3. Realtors’ Commission Issues
The most important step, if you want to sell to the foreign buyers through the foreign realtors, is to make sure you are open and convincing about how you are going to pay their commissions. By the end of the day any realtor in any country works for making a profit (the more the better) and providing for their own family, not to just be nice and pleasing for you or your buyer. The author knows first-hand what kind of problems the buyer’s Russian realtors encounter in their work selling international properties to Russian buyers. Their first and foremost concern is to receive their chunk of international sales commissions in full and on time. There are no regulations on the commission size and no rules on sharing real estate commission in Russia at all. Each real estate company and each realtor choose from the offers they receive from various countries just those that are more profitable for them. Of course, the size of the commission matters for realtors a lot. The usual size of commissions that the Russian realtors get from the international sales can be from 2% to 15% and depends on the country, market segment and property’s price. The lowest commission level percentage-wise is for luxury properties, the highest percentage number is for economy class properties. Basically, there are two methods for the foreign realtors to secure their commission for sure: To travel with their buyer to a country where the buyer is supposed to purchase a property and stay there as long as required to close the deal (not feasible most of the time) or to have a reliable and trustworthy cooperating partner in that country who would do all the leg work with the buyer till closing on the property and getting the commission for the foreign partnering realtor. Any other arrangements look questionable as it does not seem practical for realtors to go to courts in foreign countries and legally fight for their commission. The experienced Russian realtors selling international properties have their common opinion that in the past when they only started working with international sales, cases of not getting their commission happened pretty often, but with time and experience they feel much more confident in their own skin, but inexperienced Russian realtors still suffer from not getting their commissions often. The method of probing and making mistakes in the process takes its time and price for the foreign realtors. There are no common rules, and each foreign real estate agency gets their own way. For example, the easiest way for the Russian realtors seems to actually work in cooperation with developers in various countries, especially in the countries where the developers’ commission is higher than in the secondary market sales, as many properties can be sold following the same procedure with one and the same partner under one and the same agreement, and after the first sale or two have gone smoothly for both sides and the mutual trust has been established, there is nothing to worry about in the future cooperation that would work as a conveyor of sending the buyers from the foreign realtor to the developer. Nonetheless, money-wise it is often more interesting for the Russian realtors to work with secondary market international properties in the countries where the secondary market prevails and prices are rather high in the elite segment of the real estate market, although it requires more effort and knowledge and is more demanding when exposing realtors to unexpected and non-standard situations with their buyers of such international properties. …show more content…
To avoid the difficulties and failures a Russian realtor often gets into cooperation relations with a local realtor in the country where a Russian buyer goes to purchase a property and usually both realtors share the real estate commission 50:50. As a private seller of a property that you want to offer to the foreign realtors, the most important task for you is to prove to them that they will receive their commission in full and on time. By the way, as a marketing consultant for those real estate sellers who want to find a foreign buyer, the author
The most important step, if you want to sell to the foreign buyers through the foreign realtors, is to make sure you are open and convincing about how you are going to pay their commissions. By the end of the day any realtor in any country works for making a profit (the more the better) and providing for their own family, not to just be nice and pleasing for you or your buyer. The author knows first-hand what kind of problems the buyer’s Russian realtors encounter in their work selling international properties to Russian buyers. Their first and foremost concern is to receive their chunk of international sales commissions in full and on time. There are no regulations on the commission size and no rules on sharing real estate commission in Russia at all. Each real estate company and each realtor choose from the offers they receive from various countries just those that are more profitable for them. Of course, the size of the commission matters for realtors a lot. The usual size of commissions that the Russian realtors get from the international sales can be from 2% to 15% and depends on the country, market segment and property’s price. The lowest commission level percentage-wise is for luxury properties, the highest percentage number is for economy class properties. Basically, there are two methods for the foreign realtors to secure their commission for sure: To travel with their buyer to a country where the buyer is supposed to purchase a property and stay there as long as required to close the deal (not feasible most of the time) or to have a reliable and trustworthy cooperating partner in that country who would do all the leg work with the buyer till closing on the property and getting the commission for the foreign partnering realtor. Any other arrangements look questionable as it does not seem practical for realtors to go to courts in foreign countries and legally fight for their commission. The experienced Russian realtors selling international properties have their common opinion that in the past when they only started working with international sales, cases of not getting their commission happened pretty often, but with time and experience they feel much more confident in their own skin, but inexperienced Russian realtors still suffer from not getting their commissions often. The method of probing and making mistakes in the process takes its time and price for the foreign realtors. There are no common rules, and each foreign real estate agency gets their own way. For example, the easiest way for the Russian realtors seems to actually work in cooperation with developers in various countries, especially in the countries where the developers’ commission is higher than in the secondary market sales, as many properties can be sold following the same procedure with one and the same partner under one and the same agreement, and after the first sale or two have gone smoothly for both sides and the mutual trust has been established, there is nothing to worry about in the future cooperation that would work as a conveyor of sending the buyers from the foreign realtor to the developer. Nonetheless, money-wise it is often more interesting for the Russian realtors to work with secondary market international properties in the countries where the secondary market prevails and prices are rather high in the elite segment of the real estate market, although it requires more effort and knowledge and is more demanding when exposing realtors to unexpected and non-standard situations with their buyers of such international properties. …show more content…
To avoid the difficulties and failures a Russian realtor often gets into cooperation relations with a local realtor in the country where a Russian buyer goes to purchase a property and usually both realtors share the real estate commission 50:50. As a private seller of a property that you want to offer to the foreign realtors, the most important task for you is to prove to them that they will receive their commission in full and on time. By the way, as a marketing consultant for those real estate sellers who want to find a foreign buyer, the author