Realogy will soon be nowhere to be found. Well, actually, it’ll be Anywhere.
The entity that owns major brokerages including Corcoran, Coldwell Banker, Century 21 and Sotheby’s announced at an Investors Day event it is changing its name from Realogy Holdings Corp. to Anywhere Real Estate Inc.
The rebrand will be complete by the end of the quarter, according to the company. On a website for the rebrand, the company said the name change won’t directly affect its structure or daily operations on the company’s brokerage brands.
The company said the rebrand is part of a larger strategy that will see it invest in advances for “consumers who are demanding a more seamless, integrated transaction.” Realogy’s chief people officer Tanya Reu-Narvaez said in a statement the move “is not only a business and strategic transformation, but also a culture change.”
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Realogy rode the hot housing market to a strong 2021 before marking last quarter as one of the best first quarters in company history. The peak came despite a 30 percent year-over-year decline in profits, which Realogy President and CEO Ryan Schneider blamed on an “unseasonably high 2021.”
The company also reduced its debt while expanding its iBuying arm — a joint venture with Blackstone’s Home Partners of America called RealSure — into new markets. Executives said Thursday they hope to surpass 20 percent market share by 2026.
Prior to the pandemic, Realogy was hit with a securities fraud suit amid falling stocks and shrinking market cap. The company announced in 2019 a partnership with Amazon called “TurnKey,” which was at the time panned by analysts. But Schneider embarked on a cost-cutting strategy that helped stocks rebound before last year’s hot real estate market buoyed the company’s bottom line.
Realogy, which employs nearly 200,000 independent agents in the United States and more than 130,000 abroad, reported being involved in roughly 1.5 million transactions last year. In addition to its stakes in major brokerages, the company also owns national title, settlement and relocation companies.