Every month, REM is committed to sharing Realtor moves, brokerage conversions and other notable announcements from the industry. Send your news to editor@realestatemagazine.ca with the subject line “The Real Deal” by the 26th of every month to be considered. Unedited photos are also welcome; please ensure they don’t include branding or other graphics. 

Industry moves

Royal LePage celebrates new addition

In brokerage news, Royal LePage welcomed its newest addition, Royal LePage Hometown Real Estate, in Alberta. Led by Jean-Luc and Shaylie Lamoureux, the team specializes in residential, recreational, farm, and commercial properties across St. Paul, Elk Point, Bonnyville, Smoky Lake, and Mannville. 

Re/Max President Realty expands in Brampton

Re/Max President Realty has opened a second office in Brampton, Ont., near the Mount Pleasant GO Station. The new office offers state-of-the-art facilities designed to foster collaboration and innovation for agents. President and Broker of Record Garry Bhaura says this expansion underscores the company’s commitment to growth and excellence. 

Century 21 Masters broadens reach across Alberta

Century 21 Masters has expanded its operations with offices in Edmonton, Calgary, Airdrie, Drumheller, Strathmore, Stony Plain, and St. Albert, reaching over 50 communities across Alberta. The leadership team includes 2024/25 CREA chair James Mabey, Geneva Tetreault, and Bob Sheddy.

Living Realty joins Keller Williams

Living Realty, a Markham-based brokerage with 550 agents, is transitioning to Keller Williams (KW) as KW Living Realty. According to a company press release, the brokerage, which has reached over $1.1-billion in sales since 2023, will officially rebrand on Mar. 3. David Wong has been named team leader, while Kelvin Wong will serve as operating principal. 

Sutton Group welcomes Kings Cross franchise

Sutton Group has introduced Sutton Group Kings Cross, a new franchise serving King City and Newmarket, Ont. Led by Marc Cioffi, a detective sergeant in his local police force, the brokerage focuses on real estate solutions for first responders. Previously operating as Kinsby Real Estate, the partnership with Sutton includes plans to launch a national first responder program. Cioffi, who transitioned to real estate in 2023.

Re/Max Hendriks Team Realty aligns with Re/Max Hallmark

Re/Max Hendriks Team Realty has joined forces with Re/Max Hallmark, the world’s largest Re/Max brokerage. Led by industry veteran Jerry Hendriks, the brokerage will continue to service Ontario’s Niagara and Hamilton regions. 

Century 21 Assurance Realty Ltd. expands Into Creston, B.C.

Century 21 Assurance Realty Ltd. has expanded its operations to Creston, B.C., through a merger with the long-standing Century 21 Veitch Realty. The Veitch family has worked in real estate for over five decades in the region. Scott and Shannon Veitch will continue to play key roles in the Creston office. With this addition, Century 21 Assurance Realty now operates offices in Kamloops, Salmon Arm, Vernon, Kelowna, Castlegar, and Creston.

Announcements and notable mentions

Canadian leaders on the SP 200

Phil Soper, Royal LePage President and CEO, has ranked as the top Canadian leader on T3 Sixty’s Swanepoel Power 200 (SP 200) reaching number 12 on the prestigious list. Chief Operating Officer of Royal LePage, Carolyn Cheng, has also been named for the sixth year in a row (#141). Other notable Canadian leaders on the list include TRREB CEO Jon DiMichele (#53), Re/Max Canada President Christopher Alexander (#55), Century21 President and CEO Martin Charlwood  (#57) and CREA CEO Janice Myers (#161)

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Since 2017, Living Realty has collected over 5,000 lbs. of food, and donations to the Daily Bread Food Bank have totalled more than $20,000.

Following the success of last year’s hybrid food drive, this year, Living Realty will once again give people the option to donate food in person or make online donations. Donation boxes are set up at Living Realty’s branch offices in Markham, North Markham, North York, downtown Toronto and central Mississauga. Living Realty staff will be on hand at each location to assist people with their donations of non-perishable food items.

An online donation page has also been created to allow people to donate without visiting a branch. All donations made through the page will go directly to the Daily Bread Food Bank and a tax receipt will be available for donations over $10.

