Right time...right place
by Barb Deters

Hard work is not something new to Erin and Travis Holowach. Even when they were gainfully employed—she in communications for the Alberta Grain Commission, and he is sales with a steel company—they went the extra mile. The young couple would buy houses, renovate them and sell quickly.

"We were flipping homes as fast as we could, but real estate commissions meant taking between $5,000 and $10,000 off the selling price of the homes. Sometimes we had done all that work for nothing," recalls Erin, 25.

Then fate intervened. A Winnipeg firm contacted Travis about quotes on lawn sign posts for properties it was listing for sale. The company was ComFree—short for commission free. Started in the mid-1990s, it had not been franchised in Alberta. "We realized it was a perfect fit for what we wanted to do," Erin says. They bought the rights to the ComFree concept from Red Deer north. That was two-and-a-half years ago.

What’s happened since? Let’s see. Well, they bought a 2500 square-foot office in the new Enterprise Centre complex on 75th Street and 67th Avenue. They have eight full-time staff and nine contract consultants who work with homeowners to list their properties. They have out paced the nine-year old Winnipeg operation. They print 30,000 copies of the ComFree magazine which is distributed at 600 locations. They get a whopping quarter million hits on the website each day—and between 5,000 and 7,000 stay on the site long enough to make it into the "visit" category.

Amid all this corporate growth the Holowach family grew, too. Jax was born on December 9th and is a frequent visitor at the office. Most days are spent with one of his doting grandmothers or an aunt. This is not an infant who "makes strange" as we used to say. He’s well-travelled, having already been to Calgary, Mexico and Grande Prairie. A treed acreage has been purchased and construction will begin this year on their new home.

Sixty-hour weeks are the norm for Erin and Travis, but each tries to take one day off to spend with Jax. The trip to Mexico was not without a price—the week away was bracketed by 80-hour weeks, and they checked their e-mail three times a day. "Some of my friends think being your own boss means coming and going whenever you like... long lunches. I don’t even remember the last time I went out for lunch," explains Erin. So what is ComFree and how does it work? It’s basically a real estate listing service that assists homeowners to sell their properties privately—without the services of a licensed real estate agent, and without the attendant commissions that are withheld from the selling price. You pay a flat fee of $595 to ComFree

which includes your listing in the magazine and on the website, your lawn sign, and highlights sheets for potential buyers until your home sells. According to Erin, the most important aspect is the upfront and ongoing support from the ComFree consultants: homeowner sales training and manual, measuring the premises and preparation of the highlights package, advice on presentation, and access until 10 pm daily for clarification:

"The only thing we can’t do, by law, is advise homeowners on pricing. The onus is on the seller. We strongly recommend that a professional appraiser be contacted. It’s best for the seller, the buyer and the mortgager," explains Erin. If a home doesn’t sell over a long period of time, it’s generally overpriced. "Even a hot market like Edmonton is not so hot that you can charge an absurd price."

Currently, ComFree has 720 active listings. "Every month is our biggest month so far. We have happy customers… word-of-mouth is our best advertising," says Erin who has a stack of testimonials from satisfied customers, and can rattle off comparative figures at the click of the mouse: "ComFree days on the market, 37... Edmonton Real Estate Board, 45. ComFree success rate, 75 percent... EREB, 66 percent. Our houses sell faster and sellers get a better return.

"The testimonials drive us all. Here’s one from a fellow who sold two house in two months and says he ‘saved about $20-25,000 between seller and buyer.’ A lady wrote, ‘We were the first homeowners in Camrose to have a ComFree sign on our lawn… within a week we had an offer and the house was sold…’ And this one: ‘Wow, what a deal—want to have extra money to spend? Who wouldn’t?’ We know of one client who saved more than $16,000 in commissions. This is what motivates us.

"The last thing we will ever do is raise our rate. But margins are slim... volume is the only way. When the time is right, we’ll open in Grande Prairie and Fort McMurray... but the right people will be the deciding factor. Right now, it’s a learning experience for everyone. And we’re having fun. Our staff is dedicated, and profit-sharing has had a really positive impact on our business." Erin smiles, she’s anxious to get on with her day.

"Ultimately," concludes Travis, "we are the future of real estate."

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