Steve Morris, April 2007
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].
Steve Morris
Steve Morris launched Exit Realty in Canada in the fall of 1996, introducing the concept of single-level residuals. Exit sales reps can earn 10 per cent of the broker’s portion of the commissions earned by a sales rep they sponsored into the system, for as long as the sponsored rep works at Exit. The company also offers seven-per-cent retirement residuals and five-per-cent beneficiary residuals.
The Canadian company has grown to more than 1,600 franchises and 53,000 sales reps across North America.
When REM interviewed Morris in April 2007, we asked why the name Exit was chosen for the company.
“The name makes people recoil a bit the first time they see it, but ultimately, that’s been our finest asset, that name,” he said. “Our competition to this day is still looking at the name, because they don’t see it with the eyes of an advertiser. Exit means ‘safe passage’ – when you sell your house and you leave, you’re making an exit. It’s the perfect use of a four-letter word! Our name has acted like a smokescreen for us. It has stymied the competition – they are still looking up at that sign, while we’re sneaking under the bridge.”
