How RE/MAX Co-Founders Championed Women in Real Estate From the Start
Sponsored Content from Strategic Partner, RE/MAX
When you look around your real estate office today, you may just see more women than men. But 50 years ago, when the RE/MAX® brand first launched, women had a much smaller presence in real estate – especially at the local level, where the vast majority of brokerage owners and sales agents were men.
Dave and Gail Liniger, the co-founders of RE/MAX, had a big hand in changing that. Surveying the Denver marketplace in the mid-1970s, they noticed an abundance of talented women – but very few opportunities at the leading real estate brokerages and brands. So Dave and Gail kicked open the door and welcomed hundreds of women into the growing network. Those women, many of whom became top-producing agents, helped build the foundation of today's global RE/MAX network.
Gail, the very first corporate employee in 1973, has been a role model and inspiration for other women with RE/MAX from the start, eventually rising to the level of CEO and Vice Chair of the Board. It’s her and her business acumen that Dave often cites for keeping the company afloat during its early years.
Her legacy remains a cornerstone to the RE/MAX brand, which is now home to over 140,000 agents, nearly half of whom are women, with a presence in more than 110 countries and territories worldwide. It goes without saying that many of the network's most successful franchisees and regional leaders are women, and the Board of Directors of RE/MAX Holdings, parent company of RE/MAX, has a majority female presence.
Of course, none of this seems unusual in 2023, but it simply wasn't the norm when the Linigers mapped out their vision for what they wanted RE/MAX to become – a network of hard-charging lifelong learners with a passion for the business.
Fifty years later, despite massive changes in virtually all aspects of business and life, the basics of the RE/MAX strategy remain intact. When you bring productive professionals together, give them unique competitive advantages, advocate for industry education and involvement, and allow them the independence to chart their own course, amazing things become possible. And when that happens for decades, as hundreds of thousands of affiliates build their careers with the brand, the impact on lives and communities becomes immeasurable.
Gail Liniger, who helped get the ball rolling decades ago, retired from the RE/MAX Holdings Board of Directors in July and now holds the title of Vice Chair Emerita. Her influence on the network, and on the lives of countless people she's met or inspired, was on full display in February at the annual RE/MAX convention in Las Vegas.
As she came onto the stage during the opening general session in the MGM Grand Garden Arena, the sound of nearly 10,000 attendees standing and cheering in gratitude was an ovation for the ages. It was an homage to the strong foundation she helped build for the brand, a foundation real estate professionals leverage every day to build businesses and change lives.