If Reno, Nevada is the biggest little city in the country, @properties might be the mightiest regional brokerage. Founded in Chicago in 2000, the brokerage has come to dominate Windy City real estate, but still has a limited national presence.
That presence, however, is growing, which Mike Golden, @properties co-founder and CEO, spoke to with Matthew Blake for this special, additional episode of RealTrending.
Since speaking with RealTrending in September, @properties has bought international luxury brand Christie’s as it eyes more acquisitions and expanding its franchisee network with investment partner Quad-C. But the company is deliberate in its growth and is avoiding opportunities such as an initial public offering.
Golden also candidly discussed the challenges of COVID 19 for brokerage, and the future of a historic high-demand, low inventory real estate market.
Here is an excerpt of that conversation:
Matthew Blake: HomeSmart, the Arizona-based brokerage, filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it intends to go public. Might your brokerage consider that?
Mike Golden: I guess you can never say never, but it is definitely not part of our foreseeable future plan. If you take a look at the companies that have gone public, it hasn’t worked out so well for them. One of our competitors, Compass, has fallen.
The difficulties we see in being a public company is the market pressures that force you to make decisions that aren’t necessarily in the best interest of the company long term.
