The Family That Brought RE/MAX to Canada: Generational Trust in Real Estate
Christopher Alexander led RE/MAX Canada as president. His cousin Max Polzler is coming up through RE/MAX in Europe. Their grandfather, Frank Polzler, brought the brand to Canada in 1980. Two generations, two continents, one conversation about who a buyer trusts.
Chris grew up inside the organization his grandfather built. His mother ran RE/MAX Canada and his uncle ran RE/MAX Europe, so the bar was set early. He has talked about the weight of that, and about the other side of it: when the people who built the business are family, you can call them. Max is at the other end of the same story. He is open about not knowing what he does not know yet, and he went to Europe to learn it.
What does a buyer in their twenties need to see before they trust an agent?
For Max, the trust is earned online, before the phone ever rings. An agent who shares what they know about a neighbourhood, and who comes across as someone you would want to spend a Saturday with, gets the call. Chris takes the same idea into the showing. The schools, the commute, what the street feels like at night. A buyer wants the story of living there. The sale can wait.
Why does the European model make that harder?
There is no MLS in Europe. Agencies hold their listings close, and the collaboration Canadian realtors take for granted barely exists. Chris saw the Canadian way from the top. Max is working inside the European way from the bottom, and he is the one who has to change it. Both land in the same place: a buyer who expects openness will go to the agents who give it to them.
Chris put the two of them on camera for the people coming up behind them, inside RE/MAX and outside it. The question he left on the table is the one every network will have to answer: what the next generation of leaders needs to understand about the next generation of buyers.
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