You know that old saying “cold hands and a warm heart”. Well that would accurately describe my week. My heart was full but dang, the rest of me was cold!
I made my first business trip of the year to speak at the Royal LePage Kelowna 2020 Kickoff. Traveling to and from Kelowna, British Colombia, Canada was a bit tense. Mechanical problems, cancelled flights, missed connections and lots of plane deicing because of the severe cold— but I made it safely to and from.
It was wonderful to spend time with Wade Webb, Francis Braam and the entire Royal LePage team. These guys are number one in the market with almost 30% market share and run a great business. I first met Wade and Francis back in the mid 1990’s when we were all young, determined and just starting our brokerage businesses. Their friendship and support has been invaluable to me for many, many years! #relationshipsmatter
Other notable real estate happenings this week:
- Realogy shuts down Climb. Climb is just the latest of brokerages to call it quits, Purple Bricks, Door.com and many local brokerages have closed their doors in recent months. We are in a mega broker or niche broker economy. If you are stuck in the messy middle, well then you are stuck. There are better options. Give me a call and we can chat.
- A recent study reported that three real estate companies were among the top equity raisers in 2019. Opendoor, Vacasa and Compass all raised at least $300M. This is an incredible amount of money. How does the small to medium sized brokerage in a market compete against companies that are not motivated to run profitable businesses but instead motivated by the mysteries of venture capitalism? If you have been impacted by Compass, eXp, ibuyers or others you probably have been pondering this same thing. How can the messy middle survive?
Wendy Forsythe 