The largest brokerage in the Greater Sacramento, Calif., market, Lyon Real Estate, has a new president, Pat Shea, a 22-year industry veteran with roots in the area.
Shea, formerly president of Pleasanton-based Better Homes and Gardens Mason-McDuffie Real Estate, started his real estate career in 1989 as an agent at TRI Realtors in Sacramento. He and his wife Eileen have sold more than 1,450 homes in the Sacramento market from their Elk Grove office, according to their bio on the Better Homes and Gardens Mason-McDuffie Real Estate website.
Shea moved into a management position at Prudential California Realty’s Elk Grove office in 2002 and assumed a regional leadership role with the company in 2007.
Last fall, Prudential California Realty announced it was ending its 13-year affiliation with Prudential, and had signed a 20-year franchise agreement with Realogy Corp.’s Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate franchise.
The following month, the 2,000-agent brokerage — now known as Better Homes and Gardens Mason-McDuffie Real Estate — hired SmartZip Analytics co-founders Frank Richards and Dan Worley as co-CEO and chief strategy officer, respectively.
Lyon Real Estate — which recently weathered a scandal that culminated in owner and former CEO Michael Patrick Lyon pleading guilty in March to four felony counts of electronic eavesdropping — claims nearly 900 agents in 17 offices.
Shea will assume oversight of the company’s day-to-day operations with the goal of further increasing Lyon’s position as the leading residential real estate firm in the greater Sacramento region, the company said.
"Lyon is among a small number of California firms that are managing to thrive and grow in a challenging housing economy," Shea said in a statement. "For me, it’s an exciting opportunity to lead a team that’s consistently producing great results for their clients."
Larry Knapp, the former Alain Pinel Realtors president who took over as CEO when Michael Lyon stepped down last year, will remain in that position, the company said.
Chief Operating Officer Jean Li, who also served as Lyon president for seven years, is being promoted to chairwoman of the company’s board of directors.