Nick Bailey oversees all support services provided by RE/MAX, LLC to its expansive network of franchisees and Affiliates, with an unwavering focus on the relationship HQ has with Broker/Owners. Guided by his expert insight into the real estate industry, Nick drives the network’s business growth, professional development and engagement, and global and Canada organizations to ensure Broker/Owners maximize the advantages, tools and services available to them.
Nick rejoined RE/MAX as Chief Customer Officer in September 2019. A licensed real estate broker with 23 years of real estate industry experience, he first joined RE/MAX in 2001 as a management consultant. Within two years, he was promoted to Vice President, Regional Services. During his initial 12-year tenure, he drove tremendous growth by concentrating on franchisee success and relationships. In 2021, Nick was named President.
Nick’s experience includes being a Sr. Vice President at Market Leader, a Vice President at Trulia/Zillow and, most recently, the President and CEO of Century 21. Originally from Wyoming, Nick bought his first investment property as a teen and earned his real estate license at 21. He is a Certified Real Estate Brokerage Manager, Accredited Buyer Representative and Certified Distressed Property Expert. Nick holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Montana State University and is a past recipient of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the Powell Valley Chamber of Commerce.
Family comes first for Nick, who enjoys traveling, skiing, and spending time with his wife and two children. Outside of work, you can find him volunteering in his children’s classrooms, exploring the Colorado mountains and finding adventure in all things.
Episode Notes:
Narrator  This is The Norris Group’s real estate investor radio show, the award-winning show dedicated to thought leaders shaping the real estate industry and local experts revealing their insider tips to succeed in an ever-changing real estate market hosted by author, investor and hard money lender, Bruce Norris.
Bruce Norris  Thanks for joining us. My name is Bruce Norris. Today we have a very special guest Nick Bailey. Nick oversees all support services provided by REMAX LLC to its expansive network of franchisees and affiliates with an unwavering focus on the relationship HQ has with brokers-owners. Guided by his expert insight into real estate industry, Nick drives the network’s business growth, professional development and engagement, and global and Canada organizations to ensure Broker/Owners maximize the advantages, tools, and services available to them. Nick rejoined REMAX as chief customer officer in September 2019, a licensed real estate broker with 23 years of real estate industry experience. He first joined REMAX in 2001 as a management consultant, within two years he was promoted to Vice President of regional services. During his initial 12 year tenure, he drove tremendous growth by concentrating on franchise success and relationships. In 2021, Nick was named president. Nick experience, Nick’s experience includes being a Senior Vice-President at Market Leader, a Vice President at Trulia/Zillow, and most recently the President and CEO of Century 21. Originally from Wyoming, Nick bought his first investment property as a team. I am going to ask him about that and earned his real estate license at 21. He’s a Certified Real Estate Brokerage Manager, Accredited Buyer Representative, and I haven’t ever heard this one and Certified Distress Property Expert, which you never know come in handy again. Nick holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Montana State University, and is past recipient of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the PAL Valley Chamber of Commerce. And most importantly, family comes first for Nick, who enjoys traveling, skiing and spending time with his wife and two kids. Outside of work, you can find him volunteering is in his children’s classrooms, exploring the Colorado mountains and finding adventure in all things. Nick, we welcome you back to our to our show and company. Thank you.
Nick Bailey  Thank you, Bruce, what an introduction. I wondered who you were talking about?
Bruce Norris  Well, you know, it’s interesting, because you’ve taken, okay, I’ve got a real estate license to a whole new level, you know, you really are more in charge of other people’s livelihoods and how you direct major companies. And that’s I haven’t talked to very many people that have taken that direction. How did you buy your, buy a house when you were a teen? And what was the motivation for that one?
