The World Is Getting Smaller—Expand Your Reach

By Neal H. Feinberg

MRIS, July 21, 2008-”According to the most current data from the U.S. Census Bureau, some 33.5 million foreign-born residents live in the United States, making up 12 percent of the country’s total population. The majority of immigrants, or 53 percent, is from Latin America, 25 percent is from Asia, and 14 percent is from Europe, with the remaining 8 percent born in other regions of the world.” – Realtor.org April 1, 2005As this quote illustrates, the pool of home buyers for which English is a second language is exploding and will continue to do so (especially in the MRIS footprint). Now is the time for you to consider expanding your client base by offering home searching capabilities in many languages. “But I don’t speak any other languages,” you may say. “How could I possibly service this segment of home buyers?” You will find that most of this population does speak some English, but may have trouble understanding the language contained in search engines and listings. By offering the ability to enter their search criteria (including currency conversion) and read listings in their native language, you are providing your customers a greater ease of use and the ability to more easily synthesize the information you are providing.

Lingo, a Web site offered by MRIS, gives your customers the ability to search in 13 different languages. This cost-effective site, which uses professional translation (not machine translation), will dramatically increase the visitors comfort level as they search, save their favorite listings, and receive automatic updates all in the language of their choice. Lingo also greatly increases the chance of your Web site being found by non-English search engines.

If you are interested in incorporating Lingo to your current web site, or using it as a stand alone site please go to http://www.mris.com/Products/MRIS%20Lingo/index.cfm, or call the MRIS Sales Line at (301) 838-7255.

Neal H. Feinberg is an MRIS account manager.

For feedback on this article, e-mail communications@mris.net.

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