Save Max, based in Mississauga, Ont., says it is the first Canadian real estate company to pay commissions to Realtors on the same day a deal is signed on a property transaction. It allows agents to focus on growing their business rather than doing part-time jobs to sustain their daily expenses, the company says.
“Being a real estate agent is a tough job,” says Raman Dua, founder & CEO of Save Max. “We want to provide our Realtors the comfort, security and peace of mind that Save Max has their back every step of the way and can be assured that they will be paid instantly when the deal is written, so they don’t have to struggle for their day-to-day expenses when the deal has already been done but the closing is a few months away.
“Ninety per cent of the Realtors who drive the real estate industry leave the profession within the first year and 65 to 70 per cent of the Realtors are part-timers,” Dua says. “The problem is they are not able to manage their cash flow on the day-to-day basis. The second thing is the way the industry traditionally has worked, if you are doing the deal today and closing is after two months, you’re going to get the cheque 10 to 15 days after the closing.”
The initiative is also intended to encourage part-time Realtors to become full-time.
Save Max, which was established in April 2010, has close to 50 offices and 600 Realtors across the country. It has operations in India as well with franchises in that country.
Dua says the brand has sold $7 billion in real estate and plans to expand to 11 more countries in the next five years.
Dua came to Canada in 2003 as an immigrant from India. He worked at a gas station and as a security guard. In 2006, he started thinking of going into real estate after he bought a home and decided to sell it after a couple of months. He made about $40,000 on the transaction.
“I thought this is the field where I should be,” says Dua.
He got his real estate license and started his new career in 2007 with Re/Max. In his first year, he did close to 50 deals. As his business grew, he made the switch to another Re/Max brokerage and built up his team. Dua had a number of different ideas he wanted to implement and he wanted the independence to put them into place.
He launched Save Max in 2010 with the concept of “List Your House for $999”.
“We didn’t have a formal office at that time so we launched it in the basement of our house, which was almost a 2,000-square-foot house. Slowly, slowly I started to build up my team and we had about 70 people at that time and in 2012 we moved to our first commercial office in Brampton. By that time we had already built up a company that was close to $100 million transactions. That concept of providing the best services at an affordable price really worked well.”
The business continued to grow. In 2014-2015, it moved to its Mississauga office. In 2019, it launched a unique franchise model where any Realtor can join Save Max as a franchise owner.
“Now after two years, it’s been a blessing for us,” says Dua. “We have grown the company five times. At this point in time we have 56 franchises all across the country and we have a team of more than 610 Realtors at this point. In 2021 we sold more than $3 billion in real estate. We have operations in Ontario, Alberta, Vancouver and Winnipeg and we have some franchises in India as well. We have a plan to go to the U.S. very soon and then Australia and then Pakistan.”
The company also recently launched a commercial real estate division.
“Creating success for others is a real success for me,” Dua says. “I understand the challenges of people starting out in the industry, as I have been there myself. I am committed to the real estate profession and its entrepreneurial spirit. We are more than a real estate company. We care about people.
“I challenge the rest of the brokerages and real estate companies in Canada to show that they care about their people and do whatever it takes to grow them personally, professionally and financially. Making an impact is what I want to do for everyone, and this step will help the real estate industry grow.”
Mario Toneguzzi is a contributing writer for REM. He has more than 40 years of experience as a daily newspaper writer, columnist, and editor. He worked for 35 years at the Calgary Herald, covering sports, crime, politics, health, faith, city and breaking news, and business. He now works on his own as a freelance writer for several national publications and consultant in communications and media relations/training. Mario was named in 2021 as one of the Top 10 Business Journalists in the World by PR News – the only Canadian to make the list.
