Real Estate Branding Part 2:Inside Realogy

Realogy is a vast conglomerate of real estate-related franchises,comprising Century 21,the TRG Title Resource Group,ERA,Sotheby's International Realty,Coldwell Banker,Coldwell Banker Commercial,Oncor International,Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate,NRT Residential Brokerage,Cartus and The Corcoran Group.Based in Parsipanny,New Jersey,Realogy has 14,500 offices in 93 countries,employing 268,000 sales asociates.About half of Realogy's franchises are Century 21 offices.
Realogy's business model is called the "Value Circle."This circle of franchises provides excellent cross-selling opportunities,Realogy says,while enabling customers to enjoy the convenience of a single-source solution for all their real estate needs:franchising,settlement,relocation,brokerage,mortgage.
Richard A. Smith is President and CEO of Realogy.Without question,it is a dominant force in the real estate markets today.At some point,Realogy may well be spun off back to public ownership again,as is the habit of private equity holders such as Apollo Management Group L.P.It could possibly be broken up into its constituent units at that time.

Real Estate Branding:Century 21

One of the first businessmen to perceive the power of branding and franchising,Arthur E. Bartlett,died in Coronado,California recently.Mr.Bartlett,76,co-founded Century 21,a real estate franchiser,with Marshall Fisher in 1971.Bartlett and Fisher encouraged local agents to come under the Century 21 brand,in order to build and participate in the prestige of a big name brand.Consumers have more confidence in the big brands,Mr.Bartlett observed.That applies as much to real estate as anything else.Franchising gives the small businessman a way to survive in our brand-conscious world.
Century 21 established itself by franchising to experienced agents,rather than recruiting novices.This gave it a considerable edge in the marketplace.The company was sold to TransWorld Corporation in 1978.Eventually,it was folded into Realogy,which is a multi-national,diversified real estate enterprise within a private equity portfolio.Realogy traded briefly on the NYSE,but was quickly acquired by Apollo Management Group,L.P.,a leading private equity firm.