FLORIDA COAST MEETS COASTAL CORNWALL

May 14, 2020 | Blog

Dreaming of retirement today, it gave me pause to think – where would I choose to live when I retire?  A bit like ‘The Real Marigold Hotel’ series on the BBC.  So, over lockdown I have been googling (as you do) and I realised I love the sun and used to live and work in Florida.

SO, in case you are wondering where this is going, my time in Florida back in the 80’s gave me the inspiration to start my property search agency ‘Live Beside the Sea’.  When I came back to UK with a 2 year old and £200 in my purse, I somehow managed to get back down to Cornwall and worked for years in Estate Agency, including owning my own estate agents and working in a specialist waterside department of a large corporate.

In Florida (and I think the rest of the USA) they operate with a multiple listing system, so whatever any realtor has on their books is available for any other realtor to show.  Completely different to our sole agency system here.  Quite daunting as it was like a telephone book back then, I used to look at it and think “shit’, where do I start?  Still, my English accent got doors open for me and I was selling high end houses on the Intracoastal waterways.  It was hard work as I had to pass exams to get my license which included a great deal of the lawyer work.

So, back to Cornwall.  if you like – every house on the market in the county of Cornwall is mine to offer my clients, very much like the USA system.  What does differ enormously is the buying process.  It is so much quicker over there.  I recently had clients from San Fransisco who had their house ‘dressed’ by the agent, open weekend with 40 viewings and 12 offers resulting in a sale that closed (completed) in 2 weeks.

Panic not, I am not retiring in the near future as love my work too much!  Just letting you know where I come from in my thoughts and my business.

I am off on my first viewing and filming a house on Saturday, outside only and I suddenly feel that I haven’t had enough time to catch up on paperwork and loosing weight?  Anyone else wondering where this time has gone?

So, pasties or waffles?