Inman

Nation’s largest brokerage launches property management division to cultivate sellers

Home for rent image via Shutterstock.

The U.S.’s largest brokerage, Realogy subsidiary NRT LLC, is out to capture more sellers with a new national property and asset management services division that can help homeowners rent out their property until they’re ready to sell.

To accelerate the new property management division’s growth, NRT has acquired Dallas-based property management firm Dallas GTF Inc., which does business as Get There First Realty Services and manages about 1,600 residential properties in the Dallas area. With those properties, NRT now manages over 20,000 residential homes across the U.S.

NRT, whose property management portfolio includes short- and long-term rentals along with bank-owned properties, previously managed properties at the local level but did not have a national division until July.

“This is the first of several adjacent growth initiatives underway to complement NRT’s residential real estate brokerage model and enhance overall profitability,” said Bruce Zipf, NRT’s president and CEO, in a statement.

“We are going to leverage our presence in 40 of the top 100 U.S. markets to grow our position in residential property management services in order to better serve single-family rental investors, who are buyers today and may be sellers in the future, as well as to develop relationships with today’s renters who may be tomorrow’s home purchasers,” Zipf said.

Dallas GTF founder and President Mark Kreditor will join NRT as vice president. Kreditor will serve under longtime Realogy exec Robert Way, who was named the property management division’s president when it launched.

NRT has over 42,000 agents and operates more than 700 offices in the U.S. under the Coldwell Banker Real Estate, ERA Real Estate and Sotheby’s International Realty brands. It also owns and operates Citi Habitats, The Corcoran Group and, when the acquisition closes sometime this quarter, ZipRealty.

NRT also owns a 49.9 percent stake in PHH Home Loans, a joint venture between NRT and PHH Corp. PHH Home Loans is the exclusive recommended provider of mortgages for NRT’s customers (unless exclusivity is waived by PHH).

Ancillary services, like property management and mortgage services, represent valuable opportunities for larger brokerages to capture business over the lifespan of a consumer, not just around the act of buying and selling a home, a 2013 white paper from real estate consulting firm WAV Group noted.