Max Rea
Broker/Owner, RE/MAX Excel
Schofield, Wisconsin
https://the-team-to-trust-101895720.remax.com/
Region served: Central Wisconsin
Years in real estate: 18
Number of offices: 1
Number of agents: 45
Best advice for new agents: Work your sphere of influence when you’re starting out.
Favorite part of your job: Problem solving.
Paige Brown: You previously operated your brokerage as a Realty Executives office. Why did you decide to explore other franchise opportunities?
Max Rea: The Realty Executives office I was in was an established office in town, and I bought into the ownership of that company. I had previously worked for a RE/MAX office, and I’ve always loved the RE/MAX brand and what it stands for.
PB: What attracted you to the RE/MAX brand?
MR: The consumer awareness, tools and resources they have are what really attracted me. Plus, they have the best of the best when it comes to agents. In the nine years that I have been a broker/owner, we have only had four agents leave us to go work for another company. I pride myself on that because we strive to keep our agents here. RE/MAX helps us with that through their agent retention program and broker network, which has been a big help when it comes to talking to other brokers about what they’re doing.
PB: What was it like transitioning to RE/MAX?
MR: The transition was fairly smooth. When we bought the franchise from RE/MAX, they provided us with a support team and resources to make sure we had everything we needed to convert. From helping us secure the right signs to adopting new tools, they were there for us.
PB: What tools and resources provided by RE/MAX do you and your agents find to be most valuable?
MR:The booj contact management platform and the First app, which we use to find out which buyers and sellers are most likely to buy and sell in our marketplace. And, of course, the balloon. We have a big balloon festival here in our market, and we’re able to bring in the balloon for four days, and it flies over our city twice a day during that time. We invite all of our clients to come out to see the balloon in person and see it glow. Occasionally, some lucky people even get to fly in it!
PB: You have witnessed incredible growth over the last few years. How has aligning with RE/MAX helped you in this area?
MR: When we were Realty Executives, we were a small company, and not many people knew who we were. When we converted to RE/MAX, it gave us brand-name recognition for agents in our community, which helped us add productive agents and grow our company.
PB: What do today’s agents find most valuable when considering which brokerage to join, and how do you ensure you offer that value?
MR: I think what most agents are looking for today is brand name recognition and the tools that come along with it. They are also looking for offices that represent agents more than the brokerage. We strive to let our agents know that they are our customers as well, and we do everything we can to make sure we’re supporting them in their business so that they have no reason to look anywhere else. We’re agent-driven, not broker-driven.
For more information, please visit remax.com.
Paige Brown is RISMedia’s content editor. Email her your real estate news ideas to pbrown@rismedia.com.