Located on the private, gated suburban community of Windmill Ranch Estates, Fort Lauderdale, this spectacular Mediterranean estate sits on 4.3 acres of prime land. Surrounded by water, this luxurious residence offers expansive interiors and lush outdoor sites for entertaining, and it’s ideal as a private retreat. This 15,053 sq. ft. Mediterranean residence offers incredible features throughout. With top of the line finishes and intricate details, this property features a total of 10 bedrooms and 12 & 2 half baths. A wine cellar, media room, oversized gourmet kitchen with breakfast nook, a formal dining room, and 2 separate guest houses complete with all amenities. The exterior grounds offer unique features with a resort like feel. A luxurious heated pool with marble and mosaic inlays, a waterfall Jacuzzi spa surrounded by a beautiful pergola and sitting area with wood burning fireplace, volleyball court, putting green and a tranquil lake offer an extremely private and relaxing oasis. via listing at SOL Sotheby’s International Real Estate

In my eyes this is a frivilious suit, but I may be missing something. The other real estate companies can sell inside the property, they just can not use the official tag and have a sales office inside the gates. This is a typical arrangement that is replicated across the country.

If for some crazy reason the suit is successful, what does this do to the method developers use to sell their new homes across the country? What would it do to your local market?

Wintergreen Resort and Roy Wheeler Realty joined Sept. 1 to form Wintergreen Resort Premier Properties, which has the exclusive rights to advertise as the “official real estate company of Wintergreen Resort,” operate an office on resort property and distribute marketing materials there. Other real estate firms can sell property at Wintergreen Resort, but not with the preferred treatment of Wintergreen Resort Premier Properties.
The exclusive dealing contract has given Wintergreen Resort Premier Properties a “dominant position” in the home sales market at the resort, driven out at least three competitors and left Mountain Area Realty with only a portion of the sales it normally would receive, Mountain Area Realty’s attorney said.
Wintergreen Resort Premier Properties “is charging sellers 6 percent commissions,” said Allen Foster, attorney for Mountain Area Realty. “Mountain Area Realty was charging 5 to 51/2 percent. So we know consumers are being harmed.”
The lawsuit accuses Wintergreen Resort of violations under the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act, the Virginia Antitrust Act and the Consumer Protection Act, as well as conspiracy and fraud. The $6 million in damages represents lost commissions, Mr. Foster said. via The Washington Times

Just over 10 years after Cendant’s predecessor began a buying spree that included real estate brands Century 21, ERA, PHH and Coldwell Banker, the company’s impact on the industry is undeniable. With about 25 percent of all Realtors in the nation affiliated with the corporation, the story of the largest real estate brokerage and franchise company in the nation is still unfolding.

This story is packed with elements of mystery and intrigue, twists and turns, massive-scale acquisitions and consolidations, deception and scandal, courtroom drama, financial fallout and recovery, a restructuring of management, a rapid rise to power and prominence, and a carefully calculated breakup and re-branding. The cast is thick with power brokers and industry luminaries.

Cendant Corp. grew its real estate operations with hurricane force, building upon the buying spree of predecessor HFS, a hotel franchisor.

Tracing back 11 years, Cendant’s real estate roots were planted with the acquisition of Century 21 by predecessor HFS in 1995. From 1995-97 HFS acquired Century 21, ERA, PHH and Coldwell Banker, and Cendant was formed through a merger of HFS Inc. and CUC International Inc., a direct marketing and member services company, in December 1997.

Since inception, the company has been a cash cow for real estate company owners seeking an exit strategy, and has driven an unprecedented surge in industry consolidation.

Not even a decade old, the company has amassed a collection of reputable brands, with such company-owned and franchise affiliates as Century 21, Coldwell Banker, ERA and Sotheby’s, and about 313,500 sales associates are affiliated with Cendant’s major company-owned and franchise real estate brands. There are about 15,000 residential and commercial real estate offices affiliated with Cendant’s Real Estate Franchise Group.

NRT Inc., a Cendant subsidiary that oversees company-owned real estate offices, acquired 31 companies last year and has acquired about 320 companies since its creation. NRT has about 1,000 offices and 64,000 sales associates and operates in about 35 major metropolitan markets across the country.

Revenue for Cendant’s real estate services division in fourth-quarter 2005 reached $1.62 billion, which represents about 38 percent of the company’s total revenue for that quarter. In addition to its real estate business, the company also has operations in the hospitality services, timeshare resorts, vehicle rental and travel distribution services industries.

