Agents can do well out of property shows in the US – as long as they don’t mind early starts, late finishes and intense questions
John Howell, a senior partner at The International Law Partnership:
This industry is constantly changing and the rapid pace of change produces many challenges and causes many casualties. Of course, it also gives rise to lots of new opportunities.
Once such opportunity is the growing strength of the US market as a place where people are interested in buying a property overseas.
Each year we run three or four conferences in the US for investors interested in foreign property.
After September 11 attendances dropped but the conference we are running next week in San Francisco, we are delighted to say, is sold out.
This is a very different event from the sort of show and seminar programme put on in the UK and Ireland. The people attending pay a lot of money for good, reliable information and guidance. The attendees are, generally, much more serious and much more demanding than the people attending UK events. They come with a plan in mind and work very hard over the two days of the conference so that, by the end of it, they have made some clear and (we hope) effective investment decisions. Work starts at 8am each day and the participants often request earlier ‘one-on-one’ breakfast meetings! The days usually finish at 6.30pm and are followed by a cocktail reception and/ or dinner. All in all, it is a very intensive weekend for everybody concerned.
Not only is the American attitude to work different, so is the information that most worries them and the phraseology that we must use.
Why do I tell you this? It is because I think that this is a much under worked market. It is a market where there is nothing by way of locally produced materials and where there are very few companies selling overseas property, certainly property outside central and South America. There is a good opportunity here for companies that can deliver the required service levels and who have the right range of products to satisfy a very demanding and very well informed clientele.
I know a number of people have tried to run UK style events and shows in the US. From what I hear, they have not been very successful.
There is no use trying to sell ‘ordinary’ or ‘boring’ property, particularly ‘ordinary’ or ‘boring’ investment property. Nor is there any use trying to employ the same sales techniques that you use in Birmingham or London. But if you are brave enough and adventurous enough to address this market in the way in which it demands there is certainly a big upturn of interest in the right property abroad.
Turning to something completely different, it surprises me how few of the agents and developers I speak to are aware that bubbling away in the back ground is a new code of conduct that is being prepared for Europe wide use by all estate agents. The message is pretty clear, if you don’t follow the rules voluntarily then, after a couple of years, the EU will legislate to force you to do so – and if the timeshare industry is anything to go by, the legislation will be much tougher than the original proposed code of conduct.
The draft code should be published by the time you see the next edition of this magazine and so you will be hearing much more from me about this subject. In the meantime, you might as well do yourself a favour and make sure your plans for the new season are likely to comply with the new code. This isn’t difficult. It is built on the basic principles of treating the buyer fairly, full and open disclosure and not selling anything that you have not checked out by doing ‘ due-diligence’ on it.
Which takes me neatly to our new venture, IsMyHouseLegal.info.
This is a service we have set up precisely to provide that due-diligence on developments around the world. If the technology is working properly, you all should have had an email about this service. If you haven’t, please feel free to contact me. The basic idea is that The International Law Partnership will check out development – has it got a good title? Has it got planning consent? Is it burdened by debt? Etc. We repeat these checks every six months to ensure they are reasonably up to date. Any development checked by us can display our special logo and the words ‘checked by The International Law Partnership, solicitors and international lawyers’. We think this is a great sales aid and, just as importantly, it will meet most of your due-diligence requirements under the new code of conduct.
If you would like more information, please contact:
The International Law Partnership LLP
Solicitors & International Lawyers
The Vaults
193-197 High Holborn
London
WC1V 7BD
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