Pittsburgh, PA (April 6, 2021) – Howard Hanna Real Estate Services has once again been named the #1 privately owned real estate company in the United States, according to the recently released 2021 RealTrends 500 report and the RISMedia Top 500 Power Brokers.
The RealTrends 500, is an independently verified compilation of the nation’s leading residential real estate companies. RealTrends, a trusted source for news and research about the real estate brokerage industry, has been ranking brokerages for more than 33 years and is the most-trusted brokerage ranking report in the industry. Over 1,750 firms qualified for this year’s RealTrends 500. According to a research report produced by Real Trends, the 500 largest residential real estate brokerage firms in the nation closed over 3.9 million residential sales transactions in 2020.
RISMedia releases their annual Power Broker Report & Survey, the industry’s most comprehensive report ranking the top 1,000+ brokerages in the United States by transaction sides and sales volume. They released a sneak peek of their Top 500 in advance of the full Topp 1,000 report, to be released later this year.
The RealTrend and RISMedia lists are full of Wall Street-funded and financially supported entities, and yet Howard Hanna, the nation’s largest family-owned and -operated real estate firm, was ranked among the top five largest brokers overall, based on closing transaction sides in 2020, by both entities.
As a decades old company built on a legacy, Howard Hanna has grown and evolved in a way that has allowed the business to flourish, even in the challenging years. The continued success of a family-owned business among a litany of corporations is something that few have accomplished, let alone fully realized the potential of their power in the market.
“Our real estate professionals have demonstrated their ability and willingness to excel in a tumultuous year,” said Chairman Howard W. “Hoddy” Hanna, III. “Realizing a nearly 19% increase in sales volume year-over-year is an outstanding testament to their commitment to growth and success in our various markets.”
Strategic Growth
By rounding out 2020 with $26.7 billion in sales volume reported in the RealTrends list, Howard Hanna ranked fifth for the Top 5 Year Movers category with total sales volume growth of $9.9 billion from 2016 – 2020, for an overall 59% increase throughout those five years.
Throughout the past few years, Howard Hanna has had a very deliberate growth plan, focused on increasing their footprint through both strategic partnerships and organic growth. As they looked for new ways to expand, 2020 brought the opportunity to partner with a like-minded firm to move into the metropolitan New York and New Jersey area, providing Howard Hanna with a new territory, as well as the local expertise to manage the region.
“It has become clear that our consumers, associates, and partners appreciate the value of a privately owned company,” said Chief Executive Office Helen Hanna Casey. “We believe that as more and more companies become owned by shareholders, it is vital to keep the local ties. At Howard Hanna, we have local leadership in each market with regional support to ensure the success of our agents and the overall satisfaction of our customers.”
Technological Evolution
While Howard Hanna has always had a robust real estate technology stack, the company took challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and turned them into opportunities to not only leverage technology but enhance it for agents and clients alike. Each agent has access to the proprietary GoHanna platform, which is essentially the digital real estate office that grants them access to all the tools they need to be successful each day.
This platform provides agents with our integrated technology to connect them to vital resources with a single access point. With one touch, our agents can log on to customer relationship management systems, access customized marketing tools, and utilize our award-winning listing alert platform that helps our agents generate new leads. A powerful consumer-facing tool that we have introduced is our home valuation system, which allows homeowners to understand more about their home’s value and sets them up for a successful future transaction. Additionally, Howard Hanna has taken great measures to increase the breadth and depth of their internal education platform to educate employees and agents to ensure the best possible experience for our consumers.
“Our commitment to evolution continues to be the differentiator for Howard Hanna,” said President, Howard W. “Hoby” Hanna, IV. “We’ve built a custom platform for our agents and introduced revolutionary tools to improve our consumer experience. In addition to that, we have enhanced our internal Hanna University platform to make sure our agents have access to education materials to help them continue to learn and grow as professionals.”
Full-Service Firm
RealTrends also recognizes that realty firms offer more services than to simply broker housing transactions and emphasize other core services such as mortgage, title insurance, escrow, insurance, and other products. As such, Howard Hanna’s ancillary businesses of mortgage, title and insurance services are all rated in the Top 5 portion of their respective categories in the 2021 RealTrends 500 report, with Howard Hanna ranking #1 in number of closed homeowner insurance policies.
Howard Hanna has been delivering a fully integrated home buying experience for decades and is proud to continue our dedication to providing mortgage, title, and insurance services. With the experience of our professionals and all these services housed under one roof, Howard Hanna is committed to getting customers under their own roof in the most efficient, effective manner possible.
About Howard Hanna: Howard Hanna Real Estate Services is the #1 family-owned and -operated independent broker in the U.S.A. The full-service real estate company has more than 300 real estate, mortgage, insurance, title, and escrow service offices across 11 states, including Allen Tate Realtors in the Carolinas, with more than 12,000 sales associates and staff, including many of the industry’s top-producing real estate agents. For more information, visit www.HowardHanna.com.
Contact: Josie Schultz, josieschultz@howardhanna.com; 724-290-5916
Super Fantastic! 🙂