By Tony Palermo
Gurinder Sandhu
Gurinder Sandhu, Re/Max Ontario-Atlantic’s recently appointed executive vice-president and regional director, was only 18-years-old when he earned his real estate licence. A few months later, he sold his first condo to the son of a local hardware store owner.
“I went in to buy a screwdriver or something and we just started talking,” says Sandhu. “He said he was looking for a condo so I started showing him some. And, I remember exactly where the one he bought is – Weston and Finch (in Toronto). It was fantastic. I still remember the thrill of that sale to this day.”
Sandhu pauses, reflecting on his first sale. A few seconds later, he bursts into laughter.
“Imagine, the person who bought the condo off of me wasn’t a friend or relative,” says the now 45-year-old Sandhu. “I look back on it now and I think if an 18-year-old tried to sell me real estate, I’d look at him kind of funny. It was definitely an interesting and really fun time in my life.”
Sandhu continued selling real estate while he went to York University to pursue a Bachelor of Arts Degree in economics, followed by an Honours of Administrative Studies degree. This eventually led Sandhu to obtaining his Chartered Accountant (CA) designation.
New designation in hand, Sandhu stopped selling real estate – six years from when he first started – to focus on his new career at KPMG. All he had experienced to this point was real estate but moving to KPMG exposed him to a whole new world of business.
“Every couple of weeks there was a new assignment or a new company,” says Sandhu. “And I was looking at all kinds of different industries – service providers, manufacturers, small companies, big companies – and the world was just kind of opening up in my eyes.”
Three years later, Sandhu accepted a position with publishing giant TorStar Corporation, which exposed him to business on a global scale. While he says he loved the challenges and experiences of travelling the world, he found that something in his life was missing. His passion for what he was doing day-to-day was fading.
After having been out of the real estate industry for approximately 10 years, Sandhu realized that’s what he really missed.
An opportunity came up with Royal LePage on the relocation side of their business and for Sandhu the move was like a breath of fresh air. He was back in the game and his passion reignited. A couple of years later, Sandhu was promoted to vice-president of finance, residential real estate, where he remained for the next six years.
A few years later, Sandhu had the opportunity to meet with Walter Schneider and Pamela Alexander of Re/Max – a moment Sandhu says changed his life.
“Walter, Pamela and I connected in a way I never connected before in the business world and real estate community,” says Sandhu. “From the very first moment we started talking, I realized that I belonged at Re/Max. My goals were definitely more in line with theirs.”
And so the Re/Max journey began in 2010 when Sandhu was hired as chief financial officer, a position he held for about two years. Coincidentally, it was almost two years to the day that the executive team asked Sandhu to become executive vice-president and step into Michael Polzler’s shoes (Polzler is now the managing director of Re/Max Europe.)
“I consider it an incredible honour that the Polzler family asked me to run the Ontario-Atlantic region, especially considering this is the first time in the 32-year history of the company that a non-family member has been in this kind of leadership role,” says Sandhu. “It’s such a terrific feeling.”
Sandhu says he has no major shift in direction planned and everyone can expect a comparable management style to Polzler’s.
“Our management styles are very similar,” says Sandhu. “We share the same aggressive vision on how we grow our business. We’re both passionate about the business and industry. He is an advocate for the broker and Realtor, and so am I.”
Certainly, the charismatic Sandhu’s passion quickly comes across when he comments about the ongoing Competition Bureau’s hearing against the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB). In his opinion, Re/Max and Royal LePage were caught in the crossfire of sensational numbers and media headlines. He points to the claims that agents from both companies collected over 40 per cent of the commissions paid by GTA homeowners, totalling approximately $2.2 billion.
“Wow, big numbers, right?” asks Sandhu. “I’m sure many people are thinking, pigs at a trough.”
But as he says, people need to sit back and boil it down. First, says Sandhu, no one can unequivocally prove how much commissions are charged because the data isn’t readily available. But even assuming $2.2 billion number holds, if you divide that amount by the number of sales reps in TREB, approximately 36,000, it works out to just over $60,000 per year, per Realtor.
“Pigs at a trough?” Sandhu asks rhetorically. “I don’t think so. This represents hard-working Canadians making a living.”
Before parting, Sandhu offers a final comment about the Canadian real estate market.
“There have been a lot of headlines over the last few weeks about how the sky is falling in Canadian real estate,” says Sandhu. “But they’re pointing out just monthly stats. You have to look at the whole picture. Year-to-date August sales are up 2.8 per cent. Average prices are basically on par.”
He says: “Go ahead and put that on the front page.”
