When realty manager Marcene Hedayati and her partners recently hung their new office sign on a Main Street storefront in Irvington, it marked new growth for two companies whose fortunes in Westchester have been linked in the economic downturn and prolonged housing market slump.
“William Raveis Legends Realty Group,” the sign reads at 68 Main St., where Hudson Shores Realtors in May was acquired by Hedayati”™s Rivertowns-based company, Legends Realty Group L.L.C. It is the third Legends office to open in the county ”“ others are in Tarrytown and Briarcliff Manor ”“ since Hedayati and four residential brokers formed their all-women partnership in 2007. The business in that five-year span has grown from six sales agents to nearly 50.
With five female owners, “People said we”™d never last,” said Hedayati, laughing at the predictions. “We did last, and we thrive.”
Hedayati, who previously managed Prudential Rand Realty and Houlihan Lawrence offices in the county, said she thinks her company”™s structure ”“ with brokers owning the business and partnerships open to more sales agents ”“ is unique in Westchester. “The concept, in my mind, I kind of wanted it to imitate a law firm,” she said. “We”™re flying by the seat of our pants as far as how we make this work. We do believe that the more people that have a hand in the company, the better it will run.”
“We”™re always looking to grow,” she said. “We believe there”™s value in growth.” Legends partners share that belief and drive to expand with the Connecticut family and powerhouse real estate and mortgage company to which they have yoked their success and survival in an altered housing market.
Legends Realty is an independent affiliate of William Raveis Real Estate, the largest family-owned real estate company in the Northeast and third largest in the country. It operates 80 branches in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Westchester County, where the Shelton, Conn. company has secured a foothold in New York.
Founded in 1974 by William Raveis and led today by the founder and his two sons, the company has more than 2,500 agents and annual real estate sales that total nearly $4.5 billion. Its mortgage banking business does about $8 billion in deals yearly.
Chris Raveis, executive vice president of William Raveis Inc., led the company”™s expansion outside Connecticut that began in 2003. “It”™s been a pretty quick growth,” he said. Much of it has been focused in Massachusetts, where Raveis Real Estate has opened 27 offices in a housing market that is stronger than the Wall-Street dependent markets in Westchester and Fairfield counties, Raveis said.
In the downturn, the family company reinvested profits from its mortgage and insurance businesses in technology and agents for its real estate division. As other companies struggled with debt payments and declining property sales, “It really helped us advance our position during the tough years of the recession,” he said.
“We”™ve opened about 25 to 30 additional offices during the downturn and haven”™t closed one,” Raveis said.
The Raveis company entered the Westchester market in 2009, when it acquired Realty 3 in Rye and opened a second office in Harrison later that year. In 2010, it gained footing in the northern Westchester market when it opened offices in Katonah and Chappaqua. “We just started from scratch” at those two locations, Raveis said. He said the company now has 125 to 150 agents in Westchester.
Another major real estate company with expansion aims in the metropolitan region, Manhattan-based Prudential Douglas Elliman, followed Raveis into the suburban Westchester market in 2011.
Legends Realty is one of 12 affiliates, and the only one in New York, that the Raveis company has taken on in the downturn, as it looks to team with what Chris Raveis called “strong operators” in desired locations. Still, “Our interest is not to be a franchise operator as much as a company-owned store operator.”
The affiliate strategy “is a way for them to go into areas that are not their top priority,” Hedayati said. “From Raveis”™ standpoint, it”™s immediate market share. They create a name for themselves without really doing anything.”
For the partners at Legends Realty Group, affiliation with a larger realty company was not in their start-up plans five years ago. The decision was largely driven by ever-changing, costly technology, Hedayati said.
When the Legends firm opened in 2007, “The market was on its way down, but not really bad yet,” she said. “Our first year was a really phenomenal year. 2008 was OK. 2009 was disastrous for us. That was probably the clincher” that drove the partners to make changes.
Hedayati contacted Raveis executives by email after the Shelton company made its first Westchester acquisition in 2009. But Legends also considered affiliating with a national realty company.
“We”™re fortunate that we did not affiliate with them,” said Hedayati, “and they”™re not known in this area at all.” Raveis, though, is “a strong, well-known company” on the East Coast.
Hedayati was especially drawn to Raveis”™ technology platform. Inman News, a national real estate trade publication, in 2011 named Raveis the most innovative brokerage in the country.
“What really drives that (affiliation) is technology,” Hedayati said. “There would be no reason to affiliate with anyone if we could keep up with that technology.”
“At the same time, we didn”™t want to sell our place either and we wanted to retain a measure of autonomy. Affiliation was kind of the best of both worlds.”
As an affiliate paying a marketing fee to Raveis, “You”™re now part of a very big network that you wouldn”™t be a part of,” she said. Referrals from out-of-state brokers are especially useful in an economy in which “old real estate borders have changed.”
Raveis”™ mortgage business is another asset tapped by its Rivertowns affiliate. “Especially these days when dealing with the banks seems so difficult, that”™s a real benefit for us,” Hedayati said.
“I do believe if the market hadn”™t changed, we probably wouldn”™t have affiliated right away and we would have grown at a faster pace,” she said.
Raveis Real Estate plans to continue its advance in Westchester. “Scarsdale and Larchmont would be great markets for us to be in,” Raveis said. “White Plains would be another great market for us to be in.”
