Good morning everyone. I should say to the early birds. We'll start soon.
Donut. Something interesting must be happening, huh? 120 people and we haven't even started yet.
Absolutely. These are the early birds. We'll wait a few more minutes. I'll be shocked if we don't get 400 today.
Oh boy, those are big words. Good luck.
Thank you. So while we're waiting for everybody to come on, if you are on, if you don't want to be a secret agent, if you can just, I believe you right click in the three little dots and you can change your name or it's actually left click and you can rename so we can address you if you have a question. All right, T-minus 1 minute. Good morning, Erica, Regan, Kayla. Happy Friday to you as well. We have St. Louis, Maryland, Florida is showing up big today. Of course, New Jersey always shows up.
Well, we had a meeting with our Florida team yesterday and I told them that they had to come to this meeting. So let's see.
Martha from the boardwalk. How are you, Martha? It's around 11:00, but I'll give them one more minute, Rob, and then I'll read the instructions the way we're going to handle this mastermind today, just because I want to respect everybody's time. We do have a team that's monitoring the chat. So if you have questions, feel free to submit them.
Ezekiel, thank you for the birthday wish. John from Baltimore, thanks for popping on. Franklin Lakes, wow, you're filling up the room here.
Glenn, love that comment. How blessed are we to be in this industry at RE/MAX?
Could not have at this time. Now, I just want to share some somber news. I don't know if anybody noticed that the co-founder of RE/MAX actually passed away, I believe it was yesterday, peacefully, Gail Liniger. So let's all just say a prayer and thank her for everything she did for the brand. And Adona, I think you have a lot of excited people looking forward to hearing about your trip to Broker Owner Conference and some people that you met. So let's get the show started.
Yes. So good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Today's mastermind is going to look a little different than the normal Friday mastermind. We have significantly more agents joining us today, so unfortunately we will not have the ability to unmute everyone. We really want to stay on track and make the best use of our time together, but please feel free to use the chat throughout the meeting. We have several members of our team monitoring, so if we can get to your question at the end of the session, we will. If not, don't worry, we have prepared an FAQ that we will post on our hub. So if you have questions, continue writing them on the chat and we will make sure to answer them.
Rob and I decided to break today's mastermind into three parts. For the first 15 minutes, Rob and I are going to have a conversation about BOC in Nashville and some of my biggest takeaways. And around 11:15, we're very fortunate to have the new Real CEO, Tamir, joining us for about 15 minutes. I've taken some of the questions submitted by our agents and then we grouped them together, and I have prepared a few strategic questions that I'll ask him directly. After Tamir leaves, Rob and I will spend the remainder of our mastermind addressing the questions you already submitted and talking about what all this means specifically for us here at RE/MAX Select Group. So Rob, let's get started.
All right. Well, let's get right into it. So Adona, you just came back from Broker Owner Conference in Nashville. You've been back for less than a week, right?
With everything happening right now, what was your biggest takeaway? Like if you had only one thing that you could isolate.
That's actually very easy. My biggest takeaway was simple: the strength of RE/MAX. There's understandably been so much attention around the acquisition and what's next, and I think sometimes we need to remind ourselves of what we already have. I actually brought back a few pictures from BOC because I think they tell the story better than I can. So I am going to share my screen and just share with you all. One of the things we were reminded of at BOC is the incredible amount of trust and recognition behind this brand. RE/MAX was presented as number one most trusted real estate agents in the US and Canada. And that matters. Our clients recognize this name. Sellers recognize it. Buyers recognize it. And generations of agents and broker-owners have contributed to building that reputation, and that's something we should all be incredibly proud to represent.
Okay, I see we just have an issue with getting more capacity, Adona. While Fred does that, we got a second follow-up question. So with all the impressive numbers, and I know there was quite some acknowledgement by Mr. Brian Buffini, longtime RE/MAX agent, what were some of your takeaways there, Adona?
Yes. So this is one of the photos that he shared with all of us broker-owners and managers that were there. When this came up on the screen, I took a picture because I immediately thought of our agents need to see this. RE/MAX has shown an 11-point average transaction side per agent. I'm not going to mention the other brands because this call is being recorded. However, look at the difference. There's going to be a lot of conversation about what's coming next, but I don't want us to become so focused on what's changing that we forget the strength of what we're already part of. RE/MAX agents are productive.
And the other picture that he also shared is "Nobody sells more homes in real estate." That was one of the biggest messages I came home wanting our agents to remember. We're entering in this next chapter from a position of strength.
So Adona, with everything happening in the industry, did you get any insight or do you have any personal thoughts on why there are so many mergers and acquisitions in the real estate brokerage business and why so recently?
In my opinion, since the business is a low-margin, high-support business, and brokerages must be able to provide better services without increasing fees even when transaction volumes are flat or declining, this is why it is increasingly difficult for single-brand organizations to be highly competitive in all aspects of the business, forcing peers and rivals to merge for the betterment of their agents and clients. And we're going to continue seeing that, Rob, in the next two to three years.
Got you. So it looks like that might be some good news for agents, and it's kind of forcing brokers to sharpen their pencils and deliver more services to their team members. So I think there's all good news there. After everything you heard and the conversations you had at BOC, should our agents expect our business model to change? And news flash, I think that's a little bit of a loaded question, but go ahead. Why don't you field that for us?
