Alan LaFrance

"Dear Alan, Thanks for all your help in finding the perfect vacation house for us in Kissimmee. We had almost given up on finding a house with all the features we needed at a price we could afford, but you never did. Thanks for all your time and patience in helping us through the home-buying process. We are looking forward to many happy vacations in our new home and wish you the best of luck. Keep in touch." - Laurel, Steve and JEN Cohen Mass. USA

"You have been so patient and so warm thoughout the house-hunting process. We can`t imagine our luck in finding the perfect guide for us. Thank you so much for your professionalism and expertise, and your friendship and kindness. All the best in every way." - Paul and Crystal Choice UK

"Buying a home is always a stressful time but buying abroad in a foreign country is even more worrying. To contemplate the process of buying a home 4000 miles from the UK involving strangers is full of potential pitfalls. However, we both took to Alan immediately not pushy not overbearing but on hand if we wanted his advice or opinion. He was always available even when he went on vacation snowboarding(so he says) he still contacted us to make sure everything was progressing well. Yes I would definitely recommended Alan LaFrance and his team to anyone who wanted independent advice and help in buying a property in Florida. It was more straight forward than purchasing in England. Guess what the customer comes first not the solicitor or the estate agent!!!!" - Kevin and Ann Aldread UK

"Dear Alan, Please accept our deepest heartfelt thanks for the assistance you gave us regarding the purchase of our house in Davenport. Your patience and constant contact with us during the process made a very scary venture seem easy. Being in Connecticut and trying to shop long distance would have been impossible had we not had an agent that we could trust completely. Your continuous emails of available homes and information regarding anything from homeowners associations to tax issues was something we could never have done without. After dragging you through so many houses in the space of two days, you developed a real sense of what we were looking for, and when you finally found THE one, you were on it right away. Knowing that you had the integrity to show us only the best possibilities gave us the confidence to make an offer on our beautiful home after only seeing a few pictures. Imagine our absolute joy when, seeing the home for the first time(on the day of closing) it was actually better than we'd hoped for! You went above and beyond our expectations. When we begin our search to relocate to Florida, Barbara and I know that you will be our real estate agent. Again, thanks for everything." - Barbara and Dennis Taylor Conneticut USA

"Alan- Your the best all the patience and care you gave us when looking to find the perfect home for us. We thought it was not going to happen but you did it... The professional service was just topping on the cake! Thanks for everything." - Terri and Frank Kiernan NY NY

"Thanks Alan for your hard work and never ending patience in finding us our holiday home in Disney, your friendly attitude and no hard sell really made a difference. We will recommend your service with confidence. Thanks again Lesley, Andy, Ellie & Scott from Scotland" - Andrew and Lesley Campbell Scotland

"Alan - you were brilliant! Living in England and this being our first experience of buying in Florida, we could not believe how helpful and supportive you were. We only had a long weekend in which to find a property and yet you were quick to understand our needs and find the perfect property for us, patiently standing by whilst we revisited our final choice four times in the space of a couple of days!! You then held our hand via phone, fax and e-mail and guided us through every step of the process - we couldn't have wished for anyone more helpful, friendly and above all, totally professional. Thanks again for all your help and best wishes for your future success. Hope to see you when we visit our new home." - Jill and Barrie Gunter England

"In May we went over to Florida to have a holiday and perhaps look at buying property whilst we were there. We didn't understand the buying process or the way the Estate Agency or Real Estate system works. Unlike the UK, where a town/city might have 10 Estate Agents marketing 100 properties each, in Florida a Realtor has a small number of his/her own properties but has access to everybody else's on the local list (called the MLS). In this way, the agent becomes 'your' agent and can show you a multitude of properties dependent upon your own desires. We happened upon Alan's Open House sign with his blue balloons on the junction of Formosa Gardens Boulevard and Highway 192 and followed the trail of boards and balloons to a property that he was doing an Open House in on the Rolling Hills Estate. Out of curiosity we had a look around the house and casually got into conversation with Alan. The next morning he picked us up from our Hotel and we went to through our likes/dislikes/budget etc. Between us we created a list of a dozen or so properties that we would like to view, which he then took us around. We did the same the following day with further houses and then visited the shortlist one more time, finally picking the house that we now own. Throughout this whole period (and in 90 degree heat) Alan left us entirely at ease and did not try to impose his own thoughts - he let the properties speak for themselves - we felt under no pressure to decide whether we bought or we didn't; he was so totally unlike many UK Agents and didn't push anything. Alan handled the entire sale from the offer to the closing with consummate professionalism and the only pain we had was paying for the house!! In the last year we have been back to our home in Kissimmee three times and on each occasion have met up with Alan both on his own and together with Jane several times and now count them as our friends. It was a quirk of fate maybe, brought about by a trail of blue balloons but we couldn't have wished to have found a more honest, professional, unflappable but most importantly a nicer guy than Alan and would wholeheartedly recommend both him and Jane to help you in what is, at the end of the day, a potentially very traumatic and 'strange' process for ourselves, particularly given the geographic and procedural divide!" - Chris and George Bernard ENGLAND ________________________________________

