REALTA - News

Montreal, January 25, 2012
REALTA LAUNCHES ITS 5th ANNUAL CONTEST IN PARTNERSHIP WITH INTERVERSION [ - ]

Montreal, January 24, 2012 - REALTA today officially launches the 2012 edition of its annual grand prize contest, entitled “THE real estate contest.” This fifth edition boasts two grand prizes valued at $10,000 each: the first is $10,000 in cash from REALTA, and the second, from Interversion, allows the winner to choose either a bedroom or dining room set from its Kyoto collection, or any other in-stock furniture manufactured by Interversion. To enter, participants must simply entrust the sale or the purchase of their residential property to REALTA and finalize the transaction between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2012.

“Our contest is unlike any other because it changes year after year,” said François Bissonnette, REALTA’s president and founder. “For 2012, we are proud to be associated with a prestigious new partner, Interversion, which is a major artisan in the Quebec furniture industry. We simply couldn’t have found a more natural complement. Interversion is not only well entrenched in Montreal and targets the same clientele as we do, but it offers home-related products and sets itself apart with a forward-thinking and dynamic approach.”

Michel Prud’homme, Interversion’s owner and founder, says he’s thrilled to be associated with REALTA’s 2012 contest. “It is a promising partnership that we intend to help our respective clients benefit from all year long. Both our companies share the same values and approach, which are based on providing a higher quality and personalized service.”

Montreal, December 15, 2011
REALTA PUBLISHES RECIPE BOOK [ + ]

Montreal, December 15, 2011 – Once again, REALTA manages to innovate and surprise by straying from the beaten path. Hot on the heels of its humorous online ad campaign, the successful real estate agency today launches a unique and unexpected business gift: a recipe book. Among the professional photos and glossy high-end pages, each member of the REALTA team introduces his or her favourite recipe: Some are veritable family “heirlooms”; some hail from the contributor’s home region, and others have been discovered through personal experience. The culinary offering is nothing short of impressive: minestrone, shrimp tartar, Gaspé cipaille (sea pie), crepes, Chile con carne, eggplant, champagne risotto, roast beef with coffee, chicken sauté, fillet of veal and tomato cupcakes, complete with cheeses for dessert.

Throughout 2012, REALTA will be offering this prestigious gift to customers to celebrate the closing of a transaction, to its various business partners and to guests during special events, such as the annual grand prize draw evening the agency hosts each February.

“There’s a strong sense of innovation that guides everything we do and this recipe book further reinforces our image as an agency that’s ‘not like the others’,” says François Bissonnette, REALTA’s president and founder. “The idea came to us last year after taking a group cooking class at Montreal’s La Guilde Culinaire. After all, moving into a new home or condo involves infusing the space with the aromas of one’s favourite dishes, so we thought the idea was a perfect fit. Sure, it’s pretty bold, but we’re extremely proud of the results.”

Montreal, April 11, 2011
FRANÇOIS BISSONNETTE RE-ELECTED FOR A THIRD MANDATE TO THE GREATER MONTRÉAL REAL ESTATE BOARD [ + ]

François Bissonnette, president and founder of the REALTA real estate agency, has been re-elected by his peers to the board of directors of the Greater Montréal Real Estate Board for a third consecutive mandate. The GMREB is the second largest real estate board in Canada. Its 10,000 members represent virtually all real estate agents working in the Greater Montreal region.

“I want to thank the members of the Board for once again placing their trust in me,” said Mr. Bissonnette. “I am firmly committed to promoting this profession, which I feel needs to be better understood and appreciated by the public. Agents today must adapt to new customer expectations, business models and information technologies. To overcome these challenges, it is important that the profession adopt a forward-thinking approach. This is what we do each and every day at REALTA. The Board has an important role to play in promoting and guiding our profession, and I am keen to further support these efforts.”

Montreal, April 11, 2011
FRANÇOIS BISSONNETTE RE-ELECTED FOR A THIRD MANDATE TO THE GREATER MONTRÉAL REAL ESTATE BOARD [ + ]

Montreal, March 14, 2011
REALTA’S PRESIDENT SERVES AS GUEST SPEAKER AT THE ORPI NETWORK CONVENTION IN PARIS [ + ]

The real estate industry has a long way to go to catch up with today’s social, cultural and technological realities. But given its long-standing resistance to change, does it have the courage to update its outmoded ways?