Focus on business and consolidation

Larry Knapp, president of Saratoga, Calif.-based Alain Pinel Realtors and a former NRT executive, said Cendant has brought a more intense business focus to the real estate brokerage industry. “The creation of what is today known as Cendant has forced the rest of the industry to operate at a higher level, which it has done. I think that the real estate industry before this (Cendant) consolidation play came along was run less like a business and more by the seat of somebody’s pants.”

Knapp, who began his real estate career in 1969 as a real estate agent in Sacramento, Calif., served as president for Coldwell Banker Northern California from 1985-97 and later served as senior vice president for NRT Inc.’s Western Region. NRT was initially established in 1996 as a real estate trust and grew through acquisitions to become a dominant real estate brokerage company. NRT Inc. began as a joint venture with Apollo Management, an investment group, and in 2002 Cendant bought out Apollo for about $230 million worth of stock and the assumption of about $300 million in net debt.

Cendant predecessor HFS was known for its franchising success, so real estate franchise operations were a good fit, but company-owned real estate operations posed a new challenge, Knapp said. It would have been easy for Cendant to simply be the “gorilla franchising business” based on the brands it had acquired from predecessor HFS, Knapp noted, but the company was not content with a singular role as real estate franchisor.

“The impact of Cendant and HFS on the industry was more from the consolidation play on the company-owned side than it was on the franchise side. That’s where they left their core business of franchising. There was a learning curve,” he said. “The company-owned operations created a dilemma for them. They were in competition with their franchisees. Early on (Cendant was) very aggressive in selling franchises. They started selling franchises in the middle of company-owned operations. There was an adjustment period where the franchise side of the business and the company-owned side of the business had to kind of agree on the rules and regulations of expansion. The message got over to the franchise side: sell outside the perimeters of company-owned (offices),” Knapp said.

Cendant Chairman and CEO Henry Silverman had told real estate managers that he believed the real estate industry was ripe for consolidation on a large scale. That movement had already begun prior to the arrival of HFS and Cendant to the real estate scene – companies like Coldwell Banker and Merrill Lynch had been active in consolidation efforts in years prior.

Cendant had an acquisition strategy that focused on gaining market share within a particular market area, he said. “Most of the consolidation they did was in the markets where they already had a presence … merging them into existing operations, closing unneeded offices, reducing redundant costs and in some cases eliminating duplicate advertising costs. While some of these acquisitions put them into new markets, most of them were consolidations right in markets where there already were (existing company-owned offices),” he said.

The company-owned operations became a good channel to purchase the operations of Cendant franchise businesses that were for sale, Knapp said.

Though Cendant has established a reputation as a major consolidator, Knapp said the company did not make a name for itself in the early years as a trailblazer in technology or business innovation, for example.

It was a challenge, he said, to combine all of the legacy technology systems for all of the companies that it had acquired. “It would’ve taken a rocket scientists to get it all together. I think it took them a long time back in New Jersey to realize how important the technology play was going to be and do it on a large scale. They worked hard to present a good technology system like all the rest of us.” It was also a tall order for NRT to streamline the bits and pieces of many real estate-related services, such as mortgage and settlement services, from its various acquisitions and turn that into a functional business, he said.

Cendant has at times been a trendsetter in the adoption of new technologies, and took a big technological step in November 2004 when it announced the launch of LeadRouter, a lead management system that quickly feeds leads to real estate agents via telephone or e-mail from a variety of sources.

The company last year launched a tool called SearchRouter, which allows consumers to navigate from the main Web sites of its national brands to a large inventory of property listings in a local market area.

Also, NRT Inc. this year extended a market
ing agreement for enhanced property advertisements at the popular home-search site Realtor.com. NRT first announced a marketing agreement with Realtor.com’s parent company, Homestore, in Feb. 22 for the enhanced display of all NRT-affiliated listings at the Web site. The company’s actions speak volumes about an increasing shift in real estate advertising to online venues.

Cendant announced a plan to spinoff its real estate segment in June this year as a separate company called Realogy. As proposed, the new company will have its stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “H.” Cendant also plans to launch separate companies from three other operating segments.

