How to navigate a successful brokerage acquisition

From Compass’s acquisition of @properties and Christie’s International Real Estate, to Rocket Companies’ acquisitions of Redfin and Mr. Cooper, to Lower’s purchase of Movoto and countless other smaller deals, there’s no question that the real estate industry is consolidating. 

Prepping for the deal

Murray and several others discussed the consolidation trend — as well as the art of making a deal come together — during a portion of The Gathering by HousingWire on Sunday.

According to Lisa D’Ambrosia, a director and shareholder at Minor & Brown PC, companies are almost never ready for M&A. 

“It is like having children — you think you are ready for them, and then you have them and you realize you aren’t ready for them,” she said. 

With this in mind, D’Ambrosia said there’s a lot that company owners and leaders can do to prepare for a potential deal.

“Whether you are on the buy side or the sell side, there is a lot that you can do internally to move yourself down the road,” she said. “One of the biggest areas is getting your owners together — start those communications early and set forth your expectations amongst your partners as to what your end game is going to be.”

D’Ambrosia also recommended that those interested in buying or selling meet with their financial planner to figure out what number they need for a deal to make sense. This is especially important for those looking to exit the industry.

“To get that number, sometimes that organic internal growth isn’t enough, so you may need to look to potentially do some acquisitions yourself to enable your exit,” D’Ambrosia said. “Part of this as well is understanding what your business is worth.” 

With this in mind, D’Ambrosia said it is important to include your attorney, an accountant and even an outside consultant when preparing and navigating a transaction. 

‘M&A does not end at closing’

Once a company has prepared itself for a deal, found a partner and settled on terms, it would be easy to assume that the transaction is done. But Scott Wright of RealTrends Consulting said that is not the case.

“M&A does not end at closing. In fact, that’s really where it begins, and if you don’t have a well-planned and well-executed announcement and integration plan, it is going to be a deal that doesn’t work out,” Wright said. “Sometimes that is overlooked.” 

Jason Mitchell, CEO of the Jason Mitchell Group, has successfully closed several M&A transactions. He said he likes to take a phased approach and sets clear expectations for what the blueprint will look like — including meeting cadence and the structure of the onboarding process — before the deal is signed.

“It depends on the size of the company, but usually it is around six months. But with bigger companies, like mortgage and insurance, it can be even longer,” Mitchell said. “It is really about setting the tone from the beginning that it is not going to happen in three weeks and that is OK.

“It is going to be a step-by-step process, and hopefully in six months’ time, we can look back and see that we are in a place where the promises and commitments we laid out are holding true.”

Don’t spook your agents

As M&A partners look to navigate the challenging transition period, one of the most important things for any brokerage is to prevent agent flight.

Mayur Raichura, a senior partner at Pixces Consulting Group, has helped companies navigate countless M&A transactions. He said one of the best things a broker-owner or CEO can do to prevent agent flight is to inform the company’s top-performing agents about the deal. 

“We take those 20 top producers and talk with them prior to the date of announcement,” Raichura said. “The reason we do that is because then those 20 top producers feel that they are in on the deal, that they are part of the A team. It really puts them in the right stage of mind to navigate the changes.”

Raichura said they also make sure to include those same top agents in both the companywide announcement and any public announcements that are made.

Lacey Conway, the head of M&A for Compass, added that firms should not forget about their existing agents.

“As you are thinking about the announcement and integration, you also need to think about what your message to your existing agents is,” Conway said. “What do you tell them about why you need this acquisition and how it is going to benefit them?

“I think, in a lot of situations, the agents are trusting you as leaders. And when you do an acquisition or you merge with another company, for the most part, agents want to trust that decision.” 

With many expecting industry consolidation to continue, Raichur said the most important thing to consider is the potential ramifications for your firm.

“Will this acquisition cause a disturbance in the force?” he said. “You have to be fully aware of that because the numbers will eventually work out, but what I have learned over these past 25 years is it is really the quality of the people coming in, and how your people and your agents perceive them into this combined organization.

“If there is going to be any disturbance in the force, I don’t care how great the profit-and-loss statement is, how great the return on investment is, or how great the numbers are — don’t do it.” 

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