It is this very issue that REALTA president François Bissonnette discussed today in Paris during the annual convention of the ORPI network. Organizers of the event asked Mr. Bissonnette to prepare a speech on this subject for the members of ORPI, the largest association of real estate agencies in France, with over 1,200 points of sale. Presented as being “a leader and model professional”, Mr. Bissonnette spoke about the challenges facing the real estate industry in Canada, and his agency’s decision to adopt a new way of selling real estate services. Mr. Bissonnette is also a member of the Greater Montreal Real Estate Board and sits on the Collège de l’immobilier foundation.

Here are two extracts of his preparatory notes:
“Consumers want up-to-date, high-quality information – quickly and without charge – in the technology of their choice,” stressed Mr. Bissonnette. “All the more so because they can do quite a bit of shopping on their own over the Internet before contacting us. Some even decide to sell their property privately to reduce their sales costs. These are the new realities we are facing.”

REALTA’s response? “There is no miracle recipe,” says Mr. Bissonnette. “At REALTA, everything we do revolves around striving for excellence and innovation. This requires, first and foremost, professionals who are carefully handpicked and continuously trained. Our business culture is based on values that include integrity, innovation and professionalism. We have also implemented a personalized structure for brokers who want to work as a team by sharing information and responsibilities. We also use unique marketing tools that provide our clients with complete details on every step involved in selling their property.”

In conclusion, REALTA’s president entertained the audience with a video of one of the nine ads from REALTA’s 2010 ad campaign, starring the ever-colourful Denis Surprenant. Entitled “Il y a une meilleure façon de faire de l’immobilier” (there’s a better way of doing real estate), this innovative campaign combines the absurd with self-deprecating humour.

Mr. Bissonnette’s full speech (in French) is available on our site at www.realta.ca/fr/discoursORPI2011.php.

Montreal, March 2011
REALTA STILL AT THE FOREFRONT IN THE AREA OF QUALITY SERVICE [ + ]

REALTA brokers are among the first in Quebec to become Quality Service Certified® (or QSC), a service now offered to all member brokers of the Quebec Federation of Real Estate Brokers. Originating in California, certification is incumbent upon the written adherence to strict principles and procedures intended to ensure quality service, as well as upon the use of a survey in which clients evaluate the agency’s work at the end of each transaction. This detailed survey is handled by an independent research firm and accurately measures client satisfaction levels. Results are then made public on a consumer-dedicated website.

“Offering quality service from the start to finish of the purchasing or selling process is our trademark and we are proud to be consistently at the forefront of our industry,” says François Bissonnette, REALTA’s president. “That’s why we immediately volunteered to participate in the QSC pilot project despite the fact that it is very restrictive, not only because of the written commitments it imposes on brokers, but also because of the public nature of their clients’ satisfaction levels. But we are already known for doing more than everyone else – and before everyone else. Because of this we were able to meet the new challenges it entailed.”

February 2011
THE REAL ESTATE CONTEST 2010: OUR GRAND PRIZE DRAW EVENING! [ + ]

The draw evening of REALTA's THE Real Estate Contest of 2010 took place at the MX Galery on Feb 3rd, 2011.

The winners of the "Mediterranean Trip Grand Prize" offered by Equinox Voyages are Ms. Marie-Christine Fortin and Guillaume Longval.

The winners of the $10 000 Grand Prize offered by REALTA are Ms. Nathalie Watteyne and Mr. François Hébert. Congratulations to our winners!

Check our photo gallery for the event by clicking here.

Montreal, May 27, 2010
DENIS SURPRENANT IS BACK! [ + ]

In light of the success of its humorous French ad campaign this past February and March, entitled: “Il y a une meilleure façon de faire de l’immobilier” [there’s a better way of doing real estate], which attracted more than 16,500 unique visitors from 83 countries, real estate agency REALTA is launching the first in a new series of four ads today. Combining the absurd with self-deprecating humour, these 1-minute ads continue to feature Denis Surprenant, a real-estate agent whose heart is in the right place, but whose ideas tend to result in hilarious, if not over-the-top situations. In this first ad, our colourful agent – played to perfection by actor Sylvain Lamy – bends over backwards to explain the importance of the symbiosis that must exist between the agent and the house for sale. It is sure to elicit a laugh or two! The three other ads will appear on the realta.ca site on Wednesday, June 2, 9 and 16 respectively.

