Fite Group merges with William Raveis Real Estate

The Fite Group of Palm Beach is merging with William Raveis Real Estate.

David and Nadine Fite will continue leading the Palm Beach firm’s four offices and 100 agents. The deal gives William Raveis a foothold in the high-end markets of Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, Delray Beach, Jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens and Wellington. The brokerage is based in the Northeast with more than 130 offices and 4,000 agents, and in recent years it expanded to Naples with six branches, said Chairman and CEO Bill Raveis.

The Fite Group will take the William Raveis name, and roll out the new brand over the next six months, David Fite said. The Palm Beach firm previously had an affiliation with New York-based Town Residential that began in June 2017 and ended after Town shut down earlier this year.

Consolidation in the brokerage industry is rampant as overhead costs and commission payouts keep rising – a tougher business model for small to medium-sized firms. In South Florida, the Keyes Company has acquired a number of smaller firms from Miami-Dade up through the Treasure Coast.

Fite and Raveis hope to capitalize on each other’s markets, especially as more wealthy Northeastern residents from markets like Greenwich, Westchester and Manhattan consider moving to South Florida thanks to changes in tax legislation. “We are looking to the movement of our customers in the Northeast,” Raveis said.

Eighty-five percent of new residents in Palm Beach County are coming from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, Fite said.

The Fite Group has completed more than $5 billion in sales since it was founded about 10 years ago. It’s headquartered in Palm Beach and has offices in Delray, Wellington and Palm Beach Gardens.

William Raveis completed $10.2 billion in sales last year, according to a release.

Raveis and Fite declined to comment on terms of the merger.