No, and I want to be very clear about that. We are still a franchise model. We are RE/MAX Select Group and it is business as usual. So the message is continue serving your clients, continue using our systems, continue using your RE/MAX Select rebranding. So regardless of your DBA, whether you're RE/MAX Select, RE/MAX Select Group, RE/MAX Affiliates, etc., continue using your branding. Will there be opportunities ahead? Absolutely. I'm particularly excited about what comes from technology and innovation, but we're not going to change the way we operate based on rumors or speculations.
So one of the things that I think is certain is that you're going to get a lot of misdirection, a lot of misinformation. There's a lot being said on social media right now. What would you tell our agents who are seeing all kinds of differing information, Adona?
This is probably one of the most important things I want everyone to hear today. Over the coming weeks and months, you're probably going to see a lot of conversations on social media. You're going to see videos, opinions, headlines, and clickbaits from people trying to convince you that they know exactly what's going to happen. Please don't allow social media speculation to create unnecessary uncertainty about your business. If something materially affects you as a RE/MAX Select Group agent, you will hear it from us. Rob, myself, and our leadership team are staying involved. We're attending the meetings. We're asking the questions, and we're having conversations with corporate leadership. And when we have verified information that you need to know, we're going to communicate that with you. And I'd much rather stand here and tell you we don't have the answers yet than give you speculation simply because somebody posted something about it. And I'm sure you have all seen that in social media in the last few days. If you need to know it, we're going to make sure you know it.
It's important to identify that the RE/MAX that is down the block is now still the RE/MAX down the block. They have different leadership, different value proposition. The Real Brokerage that's in your state that may or may not be operating, they remain as a Real Broker. They're not a RE/MAX office and they're not affiliated with us from an agency perspective. They're not a disclosed dual agent in New Jersey. They're a separate company just like any other brand. These are some important things that agents sometimes lose track of in the heat of all these changes. So if I was to ask you, what would one thing be, Adona, that you'd want our agents to stay focused on at this point right now?
That's very easy. It's your business: your clients, your listings, your buyers, your database, and your leads. Let us worry about what's happening at the corporate level. Our responsibility as your leadership team is to stay informed, ask the right questions, and make sure you're prepared when something actually affects you. Your responsibility is to keep building your business right now. It really is just business as usual. Also, I know we're getting close because I invited Tamir for 15 minutes. So anyway, that's very simple. That's my message for all of our agents today. That was my biggest takeaway from BOC is making sure it's business as usual. Don't allow the outside noise to get in between you and your business, because that's exactly what they're trying to do. I see the comments on social media. So I hope if you're going to walk away today from this call, I want you guys to just remember business as usual. Rob and I and the rest of the leadership team, we're here. We read everything, we're attending the meetings, and we'll make sure if something is going to affect your business, you'll hear it from us.
And while we're waiting for Tamir to come on, let's clarify one other thing, which seems to be a little bit confusing on social media. The Real RE/MAX is now substituting for what RE/MAX Holdings LLC used to be. And I never ever put RE/MAX Holdings on anything because it's not part of who we are. It's not part of our identity. And I think in the excitement of all this merger and people trying to figure out how is this going to change, Real Brokerage is still Real Brokerage. They're licensed with different states with Real Brokerage and it might be an LLC. We are licensed with I think 13 different entities. In New Jersey, it's Resaly LLC. In Florida, it is Select Group Realty LLC doing business as RE/MAX Select Group. So The Real RE/MAX is not anything that should appear on any of our information and it's something that kind of trips some people up, and I just wanted to be overly, abundantly clear about that.
We still have the franchise. We're still RE/MAX Select Group, we're RE/MAX Results, for all the different RE/MAX names that we've traded at the day before and the day after. There are some other changes going on. I know if you're working with Motto, there might be some adjustments with Motto going down the pike, but again, that's completely independent. We are taking advantage of—and I'm just so excited for you to talk to Tamir about some of the technology and the additional tools that you're going to get without having to pay anything extra for aligning with the merger with The Real Brokerage and RE/MAX together. You want to just shoot him a text, make sure we don't have a time issue?
Yep, I just did. Yeah. And while we wait for him, I had the opportunity to have a one-on-one with him during BOC, and I was able to ask him questions that matter to us in the leadership so that we can provide it to all of you. So I picked some questions you guys submitted. Let me just reach out to him. I'm going to mute myself for one second and I'll be right with you. Okay, all right. Looks like Tamir is in.
Hi, good morning. Hi, everyone.
Good morning. We have a big Northeast and Texas and Arizona welcome for you.
Yes. Look at our attractive group here.
Amazing. Wow. So many people.
Yes. So let's see. First of all, Tamir, congrats on pulling off a home run of home runs, a grand slam in the real estate business. I know you're incredibly busy and we appreciate you making some time for our family and our group here. Today we have 73 offices represented, 11 states, and over 1,500 agents. I know they're not all on, but we've got a fair representation. And some of our offices that I've acquired have been continuously operating for 40 and 50 years. So it's an honor to welcome you, a younger face, a fresh idea in real estate. Welcome, Tamir, to the RE/MAX family.
