Buying a property is one of the largest investments someone makes in their lifetime. But the process of buying and selling a house comes with huge fees and commissions that eat away at the value of a person’s investment. By Kelsi Trinidad
Franchisees Get To Feel Like the Robin Hood of Real Estate
Buying a property is one of the largest investments someone makes in their lifetime. But the process of buying and selling a house comes with huge fees and commissions that eat away at the value of a person’s investment. Jeremy Demont and Ken LeBlanc, founders of PropertyGuys.com, realized there was a way to rethink the age-old real estate industry model. Instead of using a model dependent on agents, Demont and LeBlanc created a system that cuts out huge commissions and puts the power back in buyers’ and sellers’ hands.
With the PropertyGuys.com model, customers pay franchisees a flat fee for services related to listing and selling their houses. Using the company’s platform, buyers and sellers can maximize the value of their investment. “All customers get the same service regardless of the price of their home,” explained Daina Peterson, director of franchise development. “It doesn’t matter if their house is selling for $250,000 or $1 million, we provide the exact same service for the same price to everyone.”
Since franchising in 2001, the company has steadily grown to 100 franchise locations across Canada, but the company has set its sights on global expansion. PropertyGuys.com opened a location in South Africa and hopes to expand across the U.S. in the near future. Peterson explained that the franchise’s cost-effective and easy-to-replicate model is responsible for the huge potential for expansion. “That’s why I always like to say: ‘If we can work with franchisees as far away as South Africa and replicate the model there, our model works anywhere,’” she said.
In addition to a five-day orientation program called PGU, a 12-week launch plan and the company’s robust support infrastructure, franchisees now have the opportunity to earn their real estate license within the PropertyGuys family. Though franchisees don’t need to be licensed agents to operate a thriving franchise, this benefit allows franchisees to save on operating costs for licensed activities, including listing transactions, negotiating pricing strategies and conducting property showings. “Our franchisees are business owners working for themselves. When it comes time to have an exit strategy, let’s say you want to retire or move on, you have a business to sell,” Peterson said.
For prospective franchisees, it’s important to have the motivation to run a successful business as well as a desire to serve the local community. “We want somebody that has a love for real estate and a love for their community,” said Peterson. “We want each individual franchisee to be a local expert in the face of that business within their territory.”
It’s no question that the real estate market has been unpredictable over the past two years. In these uncertain times and an increasingly unstable economy, PropertyGuys.com has been able to create a community-minded company that thrives no matter the state of the market. When the housing market is hot, customers save on unnecessary agent commissions, and when it cools, they can put more of their hard-earned equity back in their pocket.
“We actually call ourselves a recession-proof business,” explained Peterson. “Our model was built for this time.”
Through imagination and innovation, PropertyGuys.com has changed the way homeowners and buyers think about real estate.
Kelsi Trinidad