Hi Everyone,

Having had some free time on my hands on a Sunday, I performed the following experiment: pretended to be an investor from Russia who is looking to buy a property in Miami for up to $250k to rent it out (a rather typical demand it is, and I had to limit myself to something in my research anyway).

So, I go to one of the most popular (and thus expensive for advertisers!) Russian real estate portals for international properties and search it according to my request. 6 pages of results show up, but here I am limiting my report to the first 10 properties - to save my and your time (the rest of the results will be more or less the same I guess).

Well, out of 10 properties: 1 has a description in Russian, 2 have no descriptions at all (just a couple of photos), and 7 use descriptions in English with an English-into-Russian machine translation option.

I can't hold myself from citing only some of the "gems" of the machine-translated descriptions here:

- "private unit" turns into "difficult to enter unit" (Willing to buy, anyone?)

- "view on the greens" turns into "metallic paper view" (How come? The metallic paper covers the windows? Why do you need it?

- "condo in The Hammocks Association" turns into "condo located in the hammock" (Can you imagine that?)

- "lake view… water included in maintenance…" turns into "condo has a lake… you pay for the water…" (Would you like to pay for a lake inside your own unit?)

- "close to Florida International University (FIU)" turns into a request "to close the FIU" (What exactly are you supposed to do - to petition to shut down the university?)

- "Coconut Grove area of Miami" turns into "located near a coconut grove" (Where is it? In the fields or forests somewhere?)

- And the gem of the gems so far: "for investors or your own living" turns into "for investors or breathing human beings" (Are you… which one?)

There are plenty more gems of machine translation in these descriptions, but I don't want to turn this newsletter issue into a PhD thesis in length.

Now to the most interesting topic for any investor: Can you rent a unit out? For how much? What's the rental market in the area?

Well, out of 10 properties: only 1 says in English that it's suitable for investors, but nothing more… Even in the only description in Russian that sells a unit in the ocean-side building that allows short-term rentals for vacationers (I recognize the building) - a rare find in Miami as many buildings forbid renting out or limit it to long-term only! - NOTHING about the rental options!

I wonder - what are the folks thinking? Spending money on ads with no real potential to sell the properties due to their own negligence?

"Forewarned is Forearmed" as the old saying goes, and now you know exactly how to prepare your description for the Russian buyers: in Russian and including the advantages of your property for a buyer - its bestselling points! This way you'll attract much more attention than your competitors, and it'll allow you to sell faster and often for more.

To your best business success,

Sincerely,