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Real estate broker moves to Royal LePage

Wants more recognizable franchise name

HomeLife Merritt Real Estate is now Royal LePage Merritt Real Estate Services. Broker Tom McDonagh says the well-known local real estate firm has “changed its franchise name” in order to carry on business in a changing marketplace.

Royal LePage is a Canadian company and is the country's second largest real estate franchise, McDonagh says, behind only ReMax Canada.

McDonagh says he regretted moving away from HomeLife but concluded that it was necessary as the stream of potential customers shifted direction. “My heart was heavy when I had to tell the guy (at HomeLife) I was leaving,” he said Tuesday, the first official day under the new Royal LePage banner.

A few years ago, he said, “a huge part” of his business consisted of customers flowing to Merritt from the wide region between Hope and Vancouver. “HomeLife is huge in the Fraser Valley,” he said. That meant potential home buyers coming to Merritt often had some experience of HomeLife, and trusted the company.

But while he enjoyed operating under the HomeLife name, there were few offices carrying the banner in this part of British Columbia. “There was me, and the next guy is in Salmon Arm.”

And the flow of customers from the Fraser Valley has thinned in recent years, he said. More people are now coming to Merritt from the Kelowna and West Bank area, he said. He believes that in that area, Royal LePage has better name recognition. “I wanted a more regional, and more Canada-wide name,” he said.

The signs will change, as will the business cards and letterheads, but the staff and office location, on Quilchena Avenue, will remain the same.

McDonagh has been a real estate broker for many years. “I opened my first office in 1979,” he said. It was 13 years ago that he moved into the HomeLife franchise, and now it's time to move up.

He said clients should expect “at least the same services” as were formerly provided, and maybe some extra products or services. For example, the Royal LePage Foundation puts on contests with attractive prizes and puts money to good use in women's shelters. And then there's that name that's recognized across Canada, which McDonagh thinks will improve his business profitability.

He's been putting in some late nights recently, making the change, and he says just changing a company name can be a lot of work. But when it's time to change, change can be a good thing, and for Tom McDonagh and the staff at Royal LePage Merritt, it might just be the right time and the right place.

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