Today, Browne is consistently ranked among the top 1 percent of realtors in Greater Vancouver; we sat down with her at Oakwyn’s stylish Yaletown office to talk about scaling in a volatile market.
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You founded Oakwyn back in 2013, and very cleverly turned the old Blockbuster video at Oak and 16th in Vancouver into one of the city’s first brokerage spaces. Back then, what gaps did you see in the industry?
When I started in real estate as a 21-year-old student, I never really understood why people were always hiding things and being very secretive, like this kind of old boys’ club. It didn’t make any sense. People want to collaborate. People want people to win. This is not just a dog-eat-dog world, right? I don’t want people to feel like they’re on an island alone. What people don’t tell you about real estate is that you go through this licensing and then they don’t give you a manual after. You’re now put into the spot of trying to figure it out. That’s where unethical agents come from—you’re not being mindful of others, you’re not thinking about the rules and regulations.
So instead of a traditional brokerage you wanted to create a lifestyle brand with stylish office spaces where brokers can meet buyers. What shaped that vision?
I didn’t want to create another brokerage that looks like a bad doctor or dentist office. You’re buying these beautiful homes and your dreams. So how can I make that come out in the brand in a very palpable way? I pulled from everything other than a brokerage—Nike, tech companies, luxury hotels—to figure out how to make this feel different.
Oakwyn has grown quickly across B.C. How have you scaled without losing focus?
I believe in a bottom-up structure. It’s all about having a very beautiful soil base with great leadership, great pillars in place and having the right people to vouch for our core values and our mission statement. Culture is one of those questions I ask every new broker coming in. For me, it’s engagement. Are they putting the brand on their websites? Are they putting it in their listing packages? Are they preaching it to their clients? That is the definition of measuring culture.
Real estate agents are traditionally entrepreneurs. How do you balance independence with employment?
It’s a 100-percent relationship business. I think now, as we’re seeing technology accelerate with AI and all the pieces that I have to deal with as a brokerage owner, I keep coming back to what I really believe—which is that it’s about that one person or that couple and that agent as an advisor. They’re no longer just someone that’s going to tell you what to buy. They’ve become more of an advisor and counsel, so you feel that you’re making the right decision. The agents that take that very seriously can really make magic happen.
How has your role changed as the business expands?
I still am a licensed agent, but going from 30 agents to 1,100 agents, I’ve had to wear a lot of different hats. My resale business has been really important to me because I think a CEO has to understand how things are changing. If I take my finger off that pulse, I feel like I’m not understanding my customer, which is really the agents and the clients on the other side.
The market is admittedly very turbulent right now. What are you seeing that might surprise people?
I’m going to take a very optimistic view on this, because I think everyone else is taking a very pessimistic view. Even with everything going against us—interest rates, foreign buyer bans—we’ve still come out pretty good: in most markets, less than a 3 percent price drop. Those are not massive reductions. There’s always this narrative that it’s going to crash. But it’s not going to crash.
Where are the opportunities right now?
What’s interesting is you’re now seeing pricing shift in a way that people didn’t expect. You’re getting $2.6-million homes in areas where you wouldn’t have before, and at the same time, other areas are holding stronger. It’s changing how people look at the city as a whole. And I think that creates a huge opportunity, especially for buyers who maybe never thought they could enter the market before. The opportunity right now is for people to really understand what’s possible, because this is one of the most transformational things you can do—own a piece of land, own your own place, build your own asset. That hasn’t changed.
If you were starting Oakwyn today, what would you do differently?
I’d still focus on the same fundamentals. Brand is everything. If you don’t know who you are, you can’t go out and advocate.
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What was your first job?
Fourteen years at a doughnut shop on Granville Island.
What’s your biggest pet peeve?
Being late/tardiness.
What’s your most recent binge?
Slow Horses—it’s a British crime drama.
What’s the most memorable concert you attended?
I’m a huge concertgoer. Recently I saw Coldplay in Toronto.
What’s your favourite restaurant for a business dinner?
Nook.
What’s the last book you read?
The Diary of a CEO: The 33 Laws of Business and Life by Steven Bartlett.
