By Valerie Vézina
Louise Rémillard
Louise Rémillard dreamed of becoming a journalist but her father dissuaded her. Like him, she has devoted much of her life to the world of business. She attributes her business success to her integrity and her outspokenness. When she was younger, Rémillard taught French as a second language to young adults. Then she became a mother of three children. She trained as a travel agent shortly after the birth of her son Carl, who is now, years later, her partner in Profusion Realty.
This Québec brokerage, affiliated with Christie’s, the oldest auction house in the world, has become a major player in the prestige residential real estate market, mostly in Montreal but also in the suburbs.
Recently Profusion Realty brokers have taken market share from other long-established brokers in Westmount, where Profusion is headquartered. The company says it had 33 per cent of condominium sales over $700 000 in this wealthy city in 2011. “One property in four, in Westmount, is listed and /or sold by a Profusion broker,” the company says in its promotional brochure.
Louise Rémillard has a sharp business acumen and sense of timing. The proof: she bought a travel agency in 1979, and then sold it in 1995 because she felt that “the market would change” with the advent of the Internet. That’s when she decided to become a Realtor. When she talks about this change, Rémillard says she did it because she did not want to have to manage inventory or have accounts receivable to administer.
She took classes at Royal LePage in the Laurentians, land of hills and valleys north of Montreal. “I did not start in the majors,” she says. The straightforward and outspoken fashion in which she expressed her concerns about how to complete brokerage contracts at a meeting of the provincial real estate association, OACIQ, attracted the attention of a director of a Royal LePage corporate office. He convinced her to return to Montreal. After nine years at Royal LePage, she did a brief stint at Sotheby’s. She says she was unhappy there, feeling there must be something better to do with her life. After much thought, she made the decision to meet with the competitor, Christie’s, in New York.
Rémillard well remembers that day. She was nervous but determined. Inside the headquarters of Christie’s, Rockefeller Center, a giant reproduction of a luxury property apparently attracted the attention of all visitors. Displayed was a house listed for $125 million, which would eventually sell for $99 million. “I made a joke about the price of the house, to break the tension.”
With the global financial crisis and the fall of Lehman Brothers in the United States, the business context in 2008 was challenging. “Worldwide, the market began to fall. It has since come back … but the first few months, we were worried. In April 2009 there were not many properties on the market,” says Rémillard.
Once again she had to row against wind and tide. She tells of her amazement when one banker explained to her how she represented the greatest possible risk to him, because of her status as a “divorced woman, parent and entrepreneur.”
“Fortunately, there was no over-indebtedness here in Canada,” she says, unlike the U.S. subprime episode. There was a local construction boom and low interest rates in Canada kept the market moving.
Today the Westmount office brings together some 30 brokers, including Marie-Claire and France, children of the president. Their mother says she is proud to “work in a spirit of genuine collaboration” with both internal and outside brokers.
In October 2011, Profusion Realty opened a branch with four brokers in the village of St-Sauveur in The Laurentians. There are other Canadian brokerages affiliated with Christie’s in Mont Tremblant, Whistler, B.C., Toronto, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. and Ottawa.
In March 2012, the companies’ interactive website, www.profusionimmo.ca had over 200 listings concentrated in downtown Montreal, Old Montreal and Nuns’ Island, an area coveted for its proximity to downtown.
“Montreal is more attractive now to foreigners. We get more calls from the Far East, from French people interested in investing capital here. We have not seen that since 2008,” says Rémillard, in her small office overlooking the reception area of the company over which she presides. There is a display case filled with plastic-coated sheets promoting prestigious houses for sale, such as an Art Deco style residence with a lift, “a magical atmosphere in a first choice environment”, and an 11,000-square-foot lot in Westmount. The asking price? $ 3,998,000.
Louise Rémillard has definitely chosen a more lucrative path than journalism.
