Longtime Central Florida Realtor Barbara Vance On Cover of RE/MAX' International Magazine

Feb. 21, 2012 - PRLog -- WINDERMERE, FL – Longtime Central Florida Realtor and luxury home specialist Barbara Vance can now add “cover girl” to her long list of professional accomplishments.
   The RE/MAX Properties SW sales professional was featured on the winter cover of RE/MAX’ international magazine ABOVE highlighting a story entitled No Boundaries which chronicles the continued dominance of Canadian homebuyers in the United States – particularly in Central Florida.
   Vance, a fixture in the Central Florida real estate scene since 1984, was pictured with Canadian super Realtor Kimberley Marr of RE/MAX Professionals in Mississauga, Ontario who was responsible for establishing a cross border agent referral program in various US markets to accommodate the Canadian buying frenzy which accounted for nearly one-third of all Florida real estate sales last year by foreign buyers.
   Vance, who specializes in luxury properties in the Southwest Orlando’s high-end market, was selected by Marr to serve as her exclusive Central Florida liaison. Vance is responsible for finding the right property – be it a second home or an investment property – for Marr’s growing Canadian clientele. The two already have collaborated on several property sales in Windermere and have several more in the works.
   Until early 2010, Canadians were barely a blip on the radar. Since then they have leapfrogged many of the major international players for US real estate sales, including the Chinese, Brits, Germans and Brazilians – with many of those purchases in Florida, according to National Association of Realtors. Between March 2010 and March 2011, international buyers accounted for approximately $82 billion in US real estate purchases – up $66 million from the previous year. Canadians accounted for 23 percent of those purchases – more than double the second-place Chinese at 9 percent.
   And most of those purchases were in Florida (31 percent), followed by California (12 percent), Texas (9 percent) and Arizona (6 percent).
   And, according to Vance, Central Florida is an attractive purchase point for many reasons.
   “Canadians are buying second homes and investment properties in Central Florida, thanks to a perfect storm of dynamics that have provided them with more purchasing power than ever before,” says Vance. “Those dynamics include: a big jump in the Canadian dollar; a robust economy; and hometown real estate values that have increased on average of 6 to 8 percent a year – unlike US and Florida property values that have been in stead decline. Because of the lower real estate prices in the US, Canadians feel they are able to buy Central Florida properties at a substantial discount, in some cases as much as 70 percent.”
   This bullish mindset is the reason Marr established a Canadian/Central Florida pipeline and tabbed Vance because of her knowledge, experience and success over the years with buyers from around the globe.
   Over the years Vance has perennially been of Central Florida’s most productive real estate sales professionals. In the mid 1990s, her company, Vance Realty Group, was one of the  area’s top independent real estate companies with three offices, 50 agents and nearly $250 million in annual sales before being purchased by Prudential Florida Realty in 2006. She joined RE/MAX Properties SW last year.

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