“After having paved the way, we continued to innovate by following up on our unique and catchy ad campaign with four new episodes,” says François Bissonnette, REALTA’s president. “Denis Surprenant personifies all the prejudice associated with our profession, but this self-deprecating humour is a healthy sign because it is so extreme. What better way to correct the public’s misguided image of real estate agents than by pretending to reinforce it! Once people visit our site, they can see the professionalism and business ethics of the REALTA team, which are the polar opposites of this image.”

Many people have indeed seen this since last February. In the wake of the campaign’s first five ads, the popularity of the REALTA website skyrocketed, with 63% more visitors than the average for similar-sized agencies, with 55% more pages seen and 22% more new visits.
CINÉLANDE’s Nicolas Fransolet is the campaign’s developer-designer and Sonart’s Yan Dal Santo dressed up the images with music and sound.

About REALTA

The REALTA real estate agency is particularly active in central Montreal, notably in Outremont, Côte-des-Neiges, the Plateau, Villeray, Rosemont and Old Montreal. It puts team values, conviviality, innovation, professionalism, collaboration and respect for the environment at the core of its business culture. It does all this while enjoying one of the highest rates of industry growth for the Greater Montreal region.

For more information about the agency or its annual contest, for virtual visits of its listings, or to just get a chuckle from its humorous ads, please visit www.realta.ca

Montreal, May 11, 2010
REALTA AWARDS $1,000 SCHOLARSHIP OF EXCELLENCE [ + ]

REALTA awarded a $1,000 scholarship of excellence to the student with the best overall average in his or her category during the recent Soirée d’excellence of the Collège de l’immobilier du Québec. Danièle Papazian, the 2009-2010 laureate, finished at the top of the “Real Estate Agent” category. This is the third year that REALTA has partnered with this important event in recognizing real estate education in Quebec.

“It’s our contribution toward the education of the next generation of real estate professionals,” explained REALTA’s president, François Bissonnette. “As a member of the board of directors of the Greater Montréal Real Estate Board, I understand that this is an important issue for our industry and our clients. On behalf of the entire REALTA team, I congratulate Ms. Papazian on this much-deserved award.

Montreal, February 21, 2010
REALTA DOUBLES ITS SALES VOLUME IN JUST TWO YEARS [ + ]

Statistics from the Greater Montréal Real Estate Board for the year 2009 are extolling the remarkable commercial success of the REALTA agency since its creation in January 2008. During its two years of existence, the REALTA team has doubled its sales volume, jumping from $21 million under another banner in 2007, to $41 million in 2009 – nearly a 200% increase. During this same period, members of the Greater Montréal Real Estate Board saw their sales grow by 5.2%.

What’s more, REALTA agents sold 4.5 times more than the average GMREB agent in 2009, and almost three times more than competing agents working in the Outremont market.

“I am very proud of REALTA’s performance, which once again proves the effectiveness of our business model and the efficiency of our agents,” said its president, François Bissonnette. “On behalf of the entire team, I would also like to thank our clients for their loyalty. They are the reason we exist and they remain our best ambassadors.”

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Montreal, January 25, 2010
REALTA LAUNCHES “THE” REAL ESTATE CONTEST [ + ]

This 2010 edition boasts a first grand prize of $10,000, and a second grand prize consisting of a Mediterranean cruise for two, offered by Equinox Voyages Outremont. To be eligible to enter, participants must entrust the sale or purchase of their residential property to Realta and complete the transaction between January 1 and December 31, 2010.

“Realta wants to continue distinguishing itself from competitors through our innovative approach and proximity to our clients,” explains François Bissonnette, REALTA’s president. “Not only have we been pioneers with these contests, but each year they offer something new. It’s a way for us to thank our clients for their loyalty and to share our success with them.”

Emmanuel Bureau, president of Equinox Voyages Outremont, says he is proud to be associated with REALTA’s 2010 contest. “It is a natural partnership our respective clients can benefit from,” he says. “Like REALTA, our agency is well established in Outremont, but our influence spreads across the heart of Montreal. Moreover, we share the same goal of offering clients ever-improving service that is without equal.”

About Equinox Voyages Outremont

Equinox Voyages Outremont is the product of a recent fusion of Club Voyages Outremont, established 25 years ago, and Club Voyages Equinox. Located on Laurier Avenue in Outremont, it belongs to the Transat Group, Canada’s largest network of travel agencies. In addition to offering typical travel agency services, Equinox Voyages Outremont specializes in business travel, particularly the festival market, and in certain destinations such as Bulgaria.