Bob Moles, chairman of Cupertino, Calif.-based Intero Real Estate and former president and CEO for Cendant’s Real Estate Franchise Group, was president of Contempo Realty when that company was bought by NRT in 1997.

When HFS acquired Century 21 and ERA, the industry was still trying to figure out whether the company would become a major figure in the industry, Moles said. The acquisition of Coldwell Banker and then PHH, which included mortgage services and relocation services, made it clear that Cendant was sincere.

“The acquisition of Century 21 sent a signal, and ERA sent a signal. People (said), ‘Wow, what is this?’ The acquisition of Coldwell Banker was big. After Coldwell Banker and after PHH, people thought this was a very serious company,” he said.

After Cendant formed, the company set its sights on acquiring regional independent brokerage companies, and it was not uncommon for the company to rattle off several new acquisition deals in a single week.

Among the major deals: Jon Douglas Co. in Southern California, Arvida Realty Services in Florida, Burnet Financial Group in Minnesota and Chicago, The DeWolfe Cos. in New England, and Fred Sands Realtors in Southern California. All of these companies had an annual sales volume in the billions. Other major acquisitions included Hunneman Real Estate Corp. in Boston, Gundaker Realtors in St. Louis, Cornish & Carey Residential Real Estate in Northern California, Coldwell Banker Stevens in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, O’Conor, Piper & Flynn in the Northeast, Contempo Realty in Northern California, Northside Realty in Atlanta, and The Corcoran Group in New York.

Cendant definitely escalated industry consolidations, said Moles, who was named president and CEO of Century 21 Real Estate Corp. in 1997 and later oversaw franchise operations for all of Cendant’s real estate brands until he returned to California in 2004 to join Intero.

“I wouldn’t have traded the experience,” he said of his time at Cendant. “Those first three or four years were pretty exciting years and it was really unique to be a part of that. This is a very entrepreneurial business. There were times when people were having to move very fast.” When he arrived at the company there were about 1,700 employees and when he left there were about 92,000, he said.

Cendant brought lots of capital into play in the real estate industry, which had never been done before in such a big way. And the timing was right for HFS and Cendant to make a move, he said. “Clearly in the seven years I was out there we really had the wind at our backs in terms of property appreciation and (sales).”

Knapp agreed, “The timing of the creation of NRT was pretty perfect. From 1997 until now has been probably the best nine years in the history of real estate. The market is not likely to continue to grow.”

Cendant officials are well aware of changing sales market conditions this year. In February, the company announced it would consolidate local offices to quickly cut about $50 million in costs.

The real estate market turned rapidly in December 2005 in some markets, and the company saw a cancellation rate on sales transactions spike about 30 percent that month, perhaps because speculators were fleeing. Also, the volume of real estate transactions at NRT companies dropped about 19 percent in New England, California and Florida in fourth-quarter 2005, the company reported, while transaction volume in other market areas increased about 4 percent during the quarter.

Small and mid-sized companies face an increasingly competitive real estate environment, Moles said, and there are challenges for large national companies, too. Massive size can be a ”two-edge sword,” he said. “Sometimes when you’re real big the ability to move quickly … is hampered. I think (size) can be both a blessing and a curse.” But Cendant has effectively used its size as an asset in consolidating the industry.

Also, it can be difficult to manage real estate operations within a publicly traded company, Moles said, as “you’ve got to manage to shareholder expectations – sometimes it’s difficult to take a long-term perspective.”

With the real estate segment as a separate company, the national scope of Cendant’s real estate operations and its franchise royalties should provide some balance to market fluctuations in specific geographic areas, Moles said. “Its revenue streams are diversified across major metro areas.”

Early days

Before today’s successes, the corporate marriage of HFS and CUC proved disastrous in its early stages. Cendant in 1998 restated its earnings for 1995-97, revealing that “a ‘widespread and systemic’ fraud had occurred at CUC and the merged company that included improperly recognizing fictitious revenues, falsely coding services sold to customers and fraudulently manipulating merger reserves,” according to court documents. A report adopted by Cendant’s Board of Directors found that CUC’s operating income was inflated by about $500 million during a period from May 1995 to August 1998, the court documents reveal.

In financial filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 1998, Cendant reported that earnings had been overstated by about $300 million, or 24 percent, during that three-year period, and earnings per share were overstated by about 130 percent.

Cendant officials did not offer any comment for this article due to “vacation schedules,” Kevin Doell, a spokesperson for Cendant’s Real Estate Services Division, said.

