Brothers Joel and Josh Davoren have raced countless kilometres between them through their passion for triathlons, marathons and other endurance sports.
But the brothers are in the most important race of their life, as they lead the real estate network REMAX Australia into its next phase, alongside co-owner and finance director Chris Chapman.
The brothers behind REMAX Australia, both directors of the national franchise group, share more than a surname.
They share the steady cadence of long-distance athletes; a resilience shaped by endurance sport; and a competitive streak sharpened since childhood. It’s the same energy and rhythm that’s now fuelling the next chapter of REMAX Australia’s growth story.
“Between the three of us, we’ve done a significant number of different endurance events to keep our bodies and minds strong,” said Joel, who is the managing director.
“It’s a really good way to build your resilience and your durability because you’re always testing your mental fortitude when you’re doing these long-distance races.”
That same mental fortitude now underpins a business that’s becoming one of Australia’s fastest-accelerating networks.
Starting line
Real estate runs deep in the Davoren family.
Their father, Michael, has long been an industry leader in real estate, while their grandfather was an industry stalwart too. Yet neither Joel nor Josh expected to follow the family line.
Joel was certain in high school that he wouldn’t work in real estate, and he studied law briefly before realising that it wasn’t the right path for him either.
After some soul searching and encouragement to reconsider real estate as a career, he eventually gave it a go at a different office suggested by his father.
Josh, who is the operations director at REMAX Australia, went in a different direction, building a career in advertising.
“I ended up in some big global agencies in London and Toronto, and I worked with some massive clients like Volkswagen and McDonald’s,” Josh said.
When Josh returned to Australia with a young family, he made an unexpected turn into real estate, bringing his marketing, strategy and project management expertise into the fold.
Joel, Josh and Chris took the reins when Michael stepped back from the day-to-day operations in 2020. Running a business with family is never simple, but the brothers say they have found their way.
“We’ve definitely worked out our way to understanding how this should work,” Joel said. “We’ve managed to grow the business effectively and work well together, knowing and identifying what our skills and strengths are.”
“We’ve worked out a really good way of working together and understanding each other’s perspective that’s probably surprising to our family who saw us go at it like cats and dogs when we were kids,” Josh laughed.
“We’re only two years apart in age and we’ve been very close our whole lives, but as brothers – like most brothers – we have been competitive as well. But we’ve found a really good rhythm.”
Hitting their pace
In the competitive real estate landscape dominated by well-established brands, REMAX Australia is still a relative newcomer.
The global real estate brand first arrived in Australia in 1997, with Michael and Chris taking over REMAX’s Australian master franchise in 2012. REMAX was founded in the United States over 50 years ago, and has rapidly expanded across the world during the following decades. It’s become one of the world’s largest real estate networks with a presence in more than 110 countries.
Joel, Josh and Chris have been making strides since taking the reins, with office numbers growing sharply in recent years. And the brothers are confident that they are on the right path.
“We’re crystal clear in our value proposition,” Joel said. “We know where we can add value to people. We attract high-performing agents with great values and see them share and collaborate with other members of our network.”
Josh, who holds more operational responsibilities including marketing, technology, professional development and onboarding, said the team was delivering a scalable platform with a distinctly Australian flavour.
“Our job is to grow and nuture the brand here,” he said. “The most fulfilling part of our role is helping our business owners to build successful businesses to create incredible futures and lifestyles for themselves, their families and their teams.”
Both brothers return repeatedly to culture too, citing it as the engine of the organisation.
“We live and work in a competitive industry where performance always matters, but we don’t do it at the expense of having a great culture,” Josh said. “We’re very proud of the culture we have in our business, and we’re very protective of it too.”
“Building culture hasn’t been easy, but building that sense of community and understanding has been rewarding,” Joel said.
Much of the culture has been shaped through giving back, and REMAX Australia has supported Make-A-Wish Australia for more than a decade, as well as other worthy causes.
“There’s hundreds of scenarios where our business owners are working with their communities,” Joel said.
What comes next
The trio are unified on the future, with one word that keeps coming up: growth.
“The number one word for us is growth,” Josh said. “We’re in an exciting stage of our development, we’ve got an amazing platform that’s scalable and a really good team that knows what they’re doing.”
For a team who thrives on endurance, the brothers seem to have found their pace for the journey ahead.
And they appear steady, focused and ready for the long run.
“From our perspective, there’s so much more of Australia we can grow into,” Joel said. “We’ve got plenty of legs left in us, and plenty of ambition and drive, so we’re ready to go.”
