Re/Max Advantage and Re/Max Properties, who’ve been rivals for years in Colorado Springs’ residential real estate market, have joined forces.

The companies announced their merger this week, which their leaders say will create one of the area’s largest residential brokerages and whose combined 240 agents will have new opportunities to improve service for home buyers and sellers.

The husband-and-wife owners of each company — Scott and Traci O’Connor of Re/Max Advantage and Tony and Brooke Clement of Re/Max Properties — now are 50-50 owners of the new Re/Max franchise, Tony Clement said.

The brokerages, whose merger took effect Tuesday, will operate under their existing names until a new banner for the combined company is chosen later this year, Scott O’Connor said. They’ll also keep their existing offices for now — a total of seven in Colorado Springs, Monument, Alamosa and La Junta.

Re/Max Properties was launched 39 years ago by founder Joe Clement, who died in June and who co-owned the business with Tony, one of his sons, at the time of his death. Re/Max Advantage was opened in 1997 by Bruce Betts, who remains with the company as a real estate agent after selling the brokerage to the O’Connors in 2022.

Over the years, Re/Max Advantage and Re/Max Properties became two of the largest franchisees in Colorado for Re/Max, the Denver-based global real estate company.

As they evolved, Re/Max Advantage and Re/Max Properties battled each other to capture market share and buyers and sellers in the Pikes Peak region, where population increases, job growth and newcomers relocating to town helped drive home sales — the bread and butter of any residential real estate brokerage.

During a gathering Tuesday to celebrate the merger at Opus Creative Industries in downtown Colorado Springs, Tony and Brooke Clement recalled that Joe Clement once explained the rivalry in geopolitical terms to the O’Connors: “You’re Russia, we’re Ukraine. Do not cross our borders.”

The anecdote drew laughs from more than 150 Re/Max real estate agents in the crowd.

Now, however, the Clements and O’Connors decided they could be more effective as a single entity.

“For years … we were competing against each other,” said Tony Clement. “Scott and I saw the opportunity to change that competition amongst fellow franchisees, and (said) ‘hey, let’s work together instead of against each other, and let’s build this Re/Max name in Colorado Springs stronger by working together instead of against each other.'”

Scott O’Connor said the merger will allow the companies to better support their agents and enhance their resources and innovations on behalf of clients and the community.

The merger has been in the works since before Joe Clement died, Tony Clement said. He and Scott O’Connor ran into each other during a Re/Max convention in 2023, became friends and began to talk about ditching the competition and instead being on the same team. Before he died, Joe Clement endorsed the merger, Tony said.

The current real estate market has been tougher of late for agents. High prices and mortgage rates have spiked in recent years and led to a downturn in Colorado Springs-area home sales; in 2024, sales of 11,503 fell to their lowest annual total since 2013.

A combined company will offer resources to agents, such as educational classes, that will help them assist buyers and sellers and capture more business, Tony Clement said.

The new partnership wasn’t a result of real estate industry changes stemming from lawsuits filed against the National Association of Realtors, which challenged the organization’s compensation rules related to agent commissions, Clement said.

But, he said, the union between Re/Max Properties and Re/Max Advantage will help the companies better inform agents on how to navigate new compensation rules. A full-time manager at Re/Max Properties has specialized in the changes brought about by the new rules, which she passes onto agents, who can then better explain the ins and outs to buyers and sellers, Clement said.

“You want to align yourself with a brokerage that has all the tools and support that you need as an individual agent to be successful,” he said. “What we have, and what we’re going to continue to do is be at the top for our agents when they need that support.”

In a video played at Tuesday’s gathering, Re/Max founder Dave Liniger, who launched the company in 1973, said the merger is an example of one generation passing on something meaningful to another generation.

“You’re building on the foundation Joe and Bruce created and adding to their legacies,” Liniger said.