Living Realty is pledging $2 to the food bank for every pound of food collected. The company will also donate $2 for every $1 donated through the online donation page. It pledges to make a minimum donation of $5,000 this year.

“Supporting the community around us has always been important to Living Realty, and that support is needed now more than ever. The rising cost of living has left many families struggling, and it is crucial that we do our part to help,” says broker of record Kelvin Wong. “By donating food and money to Daily Bread Food Bank, we can help get food and other support to those that need it most in our community.”

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The company’s first Thanksgiving food drive was held in 2017 and resulted in a donation of approximately 1,700 lb. of food and a $2,000 cheque to the Daily Bread Food Bank. That was followed by two more successful food drives in 2018 and 2019, before the pandemic forced the company to alter its plans in 2020. In response to the pandemic lockdowns, last year Living Realty held a digital food drive, asking people to make online donations and agreeing to match every dollar donated. With over $4,800 donated, the brokerage added $5,000 for a total of almost $10,000.

With the doors at Living Realty’s Branch offices open to visitors once again, this year’s food drive will be a hybrid model, with people having the option to donate food in person or to make online donations. Donation boxes have been set up at Living Realty’s branch offices in Markham, North Markham, North York, downtown Toronto and central Mississauga. Living Realty staff will be on hand at each location to assist people with their donations of non-perishable food items.

An online donation page allows people to donate without visiting a branch if that is their preference. All donations made through the page will go directly to the Daily Bread Food Bank and a tax receipt will be available for every donation over $10.

This year the company is pledging to donate $2 to the food bank for every pound of food collected – doubling the donation pledge from previous years. In addition, Living Realty will also donate $2 for every $1 donated through the online donation page. In total, the company hopes to have a minimum donation of $5,000 this year.

“We have always tried to support the community around us and that support is needed more than ever,” says broker of record Kelvin Wong. “The Daily Bread Food Bank reports that usage of its services has increased by 50 per cent since the pandemic began and we want to do our part in helping to meet the growing need in our community.”

Founded in 1980, Living Realty has more than 700 employees, with over 600 registered real estate sales representatives and brokers.

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“The holidays are a great time to give back, as many of us are fortunate enough to celebrate all the good things we have enjoyed, but it is often a reminder to the less fortunate of what they can’t provide for their kids,” says Living Realty broker of record Kelvin Wong. “As always, our focus for the holiday fundraiser is on children; in the past years we have run drives for toys, winter coats and, most recently, sports equipment. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and our duty to keep each other safe and healthy, we cannot host a traditional drive. However, the pandemic has highlighted the importance of charity to help those in need, so this year we are hosting an online fundraiser. We hope it can be as successful as our Thanksgiving Food Drive, which raised almost $10,000 for the Daily Bread Food Bank.”

A fundraising page has been set up by Living Realty. Donations will go directly to Canadian Tire Jumpstart. Tax receipts will be issued with all donations of $20 or more.

“Canadian Tire Jumpstart seemed like an ideal choice for this year’s charity. Having collected sports equipment in our drive last year and being a family-focused business, we are aware of the importance of sports for children and the benefits it can bring to youngsters. We hope that we can play our part to further improve the lives of children in our community,” says Wong.

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The brokerage has an annual tradition of holding a food drive in the run-up to Thanksgiving. The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent restrictions meant that a traditional food drive was not practical. Living Realty decided to move its 2020 charity efforts online and hold a fundraiser on behalf of the Daily Bread food bank.

An online donations page has been set up through Daily Bread. A tax receipt will be issued with a donation of $10 or more. Living Realty is aiming to collect $5,000 in donations and has pledged to match every dollar, up to a maximum of $5,000 – making a grand total of $10,000 the brokerage’s ultimate aim.

“We always like to give back to the community at Thanksgiving time as we know the difference it can make,” says broker of record Kelvin Wong. “This year that is truer than ever as many people in our community have suffered financial hardship as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns and struggle to put food on the table as a result. That is why we have set a high target for our fundraiser as we feel that those of us who can help should do our part to help our neighbours in need.”

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He didn’t know much about Toronto’s stock market or other forms of investing when his family landed as immigrants in Canada – but he knew about real estate.