Cendant’s stock price plummeted with the news of the accounting fraud. In one day following the company’s initial disclosure in April 1998 about the problems, Cendant’s stock dropped 47 percent per share and its market capitalization sunk $14.2 billion. With later announcements in July and August the company’s market capitalization dropped further – for a total of $20.5 billion, or 67 percent, court documents state.

Several company officials made millions by selling shares of stock before the radical drop in stock price. Chairman and CEO Silverman in February 1998 sold 1.7 million shares of Cendant common stock – his entire holding in the company – and received $61.4 million, according to court documents.

Heads rolled. Walter A. Forbes, the former CUC chairman, CEO and president who served as chairman of Cendant’s board of Directors following the merger, was forced to resign in July 1998. Forbes sold about $38.5 million worth of CUC and Cendant common stock, court documents state. E. Kirk Shelton, vice chairman for Cendant and former CUC president, was terminated in August 1998. Shelton earned about $23 million in Cendant and CUC stock proceeds. A group of other former CUC officials also resigned as the scandal unfolded.

• almost 3 months
• cost approx $900.
• Over 300 leads captured
• 4 deals closed
• 3 referrals (2 from agents outside the Coldwell Banker, and 1 from the Coldwell Banker)
• 2 listings taken
• and some serious prospects in the pipeline
• every lead is on a lead management contact program

Using Sara’s technology experience and background in combination with my 17 years of experience has enabled us to construct a program that is not only cutting edge, but is practical to the real estate practioner and consumer. Contact Sara for assistance in setting up your program or office training today.




April will be Open House month with more details to come from your broker.




Great news. It was announced that in the next couple of weeks their will be a major announcement for a new large company joining the network. Rumour has it, its out west. yahoo!





www.coldwellbanker.ca will be relaunched in mirror of it sister u.s. site www.coldwellbanker.com. The architecture will be significantly less than the dot com version as the U.S. spent millions doing their site, but the improvements will be very good.




Andrew Zsolt with Terequity announced a training initative that deals exclusively with getting listings. An excellent investment if you ask me. If you want to be successful in this business you have to be able to get inventory. contact Mary Scannell for more info





Last year’s award winner for most memorable line was Pete Benninger of Peter

Benninger realty, for “you got dick” in a discussion about radio advertising and results.




This year is a tie between Pete Benninger with “You’re living the dream” in his comments to address his approval to the head office for the change in awards with regards to teams and their new found empathy of broker issues. Hopefully more info will be forthcoming soon, but basically they will be splitting the top 10 and designation levels in to individual awards and team awards. A team is defined as any combination of licensed agents working together (ie if you have a licensed assistant you are considered a team).




The other memorable sound bite came from the GOOGLE ad executive in describing how search engine marketing works….”It’s like advertising on crack.”




After the meeting Sara and I had numerous conversations with people regarding how to properly set up a search engine marketing program in conjunction with some other critical elements for your search engine marketing to be successful.




Expect better, you deserve the best Written by - Visit Website]]> http://www.realestate-max.com/2006/03/coldwell-banker-canada-update-toronto-broker-meeting/feed/ 0 http://www.realestate-max.com/2006/02/whats-in-a-name/ http://www.realestate-max.com/2006/02/whats-in-a-name/#comments Sun, 26 Feb 2006 02:44:00 +0000 Admin Cendant and the brain trusts that be are in the process of reorganizing and renaming the individual units. Like this will make a difference, well at least not to those of us in the trenches.




It hopefully won’t mean extra overhead in corporate salaries. Keep your costs down boys and girls.

The Cendant Real Estate Services Division, which is spinning off from Cendant Corp., will operate as a standalone company under the name Realogy Corp., the publicly traded company said today.

The name change will take effect upon the completion of its spin-off from Cendant Corp., anticipated during the second quarter of 2006.

“The name Realogy communicates our rigorous approach to the real estate business,” said Richard A. Smith, chairman and CEO of the Cendant Real Estate Services Division, who will serve as vice chairman and president of Realogy Corp.

Since the Cendant name will ultimately be retired, two subsidiaries of the Real Estate Services Division are also changing their corporate identities in association with the spin-off, the company said.

Cendant Mobility, a major global relocation services company, will become known as Cartus. Cartus has more than 1,300 active clients worldwide, including more than 60 percent of the Fortune 50 and numerous government agencies and affinity organizations.

