RE/MAX’s Fiona Petrie talks virtual acquisitions

Today’s HousingWire Daily features a crossover episode with RealTrending, a podcast that focuses on interviewing the brightest minds in real estate. In this episode, Tracey Velt, managing editor at RealTrends, a HousingWire sister company, interviews Fiona Petrie, executive vice president and managing director of U.S. Operations for RE/MAX Integra.

During this episode, Petrie discusses ways to combat Zoom fatigue and the lessons she learned from a recent conversion of an independent into the RE/MAX Integra family that was done completely virtual.

Here is a small preview of the interview, which has been lightly edited for length and clarity:

Tracey Velt: You had an acquisition during COVID-19 that was completely virtual on Zoom. Tell me about the process and lessons learned.

Fiona Petrie: Zoom accelerated the process with a recent acquisition. We had a conversion of an independent company in Rhode Island. I met them in February 2020 at our annual convention, and I haven’t seen them since. We were able to successfully convert them to RE/MAX during COVID-19. We kept putting off the announcement date of this conversion. So we finally said, we just can’t delay this anymore. I think we delayed it three times. 

We finally said, “We’ve got to do this virtually.” It was the first one we’d ever done. Imagine, you’ve owned this independent for years, your agents mean everything to you. Now you’re telling them that they’re switching the company that they’ve aligned themselves with to a new brand. The agents haven’t been through the process you have to see inside RE/MAX. So they made the announcement that there was going to be a Zoom office meeting and that it was very important that they attend. Then, they had fun with it. 

HousingWire Daily examines the most compelling articles reported from the HousingWire newsroom. Each afternoon, we provide our listeners with a deeper look into the stories coming across our newsroom that are helping Move Markets Forward. Hosted by the HW team and produced by Alcynna Lloyd and Victoria Wickham.