Independent real estate brokers, nationally and in Virginia, are banding together in a newly formed relocation company called Reliance Relocation Services Inc.
Bowers Nelms & Fonville Inc., Richmond’s largest residential real estate company, is among the new company’s charter members and initial stockholders.
Reliance Relocation was sponsored jointly by Genesis Relocation Services and The Realty Alliance, an association of 50 of the country’s top real estate brokerages. Genesis, a broker network and corporate relocation company, was Bowers Nelms’ former relocation affiliation. Genesis merged into Reliance Relocation last month.
Relocation specialists, often working with companies transferring employees from one location to another, offer newcomers a variety of services aimed at making moving a pleasant experience. The services can include helping new arrivals learn about area school systems, neighborhoods and cultural life. Relocation agents also can help with hotel reservations, child-care arrangements, house hunting, mortgage financing information, and selling the transferee’s former house.
Richard Nelms, president of Bowers Nelms & Fonville, said he thinks the new relocation organization will be a powerful force. “It’s broker owned, managed and run. . . . It’s not run by some third party.”
In addition to Bowers Nelms, nine or 10 real estate companies operating in Virginia are affiliated with Reliance Relocation.
“The relocation industry is very competitive. . . . It’s a very strong merger,” said Judith Forsyth, relocation director for GSH Residential.
Brokers taking the reins to direct a national relocation company is a response to the growth of HFS Inc., Nelms said.
HFS is a worldwide hotel franchise company that owns Century 21, Coldwell Banker and ERA real estate franchises, as well as PHH Corp., a corporate services company and the country’s largest relocation company.
In 1997, HFS will work with nearly 100,000 transferees, and internationally, with about 15,000 assignees, said Hugh Siler, public relations spokesman for HFS Mobility Services, a unit of HFS Inc.
Many independent brokers, Nelms said, began to feel that in the future if they wanted to use PHH’s relocation services they might be asked to convert to one of HFS’s real estate franchises.
David Lemon of Gearhart-Stevens concurred that there was concern that “HFS might have an inordinate percentage of the business.”
Reliance Relocation has more than 80,000 sales associates and about 2,600 offices, Lemon said. The organization has 27 percent of the national residential resale market, which represents $119 billion in sales.
“There has been a real consolidation in the relocation field,” he said.
Slater, Realtors of Richmond also is a charter member of Reliance, but is not a stockholder, said company President Earl Jackson. Slater, as well as some other companies in Reliance, have been with the relocation service through its various identities.
“The original company was ICR, Intercommunity Relocation,” he said. “We were a member of that firm from its inception in 1973. There have been a series of name changes. The most recent one was Genesis, by virtue of a merger of Amerinet and Traveler’s Relocation.”
Both Jackson and Carolyne Hotze, Slater’s relocation director, agree that Reliance is trying to compete with HFS.
“All of the Genesis brokers are independents. With HFS garnering all that business under one umbrella, the Reliance group has formed a large umbrella of independents that can compete with the larger franchises,” Jackson said.
Nelms said he expects to see a power move between HFS-affiliated brokers and Reliance brokers for future relocation business. “Both will be calling on major corporations to represent them. I think we will see more implications from this alliance than we have seen in 30 years,” he said.
“Reliance is not a reaction but rather an important strategic decision for independent real estate companies who seek to control their future in relocation,” said Dick DeWolfe, president of The Realty Alliance.
Reliance, headed by President and Chief Executive Officer John M. Moore, will employ the former Genesis management team and staff and will operate from Mount Laurel, N.J. The company also will maintain offices in Langhorne, Pa.; Portland, Ore.; and Scottsdale, Ariz.
Through affiliation with Reliance, Nelms said, “We hope to create a lot of services we can begin to give to customers and clients that we couldn’t in the past.”
“We may get into offering some more in-depth information on schools we have not had before,” said Margaret Johnson, Bowers Nelms’ director of relocation services, and also “may look at some rental services we have not offered in the past.”
Bowers Nelms & Fonville has 15 offices and 422 sales associates. Nelms said the company probably will have $800 million to $850 million in sales this year, a 20 percent increase over last year.
“The excitement we have is because we are aligning with some of the biggest brokers in the country and that will generate business within our company,” Johnson said.