“Real estate is something that you can touch. It’s brick and mortar that you can actually see and have pride of ownership,” Wong says. “That’s why people from Hong Kong, where I came from, believe in it because it’s so simple. Land is land, no matter where you come from.”

After his parents settled in St. Catharines, Ont. in 1969, Wong went to the U.S. and graduated from the University of Southern California with a bachelor’s degree in economics and business administration in 1974. In his first job, he worked for a fast food restaurant chain in Southern Ontario, as its regional manager. At 22, Wong had a new wife and limited means to support his new family. He turned to his faith in real estate and got licensed in 1975.

Within the first year of selling residential properties, Wong became a top-selling agent because “you didn’t have to sell a lot back then. If you sold a house for $150,000, you were worshipped,” he says.

After managing the real estate functions for several trust companies – none of which exist anymore – Wong recognized that there weren’t a lot of agents serving the immigrant population, a niche market in Toronto that was growing fast. “When you’re new to the country, you’re lost. You need guidance to help you find a home for your family near to their communities, transportation and work,” he says. In 1980, Wong laid the foundations of his brokerage, Living Realty, specializing in the immigrant market.

Wong started his company when pagers ruled and Toronto was still a fledgling city with a real estate market that was relatively small on the global scale. “We didn’t have cell phones. We had lots of coins to return calls from payphones at every street corner,” Wong says.

At that time, the Toronto Real Estate Board would provide agents with computer print outs of new listings, which agents combed through every day in their offices. Paperwork was plentiful and information flow was slow, but “it was not as stressful as it is today. Now, people expect you to know everything and respond to texts five minutes ago,” says Wong.

From the get-go, Wong’s unwavering “service philosophy” has helped him grow Living Realty exponentially through the thick and thin of Toronto’s ever-changing real estate market. “It’s not how much you charge people or how much money you make. It’s how much service you provide. People, automatically, will want you, if you provide them what they need,” he says.

Within two years of starting his company, Wong expanded from a 600-sq.-ft. office and 17 agents on Finch Avenue to a 3,500-sq.-ft. space at Woodbine and Steeles. Five years later, he opened a branch office in Spadina’s Chinatown. Three years after, he took a bold step and established a branch in Mississauga.

“It takes three to five years of gestation for a branch to become fully financially self-sustainable,” says Wong.  Ten years in, Living Realty took over 14,000 sq. ft. in an adjacent commercial building at Woodbine and Steeles.

Living Realty’s agents, several of whom are top performing and have been with the company since inception, believe in Wong’s philosophy that “if you promise someone something, deliver or do your best. Even though the results may not always be the best, clients know when you are working hard for them. They appreciate the effort and the service. That’s what counts. That’s what gets you referrals.”

During the company’s growth spurt, foreign real estate investors who had turned their sights to Toronto were buying properties but had no one to manage those properties. This prompted Wong to break with the traditional practice of expanding his brokerage vertically. Instead of relying solely on the residential resale market, he decided to spread Living Realty horizontally by starting Living Properties, a property management company. Toronto’s Pacific Mall is one of the most notable properties they’ve managed. At one point, Living Properties oversaw the management of more than 10 million square feet worth of commercial real estate.

Soon Wong diversified his portfolio further by co-founding the International Home Marketing Group, a company that offers new home builders and developers “bespoke” and “full-service sales management and marketing services.” As controlling partner, under this banner, Wong and his team have sold thousands of condos in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Over the years, the company has racked up sales of notable high- and low-rise condos by Liberty Development, Conservatory Group, Menkes, Garden Homes, Livante Developments, Fernbrook Homes, Cityzen Development Group and Madison Group, to name just a few.

Currently Living Realty, Living Properties and International Home Marketing Group are housed in Wong’s sprawling 16,500-sq.-ft. Markham office. This means that while over 50,000 agents across the GTA are beating the pavement in a tough resale market, Wong’s agents rely on each other and his company’s diverse portfolio for lead generation.

“If one of my resale agents has a client who wants to buy a new house, or wants to invest commercially, all they have to do is dial the extension of one of their Living colleagues to find out what’s available. It’s all under one roof.”

