The Front Range Collective in Colorado, formerly known as NextHome, has merged with West + Main Homes, a brick-and-mortar agency with deep community roots across the state.
Front Range Collective has a team of 28 agents and closed over $100 million in sales over the past year. Before the merger, brokers worked remotely, outside a physical office.
“We ran that for around two years and were in a position to take that next step when it came to our team,” Chris Pranger, team leader of Front Range Collective, told Homes.com.
Pranger said during the company's research, they came across West +Main, a larger independent brokerage with 10 physical offices from Littleton to Fort Collins.
They began discussing a merger this summer and announced it in early October.
“There's a lot of mergers going on within the real estate world here in Denver ... It made sense to be a part of a bigger company,” Pranger said.
But they wanted to remain independent, and that was an aspect West + Main provided.
“I think that's something that being independent allows us to do, is really focus on our agents and clients more so than stockholders or a corporate team that's not local,” he said.
Front Range can tap into office spaces
Stacie Staub, founder of West + Main Homes, and Pranger explained that both teams are highly community-driven.
“We have agents for Fort Collins to Colorado Springs, and so we are spread out, and now being able to tap into a network that's that much bigger just not only helps provide more support, but it helps us provide more visibility for our listings, more visibility with a brand and also the office spaces,” Pranger said.
Staub said there are 10 locations across Colorado and having access to those offices allows teams to return to face-to-face interactions with clients.
“The agents have storefront offices that they can access 24/7 [and] that gives them opportunities to generate floor leads, to be active in their communities and to really be street level,” Stacy said.
She added that many brokerages are going away from in-person interactions.
“These virtual brokerages or the brokerages that are on the third floor of an office building somewhere do not offer that same opportunity as something we've invested happily in,” Stacy said.
Getting out of the ‘COVID mindset’
Pranger said the merger has afforded his team the opportunity to participate in and host events for clients in their communities, something that has been lost in recent years.
“We were virtual previously ... We kind of lost that connection because we weren't face-to-face, and so now being able to tap into community events and have physical spaces that we can do get-togethers and meet face-to-face, clients really appreciate that,” Pranger said.
He added that as the post-COVID era continues and industries turn more to virtual tools, consumers are craving more human interaction.
“I think from COVID, we all were in this virtual mindset and a lot of people are starting to get out of that COVID mindset and want to be back in front of each other,” Pranger said.
Stacy said West + Main has hosted numerous events recently, including a Broncos football game watch party, a “Love is Blind” watch party and a large fall event where someone won a semi-truck load of pumpkins.
“We love doing that and we have so much more planned even through the end of the year,” she said. “So that's part of the benefit of being in the physical locations, too.”
Merger now 'feels like one big group'
Going forward, Pranger looks forward to growing within the West + Main.
Stacy said she is already seeing the 28 agents from Front Range Collective mix well with West + Main’s 400-person team.
“We're so happy to see how this worked out, because it was kind of an experiment,” Stacy said. “We've never brought on a team of Chris's size, and watching that happen, it also wasn't effortless on our part, but ... it just all feels like one big group.”