Nick Bailey  Yeah, it’s an interesting story, and speaking of license, I sold my broker’s license and, and as President of REMAX and leading this global organization, I actually sold a few million bucks in real estate last year, helping some friends. So, I like to stay frontlines of the business. But it all started, when I was 17, I was a junior in high school, and I kind of had my own endeavor, and I ended up purchasing commercial property was actually my forte into the business. I bought two retail buildings on Main Street and the community where I was and I leased one, there was a tenant in it, and I used one for my own endeavor and that was kind of the start. And then I bought my first house when I was 18. I decided why pay the college to live in a dorm room, when a year’s worth of fees on that is a FHA downpayment on a four bedroom house two blocks from the college, I’ll rent the basement out to help pay for it and I think that was between those two items when I was 17 and 18. That’s what led me to get my license when I was 21. And the rest is history.
Bruce Norris  Was there a family member that was kind of the example you went, Okay, I’m going to be just like, you know, Uncle Joe or something.
Nick Bailey  You know, I come from a very entrepreneurial family. I mean, my father worked in the, in the corporate world for an oil company. But my parents always had a business on the side of some sort and over the years had various businesses. But when I got into high school, each one of my family members, we were all running our own businesses. My father had his, my mom had hers, my brother had his, they were all completely different businesses. And I think just growing up in that environment of work hard and try to do something that you’d like to do, was kind of just the entrepreneurial DNA that was, was put into me.
Bruce Norris  You know, it’s, that statement is so true and whenever I talk to somebody that’s done exceptionally well, some of them, some of my friends, they’ve never even had a job. You know, they just have worked for themselves their whole life. And I was interviewing a guy named John Stephenson he’s a good friend of mine. And he’s, he’s that guy, you know, and I said, ‘when was the first time you had like that entrepreneurial urge?’, he said, ‘I was six years old, and I noticed that there were seniors planting flowers but they had to buy a 50 pound bag of manure. So I decided I would put three pound bag of manure bags together by a 50 pound bag and put, you know, maybe two almost 20 bags of manure.’ And he sold them for a buck a piece and made 15 bucks. And he was off and running.
Nick Bailey  Well, I, I applaud him, I certainly wouldn’t want to be in the manure business. But yeah, as a young kid, I did the lawn mowing, and then all of that I was, where I lived. I got a driver’s license when I was 14. And so, I detailed cars and kind of started that during the summer. So yeah, just always up to something and work has always been pleasure.
Bruce Norris  That’s very, that’s very cool. This giant acquisition let’s talk a little bit about that.
Nick Bailey  Yeah, we recently announced last week actually, we did an acquisition within our own company.
Bruce Norris  Right.
Nick Bailey  REMAX the way it was developed. David Liniger, our founders when they expanded outside of Colorado, the company, you know, was founded in ’73, they found like minded entrepreneurs that they essentially sold the franchise rights to and that’s who helped develop the company and in natural evolution of the franchise business, when some of those entrepreneurs of our independent regions want to exit for whatever reason, it’s natural that they sell back to us. And so one of the most successful excuse me, in the largest independent owner had nine states in the US, five provinces in Canada, and they still own REMAX of Europe. And so they were actually our largest customer. And so we just acquired the North American regions back from them and it includes 19,000 agents in those nine states in the US and five provinces in Canada. So biggest acquisition, the company’s history to fold people back into the company operated regions.
Bruce Norris  Wow, congratulations, and you’re president of the whole shebang.
Nick Bailey  Yeah, it’s, yeah, there’s a lot going on. I mean, in an acquisition like this, they were already REMAX. So, it’s a little bit within our family already. But it does help create scale and really help us drive tools and services across the entire system that are a little more consistent.
Bruce Norris If I’m the new agent, get my license, say okay, I’m going to find someone to go to work for why would it be a wise choice to join REMAX?
Nick Bailey  Well, I think it’s easy as you read in my bio, I’ve been with REMAX, without REMAX. And there’s just one compelling reason we sell a lot of houses. The average REMAX agent sells two to one to our next closest competitor. And I’d like to say that in this business, the barriers of entry are low, it’s pretty easy to get a real estate license. And people think this business is easy. But the barriers to success are high. And statistically it’s, it’s almost scary 87% of agents in this business, they get a license don’t have it five years later.
