Construction cranes in Spain are all over, says REALTOR Jana Herdova, just back from a trade mission to Madrid coordinated by the National Association of REALTORS. And that’s a good sign for Herdova’s nascent international real estate business.

“I have an interest in the second-home market and there’s a good investment opportunity in Spain with lots of construction going on and property values increasing by 18 percent, especially the coastal properties,” says Herdova, ABR, CIPS, GMS, broker-owner of Regency, Inc. REALTORS in Naperville, who started developing an international side to her business two years ago after 15 years in residential and commercial real estate and with her two sons now in college. She spends 45 percent of her time developing her international business—focusing on Eastern and Western European countries.

From the National Association of REALTORS’ latest member survey on the subject, less than one percent of its members are involved in international real estate and those who are say it’s a secondary focus with referrals the key marketing channel. Still, NAR sees an increase in international transactions due to the potential of a global economy and business opportunities represented by immigrants to the United States.

Today people from 120 nations live in Illinois and immigrants make up over 12 percent of the state’s population, according to the U.S. Census. Illinois’ immigrant population increased 61 percent between 1990 and 2000, slightly more than the nationwide increase of 57 percent. According to many housing experts, immigrants represent the next wave of first-time homebuyers in America.

For Herdova, international real estate is a homecoming of sorts. She was born in Czechoslovakia and, at age 5, she and her parents—both doctors—left the former communist country for political reasons. They lived in a German refugee camp for several months before her father came to the United States to establish a business so he could relocate the whole family here. It took four years and they ultimately settled in Hinsdale as immigrants.

Jana speaks six languages—Czech, German, French, Spanish, Italian and English—and this gives her an advantage although she says English is the language universally used for the international business transaction and contract talks.

“I would like to do transactions here in the states, working with foreign investors who want to invest in Chicago or U.S. investors who want to invest overseas,” says Herdova, who plans to travel abroad at least three times a year to grow her business. “In Chicago there is such a large population of Czech descendants of immigrants and they still have a link to their homeland, so there’s a potential of marketing to those people and helping them find property overseas.”

So who else is in this pool of potential international real estate clients? In its research, the NAR has outlined four types:

In practice, Herdova has earned referral fees from two international transactions. In one, she linked Motorola Inc. with a reliable contact in the Czech Republic to find rental housing for 10 employees sent there on short assignments. Another was for a property listing in the Dominican Republic. Her contact was the result of a business summit in Brazil organized by the National Association of REALTORS.

“Networking plays a strong role in international business,” says Herdova, who currently serves as the NAR Presidential Liaison to the Czech Republic and is a charter member of the Illinois Association of REALTORS International Working Group. “You can’t be ‘over there’ all the time.”

Trust is a big issue when dealing with real estate practitioners located across oceans and continents. Each country has its own unique standards (or lack of standards) of practice and oftentimes no laws that enforce a contract or commitment.

Says Herdova: “In the Czech Republic, they do not have any licensing requirements. Enforcing the contract gets tricky. I usually try to find out something about the person from another REALTOR who’s done business with them or the NAR director from that region. There are ways to check. One is networking with others in the international community. It’s not a big group and if someone is not fair, you will hear about it.”

Similarly, in China and other Asian countries, organized groups of professionals engaged in the real estate business are just beginning to take shape, according to Cathy Shang, broker-owner of Unity Realty Corporation in Burr Ridge and a REALTOR since 1989. Explains Shang, who was born in Taipei, the Taiwan capital: “In China the land belongs to the government and you can only buy with a lease or land-lease. In many Asian countries they are trying to promote a system but most people do it through a private party. Someone will say ‘I have a piece of property you may want to buy or maybe a relative or neighbor will want to buy.’”

Shang says 70 percent of her clients are Asians who live in the city of Chicago or DuPage County. She cites Census statistics that count more than a half a million Asians in DuPage County alone, “so there’s a huge market for this business.”

Shang moved to Chicago in 1976 intending to go to graduate school after earning a college degree in business administration and worked for several American companies based in Taiwan. Instead, she fell in love with Moses Shang who was in Chicago to help establish the Chinese-language newspaper World Journal. They married and had a daughter, Michelle, and Cathy worked full-time for several international companies before an 11-year stint for what is now called the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office of Chicago.

With these experiences and her husband’s many Asian connections—he also founded the Taiwanese American Chamber of Commerce and currently serves as chairman of the Asian American Advisory Council for Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, Jr.—Cathy had a well-stocked pool of potential clients when her interests switched to real estate.

Says Shang: “In the beginning I was very aggressive. I placed a lot of ads in newspapers, wrote a real estate column for the World Journal newspaper and held seminars for first-time homebuyers, real estate investors and taught classes in feng shui.” She speaks Chinese-English and several dialects of the Chinese language and stays on top of developments in Asia via Yahoo!, plus travels to China or Taiwan at least once a year. She’ll earn her CRS and CIPS designations later this year and is a charter member of the IAR International Working Group.

Shang’s typical real estate transactions are far from typical. In one recent example, her seller wanted to sell his Chinese supermarket and the real estate around it then retire and move back to China. The South American buyer wanted to immigrate to the United States and start a business.

“People who want to immigrate to the U.S. need to find and establish a business to make money so they can stay here,” says Shang. “I help them take steps to establish their legal residency and refer an attorney who speaks their language. When they get to the United States I help them find a house and help them apply for a business license.”

She adds: “You also have to help buyers realize when would be a good time to invest because the money exchange rate changes. You have to be very careful about the economic and political changes in different countries that can affect investments.”

Often the biggest hurdle for foreign-born buyers is financing the downpayment and establishing credit. Patience is key. Says Shang: “I spend more time with my Asian clients to help them understand the real estate transaction and be sure that they feel comfortable about the market and their decision. It’s a huge investment. I told another REALTOR to just change the roles. ‘If you are going to Japan or China to buy a piece of real estate, are you going to make a decision in a short period of time?’ You really do have to do a lot of research.”