Nick Bailey out in RE/MAX leadership shakeup
Amy Lessinger, former SVP of Region Development, takes over as president, while two other execs receive promotions.
Nick Bailey is out as president and CEO at RE/MAX.
The move is part of a broader shift in senior leadership. Amy Lessinger, who has been with RE/MAX since 1996, will take over as president, responsible for overseeing the RE/MAX brand and network globally.
Bailey, who had been RE/MAX president since 2021 and added the CEO title in 2022, declined to comment.
RE/MAX is also promoting two senior leaders to executive vice president: Abby Lee, who oversees marketing, communications and events; and Susie Winders, the company's general counsel and chief compliance officer.
In November, RE/MAX Holdings named Erik Carlson as CEO, overseeing the RE/MAX brokerage business and Motto Mortgage. Lessinger, Lee and Winders all will report directly to Carlson.
"I look forward to working with Amy, Abby, Susie, and our broader leadership team to drive forward our focus on providing our brands' broker/owners, agents, and loan originators with the resources and services they need to help them thrive, which should benefit all of our stakeholders," Carlson said in a statement.
RE/MAX earnings update: Tough quarter, tough year
The news comes as the company reported a 5.7% drop in fourth-quarter revenue and a 7.8% decline in revenue for 2023 as a whole.
The company also reported a net loss of $10.9 million in Q4 and a loss of $69 million for the year.
Carlson found a silver lining, however, saying the company delivered better-than-expected margins by managing costs in a very difficult market.
"Looking ahead to 2024, we believe there are many reasons to be optimistic — encouraging interest rate trends, improving customer sentiment, and ongoing pent-up demand bode well for progressively better housing market performance moving forward.
RE/MAX's new president: 'I'll never work with another brand'
After starting her career as a RE/MAX agent in 1996, Lessinger went on to establish RE/MAX Realty Affiliates in Nevada, putting together a team of more than 100 top agents across three offices.
In 2020, she took on her first RE/MAX executive role as VP for growth, West Region, then was promoted to senior vice president in 2022.
"I'll never work with another brand," she said in 2020. "I wanted to do more, specifically for the brokers who are leading the charge and developing our network of top-producing agents. This next chapter in my career is an opportunity to help brokers create solid operational real estate brokerages with systemized structure. There's been a marked change in the RE/MAX recruiting and retention strategy over the last year and I'm excited to be a part of that continued evolution."
A year ago, Bailey told Real Estate News that his focus would be on modernization and expansion, with RE/MAX as a destination for top-producing agents looking to work with an operationally strong and seasoned company.
Bailey, a licensed real estate agent for more than a quarter of a century, said he likes to remind people that they are in the business of fulfilling dreams — but that takes hard work.
"You don't just wake up one day and say, 'Oh, I have an idea, I will be a homeowner' and go do it this afternoon. You save for it, you plan for it," Bailey said.