Author: Glenn Melton
Hot off the press. The popular Swanepoel Real Estate TRENDS Report 2012 was released this month. This leading publication tracks the U.S. residential real estate brokerage industry, and this year’s focus is on the growing international real estate investment sector and the need for brokers and agents to gear up for it.
I was excited to have participated in an interview with Swanepoel for the report. The following excerpt describes how the Professionals brand is helping real estate professionals tap into the property investment side of business with property management services and the creation of an ongoing supply of property investors:
“Professionals is transferring their extensive knowledge and experience in the investment and management of residential real estate from Australia to the U.S.
Professionals has already started assembling 15-20 U.S. operators that each buy and manage hundreds of properties and are incorporating them under the Professionals network. This approach will significantly expand the opportunities for their residential brokerages, allowing them to tap into a large pool of buyers who in turn benefit from agreeing to standards and levels of service. Furthermore, the 300 office Professionals network in Australia also has hundreds of investors that are already familiar with this relationship and anxious to tap into the more lucrative U.S. rental market.
So, America’s real estate market has a new high touch, flat fee, full service franchise with a great brand. This is definitely a franchise that will draw a lot of attention and is expected to grow rapidly.”
The topic of international real estate investors is timely considering the conversation on CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning in which Warren Buffett talked about the value of investing in single-family homes(http://www.cnbc.com/id/46541258).
Buffett says, “If I had a way of buying a couple hundred thousand single-family homes and had a way of managing— the management is enormous…I would load up on them.” He goes on to say, “If I was an (real estate) investor that was a handy type, which I’m not, and I could buy a couple of them (single-family homes) at distressed prices and find renters, I think that’s probably as an attractive an investment as you can make now.”
We look forward to sharing more information about the Professionals Global Property Investor Network when we formally launch next month. For more information read our latest press release.
