RE/MAX Expands its Leadership Position in Fox Valley Home Sales

The RE/MAX Northern Illinois network increased its market share leadership in the Fox Valley home sales market during 2007 based on sales data available through the Multiple Listing Service of Northern Illinois. RE/MAX agents listed 39.3 percent of all homes sold in the Fox Valley, up from 37.6 percent during the prior year.

Home sales reported by the MLSNI totaled 2,043 in the Fox Valley during 2007, a decrease of 16.1 percent from the 2,436 homes sold during the prior year.

The Fox Valley market includes the communities of Batavia, Elburn, Geneva, North Aurora, St. Charles, Sugar Grove and Wayne.

The top five real estate organizations in the Fox Valley during 2007 in terms of sold listings, were RE/MAX with 802 (39.3 percent), Coldwell Banker with 306 (15 percent), Baird & Warner with 221 (10.8 percent), Keller Williams with 111 (5.4 percent) and Realty Executives with 63 (3.1 percent). Data maintained by the MLSNI may not reflect all real estate activity in a specific market area.

RE/MAX also led the Fox Valley market in homes purchased. In 2007, RE/MAX agents represented buyers who purchased 28.6 percent of all listed homes sold in the Fox Valley market, topping Coldwell Banker (14.7 percent), Baird & Warner (11.5 percent), Keller Williams (4.5 percent) and Prudential (4.2 percent).

During 2007, RE/MAX ranked as Chicagoland’s market-share leader, listing 20.3 percent of all homes sold. That continues an 18-year period during which RE/MAX maintained the number one position in the Chicagoland market. RE/MAX also continues to lead the suburban Chicago area, closing 26.2 percent of listings sold in 2007, an increase over the previous year when RE/MAX had a market share of 26.1 percent.

RE/MAX Accord Opens its New Rockford Office

RE/MAX Accord welcomed in 2008 by opening its new office at 7062 Walton St., Rockford, Ill., on Jan. 2. The office is located adjacent to the intersection of East State Street and Perryville Road, one of the busiest intersections in the Rockford metro area.

The new office marks a major expansion into the Rockford market for RE/MAX Accord, which is operated by broker/owners Debbie Maxvold and Terry White. The firm’s other office is Bloomingdale, Ill., in the western suburbs of Chicago.

The major reason for the move to Rockford, according to Maxvold, is the ongoing working relationship between RE/MAX Accord and Hallmark Homes, a Rockford-based homebuilder with six active developments, four in Loves Park, Ill., and one each in Rockford and Roscoe, Ill. Several more are slated to open later this year. RE/MAX Accord handles the marketing of all Hallmark Homes communities.

A second reason for the expansion, she reports, is the growing connection between the Rockford and Chicago markets.

“Over the last few years, we’ve seen more and more people who work in the west and northwest suburbs of Chicago moving to the Rockford area because they then can buy a lot more home for their money,” says Maxvold.

“We expect that trend to continue for a couple of reasons. More employers are locating along the I-90 corridor west of the Fox River, and Metra rail service will connect Rockford to downtown Chicago, probably within four to five years,” she said.

The new RE/MAX Accord office will offer 12 privates suites for agents who want to base their operations there, as well as telecommuting facilities for other agents who prefer to have their main offices at home.

“Agents working from home is an important trend in our business, and we’ve designed our office to accommodate it,” said White. The new office features state-of-the art technology and workspace design, and it is already home to five agents and a two-person support staff. White and Maxvold say they will share the managerial duties at the new office so that each spends considerable time in Rockford.

“We view the timing of this move as quite favorable because the Rockford area has shown real resilience in the face of the housing market slowdown compared to many other areas,” said White. “A key reason seems to be the affordability factor. Unlike many other places, homes in Rockford are still priced within reach of the average family.”

Chicago Gets its First RE/MAX Office Exclusively Focused on Commercial Real Estate

RE/MAX, the Chicago area’s market leader in residential real estate, has opened an office in downtown Chicago that is exclusively focused on commercial real estate. It is the first all-commercial RE/MAX office in the Chicago area.

RE/MAX Commercial Real Estate Services, located at 120 N. LaSalle St., has been established by John O’Hara and Chuck Nunley, who also operate RE/MAX Gateway in Gilberts, Ill., and Gateway Properties of Illinois, LLC, a real estate development firm based in Lake in the Hills, Ill.

For RE/MAX, the new Chicago office is an important step in its expansion into the commercial real estate field. RE/MAX now has all-commercial offices in each of the major metropolitan areas of the United States, according Jim Merrion, regional director of RE/MAX Northern Illinois.

In addition, 256 RE/MAX offices around the world have divisions that deal exclusively in commercial property. Worldwide, RE/MAX has more than 6,800 agents who specialize in commercial property and has expanded its commercial property transactions from approximately $5 billion in 2002 to $13.5 billion in 2006, an increase of more than 150 percent.

