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.

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.

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.