Three-and-a-half years ago, John Waite decided to take real estate to a whole new level. With several years as a real estate agent under his belt, he was seeing great success, but he wanted to offer more to his customers than he knew he was able on his own.

"Instead of being a realtor with assistants, I wanted to create a company that has (customer service) at its core," notes Waite, now a broker/owner of Coldwell Banker Confidence Realty in Orillia.

"A company that, at the start, is built around the system rather than just being another repository of people with sales licenses."

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

He convinced long-time friend Heather Reda to bring her Certified General Accountant designation and 10 years' experience in legal administration and join him in a venture to form an independent office of Coldwell Banker Realty.

On Aug. 1, 2002, Coldwell Banker Confidence Realty opened its doors with four sales and three administrative professionals, led by Waite and Reda. Sales agent Stephen Arsenault soon joined the two as co-owner, as well as a broker.

For Waite, it seems like yesterday that his dream came true but in reality, its been long enough for the team to make impressive strides in the industry.

The office earned the International Coldwell Banker Premier Office Award in recognition of being in the top two per cent of Coldwell Banker Realty offices throughout the world for sales in 2004. It's the second-consecutive year the office has been given this distinction.

That's no small feat. With more than 3,500 independently owned and operated offices throughout more than 50 countries, the world of Coldwell Banker Realty is by no means diminutive.

As Jim Gillespie, president of Coldwell Banker International notes, the Premier Office Award demonstrates a high level of teamwork.

"Coldwell Banker Confidence Realty should be proud that its team exceeded the goals for this prestigious award and honour," he stated in a press release.

Waite credits the eight-member office for the accolades.

With Waite and Arsenault concentrating on the sale of their clients, properties, realtors Tim Lauer, Dan Purnell and Jason Carpenter focus on the buyers who are looking for the perfect home.

More often than not, these customers are the same people, only at different places in the process. Ensuring everything runs smoothly behind the scenes is Reda, along with Nancy Epps and Robin Hale.

Combined, they form a team unique in the real estate world.

"Our clients love it. They see the benefit of it and have accepted it and embraced it. Other realtors - I don't know if it's because they feel it's a threat or it's just different - really don't see the value in it yet," says Waite.

"It's great for us because it gives us the ability to keep building on our success."

The philosophy seems to be paying off. Coldwell Banker Confidence Realty was also recently recognized as the fourth largest producer in this country for offices of its size.

Ironically, it's the lack of competition in the office that makes the popular Orillia company a force to be reckoned with in the industry.

"I don't want competition for resources within our office and whenever you have people working independently within an office there's competition for resources. That creates inefficiencies which I think affect the client in the long run," says Waite.

"It's very likely as we grow and grow and get more market share that we won,'t always be eight people. We may be 20 or 30 people, but it will be 20 or 30 people working together on behalf of the client, as opposed to competing with each other."