Nearly two-thirds of the leads landing agents international buyer clients come from people they already know, not from websites or ads, according to new data from the National Association of Realtors, even as fewer agents overall are working international deals.
Where the leads actually come from
Referrals from personal contacts, past clients and business contacts accounted for 64 percent of leads among agents who worked with foreign buyers between April 2025 and March 2026, NAR’s 2026 International Transactions in U.S. Residential Real Estate report found. Personal contacts alone made up 29 percent of that total, followed by referrals from previous clients at 16 percent and repeat business from former clients at 13 percent.
Website and online listings, by comparison, accounted for just 16 percent of leads, split between organic search (12 percent) and paid advertising (4 percent). Walk-ins, open houses and phone calls brought in 5 percent, while business contacts outside the U.S. added another 2 percent.
A shrinking pool of agents working international clients
That referral pipeline held steady even as the broader pool of agents working with international clients contracted. Fourteen percent of Realtors reported working with an international buyer client during the period, down from 20 percent the prior year and the lowest share recorded in the past decade of NAR’s annual survey.
Lawrence Yun | Chief economist at the National Association of Realtors
“The decline in foreign home buyer activity mirrors the decline in international visitors and tourists to the United States,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement. “Even a slightly weaker U.S. dollar over the past year, which provides more purchasing power for foreigners, did not induce more activity.”
Deals are falling through more often, too
The client pipeline tightened too. Sixty-eight percent of Realtors said they had an international client who ultimately decided not to, or was unable to, purchase U.S. property, the second-highest share on record. The most common reasons cited were not finding an available property, at 33 percent, the cost of properties, at 28 percent, and immigration or visa issues, at 19 percent.
The bigger picture
Foreign buyers who did complete purchases spent $45.3 billion on U.S. existing homes during the period, a 19.1 percent decrease from the prior year, and bought 67,100 properties, a 14 percent decline. Canada reclaimed the top spot among countries of origin at 16 percent of foreign buyers, while China remained the largest source of dollar volume at $7.6 billion.
What this means for real estate professionals
Even in a shrinking international market, the leads that convert are coming from relationships, not marketing spend. Agents working to build or maintain an international practice may see a stronger return from cultivating referral relationships with past clients and other agents than from search or paid ads, particularly as the overall pool of international buyers available to compete for gets smaller.
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