United’s bold growth goal: ‘We will double our size’ in 3 years 

In the increasingly competitive real estate business, brokerage leaders are turning to all available avenues for growth and expansion — including mergers and acquisitions.

Brokerages large and small are taking advantage of the current consolidation moment, including flat fee-focused United Real Estate. The company has notched a handful of big acquisition deals and affiliations in recent months — and, as President Rick Haase said during a recent interview with Real Estate News, more are on the way.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What is United's approach to brokerage acquisitions?

The first step is understanding how we can create and operate a model successfully that can flow the highest possible amount of that gross commission income into our agents' bank accounts.

The second step is through network affiliation, and then third is through mergers and acquisitions. With all of that said, those three areas have contributed to us being the fastest-growing real estate company on transactions and agent count growth over the last five years. 

Our approach is to identify the true gems in the marketplace and get to know them, work diligently to understand who they are and really do the due diligence to see if it's a fit. So it's not a six-month window or a one-year window. It's five years of persistence and consistency. 

How do you identify the 'true gems' in the brokerage marketplace?

The whole premise with the gems is asking, where are the highly disciplined, well-run organizations with great leadership — and then we go after that relationship. They don't have to be at the top of their market — they don't have to be number one or two or three — but they do have to be in a trajectory that suggests that they're winning; that they're doing what they need to do to retain their agents, to recruit their agents, and they're gaining ground. 

We look at their recent track record — their last three- to five-year track record of growth and success. Are they attracting agents? Do the agents say good things about them?

We look at the underlying core values of a company. They have to have high integrity. They have to care about their agents. They have to be relentless in their approach to delivering excellent service.

Where does United stand in the ongoing private listings debate?

We have 25,000 agents in 47 states, so if you looked at our company, you'd find operational variances based on the traditions and customs of the local region. From the top down, we know it makes a lot of sense to expose your house to the greatest number of potential buyers possible, so that you know you can get supply and demand working for you. So, the vast majority of circumstances cry out for wide-area marketing, which you can accomplish without the traditional MLSs — but it's a lot harder. 

How will the current consolidation moment help United's growth goals?

We're focused on our North Star, which is providing the best opportunity for our agents to have successful careers. We've been rewarded tremendously with recruiting network growth through the franchising system and M&A.

But where does it go for us? We had 25,000 agents as our goal in 2025, and we hit that goal earlier this year. We will be double our size in three years. I despise hyperbole, but if we have even moderate success with our existing pipeline — if we have half the success we've had in the last five years — with our existing pipeline, we will double our agent count and transaction count in three years.