Please wait as we prepare your PDF file ....

Mission Chronicle Blog

Search Blog

our goal is to help you stay informed by providing timely and interesting articles.

Howard Hanna acquires Allen Tate Companies to form mid-Atlantic real estate giant

09/21/2018

Download PDF

Howard Hanna Real Estate Services is acquiring Allen Tate Companies to create a powerhouse real estate force in the Mid-Atlantic and Eastern United States with a combined 119,000 home sale transactions in 2017, a sales volume of $24 billion last year (according to REAL Trends), and a workforce of 11,000 (combined agents and employees), the companies announced today. 

Howard “Hoby” Hanna, president of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services. (Photo courtesy Twitter)

“We’ve created this new company with us being a partner with the Tate family and with Pat Riley [president and CEO of the Allen Tate Companies] where we are the majority shareholder, but we are a partnership,” Howard “Hoby” Hanna, president of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services told Inman.

Allen Tate Companies, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, was the 10th ranked brokerage in terms of transactions in 2017 on the Real Trends 500, closing 22,273 transaction sides last year. It now joins Howard Hanna, which was ranked third on the same list – behind NRT and HomeServices of America – with 90,468 transactions closed in 2017.

“For us to grow – and we’ve had the ambition to grow regionally and nationally as a company – we feel that this model could be something new that really appeals to well-run independent brokerage firms that the ownership still wants to stay engaged and be involved and entrepreneurial as opposed to selling 100 percent out to some of the other consolidates or acquirers,” said Hanna. “We become an option for them to remain as we grow the business.”

In the Carolinas, Allen Tate will keep its name and in the eight other states that Howard Hanna operates, it will continue to operate as Howard Hanna — but they will all be in the same family of companies.

The five superpowers of uber-successful real estate agents Tom Ferry shares 5 skills to dominate your marketplace READ MORE

Hanna declined to say how much they paid but said it was in the range of four to six times the yearly earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). Hanna told Inman he believes the deal was a fair market valuation for a company that has a great brand, great legacy and whose culture merges well with what his company has done.

“Both companies were started by families and started in the late 1950s, we’ve grown up together in the industry with them and Pat Riley and I are both on the board of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World and our management teams have shared a lot of data over the years, our mortgage companies have shared best practices,” said Hanna. “So we think there’s an incredible synergy between our two companies.”

Pat Riley, president and CEO, Allen Tate Companies

After the Allen Tate acquisition, Hanna said the company would like to expand even further. It’s looking not only in the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest and East but now the South.

“I personally believe that there’s a market for like-minded companies to come together,” said Hanna. “We’ve obviously been very inquisitive over the last 15 years and we think this is a new strategy. A lot of times we find somebody that wants to do something and thinks they should merge but they still want to stay in the game and we believe this is a new model for us to do that, to achieve that success.”

He added, “The right opportunities with the right entrepreneurial firms would attract us just about anywhere today.”

Other real estate companies like Compass and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices have made major headline acquisitions this year, but Hanna told Inman that this isn’t so much a defensive move against these companies, it’s been part of their business plan for the past 15 years.

“We started in Pittsburg and began by doing acquisitions in Cleveland, New York, Michigan and Virginia, that’s been part of our business model,” said Hanna. “I think we put ourselves in a good capital position – we don’t have SoftBank behind us, we’ve got our family and the banks that support us for the measured risk we take – and it’s a time where we think people are looking for a different exit strategy or an opportunity.”

As of today, Hanna claims the company has the leading market share in Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and New York.

“We know this business, we have been a disruptor ourselves in the industry for a long time, going into markets and disrupting things and taking market share and growing,” said Hanna.

Email Patrick Kearns

Update: this article was updated after publication to clarify that the 11,000 personnel cited at the combined companies include both agents and support staff. 

Source: click here

Read More

INSPIRED, INTELLIGENT, INSIGHTFULL

STAY INFORMED WITH TIMELY AND INTERESTING ARTICLES FROM OUR BLOG, MISSION CHRONICLE. OUR ASPIRATION IS TO PROVIDE REALTORS AND OTHER REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS WITH EXCEPTIONAL RESOURCES AND SHARE OUR KNOWLEDGE TO PROPEL YOU TO YOUR GOALS.

  • Mission Chronicle Newsletter July 24, 2023

    Mortgage rates continued to press downward last week after the previous week's CPI data pointed to e...

  • Mission Chronicle Newsletter Feb 20, 2023

    Despite the recent downward trend in mortgage rates and hopes that the Fed was nearing the end of it...

  • Mission Chronicle Newsletter Feb 6, 2023

    The Federal Reserve meeting ended as market participants expected, with a quarter-point increase and...

  • Mission Chronicle Newsletter Dec 26, 2022

    Mortgage rates held relatively steady last week as most economic news came in better than expected.C...

  • Mission Chronicle Newsletter Dec 12, 2022

    Rates managed to move slightly downward last week as recession fears grew amid hopes that the Fedis ...

  • Mission Chronicle Newsletter Dec 5th 2022

    Mission Chronicle Newsletter Dec 5th 2022. Platforms: Browser, mobile-responsiveIdeal for: Leasing a...

  • Inman Review: Tenants and leasing teams get better connected with RentTango

    Have suggestions for products that you’d like to see reviewed by our real estate technology ex...

  • Tech Review: Smart Alto puts people first in its innovative lead qualification solution

    Have suggestions for products that you’d like to see reviewed by our real estate technology ex...

  • Refreshed and nurture-savvy, Market Leader’s CRM deserves your attention

    Have suggestions for products that you’d like to see reviewed by our real estate technology ex...

  • The top 4 tips to improve your negotiation skills

    In today’s luxury real estate market, strong negotiation skills are an asset—you might even say ...

March 2024
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031

  • Polls

    What information you are looking for?

    View Results

    Loading ... Loading ...
  • Last month Results

    How Is My Site?

    • Good (100%, 3 Votes)
    • Excellent (0%, 0 Votes)
    • Bad (0%, 0 Votes)
    • Can Be Improved (0%, 0 Votes)
    • No Comments (0%, 0 Votes)

    Total Voters: 3

    Vote

    Loading ... Loading ...