I asked this question to my REAL homies Steven Kim and Ray Ortiz when I met them at this year's TRREB REALTOR® Quest: How do you guys benefit from this merger?
If you're in the real estate business, you've undoubtedly heard about the REAL REMAX merger by now. Tech driven young company acquires legacy real estate brand with over 133k agents in a worldwide network.
REMAX stands to benefit from this merger by availing of REAL's tech stack, bringing (or replacing) its existing systems to a more modern, competitive state reflective of what real estate agents need today.
I was curious how REAL agents felt about this merger, and how they stood to benefit. After all, they are paying $880 million to acquire REMAX.
So I asked Steven – how do you guys benefit from all this?
And he said: the brand, and the worldwide network.
I was confused. Does REAL become REMAX? Does REAL just get to use the REMAX brand? Does the marketable brand name of the company change to THE REAL REMAX?
While we can all speculate on details of how this merger is going to go down, the synergy of both these brands should lead to the formation of a competitive entity. The proprietary technology injected into REMAX's existing system will uplift its operations and capabilities. The invaluable brand name recognition and worldwide network of top producing agents will give REAL a beneficial advantage in the marketplace.
The question remains how this will happen, and what it will look like. What shifts will this cause to the traditional franchise businesses? What does a combined portal (if any) look like where agents from both sides of the brand interact with each other?
Ultimately, a few essential elements of what makes a successful real estate operation thrive today include tech, brand and network. And, most importantly, their leadership, and the vision and execution that goes along with it.
Exciting times ahead. Let's go! 🚀