New brokers find opportunity to flourish

RE/MAX Australia’s newest Broker/Owners, Micheal Parker and Paula McKie, believe their office at Springfield Lakes is set to flourish as they concentrate on becoming part of their local community.

Located 28km's south-west of Brisbane, Springfield Lakes is a seven-year old master-planned community which was voted Queensland’s best Masterplanned Development at the 2007 Urban Development Institute of Australia awards earlier this year.

Springfield’s current population of 7,000 is expected to reach 30,000 upon completion and its premium residential village, The Promenade, recently set a new home sale record for the area with a property selling for $827,500.

Working as a RE/MAX sales associate from an office in the nearby Brisbane suburb of Graceville for the past two years, Micheal had been servicing the Springfield Lakes area and steadily building a large database of local clients.

“We were servicing the area from the outside quite well, but we wanted to go in and be a true part of the community,” he said. “That’s the difference now: we’re not doing real estate, we’re being real estate!”

Micheal said the advantage of the RE/MAX network was that it had allowed them the freedom to place their own interpretation on what their business could become.

“I’ve been wanting to open my own office for about two years,” he said. “I looked at the idea when I first joined RE/MAX, but at that stage I thought I would just do it as an independent contractor.

“We looked at different models, different philosophies and the way offices are done. When it came to RE/MAX, I liked the idea that everyone gets a slice – that no one can beat me when it comes to the 92% commission I can offer agents. It means that I can be choosy with the agents that I want, which then means we can give better quality service and offer a better quality product to our clients.

“RE/MAX is all about taking a system and using it – not reinventing it, but interpreting it with your own ideas and your own culture in your own area.

“We’ve come up with other ideas that we can add to the system to make it work for us. It’s a matter of direction – every office has its own culture, it’s own ethos. I think it’s a matter of family; when you work with someone all of the time, in a way they become your family.

“With RE/MAX we like the fact that we have the freedom to operate our business our way, while still being a part of one incredible international ‘family’.”

RE/MAX Australia Regional Director Nick Thiele said Micheal and Paula’s story illustrated the freedoms offered under the RE/MAX system.

“By starting as RE/MAX sales associates, always with the vision of one day opening their own office, Micheal and Paula have been able to build their business at their own pace,” he said. “RE/MAX offers individuals that opportunity for personal growth.”