As CREW has discovered this week, thousands of Canadians are heading down to Florida each year in search of properties to either rent or buy. Data show that over 500,000 Canadians own homes in Florida – that’s approximately 1 in every 72 people - and Canadians accounted for 37.0% of all foreign purchased real estate in Florida. In fact, Canadians purchased $7.03BN of real estate in Florida between April 2016 and March 2017, which represents an increase of 227% against $3.09BN invested in 2015-2016.
In order to improve the property purchasing process for Canadians, Global Real Estate Services launched the Orlando Agency, a specialist company to help out-of-state and foreign nationals in the buying and selling of investment properties for short-term or long-term rental.
“We were created to help the property investors navigating a foreign purchase,” says Garry Walmsley, Senior Global Real Estate Advisor at The Orlando Agency, “We think that Canadians buying in Florida need a full-service option and that they will be much more comfortable working with a company like us who understands the local market and all of its nuances.”
Operating solely in Central Florida, The Orlando Agency as an independent brokerage is able to provide an unbiased overview of the market, combined with a white-glove service and representation, all while enhancing existing strong relationships with the areas local developers and management companies.
The company has also invested a lot of time in understanding Canadians and how they like to do business. Hundreds of thousands of Canadians have bought properties in Florida and for Walmsley it’s important to understand the nuances of Canadian culture.
“We are engaged in Canadian culture, understand how Canadian investors think and also have Canadian nationals within our Orlando based team,” Walmsley says. “We are transparent in how we do business and we attempt to fully educate everyone who is contemplating a purchase.”
Creating long-term relationships is at the core of how Walmsley runs his business. He’s not interested in doing one or two deals with an investor, he wants that partnership to run and run. “That means we have a customer-centric approach, everything is not about us,” he says. “We want people to fully understand what they’re getting into before they finalize a deal.”
