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Post by Lim on Mar 8, 2008 20:48:05 GMT -5
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Post by Lim on Mar 9, 2008 11:23:40 GMT -5
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Post by Prospector on Apr 5, 2008 4:46:50 GMT -5
Fla. Realtors drumming up business in Britain
LONDON — Waves of hurricanes? Cocaine warlords on every corner? Debunking misconceptions about Florida is one key to unlocking the state's troubled property market to prospective buyers from Britain, says John Mike, chairman of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches.
"But once they come to Florida they love it," he said.
Shelley Emling/AJC
(ENLARGE)
John Mike, chairman of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches, takes in Hampton Court Palace.
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Mike, along with 13 other Realtors from Florida, are in Britain until April 13 as part of a trade mission sponsored by his association.
In addition to Realtors from the Palm Beach area, there are Realtors here from Destin, Naples, Fort Myers, and Vero Beach.
The Realtors be doing a bit of sightseeing — tours of Windsor and Warwick castles are on the agenda — but Mike said that their main goals are to learn about the market in the United Kingdom and to establish effective referral relationships with agencies here.
"We want to meet real estate professionals in the U.K. so that they can connect their clients to us," he said.
Ed Marks, of Marks & Spencer International Realty in Boca Raton, Fla., said the idea is to build communication channels with British agents.
"So far they've seemed eager to work with us," he said.
Mike said that if a British agent refers a client to a Realtor in Florida, "we will send a portion of the commission to the agent in the U.K."
The group also will be meeting with representatives of British media outlets in order to find out how to advertise Florida properties overseas.
On both sides of the pond, the goal of boosting communication is to ensure that potential British buyers get the advice they need to make a sound decision.
"Thousands of U.K. residents come over and buy without any direction from someone with international experience," Mike said. "We think it's really important they have some guidance so they don't make a decision they might regret later."
He said a team of 15 British real-estate agents visited Florida last year in order to learn more about how the industry works in the United States.
One major difference? Property taxes.
"Property taxes are low in the U.K. because they get more of their money from income taxes," Mike said. "A lot of the British buyers are thrown off by the property tax when they buy in Florida."
In general, many of the Florida Realtors said that now is the best time for British buyers to make a purchase, because the market may have bottomed out.
Mike said there has been an improvement in Florida's real estate market just in the past two months.
"We believe the free fall has stopped," he said. "We think a stabilization is occurring."
Florida is already a popular vacation spot for Europeans, and the strength of the British pound against the dollar has spurred an increasing interest in Florida properties among Britons for both investment and vacation purposes.
"They love the hot weather. The sun is novel for them. They also love the roads and driving in Florida," Mike said. "They like the food and the portions. And they love the prices of property."
He said Britons' favorite spots tend to be the areas around Naples, Orlando, and Sarasota.
Mike said Palm Beach also is starting to emerge as a popular locale.
"But there are still a lot of people who have heard of it, but don't know where it is," he said.
On top of the dollar's decline, the U.S. housing market has been hit hard by the credit crisis, which has made properties in places like Florida even more attractive.
A 2007 survey by the National Association of Realtors found that nearly one-third of its members had worked with an international client in the past year.
One-third of such buyers were from Europe, with 12 percent of the total from Britain. Florida accounted for 26 percent of all international purchasers, leading the nation.
Teri McCall, a realtor from Okaloosa Island, Fla., agreed that there has been a major spike in interest from British buyers.
"A lot of them are looking at buying property as an investment," she said.
McCall was in Britain plugging properties in the Destin area.
"There's an international airport opening in Panama City in a year and a half, and a lot of people here don't know about it," she said.
Besides drumming up business, another key part of the Realtors' mission here this week is to help educate their British counterparts.
In Britain, real estate is a loosely regulated industry with no system of compulsory licensing for agents.
Unlike the United States, Britain also doesn't make use of a Multiple Listing Service, which includes all homes listed by real estate agents.
"It's been a wide-open field here, but the industry is trying to become more professionalized," Mike said.
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