Bruce Norris  Okay.
Nick Bailey 87% of agents don’t have a license five years after they get it. And I think it’s one reason, one reason alone, they don’t sell enough houses. And that’s what we’re all about our entire brand and model is built around that full time Top Producing agent that wants to be in this business to help more buyers and sellers versus some folks that want to sell one or two or three houses a year.
Bruce Norris  That’s, yeah, that’s interesting. I know that if you looked at another number, it would probably be 70% of agents sell one house a year, like it’s very, very skewed to the, the agent that’s got a big team or is just an expert got a niche, that type of thing. What type of training and technology is available to the REMAX agent to help them get there?
Nick Bailey  Yeah, we have REMAX University, which is filled with a lot of training on best practices and where we really leverage our training is our own network. You know, our footprint is we’re the largest we’ve ever been in our 48 year history. We have over 140,000 agents in 110 countries, and 8700 office locations. And so, our trainings already built in, all we have to do is tap into someone that’s doing something great. And what I love about this business, it’s so unique. We’re very competitive. You know, Bruce, you and I will go out and we’ll fight tooth and nail against each other to get a listing. But regardless who gets it if you got it, if I got it, we put our arms around each other. And then we say do you have a buyer? And so, it’s the most competitive business, but it’s also the most cooperative business. And so I think our training comes from just people wanting to share and help other people be successful.
Bruce Norris  Do you get many new agents that are capable of coming to your company because it sounds like you’re going to hit the ground running or you’re not?
Nick Bailey  Yeah, we generally speaking, we attract more of an experienced agent.
Bruce Norris  That’s kind of…
Nick Bailey  Yeah and we’re actually when you look at statistically, the average number of years that someone’s been licensed, we are also double that of the competition. Now, we do have some awesome owners, broker owners out there that do have pretty robust new franchise training. And so we do see some brand new licenses that come into the business, or come into our brand and the business at the same time. And, yeah, it’s dependent on a lot of that at the local level for training. But teams are a big thing and so we see a lot of where our new agents come in, or new licensees come in as maybe a team member, so they can be mentored by their team leader. So, we have a few but for the most part, we cater to a more experienced agent.
Bruce Norris  In the REMAX family, do you have vertical businesses and also like an like an escrow or lending? Or how far do you go into those other types of services?
Nick Bailey  Yeah, great question. So, we actually have REMAX holdings, which within that, we have the REMAX brand, obviously our big pillar and foundation, but we have Motto Mortgage, it’s the only mortgage broker or mortgage franchise in the US. And we started that just about five years ago and now there are over 200 locations. And so it’s a franchise model, people can invest, buy a model mortgage franchise, and it’s driven to to broker obviously be the broker of the mortgage side of the business. So, that’s a big vertical. But then the other pieces, we have several other companies we’ve acquired just over the last two years, all around technology, data, AI, and we’re putting some of those pieces together. Because I do believe that the fear, the boogeyman fear of data in this industry of who’s going to steal what I have, has really suppressed innovation. And I think the industry as fast as it’s changing, has really been slow to adopt some of these advances around tech and data. And so, we have made some significant investments in a few companies in the last 12 to 24 months, because we’re not afraid of either we’re not afraid of tech, we’re not afraid of data, the agent is at the forefront of the transaction, it will be in my lifetime in this business but it’s going to be agent led and technology driven. And so we’re making those investments.
Bruce Norris  You know, what’s definitely changed, you know, during the course of my lifetime is the independent, the independent like buyer can, can have away from the agent. In other words, I can just say, okay, I want to, I want to look on realtor.com, or whatever other source you want and say what’s available in Grand Junction, Colorado, and I’ll probably be looking at every listed property independently, including touring the home, that type of thing. So, that’s, to me, that would be a challenge. And I’m sure you guys have had to consider that and overcome it. But I can do a lot of legwork initially before needing any agent at all. And that’s definitely a change from you know, 25 years ago.
