Hi Everyone,

Everybody knows that the time is over when you could sell literally any property in the world to a Russian buyer if he liked it. What does it mean for international real estate sellers and realtors? More sophisticated and intelligent ways of marketing to the Russians first of all.

A legendary example of the incredibly effective marketing (not in real estate though, but in art) is the well-known painting Black Square of the Russian avant-garde supremacist of Polish descent Kazimierz Malevich (1878 - 1935). There are actually four copies created by the artist himself - the first one is dated 1913, the other copies were believed to be painted in the 1920s. Three of them have been in the museums, while the fourth one was discovered by chance approximately 30 years ago and eventually sold at an action for one million dollars.

For those of you who does not remember or never have seen the painting: it's exactly what's in the name - a 42 inches x 42 inches square canvas which is evenly painted black in oil and framed. The art critics that praise it say that you are supposed to look at it and think of … (everybody chooses on their own).

Could you paint the same (maybe not in black, but in purple or pink for a change)? Sure, you could. Could you sell this painting of yours for anything close to one million dollars? Or for anything at all by the way? Absolutely not. Why? The answer is easy: lack of marketing and promotion!

Marketing is the King of Selling in art, any consumer products and in real estate of course.

Now, when the Russian economy suffers from low oil prices, cheap ruble and sanctions, the Russians still consider international real estate as a great investment, but they surely think also of getting some rental income (in foreign currencies from their ownership of foreign properties.

Thus, never miss any chance to convince your potential Russian buyers that your property, if they buy it, will not eat their money for maintenance and taxes, but will bring them income. Obviously, selling a hotel or office or apartment building you have to talk about its profitability, but selling a single-family home or condo your offer should contain some rental information as well (if only applicable of course).

There is another recent trend in formation: many Russians had purchased too many international properties in their fat years and now start selling some of them - whether the owners need money for whatever personal or business goal right away or they feel a burden of paying maintenance and taxes for their many properties in the foreign currencies while the ruble is so cheap. Mind you, a foreign owner might find it difficult to sell his property in a foreign country and need help.

So, to realtors in the areas where many properties belong to the Russian owners: advertise your selling services to home owners in Russian and get new listings!

To your best business success,

Sincerely,