The Keyes Company is making its way up Florida’s Treasure Coast.
The Miami-based real estate company just closed on the acquisition of the Realty Pros, a Boynton Beach-based brokerage, according to a press release. The deal adds 43 agents and an office at 8788 West Boynton Beach Boulevard.
In 2017, the Boynton brokerage’s sales volume totaled about $75 million, according to a spokesperson.
Debra Simon, founder of the Realty Pros, started her real estate career with Keyes in 1985. She’ll stay on as a broker, the spokesperson said.
Keyes, the largest independently owned brokerage in Florida, became the top firm in Palm Beach County when it merged with Illustrated Properties Real Estate in 2016. Since then, the company bought Realty Elite The Palm Beaches in Wellington, Jupiter-based Bluffs Real Estate and Investment Properties, and two South Florida offices of Greenwood Village, Colorado-based Shorewood Real Estate. It now has 59 offices and 3,500 agents in Florida, the spokesperson said.
Firms like One Sotheby’s International and Brown Harris Stevens have also been active on the acquisition front in South Florida over the past two years.
Keyes CEO Mike Pappas previously said the firm will pay between two and six times a firm’s EBITDA, or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, for a brokerage. The higher a brokerage’s sales volume, the higher the payout for sellers. And the sellers of those firms typically receive a payment upfront, with the rest being contingent on agents staying and sales volume, among other factors that vary deal to deal.