INDIAN RIVER COUNTY – Re/Max, the company, which bills itself as the worldwide real estate sales leader, lost its foothold on the barrier island in 2010 when Len Zanca sold his franchise and changed the name of his business at Azalea and A1A from Re/Max Connection to Realty Connection.
Now, Bill Carroll, owner of Re/Max Premier Properties on 35th Avenue, is bringing the brand back to the Central Beach, opening Re/Max Classic at 645 Beachland Boulevard in the recently remodeled Beachland Plaza.
“The new business is a separate franchise,” Carroll says. “But because I own both, and both are under my broker’s license, the state classifies it as a branch of the existing business.”
In a transaction handled by Derek Arden of Vero Commercial Properties, Carroll leased 1,760 square feet of office space above John Michael Matthews Fine Jewelry at the end of May.
He has been refurbishing and furnishing the space for the past several weeks and plans to open the first week in July.
“All we are waiting for are the phone and computer drops,” he says. “We should be open July 5 if things stay on schedule.”
Launching a new real estate venture in the slow summer months near where another franchise threw in its Re/Max cards at what may or may not be the bottom of the worst real estate recession in modern American history would give many businessmen serious pause.
Not Carroll.
The hard-charging New York native, who started his first business as a teenager, believes his timing is good.
“In a down economy, businesses typically tighten up and contract and merge with other businesses,” he says. “But a down economy also opens up opportunities. Rents are lower and space becomes available. We’ve wanted to come to the Beach since 2007.
“When I finally convinced Re/Max to give me this franchise by showing them production at the other office, everything lined up.”
Raised on Long Island, Carroll is the grandchild of four immigrant grandparents, carrying the combined vigor of Sicily, Naples, Germany and Ireland in his solid six-foot frame.
After starting a successful company importing and exporting electrical wiring for aircraft and other high-tech applications, Carroll and a partner jumped into the rough and tumble beer distribution business in the 1970s, going toe-to-toe with the kind of guys who burn trucks and do other threatening things to convey a message that increased competition is unwelcome.
Carroll survived the hazing and eventually owned seven beer distribution businesses, including the largest non-franchise beer distributor on Long Island by his account.
“We were the first ones to sell Corona east of the Mississippi,” he says. “We delivered trailer loads directly to big bars in the Hamptons that have huge refrigerators built beneath them.”
At the same time, Carroll continued to run the wire business and began to dabble in real estate with his younger brother Michael, who today owns three Re/Max franchises on Long Island.
In 1988, Carroll and his wife Patricia moved to Indian River County with their two young sons to relax in the sunshine and be near Patricia’s parents.
“I was supposed to be semi-retired,” Carroll says, “but that didn’t work out too well. I was 35 years old, playing golf and hanging around with 65-year-olds because there was no one else to hang around with. That got old real quick.”
To stay busy while his wife taught aerobics and his sons worked their way through St. Edward’s School, Carroll says he speculated in real estate, buying and selling homes and building spec houses.
In 2001, he got his real estate license. One year and two days later, he became a broker. In 2007, he opened Re/Max Premier Properties.
Carroll says he chose to pay a franchise fee along with a small percentage of his sales to Re/Max because of his brother’s success with the brand and because of its technology and sales support.
“I went with Re/max because they are the largest in the world,” he says. “They have brick and mortar in 80 countries and more than 120,000 agents.
“They have the resources to make sales happen, including the largest real estate website in the world. We get free virtual tours for our properties and all the brochures are templated.
“The whole world is turning into franchises, because of the power of name recognition and the security it gives people of consistent quality and standards, and Re/Max is number one in brand recognition.”
Founded by current owners Dave and Gail Liniger in Denver, Colo., in 1973, Re/Max pioneered a model of agent/agency relations in which agents pay monthly fees for office overhead and management services and keep most of their commissions instead of splitting 50/50 with the broker for whom they work.
“Our agents get a 95-5 split,” says Carroll.
Because agents have to bear their own expenses and have the prospect of keeping most of the income they generate, Carroll says the company attracts successful agents.
“There is no dead wood in a Re/ Max agency,” he says. “We had an average of 10 agents at Re/Max Premier Properties in the past year and there were 34 or 35 transactions per agent.”
Carroll plans to open Re/Max Classic with several agents from his existing franchise and then recruit additional agents for the office, aiming for a maximum of 10.
“We look for quality, not quantity,” he says.
Carroll says half of his personal business is foreclosures, and that he gets a large number of buyer referrals from his brother’s agencies on Long Island.
“That is about 14 percent of our business,” he says.
He says wealthy South Americans make up another significant segment of his buyers.
And, according to Carroll, Vero home sales overall have been strong so far this year, bringing some stability to prices, but that the shadow inventory of unlisted foreclosure properties could pull prices down another notch when the distressed homes eventually go on the market.
