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Regardless of an operation's size, most real estate offices used the
commission-split system, requiring sales professionals to forfeit half of
their commissions to their brokers in exchange for an office environment
and company services. The top producers contributed the most to the
operation's overhead, thus supporting the amateur, part-time and
low-producing agents. Most salespeople left the business within two years,
making residential real estate a high-turnover industry comprising in
large part inexperienced and unprofessional staffs. The Linigers wanted to change all that. They believed that to attract and retain the best agents in the business,
brokers must offer them maximum compensation, advanced support services
and the freedom they need to succeed. Agents would share office overhead
and pay management fees, and in return would receive a wide variety of
traditional real estate franchise services and high commissions. The strategy worked. Recognized by the public for its red, white and blue hot
air balloon logo, RE/MAX has been the No. 1 real estate network in
Canada since 1987 and is a leading industry force in the United States and
many other regions. The most significant growth for RE/MAX in recent years has come outside the
United States, with expansion into Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean,
Central America, Europe, Mexico, New Zealand and South America. RE/MAX
takes proven techniques and adapts them to local markets, thereby
developing a series of tools that real estate professionals find
invaluable. Some of the innovative services created by RE/MAX International to help its
members become ever more professional and successful include commercial
investment, an international referral network, advanced
training courses, state-of-the-art technological tools, Internet
and extranet
Web sites, and national
television advertising campaigns. It was the first - and remains the
only - real estate network to invent and maintain a satellite television
network (RE/MAX
Satellite Network) dedicated to real estate professionals.
In an industry rife with mergers and acquisitions, RE/MAX is the only major real estate network still owned and directed by its original founders.
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