GLOBAL BUSINESS COUNCIL
The Canadians Are Coming! By: Millicent Schandorf-Lartey, Realtor® and Broker Associate with NextHome Excellence
T
he Canadians are coming! The Canadians are back! The Canadians are here! Say it whichever way you want, but our “cousins north of the border” are coming for season 2021 - 2022. On November 8, the U.S. Government reopened its borders with Canada. It had been a long 20 months since the borders between our two countries were closed in March 2020 as a result of the global pandemic. The Canadians opened their side of the border in August.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THE SUNCOAST? The numbers tell a story. From April 2020 to March 2021, Canadians were the 2nd highest foreign buyers of US residential properties totaling $4.2 billion. They were also the largest group of international sellers in the same time period. In Florida, the dollar amount of international transactions between August 2019 to July 2020 was $15.6 billion. Transactions here on our Suncoast accounted for 7% of this amount. Needless to say, the Canadians were major contributors here. They have been a regular staple of our snowbird season for many years, but we missed them these past 20 months. They haven’t stayed in our rental properties, visited our beaches, eaten in our restaurants or shopped in our stores. The impact of the loss of their dollars on our local economy cannot be overlooked, but their overall impact on our real estate economy is even more significant. With the borders now open and full season upon us, our ‘cousins’ are making a come-back as real-time, on-the-ground, active players! I definitely foresee a market that is going to be as overheated, if not more so, than the past several months.
not think about foreign clientele or consider them as a potential part of their customer base? That was me before I joined the Global Business Council. I’m here to challenge you to change your mind. I did.
JOINING THE GLOBAL BUSINESS COUNCIL. The Global Business Council (GBC) here at RASM is a group whose mission is all about teaching agents the best practices of doing real estate with international clientele. They will teach you all the ‘hows and whats’ of buying and selling with foreigners. As you can imagine, this requires a certain knowledge and tool set that is different from and in addition to working with American clientele. You will get all that relevant knowledge and tools by being a GBC member and attending their educational offerings. In addition, you will make connections and learn how to build your international referral network. If I told you that by paying $25 a year, you could potentially increase your GCI by a couple hundred thousand dollars, would you pay? I bet you would. $25 is the yearly dues you pay to be a GBC member. And I promise, it would be worth it. You WILL feel more confident about looking out for, and working with foreign customers. Have I convinced you yet? Visit www.myrasm.com/global to join. •
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU? My next obvious question is this. As a RASM member, how are you positioning yourself to obtain a piece of the international business pie? Or at least the Canadian pie? They and Mexico are our immediate neighbors, but unlike Mexico there is no language barrier. How do you plan to be a partaker at this table? Do you think of international transactions as the domain of a special breed of agents of which you are not a part? Or are you one of the many agents who do
Congratulations to the RASM Global Business Council for being recognized with GOLD status by the National Association of REALTORS® in 2021.
SOURCES 1 | www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/research-reports/international-transactions-in-u-s-residential-real-estate 2 | www.nar.realtor/blogs/economists-outlook/foreign-buyer-purchases-fall-to-lowest-level-with-lingering-impacts-into-2022 3 | March 2022 Magazine, Article by Carla Rayman Kidd
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