One of the busiest real estate offices in the capital region has been sold.
Three partners in Re/Max of Nanaimo have purchased the the Re/Max Camosun franchise from Wayne Schrader, who owned it for 25 years.
Re/Max Camosun has more than 170 real estate agents and 18 support staff. Schrader said it handles about 25 per cent of the market share of residential sales in the region annually.
The new owners are Mike Heinrich, who has been a managing broker since 1988, and father-and-son team Charlie and Graeme Parker. The three men have owned the Re/Max of Nanaimo franchise since 2007.
When Schrader, 58, bought the Re/Max franchise it was one small office on Douglas Street in downtown Victoria. Today, it consists of five offices, with its head office on Chatterton Way in Saanich. As the franchise grew, six other real estate offices were purchased to become part of the group.
“It has been a busy 25 years,” Schrader said Monday.
Originally from Leduc, Alta., Schrader moved to Victoria in 1990 and started in real estate. He will stay on at Re/Max Camosun for a few months to help with the transition.
Schrader plans to take some time off in the new year and then return to some sort of work, but hasn’t decided yet what that will be.
“I’ve got lots of energy,” he said. “I have to have a purpose when I get up in the morning.”
A couple of years ago, Schrader started thinking about moving on and wanted to sell his business as a going concern. Existing real estate agents and staff with Re/Max Camosun will be staying on.
Schrader has known Heinrich and the Parkers for several years.
The Nanaimo office, with 99 agents, has done slightly more than half of all real estate transactions, residential and commercial, in the community to date this year, Heinrich said.
The sale closes today, he said. “As an ownership group, we are always looking for new opportunities.”
Heinrich, who has worked in real estate since 1980, is relocating to Victoria and will be general manager of the organization. Ray Blender will be managing broker of Re/Max Camosun, supervising all the agents.
Justus Edmundson will take over from Heinrich as managing broker in Nanaimo.
Charlie and Graeme Parker are partners in their own real estate team in Nanaimo with Re/Max.
