United Country Real Estate
Announces International
Expansion
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August 31, 2009 (Kansas City,
Mo.) – United Country Real
Estate today announced the
expansion
into their first international
market. The company officially
launched its international
expansion strategy with a market
leading office in San Jose,
Costa Rica. This office is among
more than 40 new franchise
locations the company has sold
throughout 2009.
“As we considered many potential
franchisees throughout Costa
Rica, it became clear that one
group was perfectly aligned with
our unique marketing strategy
and what it can bring to the
industry
in their country. We are proud
to welcome Arturo Guzman and
United Country – Properties in
Costa
Rica to the United Country
family. Prior to joining United
Country, Properties in Costa
Rica had clear leadership in web
and other marketing for Costa
Rica properties. By joining
forces with United Country, they
were able to significantly
increase their marketing power
to U.S. buyers. We plan to
continue our international
expansion and are currently
looking at potential offices in
numerous countries including
Mexico, Canada and select
additional overseas markets,”
said Dan Duffy, chief executive
officer
of United Country Real Estate.
United Country’s unique
marketing and sales program
advertises lifestyle properties
in Costa Rica to American
buyers. The retirement,
vacation, second home, coastal
and mountain homes in Costa Rica
are a perfect fit for the United
Country system that specializes
in these types of properties
across the United States. The
buyer clients of United Country
are looking for properties like
these already in the United
States, so the extension to
Costa Rica made sense. Today,
more than 50 percent of the
United Country – Properties in
Costa Rica buyer clients come
from the United States. In fact,
Costa Rica is
the No.1 country outside of the
U.S. for American retirees.
“There’s unmatched strength in
our system and we are definitely
seeing growth because of it,”
said Duffy. “Amid the downturn
of the real estate market, many
companies chose to become static
when it came to investing in new
initiatives. We chose to do the
opposite. We felt there was no
better time to refine our system
and bring additional value to
our franchise offering in areas
including technology, marketing
and strategic partnerships – all
with the goal of propelling our
franchisees ahead
of the competition today and
even more in the days ahead.
Additionally, this approach
allowed more
U.S. buyers to view tens of
thousands of lifestyle and dream
properties from coast-to-coast
and now Costa Rica. As a result
of this approach, we are poised
for amazing growth throughout
the U.S.
markets and as we continue our
expansion into international
markets in the years to come.”
About United Country
United Country Real Estate is
the largest fully integrated
franchise network of
conventional real estate and
auction real estate
professionals in the United
States. Based in Kansas City,
Mo., the company has been an
innovator in real estate
marketing since 1925.
United Country supports
nearly 675 offices across the
U.S. and in Costa Rica with a
unique, comprehensive marketing
program that includes one of the
largest portfolios of property
marketing web sites (more than
1,000 separate sites), seven
proprietary real estate catalogs
with a cumulative distribution
of 1.5 million, an extensive,
current buyer database and
national advertising of
properties to more than 90
million potential buyer
prospects a week. United Country
has been recognized by Dun and
Bradstreet’s AllBusiness.com as
the top U.S. real estate
franchise, the Wall Street
Journal as a top 1 percent
franchise and Entrepreneur
Magazine's Franchise 500®
as a top 100 global franchise.
NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
2820 NW Barry Road, Kansas City,
MO 64154
816-420-6200
www.unitedcountry.com |