by Caroline Gabsewics
Staff Writer
Whether international home buyers are searching for a new home in North Florida through the Internet or vacationing in the area while shopping for a new home, local real estate agents are seeing international buyers playing a larger role in the real estate market.
According to the Florida Association of Realtors, 15 percent of total home sales in Florida in the past year are from international buyers. The survey, the 2005 Profile of International Home Buyers in Florida, was conducted for the Florida Association of Realtors by the National Association of Realtors. In the survey, international home buyers were classified as someone who resides in another country.
Laily Schlegel, of Realty Executives - Amelia Island, said she gets a lot of overseas clients looking for homes in North Florida.
“South Florida is very attractive to international buyers,” she said. “But it is getting so crowded there, so they are coming north now.”
Schlegel said she sold a property to a couple from Beijing, China. The couple saw a listing she had on her website, liked what they saw and began pursuing the property.
“I worked with them through e-mail for over a month until they felt comfortable with the investment on Amelia Island and we finally narrowed it down to one property,” said Schlegel. “I sent them digital pictures of every corner, from the location of the property in the community to the view all the way to the door knob.”
The couple made an offer on the house, flew to Florida, stayed for two days, signed all the papers and did the home inspection, she said.
“It was a pleasant experience for all three parties including myself,” she said.
A website managed by Phyllis Staines, a broker associate at RE/MAX Coastal Real Estate, Ponte Vedra, helped a Navy Commander stationed in Italy buy a home in Eagle Harbor. On her site, Staines is able to chat live with those who are looking for an agent.
“One morning, very early, my chat button lit up and it was someone from Italy looking for a realtor,” said Staines. “I was able to help her without picking up the phone, e-mailed her some listings and began the home buying process all on-line.”
She said they used the Internet to communicate to do everything from the home inspection results to the rest of the paperwork.
“All she had to do when she arrived was come pick up her keys,” said Staines.
While other real estate agents are getting home buyers through the Internet, Tim Hamby, president of Renaissance Creative Services Real Estate Marketing and Brand Development, said they have done very little with international marketing. He has found that there has been little need to do so, because of North Florida’s climate, coastal setting and low cost-of-living, that it has become a prime relocation spot.
St. Augustine and Ponte Vedra are both prime international destination markets, he said.
“That means non-local visitors are already here in the market vacationing and shopping for second homes, investment and/or retirement properties, and they simply need to be captured inside the local market and directed to the site,” said Hamby. “As a result, builders and developers don’t need to waste a lot of money advertising outside the local areas.”
About four years ago, Kathy White of RE/MAX Professional Group in Fernandina Beach, was in the office when a woman from Geneva, Switzerland came in while she was visiting the area.
“She decided that she wanted to buy a place on our lovely island,” said White. “We started on the tour of homes, but nothing seemed just right.”
White found out she was from Switzerland and thought she might like a home they had just listed in Pirates Woods. It has cedar siding, decks and in a pretty wooded area, she said.
“She fell in love with her ‘birdhouse’ as she still calls it,” said White. ‘We have stayed in touch and she always reminds me how much she loves her home in the United States.”