Thirty Years Of Panache

In 1996, when Graham and Karen Gavin opened their RE/MAX office in Durban North, the local real estate industry did not roll out the red carpet.

RE/MAX was seen as an American brand with American ideas that challenged the way real estate had always operated. Local listing services and established agencies closed ranks. The message was clear: you are not welcome here.

But Graham and Karen Gavin ignored every word of it.

Their founding philosophy of placing the agent at the centre of the business model was radical for its time. Where the industry promoted company brand first, and ran on a rigid 50/50 commission split with agents, RE/MAX Panache flipped the script. Top-performing agents could operate as entrepreneurs within the business, keeping a significantly higher share of earnings, and were permitted to brand themselves personally. In the mid-nineties, that was unheard of, whilst today, it is an industry standard.

By 2006, Grant Gavin, Graham and Karen’s son, bought into the business. Whilst he brought financial acumen and two years of franchise sales experience from RE/MAX head office, he had never sold a property before.

In real estate, where selling experience was considered a form of currency, the Gavins flipped the script again. Twenty years on, Grant has grown RE/MAX Panache to 75 agents, transacting R1.5 billion in property sales annually across the North Durban market. The office is the No. 1 RE/MAX office in South Africa, recording the highest agent productivity statistics in the country, and sells 1-in-3 homes in the Northern Durban suburbs.

Grant has won the RE/MAX of Southern Africa Broker/Owner of the Year Award seven times, speaks on sales internationally, coaches salespeople from competing brands around the country, and has written a book, Thoughtonomy. He still has not sold a house, and today considers this to be his greatest professional advantage.

“I was never conditioned by 30 years of traditional real estate training,” he reflects. “That gave me the freedom to grow by searching for new approaches to sales coaching rather than defaulting to the way things had always been done.”

The result is a culture that feels less like a real estate office and more like a high-performance academy, where coaching and entrepreneurial thinking are the entire architecture of the business. Agents join RE/MAX Panache and grow as human beings, not just as sales people.

The model has been a resounding success. Locally, agents like Deanne Hamilton and Frances Park-Ross have joined the industry from prior careers and have flourished in an environment that matched their ambitions. Deanne has become one of the most recognised names in North Durban property, and her team was recently awarded the No. 1 RE/MAX Sales Team in South Africa. And Frances has built a career that exemplifies what happens when talent meets the right environment.

2026 marks 30 years of Excellence for RE/MAX Panache. What began as a family’s defiant bet against convention has become, three decades later, the market’s benchmark for success.

RE/MAX Panache is located in Glenashley, and the team is ready to help you with buying your next home or selling one to its next family.

www.remax.co.za

031 572 2136

lalucia@remax-panache.co.za