Working with Global Landlords
With Roman Fischer

Roman Fischer directly addresses camera:

Do you think foreign landlords are high maintenance? If you do, then you’re missing out on a huge part of the property management business. Plus, it’s just not true.

I’m Roman Fischer, broker-owner of FPB Investment Properties in West Palm Beach. Let’s take five minutes to talk about how to keep the communication flowing when working with foreign landlords. 

Florida is known for its beaches and tourist attractions, making it a magnet for foreign investors who purchase Florida properties. About 25 percent of my business is property management. Of that, about 20 percent are owned by foreign investors. We specialize in building relationships with these foreign landlords and real estate agents who do not want to deal with property management.

From the beginning, you should adopt a customer-service mindset that the client is always right. A foreign landlord is located too far away to handle everything, so expect to do them favors such as securing a rental car when they visit or finding an accountant who can file their taxes. A client who is Eastern European requested that I show her a short-term rental before she committed to renting it. We do a lot of rentals and people don’t normally check them out before renting. Not only that, but she expected me to pick her up and bring her back to her hotel. No matter how challenging, you have to go above and beyond to serve them. 

Next, it’s important to understand the culture of the person with whom you’re working. I was working with a Chinese client who tried to negotiate rental rates with me. I learned that, in the Chinese culture, negotiation is part of every business transaction and it’s considered rude not to offer a discount or bonus. 
Do your due diligence, research and understand common business practices in different countries. 

It’s just as important to educate them about how the real estate transaction works in the United States. They need to know about condo and homeowners’ association approval, background checks and any rental restrictions. I worked with a client who wanted to sell a property because he found out that it couldn't be rented out for two years. He called me to list the property and have him find one that didn’t have an association rule that precluded him from renting. 

Remember, as the property manager and Realtor, you have to know the rules and restrictions of different communities in your area. Many times, a community association document is 30 or more pages. Many global landlords don’t read or speak English that well, so it’s difficult for them to understand what’s in those documents. 

Obviously, another challenge is the time difference. As the property manager, you may need an answer immediately and sometimes it’s just not possible. Or, you need to be available before and after hours to get those answers. I generally will work with the landlord so that I have the authority to proceed with an immediate repair as long as it doesn’t exceed our agreed upon maximum amount. I also use phone call and messaging apps such as What’s App, Viber and WeChat depending on which country they are from. Chinese investors often use WeChat, while European clients tend to use the other two. It allows me to easily message the property owner with questions without an international phone plan. 

While I speak five languages, I don’t know them all. So, I tend to hire multilingual real estate agents or a translator who can help me communicate with a foreign investor from that country, so I can express myself correctly.

Sure, you may be asked to do some things that domestic landlords wouldn’t ask you to do, like picking up customers up at the airport or arranging rental cars, but working with foreign investors and managing their rental properties can be rewarding too. Plus, it builds a natural pipeline of business and a referral network.
So I would recommend you just go ahead and try to work with them. Sometimes it may be very rewarding and very interesting.