FEATURES
COVER STORY: TOP OFFICES CHESTNUT PARK REAL ESTATE Head
Catherine Deluce (chair/founder/ broker) Province
Ontario
City
Toronto Transactions (2014) 1,910 Sales volume (2014)
$2.1 billion
Toronto luxury brokerage Chestnut Park has been able to leverage its exclusive affiliation with Christie’s International Real Estate to position itself as a premier brand. But it’s not leaving its agents to succeed on name alone. In addition to an in-house two-person legal counsel and in-house five-person marketing team, the brokerage offers agents access to its real estate academy, which is designed to educate new agents and refresh veteran ones. It also plans to launch a concierge service for agents, which will pick up dry cleaning, do grocery shopping, organize open houses, purchase gifts and more, in an effort to help agents achieve a better worklife balance.
CENTURY 21 ATRIA Head
Stephen Chow (broker/owner) Province Ontario
City Toronto Transactions (2014) 1,562 Sales volume (2014) $519.9 million
Century 21 Atria doesn’t just host top-producing agents – including two individual agents and two agent teams ranked in the Top 21 in Canada – the Toronto-based office also produces them. The brokerage offers agents access to a one-on-one career growth program that helps them steer their careers to best achieve their personal goals, as well as an in-house marketing team that assists agents with presentation materials, social media, videos and more. Those agents, meanwhile, have propelled the brokerage to become the number 11 office in the global Century 21 family. “This year,” says broker/owner Stephen Chow, “I am aiming to crack the top 10 offices in the world.”
It also plans to launch a concierge service ... in an effort to help agents achieve a better work-life balance
MACDONALD COMMERCIAL Head
Tony Letvinchuk (managing director) Province
British Columbia
City
Vancouver Transactions (2014)
308
Sales volume (2014)
$375.3 million Commercial real estate is all about who you know – and with a 20-year-old commercial division, Macdonald Realty knows a lot of people. The firm’s non-residential sector has been able to help its clients – many of whom are individual property investors – be successful in their commercial real estate ventures. “We’re able to offer our clients the tenure of experience and the tenure of relationships that [fulfill] their needs,” says Jonathan Cooper, Macdonald’s vice president of operations.
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www.repmag.ca
CENTURY 21 ASSURANCE REALTY Head
Myrna Park (managing broker) Province
British Columbia City
Kelowna Transactions (2014)
845
Sales volume (2014)
$321 million
The 40-plus agents at Century 21 Assurance in Kelowna, BC, have been honing their buying and selling skills over the brokerage’s many years in business – largely thanks to the support staff the office has on hand. In addition to its administration staff, the office employs a graphic designer, a professional photographer and a social media expert who help sales reps promote their listings. “Our goal is that our Realtors will work and do the things that are high value tasks and best use of agents’ time,” says broker/owner Myrna Park. “Agents hand in a trigger sheet, and everything gets made. Then they’re busy out selling another house.”
“Agents hand in a trigger sheet ... then they’re busy out selling another house”