Two Richmond, Virginia-based real estate brokerages have joined forces: One South Realty Group will absorb Clocktower Realty Group. With this consolidation, One South will double in size, to 140 agents and staff.
Richmond Biz Sense reported that the two companies are in the process of this transition and 50 agents out of Clocktower’s 73 agents have already moved to One South. Rhonda Carroll, principal broker at Clocktower, is expecting a 90% retention rate.
Clocktower, launched by Carroll in 2017, consulted One South in the face of a slowdown in the housing market and rising interest rates.
Carroll will serve as an additional managing broker, alongside current One South managing broker Laura Waite. In her new role, Carroll will help agents with branding and strategies for challenging listings.
One South opened in 2008 and survived the recession back then — one of the reasons why Carroll sought their advice.
Rick Jarvis, co-founder of One South, said the company was not actively looking for a merger but eventually it made sense to leverage the benefits both companies bring to the table.
While the company wasn’t looking to bring another firm into the fold, he said combining with Clocktower made sense to both companies and brought benefits to both sides.
“The financial analysis was actually the easy part; the harder part was making sure that culturally and philosophically we were aligned,” he said.
Combined, the two companies closed around 1,000 residential transactions so far in 2022.
“What we are building is actually designed for a market that is changing, and we are excited by what the future will bring,” Jarvis said.
In the face of a volatile housing market, these mergers are on the rise. Flat-fee firm Houwzer, modeled around salaried real estate agents, fixed listing prices for sellers and high attach rates for ancillary services, acquired Trelora, a Denver-based brokerage, to “innovate, build, and scale a transformational enterprise serving customers during this seismic market shift.”
Earlier this month, Bismarck-based brokerage Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Alliance Group merged with Watne, Realtors based in Minot, North Dakota, to expand the firm’s growth in the northern region of the state.