The National Association of Realtors and Move Inc.’s listing distribution platform ListHub have partnered to help NAR members broadcast their listings overseas and participate in the rise of international investment in the U.S. housing market.
Under the agreement, NAR members receive a discount on NAR’s Certified International Property Specialist curriculum, which includes courses on handling international clients and international laws. The CIPS designation also provides access to a referral network of 2,300 agents in 45 countries.
CIPS designees will receive a 10 percent discount on ListHub Global, the year-old international listing distribution channel that allows agents and brokers to send listings to a network of 70 international property websites with a presence in more than 40 countries including Brazil, China, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. ListHub Global reaches 60 million international customers, according to Move.
“This arrangement offers the education and tools to provide global real estate service, as well as an economic advantage for Realtors to reach the international marketplace through ListHub Global,” said NAR president Steve Brown in a statement.
International investment in the U.S. housing market totaled $92.2 billion in the 12 months between March 2014 and April 2013, according to NAR’s 2014 Profile of International Homebuying Activity. That’s up 35 percent from the same period a year before.
ListHub Global, which launched a year ago, automatically translates listings in its system to the appropriate language and currency of the various sites in its network, including Swedish publisher EdenHomes, Australia-based publisher ListGlobally and Chinese portal SouFun.
U.S. real estate firms have picked up their international presence in recent years.
In 2011, realtor.com launched realtor.com International, which currently features properties from 38 countries that can be viewed in 11 languages. That same year Re/Max launched the international version of its site, and Trulia began sharing its listings with ListGlobally.
Last September, Century 21 Real Estate launched a global, multilingual site that will eventually make the listings represented by the brand’s agents around the world available to consumers in 16 languages.
Zillow announced in April that it would begin serving up its listings to visitors searching for U.S. properties on the Chinese real estate portal Leju.
