Fort Lauderdale Realty Giant Folds After 20 Years

Hopefully those agents that want to stay in the business find a new home that has a business model that will allow them to continue and the office to stay open.

The housing market is repricing itself, it is getting better and will continue to so but very slowly.

You can now buy a home anywhere in Florida for much less than it would cost to build.

Even though the employees work on commission, Real estate tax, electric, and insurance needs to be paid for. Maybe they even have a mortgage

Realtors are paid ONLY when they sell. You work for a brokerage and they make money from the realtors they "employ." Either they take a percentage of each sale or they charge by the month for space in the office. Many Remax offices charge the "desk fee" for agents to have space there. If there are fewer agents, then there is less money coming in. If they go the percentage way, they are still directly depending on fees. My company has cut back, some support staff have been laid off and many corners have been cut. I was one of the lucky ones as I was able to get a job in my old field and work real estate on weekends and evenings while my partner covers day-to-day things. But not everyone is so lucky. And the sales of my partnership aren't what they were, although we do have great listings.

I wish those Remax realtors the very best.

Here is the deal with RE/MAX.....93000 agents in 85 countries....Selling more homes than any other company in the world....Very sad to hear about south Fla but they are an exception rather than the rule with RE/MAX.

With 150 non-salaried agents and in a service business I would guess the company was mismanaged. It's not like they had an investment in inventory that they might have had to borrow money to get and couldn't sell to pay their loan

I agree and our leaders think we can't handle reality so they feed us crap. We are living with the reality of our situations everyday. When will they just start telling the truth?

I'm so tired of everyone whinning that no one sees the new jobs claimed by the administration. I work for a died in the wool Republican, in construction. We have been able to rehire 50 workers due to stimulus supported projects. We have new schools, government buildings, and local upgrades to infrastructure; all paid for with stimulus money. These are not frivilous projects as claimed by people only interested in scare tactics to get themselves elected. People that I would normally consider smart are acting like fools. No one like to be in debt, personal or government, but there are time when there is no choice.

It's called doublespeak!

YEA I BET YOUR VOTING FOR AGENDA 21 TOO.

Glad my parents didn't think like that or I wouldn't have all my brothers and sisters which there are 12 of us and all working good jobs by the way but me I have the lowest paying of all

I agree, Remax listed my home in Atlanta and disappeared. wouldn't list my dogs house with them.

My dear, these are not "sharks", these are the owners of a large Real Estate office that merely gives those agents "space". Each real estate agent MUST place their license with a "Broker", which is what this RE/MAX office is. I too, closed my RE/MAX office due to the agents not having sales, in turn they cannot pay their fees to me, which made our Brokerage go out of business also. We did this in 2007 as we saw it coming and did not want to drain every single penny we had on a dying business.

I agree with Susan, to label 90% of Realtors with a "shark" tag is absurd. I'm a RE/MAX agent in California and I would say that 80% from all the local brokerage are good and caring agents. As for myself and closest friends in the business, our clients welfare is #1, whatever commission that may (or may not) be coming our way is way down the list of importance. I might add, with the proliferation of short sales, bank owned properties and lenders reluctance to lend the business have never been tougher. 95% of Americans wouldn't tolerate what we have to deal with.

I'm inclined to agree with ohwell on this one. To Susan & Dave above I have to ask the same question. I've been in the building business for 30 yrs. here in SC & we're getting pummeled for the misgivings of the few states that overpriced their properties by exorbitant amounts. Fla, Cal, Ariz & Nevada put the entire country in peril by speculating & inflating prices beyond income realities. I called this bubble 5 yrs. ago when I noticed housing jumping by 25-50% in some areas. Now instead of having inflationary issues in housing we're dealing with deflation because of a glut of inventory & damaged borrowing/lending/income capacity & lowered pricing. What the hell were you people thinking when you saw these prices going through the roof?? I'm not accusing you of knowingly ripping people off but you all screwed the pooch with your short sightedness. Now I suffer here in SC because of the perception that homes are worthless & they should sell below true hard cost! I've got a 70 lot subdivision doing 25% of what I used to do in the land development business & I'm struggling to make it. I'm not trying to be cruel or judgmental but spare me that your offices can't make it off a 20% drop in sales. I wish I was so lucky. If we ever recover from all of this, I hope you have the courage to stand up before your planning committee & tell them to slow the pseudo wheels of progress down. Homes are not a damned commodity!!