BIC September 2014 - Maxwell profile

MaxWell Realty:

A Maximum Service Partnership Our word and our handshake are more important than our signature. We can argue a contract, but we can’t argue our word. We’ve treated people that way and it’s come back to us in spades. If you treat people fairly and honestly, with respect, you can’t do anything but succeed in the long run.

-- Ron Stanners, Vice President/Owner of MaxWell Realty Inc and President/Owner of MaxWell South Star

W

hen Ron Stanners and Dick Oakes joined forces in 1994, they had both worked in real estate for decades. While they loved the industry, they believed something was missing – and there was room for a new approach. After five years of partnership, they were ready to create something unique.

“There was no sense copying another type of organization,” says Stanners. “Our discussions led us to come up the middle between the lower-cost brokerages and the full-service brokerages. We came up with the concept of providing full service at a low cost to the REALTORS ©.”

On this warm summer day, the company founders have arrived at the MaxWell Realty office in Fairview dressed casually in golf shirts. Their friendly smiles and down-to-earth energy exude the comfort level of two men who’ve been friends since the ‘80s. Their casual demeanor masks the intensity of their drive to make MaxWell the best company it can be.

Their attention to detail started with their hunt for the perfect name. The list of requirements was carefully thought out. It had to be easy for the ear to catch, even if the client’s first language wasn’t English. They also wanted a name that was only seven letters long, with just two syllables. They were adamant about including the letter X, for that unique, snappy sound.

Left to right: Ron Stanners and Dick Oakes displaying their new digital signage.

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“The motto that we have at Maxwell is: we make our living in the community, we give back to the community.”

-Dick Oakes

MaxWell South Star, the same location for 25 years.

The MaxWell moniker had no links to the heritage or history of either man, but it struck a chord with both Stanners and Oakes. It would become a symbol for the maximum amount of care they provide for their customers’ wellbeing: a single, simple-to-pronounce metaphor for offering the utmost in service. Now, as they celebrate their 15th anniversary, their Canadian-owned corporation has grown to over 400 agents with representation in 20 communities across Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. With their Calgary-headquartered real estate franchise flourishing in a market of national and international giants, the partners believe the people at the “Company of Choice” are the key to their success.

“People think the product we have is the real estate, but inside the industry, we know the product is the REALTOR©,” says Oakes. “The REALTOR© is the centerpiece, the focus of how everything goes together, the person that brings in all the information, puts the transaction together and then handles the negotiations between both parties. The REALTOR© brings in the financial people, the appraiser, the home inspector and facilitates all the activities through the lawyers. The REALTOR© is the center that everything spins from. MaxWell is not number one; are clients are.”

One of those REALTORS© is broker Bill MacDougall, who has been with the company for 12 years. Together with his wife, Audrey, he purchased the MaxWell Capital Realty franchise in the northwest last year. This was in addition to the MaxWell offices he already owned in Didsbury, Black Diamond and Sundre.

“MaxWell is a different real estate company than the others,” says MacDougall. “Our REALTORS© are very in tune with their clients, making sure that they’re serviced completely and properly, and are happy.”

Service is an over-arching theme in conversations around the water cooler at MaxWell. During the course of a joke-filled sit-down in a small conference room, Stanners Bill MacDougall

and Oakes’s earnestness on this issue threads through the laughter. According to them, real estate is the ultimate service industry.

“We assist people in making their dreams happen,” says Oakes. “Whether it’s their first home, their first condo, their first single family or going into a high rise, all the way up into retirement homes, there’s always a stage to assist someone achieve their dream, to make their life more livable. That’s called service.”

MacDougall is even more emphatic. “I’d call it a proper and true way of doing business. You don’t put your commission cheque first, you don’t put your face on a billboard first. You put your client first and make sure they are treated the best.

These are more than clients. These people become friends.”

The client-as-a-friend perspective is in line with the outlook of the MaxWell leadership duo, which considers their workforce to be more family than organization.

Three principals carry them through a constantly changing marketplace: honesty, knowledge and trustworthiness. Pay a visit to the Fairview location on Macleod Trail SE and you’ll notice each word embossed on its own seven-foot tall banner, placed at pivotal points around the office.

The towering tangibility of their professional tenets is indicative of the company’s approach to modern technology. The growth of Maxwell over the last decade-and-ahalf has traveled a parallel path alongside the explosion of the Internet. The information superhighway has made it easier for agents and the public to do their real estate research, while social media has changed the way people interact with each other. But that hasn’t stopped MaxWell from digging its heels into a classic client approach.

“That’s all fine and dandy,” says Oakes, referring to everything Internet-related. “But getting out to meet people face to face, belly to belly is what matters most. You’re working for those referrals. The backbone of the industry is relationship oriented.”

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Now, 15 years after MaxWell Realty was created, they attribute their success to their dogged enthusiasm in building those relationships. More than 6,000 customers trust the company to assist them with their home selling and buying transactions each year. Besides residential, commercial and rural properties, MaxWell markets and sells both large and small-scale businesses.

It doesn’t hurt that in their anniversary year, the Alberta marketplace is having a particularly good run, up 10 per cent over last year overall. Stanners’s office, which is celebrating 25 years of brokerage operations this year, is up 22 per cent by comparison. After averaging 14 ends per REALTOR© last year, this year his office is on track to achieve 20, which is far above the industry average of eight or nine. He believes it is directly due to their committed adherence to education. He also raves about the Ninja Selling program in Fort Collins, Colorado, which makes service the end goal.