Cendant Settlement Services Group, a national leader in title and settlement services, will become known as Title Resource Group (TRG). TRG is comprised of 21 title and settlement services companies with 500 offices in 33 states across the United States.

“Title Resource Group is a name that defines our national network of title and settlement services companies,” said Cendant Settlement Services Group President and CEO Don Casey, who will serve as TRG’s president and CEO. “TRG comprises many companies operating in a host of local markets, all united under one vision.”

No other name changes are planned within the Real Estate Services Division.

NRT Inc., the real estate franchise group, and its leading brands — Century 21, Coldwell Banker, Coldwell Banker Commercial, ERA and Sotheby’s International Realty — all will keep their existing names.

“First, fast and frequent” might sound like a recipe for a very different kind of relationship, but it’s one real estate marketing company’s rule for customer relationship management.

“You want to be the first agent in contact with the home buyer or seller,” said Matt Heinz, senior director of marketing for HouseValues. “You want to follow up quickly. And you want to stay in touch – frequently.

“We’ve found over the last seven years that leads aren’t enough,” said Heinz. “It’s almost as important to have a system in place to cultivate relationships with people as it is to get the leads.”

“If they (the prospect) are not buying for many months, they still want to hear from you,” Heinz said.

One of the best practices his company teaches is to send useful information, not sales pitches, to prospects, echoing comments made by many real estate agents.

However, Heinz cautioned, it’s important not to be intrusive. Another best practice: Let the consumer stay in control.

“Let them drive the timeline,” Heinz said. As prospects do their research and amass the information they need to make decisions, they will decide when it’s time for action.

Another best practice: “Make yourself an expert on the neighborhood,” Heinz said. Advice about local businesses, local vendors, schools, nightlife, weather and any number of things can make an agent stand out, he said.

Linda Howard, president of network services for Prudential California, Nevada and Texas, agrees with Heinz that speed of response is a very important best practice. It’s also important to separate those who are interested in buying in the next three months from those who are more long-term, Howard said.

“We get them in the loop with an agent if they are going to buy pretty soon,” Howard said. Otherwise, “we put them in our LeadTrax.”

“We call it an incubation process. We nurture that consumer and supply them with information they need during that period of time and when they are ready to start their search we assign them out to an agent,” Howard said.

The system sends prospects e-mails on a regular basis, “giving them bits of information about mortgage rates, special insurance programs, anything related to the home purchase process,” Howard said.

Howard agreed with Heinz’ suggestions on best practices.

“Consumers these days are savvy. They will see right through a sales pitch,” she said. “What they want is mortgage rates, insurance information, information about the area they are moving to. We try to make whatever we sent them valuable information.”

Pru California is unusual in having a comprehensive CRM product available to its agents, according to Bob Woehrle, CEO of PropertySource. PropertySource is a customer relationship management technology firm that works with large brokerages including Baird & Warner in Chicago, Hunt Real Estate in New York State, Realty South in Alabama and Edina Realty in Minnesota.

Regarding CRM, Woehrle said, “You are 40 times more likely to generate business from someone you know than a random relationship.”

As a best practice, his company recommends that agents establish and identify groups– former clients, friends, relatives, PTA, church members – and get them into a list. “We provide an electronic tool to do this with every contact they have,” Woehrle said.

Another PropertySource best practice: “Surprise and delight,” the CEO said.

“Our software allows agents to send out automatic e-greetings on birthdays, anniversary, the changing of the clocks twice a year. Remembering customers at times they would not expect you to remember them has a strong emotional appeal,” Woehrle said.

Woehrle joined the chorus recommending that agents send useful information to prospects. His company offers newsletters that agent customers can send out, tailored to buyers and sellers who are actively engaged, and to homeowners.

“We also recommend building a target group of preferred customers. The two easiest ways to make money are repeat sales and referrals. We want to target them and give them a special dose of attention,” Woehrle said. This is known as the 100 List, the group of an agent’s 100 most likely contacts to provide a referral.

With postage rates going up, “with our agents across the country we unrolled a promotion. For their 100 list, we sent them 100 cards that welcomed the new year and the new postage rate and in the cards we included a sheet of two-cent stamps,” the CEO said.

The most important best practice: “Segment them (prospects) according to their needs and speak intelligently to those needs,” Woehrle said.