For the average Canadian agent, selling real estate can be a seasonal vocation—winters and summers tend to be down seasons—but an opportunity south of the border has presented a solution to seasonality.
“A lot of real estate professionals in Canada don’t think about expanding their business south of the border by way of referrals, which are legit,” said Alain Forget, RBC’s head of sales and business development. “In the domestic Canadian market, we see real estate professionals in the GTA or other metro markets in Canada get a little quiet because of summer holidays, but they can still dig into their client base and go south of the border just by promoting affordability and opportunities to diversify in states like Florida with short-term rentals.”
According to Garry Walmsley, senior global real estate advisor for The Orlando Agency, which is offering Canadian agents a co-broker program, Canadians are the largest international investor cohort in the Sunshine State. While he says that the vast majority of Canadian investors he has dealt with do their due diligence, they’re not impervious to misinformation sourced from the internet. Often, they’ll purchase real estate in the state before running into troubles with funding, bank accounts, taxation, and a slew of other nuisances.
“We’re trying to reach out to Canadian realtors who have the trust of their clients and provide a program that incentivizes them,” said Walmsley. “They receive a 50% referral fee. If you look at the standard commission in North America, it’s 25%, so we’re doubling it. All they have to do is get us in front of their client.”
In Florida, commissions are subject to negotiation, which, needless to say, is advantageous for sales agents.
“In the Toronto market right now, the commission is a 2-2.5% market,” said Walmsley. “Down here, we work from anything around 2.5% to 10% for vacation real estate. We negotiate different structures here.
“On a principled basis, we want to make sure Canadian realtors are dealt with as they should be and provide all the education up front. Canadian realtors are missing out on millions of dollars of commissions from their pockets. We know realtors are driven by money and we know that Canadians are the biggest purchasers of real estate down here. If there was an opportunity to build relationships with experts in that market, we can provide the resources they need.”
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