Families Unite: Howard Hanna and Rand Realty

Joe Rand wrote Wednesday morning, "You all know the Hanna family, who is probably the best-known real estate family in the country. In the Hannas, we have found the perfect partners who align with our values of supporting amazing real estate agents and providing the best possible service experience for our clients."

In an announcement, Howard Hanna Holdings consummated a private placement investment to become the majority shareholder of Rand Realty. Rand Realty will continue its operations with current leadership. The deal is very similar in construct to the expansion model that began with Smythe-Cramer and matured with the Allen Tate transaction. The Rand family stays in place and will operate the company with Marsha Rand and Matt Rand running the company, Dan Rand in mortgage and title, Joe Rand as Chief Creative Officer, and so on.

Howard W. "Hoby" Hanna said, "Our plan has always been to partner with like-minded brokerage firms where we believe two cultures and philosophies can mesh and blend together."

For decades, these families have been colleagues and friends, members of The Realty Alliance. Their operating philosophy and business lines in residential real estate, commercial, mortgage, title, insurance are parallel. I am not certain, but I believe that this makes Hanna Holdings the largest firm in New York state, which is pretty impressive.

Combined, the firms reported 35,000 homes sold in New York last year. "As ambitious as we have been in New York state, we knew we would only enter the downstate market if we could create a partnership with the Rand company family and agents, who we have trusted and admired. This partnership will allow us to continue to expand and grow in the New York housing market, and we are very excited to welcome the Rand team and offices into the Howard Hanna family."

Having observed the Tate transaction, I would expect very little to change at Rand Realty. Rand is a great business operated by highly skilled executives. There will certainly be efficiencies and I imagine that they will consider some of the innovative product development at Howard Hanna like the very popular program of Buy Before You Sell or the 100% Money Back Guarantee. This partnership makes sense.

"This union brings together leading real estate industry professionals from two of the most respected and trusted family-owned companies in the business and blends them into one unified industry leader," said Helen Hanna Casey. Now, Hanna Holdings has about 11,000 Realtors.

Joe Rand writes, "Personally, I am thrilled to be part of the Hanna organization. I am going to continue as the Chief Creative Officer at Howard Hanna | Rand Realty, and will be expanding my portfolio to include working with some of the Hanna agents throughout the country. I am also, of course, going to continue in my work as the Executive Director of the Broker Public Portal, helping complete the Homesnap coast-to-coast network. And I'm hard at work on my next book!

Howard Hanna | Rand Realty is born. Happy birthday!

To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.