Assist-2-Sell adds 29 franchises

Assist-2-Sell, the Reno-based real estate franchise company, reported last week it added 29 franchisees from Jan.

1 through April 30.

That's another step toward the company's goal of 500 franchised offices in operation by the end of 2005 a figure that would more than double the 242 offices now carrying the Assist-2- Sell banner.

Overly ambitious? Not to Lyle E.

Martin, who founded the company in 1987 with Mary LaMeres-Pomin.

Martin figures the ever-increasing mobility of American homeowners plays right into his company's strategy.

The average American family, Martin said last week, moves once every five years.

But some are selling houses far more often.

The average, after all, includes those who buy one house in a lifetime, and that means a fair number of property owners are buying and selling every couple of years.

"After a person has sold a house or two, they figure out that this isn't that much of a big deal," Martin said.

The ease of selling a home is all the more apparent, he said, when markets are hot much as they are these days in many parts of the United States.

Rather than pay a full commission to a real estate agent, sellers who don't need much hand-holding can use the discount services provided by Assist-2- Sell franchises.

Those services range from a flat-fee deal to handle the paperwork for an owner who decides to sell his property himself to a full-blown listing through Multiple Listing Services.

The pitch to sellers is this: Let Assist-2-Sell handle the parts of the transaction that are difficult placing advertising, for instance, or overseeing the closing process while sellers themselves take care of the parts of the transaction with which they feel comfortable.

For real estate brokers, Assist-2-Sell says its business plan will create higher sales volume, more than recovering the sacrifice of traditional commissions.

Assist-2-Sell franchises operate in 43 states and Canada, and the company in the early months of this year sold its first franchise in South Dakota.

Twelve other states from Connecticut and Massachusetts on the East Coast to California and Oregon along the Pacific were numbered in the recent report of new locations.

Martin said the company's success in selling franchises begets more success.

As more offices open under the company's banner, consumers and real estate professionals alike become more aware of Assist-2-Sell, and that helps build sales momentum.

Because the offices are locally owned, Martin said the company hasn't yet built many strong clusters of franchises that could share advertising or other costs.

Assist-2-Sell, which is privately held, sells franchises only to experienced real estate brokers.

They're trained at the Reno offices of Assist-2- Sell before setting out on their own.

The company got its start as Martin and LaMeres-Pomin, who had been working several years as residential real estate agents, saw that the business in the late 1980s increasingly was becoming dominated by big national franchises.

They found that a low-commission strategy significantly boosted their market share.

About five years later, they began selling franchises nationally.

Assist-2-Sell today says it's the largest discount residential real estate company in the nation.