As brokerage consolidation accelerates across the industry, Brown Harris Stevens and FirstTeam have chosen a different path — a multi-year marketing partnership designed to expand reach and share buyer pools without a merger or acquisition.
The deal unites two of the nation’s largest independently held brokerages, representing more than 5,000 agents across more than 70 offices in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Connecticut, California, Arizona and Washington. Both firms are members of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World.
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The partnership grew out of an unplanned conversation at an Inman event, where Brown Harris Stevens Chief Marketing Officer Matthew Leone and FirstTeam Vice President of Marketing Lauren Henss crossed paths at a pop-up recording studio.
“I don’t think we even planned it, and we talked for like 45 minutes,” Leone said.
Matthew Leone
From that conversation came a strategy to build cross-marketing initiatives, shared advertising, public relations and referral networks — without the structural changes that come with consolidation.
“We don’t need to work together through M&A,” Leone said. “We could work together through like-minded thought leadership, collaboration and cooperative marketing strategies that serve our client best.”
Leone said the partnership is also intended as a direct counterweight to private listing fragmentation, a growing industry debate involving the rise of off-market listing networks.
“When you look to broaden your buyer pools and be as public as you can with your available inventory, that is a counterweight to a current trend that’s taking place within this industry right now, which is private listing, network fragmentation,” he said.
Lauren Henss
Henss said independence gives both firms an operational advantage larger, franchise-affiliated brokerages cannot match.
“We can turn on a dime when Matt and I need to do something from a marketing campaign or something that benefits them … versus having to get board approval and all that kind of stuff,” she said.
That agility, Henss said, allows the two firms to deliver something the big box brokerages cannot.
“We’re still [providing] the boutique level of service for our agents, but with a scalability that the big box brokerages cannot provide,” she said. “We design meaningful careers. We do that for our agents.”
Both executives said the partnership is intended as a model for other independently held firms weighing options as consolidation pressure mounts.
“Consolidation is not your only option down the line, because you have two thriving, privately held brokerages that are making decisions that are hopefully creating a template for how others could operate for years to come,” Leone said.
Henss put it simply: “Rather than consolidation, it’s collaboration.”
BHS CEO Bess Freedman said in a statement that the partnership broadens services at a moment when consolidation is limiting choice for buyers, sellers and agents. FirstTeam CEO Michele Harrington said brokerages focused on long-term growth should find ways to align rather than compete.
For agents at both firms, Henss had a direct message: “Get ready, because this is the best of both worlds.”
