3 things we needed to start helping expats buy a home in the Netherlands

Over the last year many of the clients we successfully helped with finding a rental home, have reached out to us with the request to assist them in purchasing a home. With the current housing market, rental prices and mortgage interest rates it was the logical next step for them.

At first, it was a great thing to find out that they appreciated our service and how we had assisted them before and were looking to ask for our help once more. Though we are always looking for ways to assist our clients, and starting an expat buying service seemed very attractive from a business perspective, we decided not to assist them in their request. It was not, however, that we didn’t want to help our valued clients out, but more that we wanted to make sure that we could do a great job helping them out.

Customer Satisfaction

Since we started this company our main focus has always been customer service and satisfaction. Though we understand the value of profit, making sure our clients truly appreciate our service and experience, a pleasant customer journey has always been more important for us than anything else. We pride ourselves in maintaining a great overall customer satisfaction score and see it return in business growth through both the number of referrals and returning customers.

However, buying a home is no small thing. Finding a rental home, which was our core business, is part of a bigger relocation process and though it is important, for most people it is a temporary solution. Buying a home is different for it is the big experience. It’s as much an emotional step as it is a big investment. In order to help clients out with this we needed to make sure we completely understood both elements and could offer the right type of service. What makes a service like this great? And how do we make sure we stay true to our core belief; that customer satisfaction is key.

Three things

After careful consideration/deliberation we found a way to make the buying service a success. We needed to make sure we had the following three elements right in order to offer a great service to our expat clients and make a difference in the market.

1. Find the right people

Great customer service doesn’t start with the customer, but with your employees. If you find great people, who can listen to and understand the people they help, and if you treat them well, they will offer your customers a great service. We have never believed in copying what the rest of the market does and therefore have adjusted our hiring process to what we believe in: finding people who can relate, ask questions, listen carefully and who understand their customer. Buying a home can be a lengthy and sometimes challenging process. We have found a great team, who all happen to be expats, have gone through the same process as our clients and more importantly, who understand what it takes to give fantastic customer service and will make sure you experience a pleasant and successful buying process.

2. Build the right network

Buying a home can be a lengthy process where the buyer will need several suppliers who can inform and assist with things like legal documents, valuations, and technical inspections. We believe that finding the right partners who are knowledgeable, offer the same high level of customer service and who understand our clients is just as vital a part of the service as the support that we provide ourselves. We are happy to say we have found the right partners who can assist our clients during the process. Partners who make the customer journey more pleasant, and just as importantly; who can help our clients make better and more informed decisions.

3. Pick the right time

The market is currently as competitive as it can get. There are less properties for sale on the market and at the same time we see an increase in expats moving to and buying in the Amsterdam metropolitan area. Because of this overheated market we see buyers bidding over by 10-20%, risking fines by not adding the right dissolving clauses and not properly taking the time to do their due diligence. With this in mind we believe this is the right time to enter the market. Making sure our clients, who don’t have any experience with the current housing market or conditions, can navigate through the market and buying process unscathed is our key priority.

This is the right time, we’ve got a great network and an even better team. We’re ready to help. Let’s go.

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