Number
45
RE/MAX International
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Dave Liniger seems to enjoy taking risks, perhaps because he usually comes out on top. An avid outdoorsman whose Colorado home includes a “hunt room” filled with wildlife art and a collection of modern firearms, his getaway of choice used to be big-game hunting in Africa. Once, while on safari in the Kalahari desert, he actually was forced to engage in one-on-one combat with a wounded leopard that was trying to claw its way into the back of a truck. As he told reporters, only a point-blank shot from a professional hunter at his side finally managed to subdue the beast. Liniger, who was trying repeatedly to knock it away with the butt of his gun, fell atop the now-dead animal as it tumbled to the ground.
More recently, he developed a passion for another high-risk activity: hot-air ballooning. Liniger had hoped, in fact, to be on the first balloon to circle the globe nonstop. His well-publicized efforts to complete this so-called “last great adventure” culminated in early 1999. That attempt was to begin in Alice Springs, Australia, where Liniger and another crew member would launch an enormous helium-filled balloon and soar into the stratosphere at the very edge of space. But consistent high winds near the ground forced them to scrub the launch. Two months later, the Great Round the World Balloon Race ended with another competitor’s success. Although extremely disappointed, Liniger was among those who warmly congratulated the winning team. And still enthralled by the sport, he continues overseeing a worldwide fleet of 90 balloons and an extensive educational curriculum on the subject.
Perhaps the biggest risk that Liniger ever took, however, began in 1973 when he bet his career (and his sanity) on the launch of his own real estate firm. Just 27 and working for another broker at the time, he was quite successful but not very happy about the steep cuts that were sliced out of his sales commissions. Despite negligible management skills and even less money, Liniger decided to open a firm that would allow salespeople to keep all the commissions they earned. He boasted that this would ultimately revolutionize the business, and someday make him the biggest operator in the industry. Today, the privately held firm he started is called RE/MAX International. And 25 years after selling its first franchise, it is indeed the largest of its kind in the world—affiliated with 58,000 sales associates who confidently stand behind its red, white, and blue hot-air balloon logo on six continents.
Dave Liniger grew up in Marion, Ind. After dropping out of college and completing a stint in the Air Force, he decided his dreams could be satisfied through real estate. By the time he was 24, he owned almost two dozen houses. Liniger fixed up those needing work, then sold them off for a profit. To increase his earnings, he obtained a real estate license. This allowed him to handle both ends of the deals without using and paying for an outside agent.
Liniger discovered that he had a talent for selling real estate, and he took a job with a brokerage in Phoenix. Ever ambitious, he switched to another when he learned it permitted agents to keep their entire sales commissions—a revolutionary idea at the time, and one that he would later borrow and popularize. After just three months with the new broker, though, Liniger grew restless and in late 1971 moved to Denver. There, he quickly entered the select ranks of agents who annually recorded multi-million-dollar sales. But he was back to giving half his commissions to the firm that hired him, and it still rankled. So he quit and started his own, announcing that it would offer its salespeople 100-percent commissions. He named it RE/MAX, which stood for “real-state maximums.”
Basing himself in the Denver suburb of Englewood, Liniger planned a complete overhaul of the established industry structure. He would allow agents to retain all of their commissions, as he proposed, and in return they would be billed for their share of the company’s overhead. (This eventually limited its appeal to only top salespeople, because those who didn’t perform at high levels—as well as those who preferred working part-time—could not justify these recurring payments.) To further build a superior organization he also reached out to female agents who, at the time, were shunned by the biggest brokerages. Indeed, women comprised 80 percent of his hires in those early years.
Gail Liniger, whom Dave married in 1984, was the very first RE/MAX employee. Her college background and managerial talents meshed perfectly with Dave’s leadership skills and entrepreneurial drive. Within a month, he changed her title from executive secretary to vice president. But the two found their abilities and dedication immediately put to the test. The Arab oil embargo had hit around the same time the company opened, and some who initially promised to finance the new venture backed off when the Denver real estate market crashed. Many top agents in the area also shied away from the upstart firm, at least in part because of the skeptical press coverage regularly generated by its nontraditional nature.
The Linigers had opened eight local offices right at the start, and they soon found their bills mounting much faster than their revenues. The IRS even padlocked their facilities at one point, but Gail’s financial prowess and Dave’s persuasive bag of tricks soon got them all reopened. The fir m also began incurring the wrath of competitors as more and more agents started drifting its way, and rumors of illegalities anonymously surfaced. The Securities and Exchange Commission and FBI came in to investigate, and the Colorado Real Estate Commission commenced weekly audits. Nothing illegitimate was found, however, and the Linigers were permitted to proceed with their plans.
The couple remained steadfast in their desire for expansion, but their various problems altered at least one original concept: Because RE/MAX still lacked cash, the growth would have to be realized through franchising, rather than companyowned offices. In the end, though, this may have been the best idea the duo ever had.
In 1975 the Linigers began selling franchises to real estate brokers who, like them, exhibited an entrepreneurial bent. Their unorthodox ideas still met with some resistance, but growth came rapidly and within two years they had 100 franchises. Top agents also signed on—and willing customers flocked to them—in big and small U.S. cities from coast to coast. Canadian offices followed in 1980, and within six years RE/MAX dominated the market throughout that country.
To keep the expansion on track, the Linigers worked tirelessly to publicize the RE/MAX name and bolster the type of programs on which it was founded. Bonus plans were implemented for support staff, for instance, while top managers were given the chance to buy a piece of regional franchises and affiliated businesses. Additionally, the Linigers constantly traveled around to seek opinions from associates on other efforts that would improve the network. All of this paid off handsomely, as more and more agents expressed a desire to work for RE/MAX while more and more potential franchisees started requesting offices in their markets. Outside of North America, the first of these was in the Caribbean Basin in 1991. That was followed by Mexico, then southern Africa, Spain, Israel, Italy, Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Turkey, Singapore, Australia, Greece, Cyprus, Lichtenstein, Austria, Switzerland, Portugal, France, and Southeast Asia. Finally as international as its name, RE/MAX claimed 3,400 offices in 34 countries and eight territories at the start of the 21st century.
And the Liniger’s often revolutionary ideas, which now are regularly copied by competitors around the world, didn’t stop flowing with these accomplishments. For example, in the early 1990s, they created the RE/MAX Satellite Network as a hightech training aid to help their personnel become even more productive. This multimillion-dollar system has since broadcast more than 5,000 hours of televised tips and advice, such as how agents can relocate and remain successful and how they can use technology to increase sales. It also disseminates financial planning suggestions and training information for the company’s 20,000 or so support staffers. To further spread such educational and sales ideas, RE/MAX holds live conferences each year that draw thousands of U.S. agents and hundreds more from other countries.
Not surprisingly, RE/MAX has been an industry pioneer in cyberspace as well. After connecting associates and customers through the CompuServe online service in the early years, it eventually moved onto the Web. E-mail, discussion areas, and helpful data are all available through its site to agents and support personnel. Links to listings and local agents, along with tips for buying and selling, and info on RE/MAX programs like its ballooning fleet, are offered to the public.
As for the Linigers, their desire to seek new challenges has not abated. They fly their own fixed-wing airplane, breed Arabian horses, and Dave even drives with a NASCAR touring team. The two also built a private 18-hole golf course near their Colorado home. There are no other members, not even land development on the periphery—just 7,275 yards of steep hills and heavily treed terrain on which Dave and Gail get to hack around. Admittedly, that doesn’t sound very risky. Until, as Dave willingly tells the media, you ask him about his golf game.