RE/MAX Merger Creates the Company's Largest Brokerage Worldwide

By Patti Vipond

For 30 years, the team at RE/MAX Chay Realty Inc. Brokerage has owned the number one market share in Barrie as well as throughout Simcoe County. With seven offices, more than 200 realtors and a staff of 25, RE/MAX Chay has been able to offer their clients the best real estate services.

RE/MAX Chay Realty’s recent merger with RE/MAX Hallmark Realty Ltd. in Toronto has catapulted the local company to the number one brokerage in Ontario as well as the largest RE/ MAX brokerage in the world.

The new RE/MAX Hallmark Chay Realty Inc. Brokerage has almost 1,800 REALTORS with connections in Barrie, Toronto and Ottawa with offices also in Durham Region, Pickering, Ajax and Whitby. As Mark Pauli the General Manager says “we now proudly move Ontario, not just our local market”. RE/MAX Chay Realty has merged its seven offices with RE/MAX Hallmark’s 19 offices for a total of 26 locations to serve homebuyers and sellers. This makes RE/MAX Hallmark Chay Realty the largest and number one producing RE/MAX network brokerage in the world with combined sales of over 23,000 last year.

“For us, it’s always been about providing top service to our agents so they are able to run a great business and serve their clients the best they possibly can. As our mission statement says: we are in the business of helping agents build their business,” says Mark Pauli. “But the industry is changing. There is a lot of real estate technology out there to research property information and market properties. We got to the point where we wanted to take it to the next level and be on top of all the resources, tech tools and marketing products our agents could access. We spoke to Hallmark about a partnership because they had some great resources our agents could use and we had a great company for them to invest in. They agreed and we are all very excited to be in this partnership.”

With more people moving from Toronto to Barrie, RE/MAX Hallmark Chay Realty is perfectly located to help clients sell and buy their homes. Agents in both locations can refer clients to each other. This provides a more seamless client service that is all done in-house. The new partnership has made the program BrokerBay available to all agents. BrokerBay makes confirmation of showings easy for sellers.

“Historically, a seller had to take a phone call for a showing request and call in to the agent’s office to confirm showing appointments for security reasons,” explains Pauli. “BrokerBay lets clients have showing requests come to them on their phone by text or email. The client clicks ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for the showing without having to call in.”

RE/MAX Hallmark Chay Realty also makes moves easier with the new MoveSnap portal. One of the biggest chores connected to a move is changing an old address to the new one for everything from utility bills to passports. MoveSnap lets people makes all the changes online in one sitting.

“Before their closing, we send our client an email and they click on a link to change their address for hydro and gas billing, Ontario health cards, and so forth,” says Pauli. “For example, when you click ‘move my hydro’, a list of all the utility companies comes up. You select yours and enter your new address. The utility company will know you changed your address that day. The great thing is you can change your address in multiple places without leaving the house.”

RE/MAX Hallmark Chay Realty has a Facebook page for their agents that let them give clients’ properties more effective exposure. The brokerage’s 1,800 agents see postings about new listings or properties that will be coming onto the market. If an agent is looking for a particular property for a client, they can say what they are looking for and another agent can let them know that they have a property like it coming up.

“It’s an efficient way to match buyers and sellers on local and provincial levels,” says Pauli. “MLS is fantastic, but this gives us another way to do it within our agent community.”

Pauli describes the current Barrie real estate market as strong and balanced. Stability has returned after the roaring real estate market of 2017. He notes there are lots of buyers in a market with lots of property choices. Therefore, he advises sellers to have a well cared for property that is priced right. Recent figures for the Barrie Real Estate Board show activity for July 2019 was up 15 percent over July 2018.

RE/MAX Hallmark Chay Realty has the services, tools and skilled agents to make selling and/ or buying a home a fast and pleasant experience for everyone.