Warren Buffett’s real estate franchise brand, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, has grown to a network of 26,000 agents and 700 offices in 33 states with the affiliation of 22 more brokerages, operator HSF Affiliates LLC announced today.
“We’re pleased with the rapid growth of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices and our momentum continues to build,” said Earl Lee, CEO of HSF Affiliates LLC, in a statement. “Affiliates understand the strength and long-term potential of a real estate brand whose namesake is Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the world’s most respected corporation according to Barron’s.”
Buffett’s real estate brokerage company, HomeServices of America — America’s second-largest residential broker — created the new franchise brand in 2012 by taking a majority stake in HSF Affiliates LLC, which operates the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Prudential Real Estate and Real Living Real Estate franchise networks. Canadian-based Brookfield Asset Management owns a minority stake in the company.
The Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices brand is destined to supplant the Prudential Real Estate brand, which will disappear in the 2020s as a condition of Prudential Financial Inc.’s sale of its real estate franchising business to Brookfield Asset Management in 2011.
More than 50 Prudential Real Estate-affiliated brokerages had previously committed to joining the network, and a number have already made the transition, including Prudential California Realty (San Diego), Prudential Fox & Roach Realtors, Prudential Connecticut Realty, Prudential Anderson Properties, Prudential Florida Realty and Seattle-based Prudential Northwest Realty Associates.
The latest crop of 22 brokerages that has committed to begin operating under the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices brand from April through September are:
- KoenigRubloff Realty Group, Chicago, Ill.
- Prudential Advantage Realty, Owatonna, Minn.
- Prudential Alliance, Realtors, Chesterfield, Mo.
- Prudential California Realty (Visalia)
- Prudential CNY Realty, Syracuse, N.Y.
- Prudential Enchanted Lands, Realtors, Roswell, N.M.
- Prudential Gateway Real Estate, Madison, Miss.
- Prudential Gouger, O’Neal & Saunders Real Estate Services, Pinehurst, N.C.
- Prudential Hallmark Properties, Paso Robles, Calif.
- Prudential Homesale Services Group, Lancaster, Pa.
- Prudential Lake Ozark Realty, Lake Ozark, Mo.
- Prudential Lovejoy Realty Inc., Onalaska, Wis.
- Prudential New Jersey Properties, Somerset, N.J.
- Prudential New Mexico Real Estate, Albuquerque
- Prudential Prairie Path Real Estate, Elmhurst, Ill.
- Prudential Preferred Properties, Gillette, Wyo.
- Prudential Preferred Realty, Pittsburgh, Pa.
- Prudential Premier, Realtors, Roanoke, Va
- Prudential Select Properties, St. Louis, Mo.
- Prudential Simpson & Associates, Realtors, Fredericksburg, Va.
- Prudential Stark, Realtors, Palatine, Ill.
- Prudential Waterfront Properties, Smith Mountain Lake, Va.