A virtual property exhibition is the perfect launchpad for your plans, with all the benefits and none of the hassles of an old-style event. For answers to your questions about buying abroad, plus useful contacts, they’re a great first step to a successful overseas property purchase.
While many of the things we learned to do during the lockdowns we couldn’t wait to abandon – I’m thinking soda bread and home educating teenagers here – there are some that just seem to make more sense even if we can leave the house. Such as virtual overseas property exhibitions.
Get your e-pass to Your Overseas Home Virtual.
If one thing you haven’t missed is the crowds at a big overseas property show – and let’s face it, an afternoon at Birmingham NEC hardly captures the thrill of buying a property in the sunshine and beauty of the Mediterranean or Caribbean – a virtual exhibition can do the job just as well.
The virtues of virtual
A virtual event means you don’t need to travel further than your nearest laptop and internet connection. Log in from the comfort and safety of your own home, or wherever you prefer to be, anywhere in the world. Great if you’re away on holiday that week, or just fancy a lie in. No-one can see you!
The event is live, allowing you to chat and ask questions to all types of property professionals in real time. However, it’s also available post-event too. So if didn’t grasp the finer points of residency law and the 90-day rule, no problem, just watch it back.
Rather than a sheaf of pamphlets gathering dust after the event, download useful guides and material straight onto your desktop, or maybe onto your iPad to take with you on a viewing trip.
Hear from the experts
The speaking events are just as effective hosted virtually. As well as the benefit that you can watch them over again at your leisure, you get the chance to ask your questions on screen, rather than having the awkwardness of a microphone being passed to you over the heads of the crowd. Because the host can filter the questions, you tend to hear a broader range of topics rather than being bogged down in one person’s tax or inheritance situation.
Properties, properties, properties
The main reason we come to a property exhibition is to view properties. While an online show tends to be one dimensional, with one property image on a board and the details, when you browse the homes at a virtual show they come complete with many more pictures, perhaps a video walk-through and drone footage of the local area. Yet it‘s better than looking at them on a portal because you can ask the agent questions in real time.
There is also no risk that, as on some portals, you won’t know if the property is actually the agent’s to sell. Unfortunately, that can happen on some portals. At a show like Your Overseas Home virtual, however, every property is legal and available to sell.
Get your e-pass to Your Overseas Home Virtual.
With most of the agents doing webinars and talks, you can also see what they’re like and whether you feel confident in working with them.
Estate agents at Your Overseas Home are all well established in their respective markets and have lots of experience helping British and other foreign buyers. Once you’ve told them your budget and exactly what you are looking for, let them do the hunting for you! Any good estate agent should know their market inside out and be able to access most properties for sale in their local area, including many that are not listed with them. Stay in contact with them after the event, so they can assist with your viewing trip and match you with suitable properties.
Make the agent come to you, not the other way round!
In control and in your comfort zone
It’s normal to have concerns about buying in a foreign country, where the language, laws and currency are all different.
You can easily feel out of your comfort zone when in the company of a salesperson. Is what she says about “not needing a survey” really true? Can we check how far we are from the sea? Is this really a reasonable price for the area? Do budget flights come here all year? All these questions are simply easier to answer independently, in your own time, from your own computer and Wifi rather than in a hotel bedroom on a viewing trip.
That’s why we tend to see Your Overseas Home virtual as a kind of “pre-viewing trip”, where you can get all the tricky questions out of the way first, and leave time when you’re actually abroad just to look at properties.
Take the next step
Another advantage of a virtual show over a physical event is in being hooked up to the internet, and able to move effortlessly onto the next step of your overseas property odyssey.
That might be popping onto the easyJet website to book a viewing trip, or having a chat with Smart Currency Exchange to get a realistic guide to your exchange rate. Establishing your realistic budget is a vital first step. You won’t get very far with a property purchase abroad without changing your currency, so we advise registering with a currency company and getting your ID checks out of the way (it’s a UK legal requirement intended to protect you).