History of RE/MAX^®

In 1973, Dave and Gail Liniger founded RE/MAX in Denver, Colorado, motivated by their dissatisfaction with the way the real estate business was conducted at that time.

Most Houston real estate offices, like virtually all others used the split-commissions system at that time, regardless of their operation's size, which required agents to give up half of their commissions to the sponsoring broker in exchange for services and office space. The top producers contributed the most to the operation's overhead, thus supporting the amateur, part-time and low-producing agents. Most Texas real estate agents left the business within two years, making residential real estate in Houston and all over Texas a high-turnover industry comprising in large part inexperienced and unprofessional staffs.

The Linigers were determined to change all that.

Dave and Gail felt that to attract and retain the best agents in the business, brokers must offer them maximum compensation, advanced support services and the freedom they need to succeed. Agents would share office overhead and pay management fees, and in return would receive a wide variety of traditional real estate franchise services and high commissions.

The strategy worked.

RE/MAX has grown every single year for more than 30 years. Very few companies with a worldwide presence can make such a claim.

Recognized by the home buying and selling public for its red, white and blue hot air balloon logo, RE/MAX has been the No. 1 residential real estate network in Canada since 1987 and is a leading industry force in the United States and many other regions.

The most significant growth for RE/MAX in recent years has come outside the United States, with expansion into Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Central America, Europe, Mexico, New Zealand and South America. RE/MAX takes proven techniques and adapts them to local markets, thereby developing a series of tools that real estate professionals find invaluable.

Some of the innovative services created by RE/MAX International to help its Ohio RE/MAX agents become ever more professional and successful include relocation and asset management, commercial investment, an international referral network, advanced training courses, state-of-the-art technological tools, Internet and extranet Web sites, and national television advertising campaigns. It was the first - and remains the only - real estate network to invent and maintain a satellite television network (RE/MAX Satellite Network) dedicated to real estate professionals.

In an industry rife with mergers and acquisitions, RE/MAX is the only major real estate network still owned and directed by its original founders

History of Lake Shore Realty

John & Kathy Rader, an intuitive businessman & business woman and entrepreneurs who had been in the real estate business for a combined total of over 30 years, founded RE/MAX Lake Shore Realty in 2003. Rader, his wife Kathy, and their son and Daughter moved their families to Port Clinton from Findlay, Ohio in 2000, attracted by the bustling Lake Erie real estate market. They joined Lakeside Realty, but after a couple years the business was not growing as fast as their ambitions. In 2002, John & Kathy Rader transferred to Realty One but still were not quite satisfied. "We knew that something bigger and better was lurking just over the horizon," stated Rader.

Rader’s found what they were looking for in 2003 when they purchased the franchise rights for RE/MAX Lake Shore Realty operations. They carried on with Dave Liniger's unconventional concept of allowing the Ohio realty professionals to keep the maximum amount of their commissions, with the stipulation that they contribute to the shared overhead expenses plus a small management and promotions fee.