NRT Inc. buys Allan M. Schneider Associates Inc.

Long Island Business News, Aug 10, 2006 by Dawn Wotapka Hardesty

A slowing housing market didn't deter NRT Inc., the country's largest residential brokerage, from acquiring Allan M. Schneider Associates Inc., the largest private residential seller in the Hamptons.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, though it has been estimated at $40 million. The acquisition has been rumored for months.

Under the deal announced Thursday morning, Allan Schneider principals Peter Hallock, Timothy Davis and Peggy Griffin will remain with the company that will operate as The Corcoran Group.

NRT is becoming the Microsoft of real estate, said Bart Bleiweiss, an associate broker with Laffey Fine Homes and Estates. Eventually there's going to be three or four real estate companies that pretty much own everything. The strength is in the numbers.

NRT is a subsidiary of Realogy. Corp., a spinoff of behemoth Cendant Corp. Cendant also owns Sotheby's International Realty, Century 21 and Coldwell Banker Commercial. Its umbrella also includes Orbitz, Howard Johnson Wyndham Worldwide and Avis car rental.

Allan Schneider, meanwhile, was established in 1974 as a single- office firm based in Bridgehampton. It now has 12 offices with 243 associates who closed $1.4 billion in sales in the last year. The Corcoran Group has 232 sales associates in the East End who closed $1.2 billion in the last 12 months. In total, Corcoran has 59 offices and 2,500 associates.

The union of our two companies represents a historic moment, Pamela Liebman, NRT regional senior vice president and Corcoran chief executive, said in a statement.

NRT has more than 1,000 offices in 35 metropolitan areas. It boasts 64,000 sales associates.

The Island housing market has cooled since news of the merger first began circulating in December. Brokers report boosted inventory that's taking longer to sell.

It's definitely a buyers market now, Bleiweiss said.