“It’s 180 degrees different than anything else,” says Stanners.

“It’s based entirely on service – looking after the wants, needs and desires of the client. In my office, the people who took the program in 2011, when we measured their income in 2012 and again in 2013, they increased by 50 per cent. They just attract more business. People refer them, come back to them, and in some cases it creates business that wasn’t even there to begin with. It is the way they treat people.”

This attention to education has spread across the entire

MaxWell organization, including over at MacDougall’s Maxwell Capital location. “We do training here once a week for all our REALTORS© in our brokerage, on a myriad of different topics,” he says. “We want to make sure all our REALTORS© are updated on all the changes in regulations and laws that come from the Real Estate Council of Alberta (RECA), but also on how to help each other out. If we run into a situation that’s kind of unique, we talk about it. How do we help each other out? How do we do this a better way?

It is really helping their clients.”

Back in the conference room at the Fairview location, Oakes says they pride themselves on the high amount of education they give their REALTORS©. “Our proverbial Monday morning business meetings, to a large degree, are really a dissemination on new information coming down from the board, coming down from the regulator, coming down from all over. Real estate is constantly in change because the marketplace is constantly in change.

We pride ourselves on keeping our people abreast of the changes and totally up to speed.”

Meanwhile, it’s not all business, all the time. As Oakes says, “The motto that we have at Maxwell is: we make our living in the community, we give back to the community.”

Their charity of choice is Kids Help Phone. They’ve donated $261,563 to the Alberta region of Kids Help Phone since 2003.

Congratulations MaxWell Realty Inc. and MaxWell South Star. Studio 4 Signs wish you many more years of success. www.studio4signs.com

“Th

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ta te Sig n S p e c

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Congratulations

MaxWell Realty Inc. and MaxWell South Star 11335 - 88 Street SE Calgary, Alberta T3S 0A4 Office: 403-236-3432 | Cell: 403-650-6489 info@ritewaysigns.com

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“Who are the leaders of tomorrow?” asks Stanners. “The children of today. And some of them are going through some pretty rough times now.”

At one point, the founders of MaxWell had their own rough times. In 2001, they hoped to expand internationally into the United States. After investing hundreds of thousands of dollars, documentation was approved for their operation in all but four states. Just as they were planning to build their headquarters in Buffalo, New York, planes crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York.

“America closed their doors to anybody that was not American,” says Oakes. “It was so apparent that if you weren’t American, you were going to have nothing in the way of starting a new business.”

Six days later, they pulled the plug and swallowed the loss.

Instead, they concentrated on slowly spreading their wings in Canada. There have been challenging moments, when a few franchises caused harm to the company’s image. Those offices were stripped of MaxWell signage and ousted from the family. They have opened and shut an office in Okotoks – twice. But now with locations as far away as Invermere, British Columbia and Regina, Saskatchewan, they are well on their way. However, even though they’re born and bred in Alberta, and “darn proud of it,” as Oakes says, they dial down the hometown pride as they grow beyond provincial borders.

“One has to be careful about the Alberta swagger,” says Oakes. “The people that are attracted to us are attracted to the momentum, identifying themselves with a business model that works for them.”

The momentum seems to be driven by the kindred spirit Stanners and Oakes share, evidenced by a steady stream of similarities and uncanny coincidences, in both their professional and personal worlds. Both are 68 years old. Both have achieved honors in their careers, including Stanners’s REALTOR© of the Year Award in 2000, President of CREB in 2007 and Honorary Life Membership Award in 2008, and Oakes as past President of the CREB Charitable Foundation and Honorary Life Membership award with the Calgary Real Estate Board. They each have twin sons and a daughter. Both men have one son who’s a REALTOR© and a granddaughter named Ella, not to mention a steady stream of discoveries, over the years, that they share the same doctor or specialist.

Together, they have a combined 75 years of real estate

Reminiscing about MaxWell Realty’s startup in 1999.

experience. Their partnership is 50-50, but if you ask, they’ll tell you it’s the division of labour, enhanced by their different skill sets, that make it work.

“No sense two of us chasing the same rabbit,” says Oakes.

“Oakes’s got his foot on the gas, I’ve got my foot on the brake,” says Stanners, laughing.

“He kind of reins me in,” Oakes agrees. “It’s been a good balance. But sometimes he’s got an idea, and I say, hmmm – you’ve got to pump it up.”

“Nothing’s cast in stone, and we both make mistakes,” Stanners reflects on the give-and-take that has not only helped their partnership thrive; it has kept them the best of friends. “Usually the person who has the most passion for his position is where we both end up going.”

As the years have passed, they’ve been approached several times with offers of buyouts, but even with retirement on the horizon (although they prefer to call it transition), they are committed to the MaxWell brand, which has a high recognition factor throughout Western Canada. They’re still pushing forward, freshening up their logo and creating luxury signage. They have also forged strategic alliances with two large organizations, Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate and Print Logix, for marketing purposes.

“It’s been a fun trip,” says Stanners. “Oakes and I can safely say we’re not going to die with our music in us. We have an amazing organization of people in our offices.

They’ve bought into the same ethics and values and culture that we’ve put forward. It really is a family.”

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