Local Real-Estate Agents Go Up Against National Firms in Winston-Salem, N.C.

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The formation of the company comes amid big changes in the consolidating local real-estate market.
By Brian Louis

Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.

RISMEDIA, Nov. 10 ? (KRT) ? Five agents from the former Graham & Boles Properties in Winston-Salem have broken away to form their own residential real-estate company, which aims to set itself apart from competitors by emphasizing its local ownership.

The new privately held company, Leonard Ryden Burr Real Estate, will open an office on Glade Street on Monday. The former Graham & Boles agents are Curtis Leonard, Michael Ryden, Brooke Burr, Jack Stack and Greg White.

The agents have 75 years of real-estate experience between them, and collectively sold $55 million in homes last year.

“There was a need for a locally owned and managed real-estate company,” Burr said yesterday.

The formation of the company comes amid big changes in the consolidating local real-estate market.

The market is also seeing new entrants. Last week Allen Tate Realtors, a giant in the state’s residential real-estate market, announced that it was open for business in Winston-Salem.

Burr, who is married to U.S. Senator-elect Richard Burr, said she and the other agents had been thinking about going out on their own for about a month and Thursday was their last day at what is now known as Prudential Carolinas Realty.

Graham & Boles was bought by Prudential Carolinas’ parent company, HomeServices of America Inc., in August and folded into Prudential Carolinas, which HomeServices bought in April. HomeServices is based in Minneapolis and is an affiliate of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Working with a local company is important to people buying and selling homes, the Leonard Ryden Burr officials said.

“Our customers told us that,” Leonard said.

Real-estate companies have been getting bigger and offering more services such as mortgages and insurance to provide customers with one-stop shopping.

But Leonard Ryden Burr officials said that a multitude of services is not always what customers want. Leonard said that for many of his customers, it has not been that important. Stack said that customers still shop around.

The partners said they are excited about going out on their own and working in a smaller company again.

The company has hired seven other real-estate agents from other companies. They declined to identify the agents and said they would let them make the announcements. The company has also hired an office manager.

Leonard Ryden Burr is not the only company operating in Winston-Salem that has been adding agents from other companies. Allen Tate, based in Charlotte, has hired agents from Century 21, Prudential Carolinas, and Keller Williams Realty for its Winston-Salem office, said Kim McMillan, Allen Tate’s vice president of marketing and public relations.

Although Leonard Ryden Burr’s office is not open, the company’s agents have been doing business.

“We are listing and selling real-estate,” Leonard said.

? 2004, Winston-Salem Journal. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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