Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, the country’s largest independently owned and operated real estate brokerage, is expanding into Northern New England for the first time.
The brokerage announced a new strategic national partnership Thursday with Portside Real Estate Group, Maine’s top independent brokerage with $1.5 billion in 2025 sales volume and more than 225 agents across Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
Portside will keep operating under its own name and local leadership. It’s a structure Howard Hanna has leaned on before as it’s grown from a single Pittsburgh office in 1957 into a company with more than 500 offices across 18 states and over $30 billion in annual sales.
Portside, founded in 2012 by Dava Davin, has grown from one Portland, Maine, office into 12 locations.
Howard “Hoby” Hanna III
“We are committed to thoughtful, disciplined growth by partnering with market leaders who share our entrepreneurial, relationship-driven approach,” Hoby Hanna, CEO of Howard Hanna, said in a statement. “Portside has built an extraordinary company with dominant market share. This alliance proves that by joining forces, independent, family-owned brokerages can deliver the national scale and institutional resources that benefit both agents and the clients they serve, while preserving the agility and local decision-making that define independent companies.”
The partnership gives Portside something most independent brokerages can’t offer on their own: healthcare and 401(k) options for its agents, who work as independent contractors.
It’s a recruiting edge Howard Hanna is betting will help Portside pull talent away from competitors across New England, without agents giving up the flexibility that comes with independent-contractor status.
The partnership also gives Portside agents a broader stage for their listings. Howard Hanna’s network spans 18 states, and the company is framing the deal as a way to put Northern New England properties in front of buyers up and down the Eastern Seaboard, including New York City.
Buyers and sellers working with Portside agents will keep those same relationships, but gain access to Howard Hanna’s marketing reach and programs like Buy Before You Sell and its 100 percent Money Back Guarantee.
Dava Davin | Credit: LinkedIn
“Portside is getting stronger,” said Dava Davin, founder and CEO of Portside Real Estate Group. “We’ve built something really special together, and I am so proud of the culture, the relationships, and the sense of purpose that defines Portside. Partnering with Howard Hanna lets us protect everything that makes us unique while opening doors we couldn’t open on our own.”
The move continues a pattern Howard Hanna has leaned on since folding in Allen Tate in 2018: partnering with regional powerhouses and letting them keep their name and local leadership, rather than forcing a full rebrand.
It’s not the company’s only approach, as Howard Hanna acquired Elegran in Manhattan outright last October, and Allen Tate itself was eventually rebranded to Howard Hanna Allen Tate. But it’s become the model of choice for large, established independents like Portside.
It also comes at a time when independent brokerages nationally face pressure to either scale up or align with a larger platform to compete on referral volume, agent benefits and marketing spend.
