATES - Gay Cororaton; Senior Economist at the National Association of REALTORS®
Gay Cororaton provided an update on foreign investments in the United States. She explained that there are two main types of international buyers: The individual who travel to the United States several times a year, and recent immigrants that are non-U.S. citizens but they already living here on a visa.
Overall, foreign investment is down compared to prior years due to the pandemic as well as immigration laws.
Another issue we are facing is the lack of homes for sale, she stated. Usually we want to see about five months’ worth of supply and right now we're seeing less than three months. Lack of inventory right now has also caused home prices to rise. Nationally, the most expensive location to buy is in San Francisco, while San Diego is the fourth most expensive.
Due to all of these reasons we have seen a decline in foreign buyers, Cororaton said. We used to see $153 billion in sales volume and now that is down to about $74 billion.
Janet Case presented on the history and benefits of Proxio, which was started in Europe and then was brought into the United States. It was created to try to remove the borders around the business that most real estate agents would like to do. This is especially the case where we have multicultural communities such as San Diego.
Proxio's mission is to connect the world of real estate. Case said there should be a barrier-free way for agents to do real estate business wherever they want as long as they're licensed in the jurisdiction and they can do referrals.
Proxio is a referral platform. It's an agent-to-agent network, but no one is trying to sell you anything or connect to you for any other reason other than they want to do referral business with you. You can think of it as LinkedIn for REALTORS®, so it is really about making connections. The goal is to provide more inventory, more marketing tools, and more audience so that you can make more money.
Proxio has listings from over 100 countries with close to 2 million listings of all property types in the system. It also gives you access to digital marketing tools and allows you to print out your materials in multiple languages so all of the property listings can be translated.
FIABCI PRESENTATION - Hugh Gilliam; President, U.S. Chapter; and Eugenia Foxworth, President-Elect of U.S. Chapter
Hugh Gilliam and Eugenia Foxworth spoke about FIABCI and the benefits of membership.
FIABCI (International Real Estate Federation) is known as the global connection. It is designed to help you attain your larger global reach. It allows an avenue to plug into worldwide resources and collaborate with international professionals.
FIABCI was founded in Paris in 1951 and today has 48 national and multinational chapters in more than 70 countries with 2,500 members.
According to Gilliam, the important thing about what FIABCI does is to be able to collaborate, not just with real estate brokers but with a wide range of professionals. They provide insight, not only to their business but to their country.
FIABCI has 11 local councils from the East Coast to Hawaii. Each council in the United States consists of a President, Board of Directors, and of course dedicated members. The councils offer educational programming, community networking events, mastermind sessions, and much more.
FIABCI’s core values are defined by integrity, commitment to excellence, culture of innovation and development. They are focused on creating sustainable membership value and community action. Foxworth indicated that FIABCI does so much in the local community, spreading out into the United States, and then even further, into the world.
INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE UPDATE - Matias Susel, 2020 Committee Chair
Matias Susel spoke about the important work that the International Committee at SDAR is doing, including what to look forward to in 2021.
The International Committee has been creating relationships with a lot of different associations around the world and within the United States to help educate those investors about San Diego. Some partners already include Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Columbia, Argentina, and many others within our own community.
For 2021 the committee is trying to connect with more associations and people around the globe. To do this, Susel said, they need to continue to build up committee with volunteers who are interested in participating. If there is enough interest, the committee hopes to start a local San Diego Chapter of FIABCI.
If you are interested in expanding your work into international real estate, a CIPS certification is one of the most recognized ways to do it. It will open a lot of doors to connect to other people around the globe.