Marnie Blanco departs RE/MAX

I’ve been a bit remiss in mentioning the departure of someone I greatly respect who has left the real estate business. Her name is Marnie Blanco. Earlier this month Marnie left a VP position with RE/MAX International (now RE/MAX LLC, which is a whole other story). Marnie played a pivotal part in the history of online real estate.

The thing about RE/MAX was that is was full of beautiful, smart and talented women. Kristi, Marnie, Staci and plenty of others. Every time I went to their corporate offices I felt I had entered the fabled Amazon tribe where women ruled, and men were regulated to servitude of their every whim.

When I first met Marnie I liked her immediately. I began working with her while running the sales and marketing at eNeighborhoods. She was no nonsense, smart and had a bit of a potty mouth. So I naturally thought she was the bee knees. eN was an authorized technology vendor with RE/MAX and I had a fun time getting them to help promote eN to their agents.

A story…

Andy Woolley and I had decided to crash the “Topics In The Tropics” conference being held in Ft. Lauderdale. You might remember that the conference was “off-limits” to vendors (unless you were Ann Bailey, of course). So we were meeting a few clients in the lobby of the hotel to head out for drinks/dinner. From across the room Andy had spotted Marnie. Which was unusual, since this was an MLS conference. He waved and she came over to talk. Andy asked here what she was doing here. She said that RE/MAX was looking to make a big move in online real estate and she was doing research.

The rest is history.

Now that’s not the only story about Marnie I have, but its probably the safest I can come up with.

I can’t pretend to know the reasons why so many have left RE/MAX recently. Kristi Graning’s departure this past March, and Staci Woods departure to Metrolist, Inc. comes to mind. But I can only guess it’s not the same place that it used to be. Which is a shame, because RE/MAX, back in the day, was a sight to see. A lot of us are hoping that Dave will somehow get his mojo back. Time will tell.

Normally I like to say that when someone leaves the real estate industry an angel get their wings, but in this case I’m just sad to see the industry lose such a talent. Best wishes Marnie. Good luck at your new gig!