United Real Estate on Thursday announced a partnership between its North Jersey branch and New York-based residential and commercial brokerage Hudson Valley Edge. Together, the two brokerages’ service footprints include Northern and Central New Jersey, and the Hudson River Valley with more than 400 agents.
The brokerages will service New York’s Dutchess, Ulster, Orange, Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties, up to the Connecticut state line.
“One of our organization’s objectives is to further the growth of our Brokers and their offices with business development support and watching this group’s regional influence expand to serve more clients is very rewarding,” said United Real Estate President Rick Haase.
This alliance marks its seventh expansion this year.
Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent outmigration from New York City’s metro area into the Hudson River Valley, United believes there is scope for agents to grow their business as the population expands in the region.
The Hudson Valley Edge office was formerly a part of JP Realty Advantage and was a product of a partnership between Justin Phillips, the principal broker, and United’s North Jersey branch owners, Jeff and Todd Bailey and Anthony Laurita.
Phillips will now supervise operations of United Real Estate | Hudson Valley Edge.
United’s flat-fee agent compensation model inspired Phillips, who believed he could use it to improve recruiting and retention rates, along with additional training and marketing resources. He also felt the model was “difficult to compete against.”
“During the pandemic, I made the decision to reestablish my independent brokerage. I soon realized I needed a strong national partner with deeper resources to get me to where I wanted to be from a growth perspective,” Phillips added in a statement.
“By pushing northward from New Jersey into the Hudson Valley, we will collectively expand our service footprint and become a regionally dominant brokerage,” said owner and Chief Operating Officer of United Real Estate | North Jersey, Jeff Bailey.
This partnership will also strengthen United’s foothold in the East Coast overall, after its recent acquisitions of D.C.-based Pearson Smith Realty in July which helped expand United’s network into Metro Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.
In August, United partnered with New York-based United Real Estate | Fortune, expanding into the state and NYC area for the first time.
Earlier this month, United Real Estate announced a merger with EXIT Real Estate Gallery, a brokerage based in Jacksonville, which brought 400 new agents into the United network.
In January, United’s merger with Houston-based Texas United Realty added 750 real estate agents to the company, making them two of the largest independently owned brokerages in Houston.
Currently, United operates in 32 states with more than 17,500 agents. It produced over $21.5 billion in sales volume last year, the statement says.
According to the RealTrends 500 rankings, United is the 8th largest brokerage firm by transaction sides in the U.S.