Nick Bailey  Yeah, you’re right, I was just talking about that subject earlier today. When I started, I had to MLS books. And then I went to the consumer and said, You tell me why you’re worthy and I’ll show you what’s inside and that was the perceived value proposition of an agent. And I think what today has shown is you’re right, there’s ultra transparency on data in home shopping and home search. And you don’t need to the agent to open or, you know, lift the veil to what’s out there. But what it’s doing is, it is demonstrating what the true value of an agent and why a buyer or seller is wanting to engage with an agent because they want a trusted advisor. I mean, let’s face it, people don’t buy and sell very much in their lifetimes. And when they do, it’s generally the biggest investment they make and even though you can see what’s on the market, how much it costs, what the neighbors sold for, at the end of the day getting through a complex transaction, most the largest of their lives, they want a trusted advisor. And what’s interesting is the data shows more consumers are using agents today than ever before. And the group that’s driving it, Millennials 94%, five years ago, people were saying no Millennials are going to just go online, put their house in the shopping cart, they’re gonna hit checkout and it’s actually quite the opposite.
Bruce Norris  That is really interesting and that makes perfect sense to me. Do you find that agents are able to retain clients? You know, it’s not most people aren’t like I’m in the flipping business and have been, you know, for most of my life. So, if I’m buying stuff I’m buying, trying to buy one a week or more. So, if you’re dealing with an agent, it’s constant. I buy a residence, a LLC in about seven years or something. So, how do they retain the client base when there’s really maybe nothing going on for years?
Nick Bailey  Well, I love that because they should but truly, agents aren’t good at it. And that’s a overarching sweeping statement. But there was one study, I always point to that it said 94% of buyers at the closing table, when surveyed would use their agent again. But the reality is they only do 7% of the time. We’re terrible at keeping in touch and that’s where some of the tech and the post-close and the lifetime value of a customer comes into play, we like to say we kind of have a saying around it ‘Top of Mind first in line’, and agents have invested and you know, send you magnets for in your refrigerator. And that idea that seven, eight years later, you say, Gosh, I think we’re ready to move who should we call?’ And if you haven’t stayed in touch on a regular basis and given those homeowners information about their house, here’s how the markets changed. Here’s how the value has changed. Half of them can’t even remember the name of who they use before. And let’s look at the the churn rate, you know, I talked about the 87% that aren’t there, right now with the run up in new licensees. 85% of the agents in our country have had the license less than five years. And so, in some cases, their agent isn’t even in the business anymore. But for those that are still in the business, one of the most important things they need to do is keep in touch with their clients. And tech is doing just a much better job of that now.
Bruce Norris I got in contact with a gentleman that was basically he was a sales trainer. And I met him it was great and then about every week, I methodically started getting stuff that he literally had to clip out of a magazine or a newspaper that was really applicable to something that I was involved with and he just wrote a hand wrote on it, I thought you might enjoy this. And I’m going, what the heck and this went on and on and I thought so he charged $7,000 a page for if you’re going to do mailers, because his mailers actually worked. And so, you know, if you’re going to spend five grand a month in mailers, you’d actually might want to spend seven grand to an expert. But that’s why I wrote that check was because the man was in front of me helping me every week and it was astonishing. So yeah, you just, that’s not forgetting that you have a client that might also be a referral base too, that’s, that would be a very smart thing for an agent. Um, the iBuyer space. I’m just curious, is that something that is? Are you guys that come might brace that as a company and go in that direction? Or are, can you be, can you represent an eye buyer in that in that space? I don’t know how that works exactly.