In northern Illinois, RE/MAX closed $412 million in commercial transactions in 2007.

The new office will move in the direction its agents take it, according to O’Hara.

“Agents can focus on the downtown market and work out of our LaSalle Street facility, or they can concentrate on other portions of the metropolitan area,” he said. “Our role will be to provide them with the resources and continuing professional education they need. For example, we make available Argus Analytic Software for evaluating commercial properties and potential transaction structures, and we will give them access to key commercial real estate networks, such as CoStar and Catylist.”

The emergence of RE/MAX as a force in the commercial real estate field may result in profound changes for that entire sector of the real estate brokerage business, according to Tim Hatlestad, president of the CCIM Institute and the owner of a number of RE/MAX offices in the Phoenix, Ariz., area, including three that deal exclusively with commercial property.

“RE/MAX revolutionized residential real estate by allowing agents to take a much more entrepreneurial approach, and the same is happening in the commercial sector,” said Hatlestad. “Traditional commercial brokerages typically limit their sales associates to a specific niche, such as leasing or the sale and acquisition of a certain property type, such as retail or industrial. RE/MAX leaves that choice up to the individual, so while one agent may choose to specialize in a single segment of the market – for example, office leasing – another agent may find success by working in several segments simultaneously.”

According to Hatlestad, traditional commercial brokerages have been able to tightly control the kind of work agents did because the brokerages offered agents access to proprietary market data that wasn’t easily available elsewhere.

“But that is changing rapidly,” Hatlestad said. “So much information, from listings to aerial maps to data about taxes and zoning, now is accessible via the Internet with just a few key strokes. As a result, commercial agents can be more independent and flexible than ever, and the entrepreneurial approach pioneered by RE/MAX makes more sense. Today, that approach has progressed to about the same point in commercial real estate that it was 20 years ago in residential real estate. I expect it to grow dramatically in the next 20 years and reshape our business.”

With RE/MAX ranking No. 1 in residential sales in the Chicago metro market, giving the commercial side of the business a separate identity will be very helpful, according to O’Hara.

“A number of RE/MAX agents are extremely successful in commercial real estate in the Chicago area, but that has tended to be overshadowed by the residential market achievements of RE/MAX,” he said. “We named our new office RE/MAX Commercial Real Estate Services in order to keep our mission clear and make potential customers aware that RE/MAX is very much a player in the commercial real estate market in Chicago and worldwide.”

RE/MAX Partners in Berwyn Joins Exclusive Ranks of CMN Miracle Offices

RE/MAX Partners of Berwyn, Ill., has joined the exclusive ranks of Miracle Offices, a designation given by the Children’s Miracle Network (CMN), a network of premier children’s hospitals in the United States and Canada. The office, located at 6420 W. Cermak Road, is operated by broker/owner Al Snyder and has 32 affiliated agents.

To become a Miracle Office, each agent donates either a portion of every commission earned or a one-time annual amount to CMN. All funds raised for CMN by RE/MAX Partners will benefit Children’s Memorial Hospital of Chicago.

“On behalf of all the agents in our office, I’m proud to reach this milestone and determined to maintain our Miracle Office status for many years to come,” said Snyder. “Children’s Memorial has a world-class reputation as being an invaluable resource for families in Berwyn and throughout the region. We view our support of the hospital as one more way to thank the hundreds of families and individuals who rely on our professional services and have helped make us successful.”

RE/MAX Select Will Complete Relocation to its New 63rd Street Office on Chicago’s Southwest Side

RE/MAX Select has announced plans to complete the relocation of its office to 6124 W. 63rd St. from its long-time location at 6601 W. Archer Ave. effective Feb. 1.

The 63rd Street office opened in January 2007. It is located in a one-story, 4,600-square-foot building that offers both private and modular workspaces and three conference rooms. Within the office is a separate facility to accommodate agents who primarily work from a home office.

“We’ve had a year to get our new facility up and running efficiently and make sure all the new systems were performing as planned,” said Julie Anderson. She and Barbara Gembala are the broker/owners of RE/MAX Select. “Now we are ready to complete the transition and move all our agents into the new office with its contemporary technology and more attractive surroundings.

RE/MAX Select was established in 1990 and has been owned since 1998 by Anderson and Gembala. The Archer Avenue office had been at maximum capacity for some time, but now the 40 agents of RE/MAX Select will have ample elbow room, while Anderson and Gembala have space for future business growth.

“One of the best aspects of the office is its location near areas that are seeing a good deal of development activity and an active real estate market,” said Anderson. “In addition, the new office has the technological infrastructure that agents and their clients need in today’s market.”

Anderson has long been a resident of Chicago’s Clearing neighborhood. Gembala lives in Oak Lawn.