Miami Realtors were invited to showcase South Florida real estate in Paris at the Salon National de L’Immobilier. From Oct. 12 – 14, Lynda Fernandez, senior vice president of public relations for Miami Realtors, and a team of four other Realtors attended the showcase, including Franck Aravya and Sacha Levi of Beachfront Realty and Sylvain Perret and Daphnee Perret of Objectif USA Immobilier.

“Exhibiting and presenting at one of France’s largest showcase will further promote Miami’s global brand and our live, work and play lifestyle,” Fernandez said, who explained the French are one of the biggest foreign buyers in Miami real estate.

Miami Realtors has exhibited at the Paris showcase since 2005 when the association signed an agreement with the former FNAIM Paris-Ile de France (now known as FNAIM Grand Paris). Since then, MIAMI has also signed agreements with six other French associations.

In other real estate news:

• Karen Reiter and Lisa Miller joined ONE Sotheby’s Team. The two come from Keller Williams and join ONE Sotheby’s as global real estate advisors in Aventura. Reiter has been an agent for nearly 40 years and has closed more than $500 million in sales. In her career, Reiter has founded Tanglewood Acquisition Group. Lisa Miller has been in the real estate industry for 25 years. Throughout Miller’s career, she has had the highest residential sale at her previous company. Miller also serves as a member on the North Dade and Beaches Real Estate Council, the Master Brokers Forum and the Dade County Bar Association.
• Brown Harris Stevens Miami partnered with FM Capital and FM Home Loans. The new agreement gives more than 200 agents access to support for residential and commercial lending. The deal also includes access to the brokerage’s six offices in South Florida. The two companies plan to lend up to $500 million each by the end of 2018, according to FM Capital principal Aaron Kurlansky. FM Capital’s lending will mostly be geared to multifamily properties, as well as commercial deals under $25 million. Gutman said the brokerage decided to partner with the lenders because interest rates are low although they have been increasing.
• MIAMI Realtors can now simplify the buying process as MIAMI partners with Dotloop. Realtors would able to use the “Loop It” integration for users and seamlessly start a transaction from a specific home listing. The “Loop It” feature eliminates the need to enter data twice, making the buying process smoother and faster. MIAMI is the first association to enable the “Loop It” integration feature.
• U.S. News and World Report ranked Miami No. 21 for best places to retire. The news agency analyzed 125 U.S. metros to find the best places to live “based on quality of life” and “people’s desire to live there.” Rankings are determined by an overall retirement score that is a weighted average of six scores from different categories. Those categories include a happiness index, housing affordability index and a healthcare quality index. Out of a score of 10, Miami received a seven-point rating for quality of life. Miami’s metro population is older than average. With a median age of 40, a large number of baby boomers and retirees live in the Miami area. Another Florida city, Sarasota, ranked No. 1 in the list.