NEWS ARCHIVE
RE/MAX Malta opens RE/MAX Park Estates in St. Paul’s Bay. Other franchises planned in the pipeline.
On 18th April 2006, Regional Director of RE/MAX Malta, Kevin Buttigieg, announced the opening of a new franchise office in the St. Paul’s Bay area. The office will be one of a series of franchised offices set to open in the near future. The new office will be located at Villino Chapelle, Mosta Road, St. Pauls Bay and the franchise owners are Marlene Conti and Steven Bonnici, from Mellieha and Bahar Ic-Chaghaq respectively. RE/MAX Malta now has a network of 4 offices that cover the Maltese Islands.
Real Estate franchising is new to Malta however it is a long standing business in mainland Europe, Scandinavia, the Americas, Australia, South Africa, and it is growing in popularity in the Middle East. RE/MAX aka “Real Estate Maximums” originally started in Denver Colorado, 33 years ago, where Dave Lineger, founder and chairman of RE/MAX, sold his first franchise to an Irish-American. RE/MAX Europe was later founded in 1994, when Austrian-Canadian’s, Frank Polzler and Walter Schneider, Co-Regional Owners of the most successful region in North America, Ontario-Atlantic Canada, decided to go back to their own roots and set up the RE/MAX Europe Headquarters in Vienna, Austria. Today, RE/MAX is the largest Pan-European real estate franchising organisation in Europe, present in 29 countries and with a total of 1, 450 offices. RE/MAX International (including RE/MAX Europe) is now present in 63 countries and comprises of 6, 500 offices and 117, 000 sales associates.
RE/MAX Malta plans to open other franchised offices in Balzan, Fgura and another two locations, which are presently being negotiated. However, Mr. Buttigieg tells the Sunday Times that selling a franchise is not the hardest part of being the Master Franchisor, although there has been a high demand from the Maltese and some foreigners to purchase a franchise from RE/MAX Malta. “Firstly, franchising is a selective process. The qualities of the individual or individuals wanting to buy a franchise from us have to fit the standard profile that RE/MAX Europe sets out. Both Marlene and Steve , our new franchisees for St. Paul’s Bay, boast a lot of experience in the field which, together with the right amount of drive and ambition and their entrepreneurial skills all fits perfectly with the principles that make up the RE/MAX System. These in fact have become the standards that ensure that the same service is provided from all RE/MAX offices to all our clients.”
One highly important role of being a RE/MAX Master Franchisor is to provide leadership and support to its franchise owners. For support, RE/MAX Malta provides all franchises with a complete infrastructure from a Technology Suite that includes a state of the art property management database system, website and intranet to management consultancy, the RE/MAX Career Development Model training modules for new and experienced associates as well as the marketing of the brand on a National level. All franchise owners also have to attend a franchise owner training course that is specifically designed to assist in building their business.
Although RE/MAX provides the support as explained above it does not get involved in the day to day running of the franchises unless called upon. They provide all the tools and guidance to become a successful franchise, however ultimately it is the owner’s responsibility to promote growth and build their own business by recruiting associates and assisting them to excel in their careers.
‘Being in business for yourself but not by yourself’ is how Mr. Buttigieg sums up the RE/MAX system. “We do everything to assist a franchise to become successful however at the end of the day it is the commitment together with the planned approach that will make a franchise a success. You are in business for yourself, but we are always there to assist”
This is one of the reasons why Steve Bonnici and Marlene Conti chose to purchase their RE/MAX franchise. “Marlene and I were firstly attracted to RE/MAX because of its significant presence in Malta as well as its leadership in the market in other countries around the world, however what really convinced us to take the step to actually buy the franchise was when we saw the professional way RE/MAX Malta conducts their business, from the regional directors and management right to their associates” concluded Mr Bonnici
