Question: When did you join the Real Living network?

Answer: My company had been affiliated with the GMAC Real Estate franchise network since 2006. After the November 2009 acquisition of Real Living by Brookfield, I evaluated several options and ultimately decided to convert to the Real Living brand and completed the brand conversion in February 2010.


Question: Why did you join the Real Living network?

Answer: This is certainly a challenging time in the real estate industry and I believe that Real Living is well position to help us locally stay one step ahead of the competition while also helping consumers. After carefully reviewing options that included several other national brands, I chose to join Real Living because I was looking for an innovative real estate franchisor focused on delivery high levels of customer satisfaction as well as innovation. With Real Living, I found that and much more.

Question: Tell us more about Brookfield, Real Living's parent company.

Answer: Brookfield Residential Property Services, parent company of Real Living, is a division of Brookfield Asset Management, Inc., a global asset manager focused on property, renewable power, and infrastructure assets, with over $100 billion of assets under management. Brookfield Residential Property Services has a portfolio of real estate brands that includes: Royal LePage, LeCapitale, and Johnston and Daniel in Canada, and Real Living in the U.S., Portugal, and Puerto Rico. Since 2008, Toronto-based Brookfield Residential Property Services has double in size as it continues to carry out an ambitious, carefully timed international expansion.Additionally, Brookfield owns and operates one of the world’s largest global relocation services companies, Brookfield Global Relocation Services, which does business in more than 100 countries.

More information can be found at www.brookfieldrps.com.


Question:  What makes the Real Living website different or better than other real estate websites?

Answer: Our websites makes it easier than ever to search and find just the property you are looking for. It provides a powerful combination of property detail, mapping, and community information all on the property detail page. This helps consumers quickly determine if the property meets their specific needs and wants without the need to jump from page to page or site to site to assemble key information about the home, local market conditions and the qualities of the surrounding area.

• Consumers can save time and go deeper than searching by just city and price. They can refine their search by selecting from a number of other search criteria – and can even search by entering key words and phrases to match properties using the MLS property listing description.
• Consumers can also search for properties by specific school service area, subdivision, or specific street name.
  
  Our Websites:
  www.RealLivingHoustonHomeSales.com
  www.RealLiving.com
  
  
  

Question: What are the key features for consumers?

Answer:

• Fast, comprehensive search of all listings in the market.
• Our innovative map search allows you to search for listings by drawing your own map boundaries on the screen.
• Most listings show a bird's eye view from all 4 corners of the compass, to give the consumer a sense of the area around the home.
• Right on the listing page, you'll find details on area home values, property appreciation, quality of life, schools, local economy, and more (compared to city, county, and national statistics).
• Once you register, you can save properties and homes, rate your favorites, set update alerts, leave comments for one of our agents, and use social medial tools to share properties with family and friends.

Question: What are the key benefits of the Real Living technology platform for Real Living agents?

Answer: Real Living has implemented an entirely new technology platform that delivers the power of our national site to brokers and agents at the local level. It's more than a website – The Real Living technology platform provides agents with an integrated collection of resources allowing agents to better serve clients and work more productively. The platform consists of:

• Personal websites with the same features of the Real Living national website.
• A powerful back end system, the Real Living Business Center (private intranet website) that helps agents work with and communicate with their clients and prospects.