Bernie Vogt, June 2011

To celebrate 25 years of serving Canada’s real estate community, REM asked a small group of real estate leaders this question:

“Who had the biggest impact – good or bad – on Canadian real estate in the last 25 years?

This is not a popularity contest or a marketing exercise. We want to know who you think had the biggest impact on the industry in the last 25 years – even if it was, in your opinion, a negative impact. Your choices could include Realtors, company executives, association executive officers, regulators, service company executives….even politicians! Who has had the most impact during the last 25 years in making the industry what it is today?”

REM took those consensus picks and added our own and the results will be revealed on REM online every day until the end of June.  Take a look and see if you agree with these choices, and then let us know who we missed. Add your comments below or drop an email to [email protected].

Bernie Vogt

Bernie Vogt has appeared on REM’s cover more than any other Canadian real estate executive. He was Ontario general manager for the former A.E. LePage, general manager for Royal LePage, a member of the real estate transition team during the Coldwell Banker/Canada Trust merger, president of Countrywide Realty and then president and CEO of Prudential’s Canadian operations.

He is now president of the Aventure Realty Network, a network of independent real estate brokerages that he launched after announcing his “retirement” from real estate in 2008.

“The ability to be flexible and to create themselves is the strength of independents,” Vogt told REM in a June 2011 interview. “They’re not identified by a franchise brand. Aventure wants to support the independent broker’s own identity, with any type of business plan that suits them.”