With the dire times any people are in with regard to property sales, estate agents currently need to work incredibly for their money and not just wait for queues to form outside of their offices.
As such, whenever you go on holiday overseas, be it Spain, Corfu, Mexico or Thailand, chances are you are going to be approached by a real estate agent. It may not have passed your attention, but a lot of these realtors are going to be expats making a living overseas selling real estate abroad.
Whilst it may not be the most lucrative of professions in these current times, people may still be interested in buying property where you are, and it might be very easy to help them find their property, either as a real estate agent or a property broker. In the fourth and final part of our series about getting a job and making a new life abroad we look at the idea of becoming an estate agent overseas.
There are a number of ways to sell property and make a living overseas. The first, most complicated and expensive way is to set your self up as a licensed realtor or estate agent in your country of choice. Expats living abroad in a country with a regulated real estate industry will need to either work to get their own licence, or create a partnership with a local realtor and operate under his licence.
They will also more than likely need to rent office space, invest in business logos and websites, stationery, a secretary and office furniture. One advantage of operating as a licensed overseas real estate agent is that by investing in a business it may help you with your visa or citizenship application – but one very real disadvantage is the overheads.
If you’re living abroad in a country where the property market is unregulated you can become an estate agent the minute you set foot in your new country. By touring your local area, reading the papers and talking to people you can get a list together of current properties for sale, then tout the local bars, restaurants and golf courses for likely expats who may want to buy property abroad.
You won’t need to pay for an office, secretary, stationery or professional licenses, but then again, if you are living in a country with an unlicensed real estate industry it may be difficult to make a living overseas selling property as every waiter, barman and golf caddy is probably also going to be trying to sell your potential clients a property too.
With so little outlay however, it is something you could run along the sidelines of any other jobs or projects you have on the go – and this is something that expats everywhere - from Northern Cyprus to Argentina have a go at.
Other expats make a living overseas working as a broker or client finder for a number of local real estate agents. They may have a website set up with properties to attract clients from overseas, or they may just network locally with holidaying tourists. Expats working along these lines will normally have a 50% / 50% agreement with regard to commissions with their various partners.
The hardest part of operating as an unlicensed real estate agent overseas is that you may not receive anything for your hard work if you do not have a signed contract in place. One way around this is to always ensure that you have a client contract signed with the seller before you introduce the buyer to them. The contract needs to detail the percentage of the commission that you will receive if the sale goes ahead, and when and how you are to receive it. Failure to do this could result in you working very hard for nothing, and that’s not going to keep you living in paradise for long.
