London-based Foxtons is acquiring founder Glenn Cohen’s interest in Foxtons North America, a discount brokerage firm, based in West Long Branch, N.J. Cohen, 42, is leaving the firm.
“Cohen is pursuing new entrepreneurial opportunities and will continue to provide counsel to Foxtons,” according to a company source. Cohen said the Foxtons experience “was absolutely the best professional experience of my life and I still have tremendous enthusiasm about this industry.”
Foxtons is known for its cut-rate commission on real estate sales. The company offers full-service residential real estate brokerage, financial services and title insurance services at a discounted 2 percent commission rate.
Foxtons’ corporate offices and a 100-person call center are located in West Long Branch, N.J. Brokerage operations are located in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.
The company was founded as YHD Realty and changed its name to YHD Foxtons after London-based Foxtons Real Estate invested $20 million in the U.S. operation in early 2001. The company dropped the YHD from its name in April 2003.
Foxtons has a reputation for aggressive advertising of its “2 percent” commission rate on highway billboards in the New Jersey area. Cohen recently appeared in a local television advertising campaign that reportedly stirred up a controversy at a local CBS affiliate because the advertising spots too closely resembled a news broadcast.