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Grow your international business with multilingual content | North Salem Realtor

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Janet ChoynowskiJanet Choynowski

Sales of U.S. property to international buyers are heating up. According to the National Association of Realtors, international sales were up 24 percent last year, representing 9 percent of the total residential market.

NAR’s member surveys show that in the 12-month period ending in March 2012, international buyers bought U.S. property valued at more than $82 billion, generating about $5 billion in real estate commissions.

NAR defines international buyers as not only those who live outside of the U.S., but also recent immigrants and temporary visa holders.

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If international buyers perform a search for houses for sale in your city, does your website show up in their search results?

The chances are that your website is not being suggested to valuable international prospects unless you have taken steps to ensure that it can be indexed in other languages.

The reason is simple. Search engines are programmed to predict what their users want. That’s why when you perform a search in English, your search engine “knows” you expect to see results in English and that is what you get. The same is true for other languages.

Now here’s the catch: According to one estimate, about 72 percent of all people with Internet access speak a language other than English.

Because many people speak more than one language, it’s hard to say exactly what percentage of searches are conducted in a language other than English.

But across the globe, viewers get results that are relevant to them by using the approximately 165 international “Googles” and countless other regional search engines programmed to understand the habits and expectations of their own local users.

You can get a good feel for what a Brazilian prospect searching houses for sale in your market will encounter by performing this search: Visit www.Google.com.br and paste: “venda de casas em your city” into the search box to see which websites are included in the search results. You will find, no surprise, that the top search results are all websites with content in Brazilian Portuguese.

Buyers from Mexico were responsible for 8 percent of the international investment in U.S. residential property over the past year. A search on www.Google.com.mx for “Casas en venta en your city” will reveal who is most visible to prospects searching your area for houses for sale.

Chinese nationals made 11 percent of the 85 billion dollars in total international investment last year. A resident of China would likely visit www.Baidu.com to perform a search for ” your city 房产” to research your local real estate market. The search and results will be in Chinese of course.

Unless you already have some content in these languages, your website was probably not in any of the results above.

These search engines are programmed to deliver results in other languages and your English website is no more relevant to them than a page in Chinese is to Google.com.

There are two simple things you can do to start to improve your global visibility and increase the probability of attracting international prospects.

For a low tech and low cost solution, ask bilingual or multilingual associates or coworkers to write a few paragraphs about your local market in their own languages. Add this content to your website with links up at the top so search engines can easily index it. This content should actually be on a page within your website, not just linked from another site.

Write a blog in other languages if you can or hire someone to write the blog for you. Include hyperlinks from keywords in your blog post such as the translated phrases for “real estate for sale in your city” or “houses for sale in your city” linking back to relevant content on your website.

These small steps will allow international search engines to index your website and suggest it when an international prospect looks for real estate in your area.

Please do not add machine translation tools to your website in an effort to gain visibility, though.

This is what Google has to say: “We recommend that you do not allow automated translations to get indexed. Automated translations don’t always make sense and they could potentially be viewed as spam.”

Utilizing good-quality content in other languages can help you move your website to first-page results in the languages of your choice. After all, who knows where your next client might come from?

via inman.com

L.A.’s affordable housing crunch | North Salem Real Estate

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Los Angeles, a city where 63.1% of residents rent their homes, is in the midst of a crisis in rental housing.

A recent study by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development laid out the stark facts. Los Angeles rents have increased, after adjusting for inflation, by nearly 30% over the last 20 years. During the same period, renter incomes have decreased by 6%.

One important part of the problem is an inadequate supply of affordable rental units. Only 37 units are available and affordable for every 100 would-be renters living at the average renter income level.

 

Moreover, the foreclosure crisis, which many predicted would relieve pressure on the rental market by increasing the volume of rental units, has instead exacerbated the problem. Families who lost their homes through foreclosure have turned to the rental market and are competing for units, which has made for an even tighter rental market and more upward pressure on rents.

The effects of the affordability problem extend well beyond those struggling to find places to live. Adequate affordable housing is a key factor for continued growth in a region. Without it, employers can’t hire enough skilled workers, and cities have trouble attracting new businesses.

What’s more, the abolishment of redevelopment agencies in California, which each year provided more than $1 billion statewide and $50 million in Los Angeles alone for affordable housing, has stymied development at a time when we need it most.

It’s against this backdrop that the next mayor will take office. The three leading candidates — Eric Garcetti, Wendy Greuel and Jan Perry — all seem to recognize the challenges, and at a forum last month convened by Housing for a Stronger Los Angeles, they expressed a commitment to solving the city’s housing crisis. Here are some ways the next mayor can address some of the key challenges:

Establish a dedicated, consistent source of funding to support affordable housing. Finding new money in a time of tight budgets is never easy, but for years policymakers have agreed on the need for a dedicated pool of money for city-backed loans to support the construction of affordable housing. This would not be a giveaway because loans would be repaid. Rather, it would be an investment in the city’s future, and the next mayor needs to see that such a fund is created and sustained.

Take advantage of the opportunities presented by transit expansion. Over the next 10 years, Los Angeles will be adding dozens of new transit stations. What happens around these stations could help ease the city’s housing crisis, but only with thoughtful community planning. Yes, we need higher-density, transit-oriented developments, but it will be crucially important to ensure that this housing isn’t exclusively for the affluent. The mayor should lead the way on this.

Attack homelessness with renewed vigor. Los Angeles has more homeless people than any American city other than New York, and the number of homeless veterans continues to be unacceptably high. The next mayor should focus resources from across government and the private sector on addressing the issue. This will require a comprehensive assessment of the needs of those on the streets in order to develop the kinds of assistance and housing that will make the biggest difference.

Address the city’s foreclosure crisis before it debilitates neighborhoods. Concentrated foreclosures can lead to neighborhood distress that extends beyond the foreclosures themselves. The city must provide leadership that limits the extent of this damage, both by working with at-risk neighborhoods to make sure homeowners are aware of the resources available to them and by using the considerable financial leverage it has to encourage lenders to work with homeowners in trouble.

Preserve the affordable units that we have. Construction can ease pressure on rents, but only if it adds units to the total stock of housing. Merely tearing down old units and erecting new ones doesn’t help. The city needs to exercise its zoning and permitting power to encourage development that expands housing opportunities.

Los Angeles is an expensive place to live. Its broad economic base, diverse and interesting population and temperate climate make it a very desirable place to live, which necessarily drives up costs. This won’t change. The next mayor must take an assertive approach and deal with the affordability challenges directly

via latimes.com