Francis MacDonald (left) and Andrew Cimerman
By Jim Adair
HomeLife Realty Services has partnered with real estate veteran Francis MacDonald to expand the brand in Atlantic Canada and beyond. MacDonald, 60, is president and CEO of the new HomeLife Atlantic, and was named vice-president at the corporate level for HomeLife.
His Halifax brokerage, which has 28 agents, will be the base for expansion plans that would see up to 36 new HomeLife offices across Atlantic Canada during the next three to five years.
“I was one general short in this company,” says Andrew Cimerman, HomeLife’s founder and CEO. “And I found my lost brother, Francis MacDonald. He has the knowledge, energy to spare and the commitment to win and win big. And he doesn’t know it yet, but he’ll be taking on a lot more than Atlantic Canada.”
MacDonald has been in the business for 34 years. He was the first to bring the Prudential banner to Canada in 1992, when he acquired 34 real estate offices from Central Guaranty Trust. Although the Prudential experiment didn’t work out, “all of those real estate offices still exist,” he says. MacDonald then ran a Coldwell Banker franchise for several years before signing on with GMAC in 2004.
“I was thinking of going independent and building an Atlantic Canada connection again, because at one time I had 36 offices,” says MacDonald. “I met with Andrew, looking to draw a bunch of information so I could do my own mission. To my surprise, I realized the values and focus and direction HomeLife has is comparable to what I was trying to develop. Rather than try and invent the wheel myself, I decided to jump on board.”
“Francis is going to go out and broadcast the HomeLife story,” says Cimerman. “We have a higher standards product that’s upscale and community and people-oriented. That’s not what I see with our competitors. They enjoy the big fees and the big ride but I think the gravy train is over. We are the most aggressively priced and the most affordable product, bar none, among the top competitors. We bring more value for the money than any other brand without question, but people have to know that.
“The competition for the business is tough and a lot of agents are not making money and are paying exorbitant fees. At some point it’s got to hurt too much.”
HomeLife is a well-known brand in Atlantic Canada. At one point the former HomeLife Pat King franchise had 26 offices. This year, before the launch of MacDonald’s new franchise, HomeLife had seven brokerages, spread throughout all the Atlantic Provinces.
“My plan is to get between 400 and 500 agents,” with about 100 in the flagship Halifax office, MacDonald says. Brokers will have the option of starting their own HomeLife franchises or partnering with MacDonald to open a branch of HomeLife Atlantic.
He says many smaller companies have a hard time developing training systems for agents because the brokers are busy selling real estate themselves. “As a regional organization, we can bring in trainers, bring in support systems, look after accounting, and do a lot of the stuff that small brokerages may not be able to do because it’s too time-consuming. A lot of brokers are really excited when you bring them the opportunity to give up the hassles so they can do what they do best.”
HomeLife has been upgrading its systems and services, including the development of new training courses for brokers and agents. It has adopted the motto “no agents left behind”. It also has a new community outreach program called “No family left hungry”. Collection boxes are being distributed to brokerages so agents and the community can fill them with items to be donated to local food banks.
On the promotional front, HomeLife is using billboards across the country to promote its “Green & Gold, Got it Sold” slogan.
MacDonald says that in his experience, major franchises have difficulty serving the needs of brokers in Atlantic Canada, “not only because of geography but because of dollars and cents. This company recognizes that if you can find the right people in that area, they can be an extension of the brand. The biggest value of a brand is the people who work with that brand.
“Now that I have a 25-year-old son (Brendon, his director of business development) who is getting into the business with me, it’s going to afford me the opportunity to share what I have with the brokers in Atlantic Canada,” he says.
“I want to share my successes. I have a system that works – it is driven from the top down, like HomeLife. I believe everybody has the ability to be a successful agent or broker. Real estate is all about relationships and systems that are going to help you develop and maintain those relationships.”
