Global expansion of eXp World Holdings continues with addition of Columbia brokerage firm. Spain and Israel to follow in June.
eXp World Holdings, Inc., the holding company for eXp Realty, announced today that they expanded into Columbia. eXp Realty now operates in 14 countries and territories with more than 50,000 agents across the globe – with more global expansion to come.
RealTrends recently spoke with CEO Glenn Sanford about where he sees growth opportunities for the firm in the coming year, and he unequivocally said, “the international market.” In a podcast released two weeks ago, Sanford said, “Right now, international is probably our new big focus. Obviously, domestically in the U.S., we’ve got a pretty good percentage of the agent base – something like 3% to 4% of the agents, which means that one of every 25 to 30 agents is an eXp agent, which is kind of an incredible number to think about. And so internationally, I think that’s going to be our big growth opportunity.”
Heading up the global expansion is Michael Valdes, president of eXp Global. “We were fortunate to attract Michael last year. He’s been with us about 11 months, and ran a large international division for Realogy. He’s been helping us grow out the international footprint of eXp.” “The response to our announcement to launch in Colombia has been overwhelming,” said Valdes. “With a history of strong housing price growth, a strong focus on digital infrastructure and a culture of entrepreneurship, we see incredible opportunity in Colombia.”
eXp Colombia’s brokerage operations will be led by Managing Broker Santiago Carrizosa, eXp Colombia. Santiago comes to eXp with more than 24 years of experience in Colombian and international real estate.
“Colombia has a stable real estate market and international buyers have begun to see great opportunities for investment in the country,” says Carrizosa. “However, there remains a tremendous need for the implementation of efficient tools and models in the real estate sector. With the opening of eXp Colombia, we are looking to transform the way we sell and buy real estate, breaking down barriers and obsolete models.”
Colombia represents the first of the three markets that eXp Global has identified for global expansion in the second quarter of 2021, with the openings of Spain and Israel slated to open later in the quarter. Puerto Rico, Brazil, Italy and Hong Kong opened eXp operations in the first quarter of 2021.