Chicago-based @properties and Alexander Real Estate, which has offices in downtown Detroit and Royal Oak, Michigan, recently announced that Alexander will become the first @properties franchise in the country.
@properties Co-Founders, Thad Wong and Mike Golden; @properties President of Brand Growth, Chris Lim; and Alexander Real Estate Partners, Eric Walstrom, Alex Irrer, and Matt O’Laughlin made the announcement.
Last September, @properties launched a national franchise brand to offer broker/owners and top agent teams across the country access to the technology, marketing, training and business-development systems that made it one of the nation’s largest independent brokerage firms, said the company.
Alexander, which currently has 45 agents, will be expanding throughout the Detroit Metro Area. The firm will change its name to @properties, Walstrom noted.
“As a company, we have ambitious goals, none more important than attracting the best agents in the market, giving them top-of-the-line tools to grow their business and delivering a superior client experience,” said Walstrom. “We looked at a lot of different paths to take us where we want to go, and ultimately we decided @properties was the brand that would contribute the most to our success.”
“Alexander is the perfect company to carry the @properties franchise brand into the real estate arena,” said Wong. “The firm is focused on growing the right way: quality over quantity; support for agents; a commitment to adopting our systems and resources; and a ‘real-estate-is-local’ attitude that has inspired a loyal following.”
Walstrom and Irrer founded Alexander Real Estate in 2016 in Royal Oak, a close-in suburb of Detroit. In 2018, they partnered with O’Laughlin to open an office in Midtown, where a massive redevelopment effort—driven largely by billionaire businessman and Detroit native, Dan Gilbert—was just getting underway.
Over the next three years, Alexander tripled its sales volume and became the No. 1 brokerage firm in the downtown market, as well as the city’s No. 1 broker for new-construction and adaptive-reuse developments, said the company. Now, the company is looking to make its mark on the Detroit suburbs. Walstrom said near-term expansion will focus on the communities of Grosse Pointe, Birmingham, Rochester Hills, Plymouth and Northville. The firm has plans to move into the Ann Arbor market as well.
“The @properties playbook is one we’re certainly excited to dive into,” said O’Laughlin. “The local industry is hungry for something new. There hasn’t been much in the way of tech innovation or adoption, and the larger players in the market don’t offer a cohesive brand experience from one office to the next. It’s a very fragmented marketplace, and we see that as a huge opportunity.”
Chris Lim, who leads @properties’ franchise expansion, said the company is in late-stage discussions with a number of other potential franchisees across the country. “We will have more announcements to make in the near future,” he said.
Source: www.atproperties.com.
