Inman

Learning the real estate ropes in a foreign country

Olivia Decker, founder and co-owner of Decker Bullock Sotheby’s International Realty, was born in China and grew up in Asia. But she learned the business of real estate buying and selling properties as an investor in Italy, France and London.

“It’s still pretty backwards in most of the foreign countries,” Decker says. “They don’t have (multiple listing services) like we have in the United States … so the inventory is not very clear, who has what, what’s listed, what’s for sale.”

Today Decker is applying her globe-trotting experience at the Mill Valley, Calif.-based company she founded in 1988, where she concentrates exclusively on marketing extraordinary homes valued from $4 million to more than $40 million.

Hear more insights from Decker in this interview with Inman News columnist Bernice Ross.