The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Amazon picks Realogy for real estate entry
After dominating real estate headlines for the better part of two years as it searched for a second headquarters, Amazon dangled a new real estate teaser Tuesday: a partnership to steer wouldbe homebuyers to one of the biggest brokerage firms operating in Connecticut.
Realogy announced a collaboration with Amazon called TurnKey in 15 cities nationally, connecting homebuyers with agents at Realogy’s brokerage subsidiaries including Coldwell Banker, among the largest operating in Connecticut.
Realogy shares spiked nearly 20 percent Tuesday to above $6 after the companies reported the partnership, but remain less than half their level entering May.
Through Coldwell Banker and the corporate relocation consultancy Cartus, Realogy is among the larger employers in southwestern Connecticut. Realogy’s corporate umbrella extends to several other agency brands including NRT, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, Century 21, ERA and Sotheby’s International Realty.
In addition to established brokerage firms like Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Keller Williams and William Raveis Real Estate, Coldwell Banker and its Realogy peers are seeing upstarts emerge like Redfin and Opendoor that rely on Internet platforms to drive sales.
“Our current strategy ... is based on using technology and data to enhance our value proposition for current and potential agents and franchisees,” Schneider said in May during a conference call. “We need to do more — and we need to do it rapidly. ... I am on the hunt for new and bigger ideas that can change our company and even the industry.”
Under CEO Ryan Schneider, Realogy lost $99 million in the first quarter, with the company in the midst of a restructuring it believes will save it $70 million annually, in part through consolidation of office space — including in Connecticut — as agents increase their use of mobile technologies.
Realogy is scheduled to report its secondquarter results during the second week of August.
While Amazon has not changed every industry it has touched, any new foray gets ample attention. That has held true in the past year as the company has broadened into paying for health care, pairing with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase to develop a new vehicle to pay for the cost of care rather than relying on traditional insurance.