One Canadian real estate pro’s journey to cash in on Europe

Don’t tell Michael Polzler the Canadian real estate market is the place to be. He’s got his feet planted firmly in Europe.

The 45-year-old former operations head of Re/Max Ontario-Atlantic Canada has pulled up stakes from this country to establish a stronger footprint on a continent he maintains has been vastly underserved by organized real estate.

People need to buy and sell and that doesn’t change

“It’s been crazy busy,” says Mr. Polzler, now the managing director of Re/Max Europe. “I’ve been in Sweden, Hamburg, Germany, and Austria, where I have been kind of living these days.”

And Mr. Polzler just doesn’t understand the fears that the struggling European economy has nowhere to go.

“It’s all very exaggerated. People need to buy and sell and that doesn’t change,” he says

“In the German-speaking economies of around 100 million in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, there is super-low unemployment and the economies are excellent. Even in the countries that have been written about, there is opportunity. Sure it’s harder to sell in Portugal and Spain, but we are making inroads in those marketplaces.”

The Vienna-based Re/Max Europe group, started by his father Frank Polzler and his partner Walter Schneider in 1994, is now in 33 countries.

The pair brought the Re/Max brand to Canada in 1979, turning the real estate market here on its head. Instead of agents giving up a large percentage of their commission to their brokerage, they were charged a desk fee. The group now has about 8,400 sale associates in Canada.

Mr. Polzler says Europe resembles the Canada of a few decades ago when the Multiple Listing Service was not prominent and there was little co-operation between agents.

“Generally speaking, agents do not sell each other’s listings, though we are changing that,” says Mr. Polzler, adding the practice in Europe of trying to sell a listing to just your own clients or handful of colleagues is very limiting. “In Re/Max, we are selling each other’s listings and that really puts the customer first.”

Exclusive listings may ultimately enrich the agents by keeping them among a select group but it hardly creates liquidity in the market.

“It’s very hard to sell property that way,” says Mr. Polzler, calling the European case “very odd” by Canadian standards.

“I don’t think we did that in 1980s or even the 1970s really.”

He says that is why 50% of the market is sold privately and why it is such a good opportunity for his company.

“You really want to expose your property to a lot more agents and [potential] customers, which, of course, is a lot better for the consumer,” says Mr. Polzler.

In Canada, real estate listings are put on a central MLS system at 100-plus boards across the country. Agents who sell another agent’s property listing are compensated directly and usually get about half of the total commission, usually 2.5% each.

Europe provides an interesting contrast to this country where the Canadian Real Estate Association was sued by the Competition Bureau for controlling listings and not allowing consumers enough choice in the services that can be selected through the MLS. The bureau remains in a court battle with the Toronto Real Estate Board over the issue of how listings are controlled.

Re/Max wants a more open market in Europe, although Mr. Polzler did not say he’s trying to emulate the Canadian model exactly. “Our slogan here is changing the way real estate is sold in Europe,” says Mr. Polzler.

He says you can’t start a pan-European MLS because real estate is more a locally driven product. MLS is available in few jurisdictions.

“People think creating an MLS is coming in and trying to organize everybody but really it needs to start with five, 10 or 20 agents to step in and share each other’s listings because this is better for everybody.”

http://business.financialpost.com/2012/10/11/one-real-estate-pros-journey-to-cash-in-on-europe/

Posted via email from Markham Real Estate Today with Asif Khan