Nick Bailey  I love this question. It’s, you know, eye buyer, by the way, is just a fancy word for cash buyer. I mean, let’s look at the foundation of it which is the idea that someone’s willing to come in and pay cash from an investor side. And I use the example, remember, the We Buy ugly houses, billboards that were just everywhere. That was an investment group that was going around and saying, hey, dial us, and we’ll offer you, we’ll give you a cash offer. And that’s what the iBuyer space is the foundation of at the end of the day, what the seller is really looking for is what’s the best price in terms for them. What some consumers are saying, especially right now in the run up as a seller’s market, some people are shocked at what their house is worth. And they have way more equity than they thought. And they’re willing to give up a little more that equity for the convenience of not having to show the house, not having to vacuum and make the bed and have people look through it. But I think that’s a lot due to the appreciation that they’ve experienced. As you know, as an investor, when you can buy and flip and average days on market are minutes and hours like they are today. In a lot of price ranges. It makes sense. But as you know, when you get into average days on market being 30, 60, 90 days or more your holding costs can eat a lot of that margin. And so it’ll be interesting to see how that space starts to play out. But I think the compelling part of it that we’re paying attention as an industry is buying and selling is still not fun for the, for the average person. It’s a complex transaction. It’s very disparate. consumers don’t have insight. I mean, home searches fun. You talked about that looking at the house in Grand Junction. But anyone that’s bought a house knows when you go under contract to close. It’s anxiety-driven, and it’s like someone shuts the lights off on the consumer. You know what’s happening with the appraisal, what’s the lender need? Why are they asking for more times is the inspection going to be done? And so those are all friction points in the transaction that not no one yet has solved kind of that under contract to close transparency, using tech in a mobile environment that’s going to create a very different consumer experience. Now I think we’re gonna get there. It’s a race to who’s going to get there first. But going back to iBuyers, that’s the piece of it, that the, the way they’re using the tech to engage the consumer with transparency, I think is going to stick. I think the idea of when cash buyers come to the market, when do they cool off? That’ll be driven by market conditions.
Bruce Norris  Okay, well…
Joey Romero  Can I ask a question really quick?
Bruce Norris  Go ahead.
Joey Romero  Nick, one of the things and this will go to the, you know, before what you were just talking about how to keep in touch and things like that, I’ve heard Aaron talk about, you know, combating, you know, the iBuyer in the iBuyer spaces that when he presents to realtor group, he always talks about being a local expert, like, you know, all these tech companies they can you know, they have all this great data but you know, they don’t know the sandwich shop down, the down, the down the road, where you’re looking to buy, is that something that you guys focus on it, and in your training and with your realtors?
Nick Bailey  We do, we do. I always give the example is you can you can go and find information on a lot of data, which is great. But when you really sit down as,, as an example, someone may be looking to buy a home, but they don’t realize that the city council six months ago just approved a high rise sitting directly behind there, there just those nuances around being a local expert in the neighborhood and then getting them through the transaction that is so very important. And I think that, that’s a big, a big part of it.
Joey Romero  That’s gonna do it for this week’s episode of The Norris Group, real estate radio show and podcast. Please be sure to tune in next week for part two of our interview with REMAX National president, Nick Bailey. Want to tell you about some upcoming events with The Norris Group. You’re not gonna want to miss Bruce’s third quarter market update and forecast on Saturday, August 14 at 9am AI, Artificial Inflation real estate in the stimulus economy. This is only available through our VIP subscription. So, if you’re not a subscriber, please give me a call at 951-823-8266 or shoot me an email at Joey@thenorissgroup.com. And finally on August 27, we will be back in Florida for our fifth boot camp. We only have a few seats left. So, if you’ve been thinking about investing out of state this is a great opportunity to invest alongside Bruce and The Norris Group. For more information please give me a call at 951-823-8266 or email me at Joey@thenorrisgroup.com, hope to see you in Florida.
Narrator  For more information on hard money, loans and upcoming events with The Norris Group, check out thenorrisgroup.com. For information on passive investing with trust deeds, visit tngtrustdeeds.com.
Aaron Norris The Norris Group originates and services loans in California and Florida under California DRE License 01219911, Florida Mortgage Lender License 1577, and NMLS License 1623669. For more information on hard money lending, go www.thenorrisgroup.com and click the Hard Money tab.