Brokerage

William Raveis expands presence in Florida

William Raveis Real Estate, Mortgage & Insurance acquired Sarasota, Fla.-based Key Solutions Real Estate Group, a luxury and family-owned brokerage.

William Raveis Real Estate, Mortgage & Insurance (WRRE), continued its expansion in Florida, acquiring Sarasota-based Key Solutions Real Estate Group, a luxury and family-owned brokerage.

WRRE now holds 14 offices in Florida. With the acquisition of Key Solutions, they will reopen their offices in Siesta Key and Lakewood Ranch. WRRE is ranking No. 9 by sales volume in the RealTrends 500 brokerage rankings.

In 2018, William Raveis entered the Florida market by acquiring The Fite Group Luxury Homes, based in Palm Beach, Florida. The real estate juggernaut hosts 134 offices and over 4,000 agents in the north and southeast, including Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont, but has been expanding into the hot Florida market.

Unknown-1
From Left to Right: Matt Lane (General Manager of William Raveis Florida), Keith Redding, Susan Saltalamacchia (Key Solutions), Brian Tresidder (Key Solutions), Paul Bocka (William Raveis VP of Business Development) and Molly Lane (General Manager of William Raveis Florida). 

“Florida is hot in more ways than one,” said William “Bill” Raveis, Chairman and CEO of WRRE, who founded the company 47 years ago. “As more and more people from the northeast buy primary or vacation homes in Florida, we plan to expand throughout Florida for many years, further strengthening our luxury network.”

The number of people moving south continues to go up. According to Florida’s office of Economic and Demographic Research, an estimated 329,717 new residents settled in Florida between April 2020 and April 2021. William Raveis said his family’s company is following their clients. There have been 22 sales over $40 million in Palm Beach Country since March— and 35 over $30 million, a 177.8% spike in luxury sales compared with the same quarter last year, according to a Wall Street Journal article.

“We are going deep into the luxury markets on the east coast, especially areas with shifting demographics with an inflow of population which we are seeing in Florida, and it serves our customer base well,” said co-president Ryan Raveis.

Relocation to Florida isn’t slowing down. Residents from the northeast continue to migrate to Palm Beach county, especially New Yorkers. Over 14,000 have been transplanted to the sunny city since last year.

WRRE will continue to take advantage of the surge.