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Publicity that leaves a bad taste in your mouth

Recently RE/MAX of Northern IL was doing a huge push to get remax,remax of Northern IL, agents that have left the system back on board. That in itself is not a bad thing as I do believe that RE/MAX is the place to be in the real estate community. But, I'd have to say the way my regional directors went about it left a bad taste in the mouths of those agents that have stayed with the franchise.

A 'heavy hitter' just returned to our area to much fanfare. I'm not jealous or spiteful of her past successes. That's just the right words here - past successes. She spun off on her own a few years ago and has since driven her business into the ditch. So her coming back to RE/MAX and 'getting back into the real estate game' is a 2 way street. The regional RE/MAX blog posted all about her story and her sales history and then I thought about it - hey, what about all of us? We can't use this regional site for any personal sales publicity.

We have to toot our own horn on our own blogs, newspaper ads, etc. Here she was getting tremendous national free exposure for coming back? Someone who hadn't said a kind word about the organization for the 5 years she was gone?

It's just not right and it serves up a bitter pill again for the agents that it doesn't include. We all are special in our own way and have our own sales strengths and weaknesses that we bring to the table. I guess for me too, with the last 2 years and the tough market we've had, this is just another black eye to all who have worked thru it.

Posted by Lyn Sims ~ Chicago Northwest Suburbs on 10/07/2009 12:08 PM

Comments (10)

remax, remax of northern il

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10 Comments on Publicity that leaves a bad taste in your mouth

OCT

Hi Lyn. Goals of the brokerage does not always match agent goals. In this case, I'm sure your brokerage is very pleased to be getting the free publicity and hopefully it will flow down and rub off on all of you.

Aloha

Richard, yes that's true. But to take the regional blog which normally is used for regional award winners and group events and turn it into a personal promotional piece was ill thought out. It hurts the moral of all those who have stayed with the franchise.

Lyn...I seen a local RE/Max office do something on this order several times in my area. One of the main reasons I am independent.

Bill: How about the people that are still working there not getting any credit?

Lyn, this is a reminder to me to make sure I encourage all the agents in my office. It's so easy to overlook the good agents. I've only been with RE/MAX for 5 years, but the last office I worked had a habit of patting only their favorites on the back and forgetting about the rest. I won't make that mistake. Thanks for the reminder.

OCT

Kay, thank you for your comment. One of the things that I like about the RE/MAX system is that you 'all' have one vote.This pretty much cuts out the favorites and the malcontents in every office. I just think that in all the excitement of having this agent re-recruited, they forgot that basic concept. (the person doing PR is not a licensed agent). I believe that makes a difference also. Many people reached out to me to say 'hey, what about me?' It's actually caused bad feelings whether they know it or not or will acknowledge it.

Your agents are lucky to have you Kay.

Lyn, I feel for you and the situation. I will say that at my brokerage (Keller Williams) I have always felt like a part of the big picture. And the KW culture for us is something we all subscribe to. Before an agent returns to our brokerage, the members of the leadership council are consulted. Anything that bothers you is brought up and addressed. I wish you a good resolution to the unfortunate circumstances you find yourself in. Best of luck.

Susan, thank you for your valued opinion. We used to have a similar system to your leadership council and abandoned it. Can't quite remember why, discrimination? I am sure that you would feel the same if KW had highlighted one singular agent and forgot that it takes a whole team to run the company smoothly. Not to mention slight the other agents not mentioned in that company wide PR blog.

OCT

Hi Lyn. If this happened with CB then I would be furious too because it seems disrespectful. However I have worked with some ReMax agents and this is stating the obvious but this does not reflect on those who work sooo hard. Just had to "say" that. Too bad they could not include someone who has been dedicated to ReMax for those years though.... ~ Lana

Thanks Lana.

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