Wish you Well

Friday, November 4, 2016

I sent out a recruiting email to a few Real Estate sales people in a couple of RE/MAX offices.

Not 2 hours later I received a call from a Regional Director at RE/MAX Atlantic Canada asking me to stop sending out the recruiting emails and stop disparaging the RE/MAX brand or else they would be inclined to send me a letter.

Goliath was posturing.

I immediately saw the advantage of a small Canadian “David” going up against this “US” giant. It accused me of disparaging it when I simply pointed out that it has 10,000 realtors in Ontario each paying out $110 per month for advertising, which amounts to a whopping $1,100,000 per month, $13,200,000 per year, and nowhere in sight is the advertising I see for that kind of money.

(I wonder how much of the monthly $110 charge is being gobbled up by the Brokerage and not spent on advertising or promoting the sales people for which it was designated.)

So, now we get to the point about disparaging. How is pointing out that the multitude of $110 per month are not being spent as intended and instead could be better spent by each agent to promote him/herself and generate business and income?

The advantage of going up against this Goliath would be enormous when I can in fact show how disparaging RE/MAX has been to the other brands...

The RE/MAX slogan once used... “Soar with the eagles or fly with the turkeys” is horribly disparaging.

“Above the Crowd” is arrogant and not overtly disparaging; only disparaging by inference.

#1 is a symbol which RE/MAX says it has been permitted to use by the courts. Which courts? Canadian or US? When was this? Is it still valid? Is the brand still #1? What is the brand #1 at? As I understand it, the #1 symbol must be qualified when used. I have yet to see that. This puts the brand users, the brokers and their sales people, in a precarious position, legally and ethically.

I woke up early this morning, excited about going up against this giant with the intention of maybe not bringing it down, but at the very least throwing a stone at it hard enough to make their people run to me, helping me recruit them and give them an opportunity to actually put their money to good use instead of giving almost $400 per month (ad & franchise) to a broker who does little to promote the sales people. I got excited about all the possibilities and the opportunities. I am, after all, an opportunist.

But then I rethought the matter.

Less than 2 hours after getting my message, some of the RE/MAX agents complained to their brokers who complained to the regional director of RE/MAX Atlantic Canada, who called to threaten me.

If those sales people who are so stupidly entrenched in the brand, a brand which has lost its market share dramatically and whose smarter sales people are abandoning it already, are unable to see what I am trying to tell them as being unproductive, then it seems that it’s not the giant who’s the problem. It’s the turkeys who think they are eagles. And RE/MAX is gobble gobbling their money and laughing all the way to the bank.

In that case, I am wasting my efforts on people who don’t get it, who will not get it. So, I am going to bow out from this battle.

When RE/MAX had been giving seniors a break on the fees and rescinded that later, you were no longer the eagles, but I wish you well.

When the public cannot reach RE/MAX Atlantic Canada on the phone number on their web site because the number has been discontinued, you were no longer the eagles, but I still wish you well.

When RE/MAX ran a campaign to the public to not trust working with part time agents, you, the part time agents in the RE/MAX offices, were no longer the eagles, and still I wish you well.

When RE/MAX tried using a slogan similar to the slogan which the HomeLife brand had been using for more than 25 years, “Higher Standards”, you the RE/MAX sales people were no longer the eagles, but I wish you well.

When even those arrogant RE/MAX eagles are bowing under the pressure of the market place which is looking to work with realtors who will save them the commission costs, by cutting their own commissions to the bone, still paying $400 per month to the brokers, struggling but still thinking that they are soaring with the eagles when in fact they are likely soaring in debt, I wish you well.

I wish all you turkeys well. You will need it.

So, if I’m no longer in the fight, what is the intent of this whole blog? After being with the RE/MAX brand for almost 15 years as a salesman, recruiter and office manager, I have something to say which I feel needs to be said, and I would greatly appreciate it if all us turkeys out there acknowledged this by sharing it with our friends and contacts.

For many years RE/MAX has been milking a cow that it has not fed. That can’t work forever.

So, just before the Americans show what giant turkeys they can be by electing a new president from the only two embarrassing choices they have given themselves, let’s send them another message... we Canadians do not appreciate being milked by you.

You and RE/MAX are NOT above this crowd.

Sam Green, B.A., Broker of Record,

HomeLIfe Classic Realty inc., Brokerage

100% Canadian