Chicago-based real estate brokerage @properties is launching a Dallas franchise with businessman Jerry Mooty, Jr., nephew of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, whose family will help finance the deal.
Mooty, an attorney, entrepreneur and real estate agent, will start the @properties franchise with a focus on luxury and new-construction developments, the company said Tuesday. He already has lined up founding agents and is in final lease negotiations for his first office.
His first clients include sales and marketing plans for a new high-rise condo tower in Highland Park and a luxury home development within the High Hill Farm master-planned, second-home community just outside of Tyler, Texas.
The agreement marks the third expansion — and the largest market — since @properties announced its franchise program last September. The first was in Detroit and the second in La Crosse, Wisc.
The firm, Chicago’s largest, ranked No. 8 on the Real Trends 2021 largest brokerages list by sales volume and is expanding across the country through the franchise program and acquisitions. It has purchased stakes in Charlottesville, Virginia-based Nest Realty and in Ansley Atlanta.
It touts its technology apps on what it calls pl@tform, which integrates marketing, transactions and client-relationship management systems. Founded in 2000 by Thad Wong and Michael Golden, the firm now has more than 4,000 agents in 65 offices across 10 states. Wong told The Real Deal recently that he has more franchise and acquisition announcements coming this summer and fall.
Earlier this month, the company bought Suburban Jungle, a New York-based residential concierge that educates buyers and then matches them with agents. Suburban Jungle already has a following in Dallas/Fort Worth and Austin, as well as Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Washington, D.C. and South Florida, which may offer some insight into where @propoerties might go next. Suburban Jungle is opening in Atlanta and Denver this year.