"We met Alan and Jane during an open house. We had a good long chat with them about wanting to buy a house in Florida but were unsure whether we wanted to buy a new build or an older property. Right there and then Alan made a few telephone calls, and arranged for us viewings and gave up his time to show us all the new and old properties. One of the sites he took us to was Windsor Hills Reserve, where we fell in love with a new build Brentwood 6 bed, 4 bath with a pool home. As we were not in the States during the selection, purchase and build process Alan's service was much more than we have expected. We only chose the style of the house, colours, tiles and carpets. Alan did all the rest for us: he liaised between us and our builder to purchase the appropriate lot. In our name Alan had meetings with the builder making sure that our wishes were understood by them. Alan has even visited the site to photograph the build process for us, and he was the one who inspected the finished product. Alan has guided us step by step and was a phone call and an email away to answer all our questions. We feel very fortunate to have found in him, a patient helpful, and supportive guide during our first U.S. house purchase. Patient, toward our lack of understanding the way real estate system works in the U.S. and patient toward our particular ways of ensuring that everyone involved is on the same page. Helpful, especially during the handover process when he was standing in for us, doing the walk-through inspecting the finished house and making sure that it is up to standard including ensuring that the utilities were all working. Alan has eased our stress during the house building process but most importantly over the last 9 months we have learned that Alan can be counted on and trusted. Alan is our No 1 U.S. Realtor! We would highly recommend him to all our friends in the U.K. and anyone who may also be looking to purchase a home in the U.S. We wish Alan and Jane all the best and are looking forward to spending time with them on our upcoming visit in few weeks time." - Josie and Maurice Mendez UK

" This is the first testimonial that we have ever written but the service that we have received from Mickey Homes has been amazing. We researched all the British companies and local Realtors (Estate Agents) who specialise in the Orlando area. If you want to wait days / weeks for a reply to your enquiry then by all means use them. If on the other hand you would like a response the same day and all your questions answered then I urge you use Alan and Jane LaFrance at Mickey Homes. Alan is the most unlikely Realtor that we have ever met (He's really nice, not like any of the Estate Agents that we have ever dealt with). He is intelligent, friendly and will go way beyond his remit as a Realtor to help you out. We didn't know the first thing about buying a home in Florida and whilst we didn't have a million dollar budget we certainly received a million dollar service. Alan helped us from start to finish and he understands that as UK clients we didn't have a clue how the US home buying system works. He patiently answered all our questions (and trust me there were many) and didn't make us feel like idiots. Alan sent many properties for us to look at by e-mail that fitted our requirements and budget before we travelled to Florida. He answered all our questions about bank accounts, deposits, rental zones and explained about short sales (don't go there!), bank owned and resale properties. When we arrived in Florida he showed us lots of different properties and areas until we found the perfect home for us. He was still working for us when he and Jane went on holiday (vacation) and I would like to thank Jane for putting up with us and apologise for interrupting their break. Alan has additionally gone way beyond finding us a home, he has helped us to open a bank account, set up the utilities, find a tax consultant, find a management company, find an air conditioning engineer (he even went to our house to let him in), find furniture and even bailed me out when I forgot to add the $20 bank fee when I wired the money so that we could close on time. What kind of Realtor do you know that would do all that? Please consider using Mickey Homes if you want to buy a home in Florida. Alan and Jane are American so they know their own market and they have both spent time in the UK so they understand their UK clients. There is no hard sale and the decision to buy a property is left completely up to you. Thank you Alan and Jane, Lyn & Alan" - Lyn Stewart and Alan Jones - Scotland