Real estate firm expanding to downtown Fort Myers

Gregg Fous, Broker owner of Market America Realty and Investments, Inc. announced that he will move all of Market America's residential business over to a new franchise he has just opened - Engel and Voelkers, Fort Myers River District.

The company will move into 1,660 square feet of office space on Hendry Street currently being renovated.

Engel and Voelkers is one of the largest and fastest growing International brokerages in Europe with over 300 offices worldwide. They are opening a new office every 100 hours and have just come to the United States. The Company has plans for 200 offices in Florida with in the next ten years.

"The world is getting flat," says Fous, "Twenty percent of all second homes in Florida are being purchased by foreigners. The Euro exchange rate makes our Florida properties an absolute bargain. My wife Gail and I just got back from visiting other Engel and Voelkers offices in Europe and we toured many properties. Resort homes are very expensive over there. A European can come here and with the current strength of the Euro by almost twice as much home for the same money."

Fort Myers has it all over Europe, better prices, better traffic, bigger homes, and of course our weather is superb, Fous said.

"All these empty condos and homes need to be filled and with Engel and Voelkers global exposure and international draw; we plan on positioning ourselves to market to those buyers. While I can't guarantee that we will sell our listings to the European buyers, I can tell you that if sellers today don't 'go global' they are missing some very well-heeled European prospects."

Market America Realty and Investments will continue to handle commercial and investment properties, but they have outgrown their College Parkway location and are moving into a new building on Brantley and Summerlin; into an office park the company has been marketing for the past year. "Splitting up the residential and commercial businesses gives us more focus in each location and will be less confusing for our clients," Fous said.

Fous said he has just added a German speaking commercial agent, Cheryl Peppers, and a German residential agent, Achim Fuhr and has plans to add multilingual support and sales staff both to Engel and Voelkers and Market America.

All agents receive mandatory training in the corporate systems and culture and Engel and Voelkers has a powerful international referral system and a state of the art global property and customer management system that will support these agents and their clients. A consistent experience for customers is the goal for Engel and Voelkers whether they come from Germany, South Africa, or Bonita Springs.

"There is so much gloom and doom in the local real estate market; it is refreshing to view our home from an outsider's viewpoint," Fous said. "The Europeans are coming and we are ready."