Brokerage and technology companies, often with the backing of public markets or private equity, are broadening their market share and offerings to win in this new era of real estate competition, marked by industry giants.
Acquirors apply different strategies toward the companies and brands they acquire. Sometimes they choose to keep acquired brands as separate entities, and other times they fold them under their existing larger brands.
With the landscape frequently changing, T3 Sixty decided to summarize the most significant ownerships and brands.
Real estate brokerages
HomeServices of America, Realogy and Compass have deployed aggressive acquisition strategies to achieve their massive growth, each doing over $100 billion in annual sales.
HomeServices is the pioneer of the brokerage consolidation game. It started acquiring large regional brokerages soon after formation in 1995, and now it operates brokerage offices in over 45 brands throughout the country.
Realogy also grew its brokerage division significantly with acquisitions, but, in most cases, the company folded acquired companies into the division under two of its franchise brands: Coldwell Banker Real Estate and Sotheby’s International Realty.
Howard Hanna has used a hybrid approach. In some cases, it folds the brands of brokerages it acquires into the Howard Hanna brand. For example, after acquiring New York-based Nothnagle Realtors in 2015, the company folded the company into the Howard Hanna brand. However, with its 2018 acquisition of Allen Tate Companies, the company decided to operate those offices under the Allen Tate brand and even grow it.
Compass, as noted above, operates on the other end of the spectrum – it has brought brokerage brands under one brand when it has made acquisitions.
| Brokerage Company | Brokerage Brands (Company-owned Offices) |
| At World | @properties Nest Realty Ansley Real Estate |
| HomeServices of America (a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, NYSE: BRK) | Long & Foster Real Estate Edina Realty Ebby Halliday lntero Real Estate BHHS Fox & Roach* |
| Howard Hanna (Division of Hanna Holdings) | Howard Hanna Allan Tate FC Tucker |
| Realogy Brokerage Group (a division of Realogy Holdings Company, NYSE: RLGY) | Multiple company-owned offices operating under one of the following three large franchise brands that it also owns and operates: Coldwell Banker Real Estate Sotheby's International Realty Corcoran Group |
| United Real Estate Group | United Real Estate United Country Real Estate United PRD International Benchmark Realty Virtual Properties Realty |
Real estate brokerage technology
Zillow Group, perhaps the most aggressive acquirer in the real estate tech space, has applied both strategies over the years. Some brands, like RentJuice, Buyfolio, Retsly and Naked Apartments, it just folds into its company; others, like Trulia, HotPads and StreetEasy, it maintains.
Below is a list of large real estate tech companies, along with a list of brands they’ve acquired that they still operate separately.
| Technology Company | Acquired Brands* |
| Attom Data Solutions (Owned by private equity firm Lovell Minnick Partners) | Attom Data Home Junction |
| Ben Kinney Companies | Blossor Brivity Kwkly Place |
| BoomTown | BoomTown Brokermint |
| Constellation Real Estate Group (subsidiary of Constellation Software Inc. [TSE: CSU]) | Constellation1 Diverse Solutions Market Leader Offrs Paradym Real Estate Digital Sharper Agent SmartZip Top Producer TorchX Z57 Zurple |
| CoStar Group (Nasdaq: CSGP) | Apartments.com (ApartmentFinder, Apartment HomeLiving, ForRent.com) Homes.com Homesnap Houses.com |
| Elm Street Technology (investment from private equity firm Aquiline Capital Partners) | Elevate Flow ROI IDX Broker Ixact Contact Morris Marketing Group VoicePad |
| Fathom Holdings (Nasdaq: FTHM) | IntelliAgent Naberly Solutions |
| Fidelity National Financial (NYSE: FNF) | CINC RealGeeks SkySlope |
| Inside Real Estate (owned by private equity firm Lovell Minnick Partners) | dashCMA kvCORE Inside Real Estate |
| Lone Wolf Technologies (owned by private equity firm Stone Point Capital) | Cloud CMA HomeSpotter LionDesk Lone Wolf Spacio TransactionDesk Terradatum zipForm |
| Move Inc. (a subsidiary of News Corp (Nasdaq: NWSA) | Avail Doorsteps FiveStreet ListHub realtor.com |
| Propertybase (owned by private growth equity firm PSG Equity) | BoldLeads Propertybase |
| OJO Labs | Movoto OJO RealSavvy |
| Redfin (Nasdaq: RDFN) | RentPath (ApartmentGuide.com, Rent.com, Rentals.com) Walk Score |
| Zillow Group (Nasdaq: ZG) | Bridge Interactive dotloop HotPads Mortech ShowingTime StreetEasy Trulia Zillow |
Takeaway
Both the real estate brokerage and supporting technology industry is undergoing consolidation into a small group of conglomerates. While there’s room for many brands in each category, brokers, agents and consumers will increasingly use products and services that have the same parent company.