Bob Rennie moved a total of 703 units last year, MLS figures show
Michael McCullough
Sun
Vancouver‘s condo king sold an astonishing $405 million worth of real estate last year, and Bob Rennie figures he could top that amount this year.
An unaudited list of “Medallion Club” winners — representing the top sellers of homes on the Multiple Listing Service in Greater Vancouver — showed Rennie, of Rennie Marketing Systems, moved 703 units worth $405,809,512 in 2004.
The figure easily topped Rennie’s previous personal best of $274 million in 2003, as well as Medallion Club runner-up Jason Craik’s total of $172.5 million in 2004.
“I have an infrastructure. I have 14 people who run me,” Rennie said, conceding that he did not personally deal with every buyer.
Rennie is the first to admit you can’t compare what he does to a realtor selling existing homes. His sales total represents all new multi-family developments. Working with the developers, Rennie Marketing will design the layout of the suites, often hiring the architect.
As a result of these value-added services, the company receives a significantly larger commission than a resale agent.
“The world’s pretty good to me,” said Rennie, 48. “When you do this for 30 years, everybody expects you to burn out or cash out. I get up at 5 a.m. every morning. I still really, really enjoy it.”
Moreover he believes he can surpass his new sales benchmark this year.
“I think I will equal it or beat it,” he said, naming a number of new developments coming on stream including the Park Royal Hotel in West Vancouver, L’Hermitage downtown, the Norman Foster Tower and the Woodward’s redevelopment on the downtown eastside, plus condominium towers in Richmond, New Westminster and Burnaby.
Rennie said about 30 per cent of what he sells represents high-end condos, up from 10 per cent typically in the 1990s.
“If you look at all the cranes downtown, they’re all 95 per cent sold, so I’m not worried about oversupply,” he said.
However, he added, “we can’t have rapid absorption and rapid price increases at the same time. I’m thinking they’ll both level out.”
Other leading realtors on the Medallion Club list included Craik, of Mac Real Estate Corp., who sold 340.5 units; high-end home seller Malcolm Hasman of Angell Hasman & Associates Realty Ltd., who sold 39 homes worth $97.9 million; Grace Kwok of Anson Realty Ltd., who sold seven homes worth $62.1 million; Jason Soprovich of Prudential Sussex Realty, 31 units, $52 million; and Winnie Chung of President Canada Real Estate Services Inc., 50.5 units, $51.5 million.
Created by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, the Medallion Club honours the top 500 realtors in Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. Following a random audit, 2004 inductees will be feted at an awards banquet to be held on Feb. 23.
© The Vancouver Sun 2005