Nick Bailey returns to real estate leadership in new capacity
The former CEO of RE/MAX and Century 21 says he will apply his experience helping franchise owners to his new role in real estate consulting.
Nick Bailey, a former brokerage CEO, is returning to the real estate industry — but he'll now be focused on helping other leaders in residential real estate as they navigate through this transformative and turbulent period.
Bailey has been at the helm of two of the country's biggest real estate firms — RE/MAX and Century 21 — following three years as an executive at Zillow. He now joins the real estate consulting firm T3 Sixty as the company's chief real estate officer. (Note: T3 Sixty and Real Estate News share a founder, Stefan Swanepoel.)
In his new role, Bailey will focus on business development, enterprise-level consulting projects and representing the brand at industry events, according to a news release.
Bailey, who was hired as president of RE/MAX in 2021 and added the CEO title in 2022, left the company after a leadership shakeup. Bailey was president and CEO of Century 21 from 2017-2019.
In a phone interview, Bailey said the timing couldn't be more perfect. Running a brokerage company, he said, wasn't so different from working as a consultant — his "clients" were franchise owners, and he was helping them learn how to better operate their businesses.
"The idea of taking nearly three decades of what I've learned and being able to recycle it into others to help them grow their businesses was a natural fit," Bailey said.
'Providing a framework' during a transitional time
He plans on using that experience to help real estate leaders work through and adapt to the industry practice changes that went into effect on August 17.
In his opinion, the world of real estate will be different — but not necessarily more difficult — and figuring out what you can and cannot control will be the key. One thing that won't change? People are going to continue to buy and sell homes, and they want trusted agents to help them.
"Sometimes you're too close (to the business), and I want to be able to help people — not give them the pathway or the crystal ball that none of us have — but provide a framework to help navigate their own business through a time of more rapid change than we've seen in this industry for a while," Bailey said.
He added that being able to observe the industry over the past six months (while not simultaneously leading a brokerage) has given him more of a big-picture perspective on what's happening.
His first piece of advice: Don't look for loopholes
While many agents and brokers are adjusting their practices in accordance with the settlement terms, some are continuing to look for loopholes, Bailey said — which he views as dangerous, because attorneys are watching very closely.
"The one thing I'm pretty confident about is this is only round one of some of the changes that are going to happen," Bailey said. "So I think people should be looking at their businesses long and hard to make sure they're not part of what people are looking under the hood for in round two."
And that aligns with his decision to move to T3 Sixty. Bailey said the company is a leader in offering best practices to brokerages that want to make meaningful change.
"With their focus on data-driven insights and strategies, there's no better time to team up than now," Bailey said.