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Which is the most Recognizable Real Estate Franchise brand in the nation? ---------------------------------------------------VOTE NOW

Six months ago I wrote a blog post about The Changing Face of Real Estate Franchise Brands that garnished a lot of attention because I dared to compare and even more list in order the top 10 franchise brands in my opinion.

Then last month my blog post Merge Creates One of the Largest Real Estate Franchises in Northern America exploded with over 155 comments as the debate continued about brands when a significant number of agents had never even heard of the brands mentioned.

Well now I have created an opportunity to see what the industry really thinks.

Real Estate Franchises

Starting today and until midnight on Friday, December 11th, everyone has the opportunity to grade the top 35 real estate franchise brands on a scale on 0 – 5; starting from “Never heard of the brand” all the way up to “Excellent brand.”

Base your vote on your experience of the brands visibility, awareness and impact in your local market.

There have been various studies reporting who is the largest, has the most agents, does the most transactions, etc. Now we will determine the Top 10 real estate franchises as voted by the industry itself.

GO TO THE VOTING PAGE ON RETRENDS HERE

Please help get the word out to as many agents as we can so that we can have a fair and representative vote. Many thanks. Results will be announced on December 15th and full details published in the 2010 Swanepoel TRENDS Report due February 2010.

Feel free to leave a comment below on who you think is the #1 franchise brand in your area after you have voted.

Posted by Stefan Swanepoel on 12/03/2009 06:04 PM

Comments (27)

real estate agents, real estate franchise, real estate franchsing, real estate marketing, real estate brands

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27 Comments on Which is the most Recognizable Real Estate Franchise brand in the nation? ---------------------------------------------------VOTE NOW

DEC

2009

Interesting discussion item. I have trouble choosing. For the most part I think the real estate industry defies the trends in other fields; there is no Coke -- just a lot of RCs.

It is such a mix of "local" brands, franchise brands and wholly owned. In our area we would expect to see Long & Foster Inc on the list.

Interesting topic!

I won't actually vote on this, because I don't think there is truly a #1 Franchise brand. The franchise or company that an agent works for doesn't mean the agents are the best. I think the agents make the brand. However, as far as recognizing the most recognized brand, I think Century 21 gets my vote. And, I am not a C21 agent. lol

Hi - I did vote because I think opinion polls are fun. However, "visibility, awareness and impact in your local market" is a criteria that is not easily quantified. Of course, it varies from one locale to another. The real test of those criteria is extremely local - not national.

Cindy, Long and Foster was not included because they are not a franchise. There are many great brands in real estate that belong to local or regional companies. This survey is to see if we can list the top 10 or top 20 most recognizable FRANCHISE brands in our industry. Thanks for your comment.

Stefan - I will go vote right now. This was easy for me. :)

It will be very interesting to see the results!

You bet Barbara. If we can get over 10,000 votes cast we will have a very creditable result. Can’t wait to see who make the top 10.

Watch this post for updates as the votes progresses.

I'm going to reblog it to try to get a little wider with it. It will be interesting to see the results... there are a couple of logos I don't recognize up there.

Interesting post, it will be even more interesting to see the results. I have to cast my vote for Century 21, not just because I work for them. Century 21 is a recognized Real Estate brand world wide. A great company to be associated with.

Roy Giordano

www.roygiordano.com

DEC

2009

Thanks for the repost Lane. I agree it will be interesting so see who the industry votes as their top 10.

Hi Stefan, interesting poll - There were a few names I'd not heard of at all... I'll try and help get the word out for folks to go vote - I'll tweet the poll. Looking forward to the results.

Thanks Lee & Pamela for help getting the word out.

As at Friday 6:30AM 4,000 votes had been cast. This is going to be a fantastic survey with great representation.

Stefan Swanepoel
Author: Swanepoel TRENDS Report
Author: Swanepoel Social Media Report

I voted and tweeted! Look forward to the results. The next few years will be very interesting I bet.

FWIW, I can offer that I have been with 2 'major' brands and except for 1 walk-in, any business that I have gotten has come from my own websites. Voted already, and have

Stefan-

Happy to participate, and FYI for busy folks, the quiz takes all of 2 minutes, tops.

I'm even more happy to report that I work with clients in what I suspect will be all the top brands in this list, and many of the brands that are of lower familiarity to most. Sixteen of the logos above appear on at least one mobile website that I've created for clients.

And yes, the distinction between franchise and other forms of ownership is very important when considering aspects of brand awareness in real estate. REALTORS®, in my experience, are just as likely to promote their team or office over the national brand, and this is due to both the image-heavy nature of the business and the relaxed branding guidelines that many companies with a national presence enforce with regard to their franchisees.

DEC

2009

Absolute Real Estate & Appraisals of course.

Thanks for voting and encouraging others to do the same Susie and Ian.

DEC

2009

UPDATE on FRANCHISE VOTE:

Sunday morning. Votes cast have exceed 12,500 - can you believe that 12,500 votes!!!

That's great representation. Three franchise brands are neck-in-neck for the lead and six others have a very strong showing. Wander who will fill the #10 slot?

Voting still open till this Friday at http://is.gd/5bGMl

I voted, tried to be as open minded as possible...but there is one I gave a 5 too....RE/MAX!!! Imagine that!! I was surprised how many there were I had never even heard of though! Will be interested to see the final results of course!

That’s OK, they and a handful of other deserve a 5. It the combined input of thousands of votes that will make the results interesting for all the many lesser known brands. I too an anxious to see the Top 10.

DEC

2009

UPDATE on FRANCHISE VOTE:

Thursday morning. Over 7,500 agents have cast over 250,000 votes. Unbelievable!!

That's the largest online survey participation ever. reat representation.

Voting still open till this Friday at midnight http://is.gd/5bGMl

DEC

2009

Voting is now closed.

11,355 people voted casting just over 390,000 votes. VERY IMPRESSIVE.

Thank you to all who participated. Irrespective the outcome, the results reflect the opinions of a very significant segment of the real estate industry and is probably the largest survey of its kind ever undertaken in the real estate brokerage industry.

It is an impressive example of the power of social media and email. All votes will now be scrutinized for irregularities and then tabulated into meaningful lists. Results will be posted on www.RETrends.com on Tuesday December 15th.

Thank you.

DEC

2009

TUESDAY DEC 15th. The RESULTS are now available:

Detailed results have been posted at http://bit.ly/REarticles

Stefan, This is great information you've brought about and as you stated a remarkable response.

MAR

2010

Hi, Stefan. Interesting survey. I hear a lot about KW, ironic though that the only one we have in my area closed about four years ago. Prudential is a young real estate franchise, yet it's at #5...cool. Thanks for the info!

OCT

2010

There are so many real estate franchises, it's not surprising there isn't a clear cut #1. It's very hard to seperate yourself amongst the crowd. I am trying to get into the franchise business, it's a very tough decision. I checked out this franchise directory and was overwhelmed with the options available.

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Stefan Swanepoel

Ladera Ranch, CA

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Author, Speaker & Trends Guru

Address: PO Box 7259, Laguna Niguel, CA, 92607

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