Arthur Bartram and Howard Drukarsh, September 2010
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 jim@remonline.com.
Arthur Bartram and Howard Drukarsh
The late Arthur Bartram and Howard Drukarsh founded Right At Home Realty in 2004. In 10 years it has grown to become the largest independent real estate brokerage in Canada, and the No. 1 brokerage in the Toronto Real Estate Board for combined units sold.
A REM story in September 2010 recounted how Bartram and Drukarsh had known each other since the 1980s when they both worked for Canada Permanent Real Estate. They were both working at Royal LePage’s Johnston and Daniel when they came up with the concept for a new brokerage.
The business model was based on U.S. brokerage Charles Rutenberg Realty, which offered agents low per transaction and monthly fees. Bartram first heard of the U.S. firm while in the process of selling his Florida condo in 2004. His Florida sales rep was just about to move over to Charles Rutenberg and he gave Bartram a promotional flyer about his new firm. When Bartram returned to Toronto, he showed the flyer to his friend and colleague Drukarsh.
“I remember going into his office and he said, ‘What do you think of this?’ ” says Drukarsh. “I was an agent and I reacted as an agent. I thought this was a really good way to create a business model that doesn’t exist in Toronto.”
Today Right At Home Realty has more than 2,400 agents in six offices.
