ERA® Real Estate has announced the affiliation of Midwest Properties of Michigan. The company, which has four offices and nearly 85 agents working in the Grand Rapids region, will now be known as Midwest Properties ERA Powered.
The ERA Powered® branding model allows a company who has invested in building local brand equity to affiliate with the ERA brand and have access to all it has to offer, while also going to market with its existing brand identity.
Thomas Kuiper, a 42-year real estate veteran who established Midwest Properties of Michigan in 2003, and 20-year industry veteran Jeanine Herlacher remain as owners and leaders of Midwest Properties ERA Powered.
Additionally, ERA Reardon Broker/Owner Rick Reardon has taken an ownership stake. Reardon’s firm, which is headquartered in Jackson, is one of the top 20 franchisees in the ERA global network, with more than $230 million in 2019 sales volume.
Realtor.com® recently ranked Grand Rapids at the top of its “America’s 10 Hottest Neighborhoods” list for the second year in a row. Widely considered to be the cultural center of Western Michigan, Grand Rapids is also emerging as a medical care and research hub: It is home to Michigan State University Grand Rapids Research Center, Spectrum Health, the largest healthcare system in the region, and Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum.
Midwest Properties ERA Powered is one of the leading brokerages in the Grand Rapids region, having done nearly 900 transaction sides in 2019 equating to $149.1 million in sales volume.
The median sales price in Grand Rapids is $217,000, according to the National Association of REALTORS®, much more affordable than the national number of $271,300.
Midwest Properties ERA Powered will benefit from the technology and service offerings that ERA provides, as well as the platforms and products available due to its association with Realogy, including lead generation services like TextERA, which transforms static yard signs into interactive property marketing.
Midwest Properties ERA Powered will also benefit from ERA Reardon Realty’s status as a Cartus-certified broker as Grand Rapids is a popular relocation area. In addition, the two companies plan on working together to build a strong referral network between their combined 11 offices and over 200 independent sales agents, emblematic of the ERA brand’s culture of collaboration.
Midwest Properties ERA Powered will retain its powerful presence in the community, hosting many events including outdoor film screenings, skating parties, free ice cream days, and, true to their Midwest identity, free corn giveaways and Toys for Tots toy drives.
“Tom and Jeanine have worked diligently to create a strong local brand that their community recognizes and trusts,” says Sherry Chris, president and CEO of ERA Real Estate. “By coming together under the ERA Powered® brand model, they get to keep their identity while benefitting from the technological infrastructure that only ERA Real Estate can provide. They also recognized the incredible opportunity to partner with Rick Reardon and ERA Reardon to seamlessly capture and grow marketshare. This is another example of the power of our franchise sales team to connect like-minded companies with a focus on growth. We share Tom and Jeanine’s commitment to teamwork and excellent service, and we welcome them into the ERA network.”
“We spoke to all the major franchisors,” says Herlacher. “While we didn’t want to give up key aspects of our identity, we hit a point where we recognized that we needed to affiliate in order to survive, compete and retain our top-producing agents. We’re an independent brokerage and our slogan is, ‘We’re the good guys.’ We needed an all-encompassing offering that provided us with technology solutions and room to grow, but was also the right cultural fit. The ERA brand was the only brand with a model that addressed all our needs.”
“The ERA brand was the only brand that offered a set of useful, complementary tools that our affiliated agents can use to succeed, while giving us the flexibility of the ERA Powered® brand model,” says Kuiper. “They didn’t ask us to stop being who we are, and now we get to enjoy the platforms, tools and strategic partnerships from being associated with ERA Real Estate and Realogy.”
For more information, please visit www.ExploreERA.com.