The company has also diversified the demographics of its clients. “I cannot change the fact that when I started the company, I focussed on the Chinese community. I’m Chinese. But we’ve spent a lot of resources in the last few years to push our name into the mainstream market,” Wong says. Indeed, one bumps into their bus signs, billboard ads and other company signage all over the city, attracting agents from various other immigrant communities.

For now, with over 650 agents, Wong is content with the growth trajectory he has set in motion.  For him, quality trumps quantity. “It gets to a point where you cannot keep growing numbers because then you have agents who charge low fees and give no service. What do I need an agent like that for? I’m providing services that add value to the success of my agents. That’s why they grow and stay with me,” says Wong.

The art that appears in the background of Stephen Wong’s photo is by Vancouver-based artist Chrissy Cheung. 

Sohini Bhattacharya

Sohini Bhattacharya is a contributing writer for REM.

The post Stephen Wong: Living Realty’s winning philosophy appeared first on REM.

The drive aims to collect new or gently used personal sports equipment. Donation bins have been placed at each of Living Realty’s five Greater Toronto Area offices to support the drive and encourage donations.

At the end of the campaign, all the equipment collected will be donated to Diabetes Canada, which will raise money from the donations by way of a partnership with Value Village.

Living Realty is seeking donations of gently worn, clean sports clothing; protective equipment such as hockey pads, gloves and helmets; footwear such as soccer cleats and skates; hockey sticks, tennis rackets, baseball bats; and skis and snowboards.

The brokerage asks that donators refrain from bringing in non-personal or large items such as hockey or basketball nets, trampolines, or bicycles.

“In previous years we have collected toys and winter coats for our festive drives. This year we decided to focus on sports equipment because, as a family-run company, we are well aware of the expense involved for families when participating in sports and we want to help make sure that these activities are open to everyone,” says Living Realty broker of record Kelvin Wong.

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The food drive was first held in 2017, collecting around 1,700 lbs. of food for those in need. Another successful food drive followed in 2018 and Living Realty has now made the food drive an annual tradition, with aims to increase the amount of food collected each year.

Donation boxes have been set up at Living Realty’s branch offices in Markham, North Markham, North York, downtown Toronto and central Mississauga. Living Realty staff are on hand at each location to assist people with their donations.

The food bank has requested much-needed items such as baby food and formula, peanut butter, oatmeal, canned meat and fish, canned fruit and vegetables, rice, grains, lentils, beans, pasta, pasta sauce, soup, chili or stew.

In addition, Living Realty will donate $1 to the food bank for every pound of food collected. Broker of record Kelvin Wong says, “We have been thrilled by the generosity of staff, friends and visitors in the last two years and we hope that we can show a similar level of generosity once again. Our aim is to collect at least 2,000 lbs. of food by the start of October and to write as big a cheque as possible as a result.”

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The post Living Realty holds annual Thanksgiving Food Drive in Toronto appeared first on REM.

Zillow says it has seen a 32-per-cent year-to-date growth of monthly Canadian unique users. More than 4,500 Canadian agents have profiles on Zillow.com, with more than 3,000 reviews of those agents by consumers.

“We pride ourselves at being at the cutting edge of real estate,” says Jamie Johnston, broker/owner of Re/Max Condo Plus. “We think our association with Zillow is another opportunity for our agents to demonstrate their value to the public.”

Zillow offers for sale and rental listings on its website and mobile app. In the U.S. it is rolling out Zillow Offers, an iBuyer program, and it also has affiliated lender Zillow Home Loans.

The company also has a suite of mobile real estate apps, with more than two dozen apps across all major platforms.

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The response of employees, agents, visitors and the local community was overwhelming, and the donation boxes were overflowing at all of the company’s branches, Living Realty says in a news release. At the end of the drive, 200 gently-used or new winter coats had been collected.

Staff collected the coats and delivered them to the GLOW Clothing Bank in Toronto, where they will be redistributed to families in need.

“We have held a number of successful charity events but the outcome to the winter coat drive is our most successful campaign yet,” says Living Realty broker of record Kelvin Wong. “The response from our local community, agents and employees was outstanding and we collected more coats than we initially expected.”

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