Crye-Leike Real Estate Services is now ranked as the nation’s third largest independently-owned real estate firm, according to the 2018 REAL Trends 500 annual ranking report.
Crye-Leike ranked third on the report’s list of largest independents with 28,699 closed transactions corporate wide reported in 2017, beating last year’s ranking of fifth largest real estate brokerage.
Established in 1977 in Memphis by co-founders Harold Crye and Dick Leike, the company expanded into Nashville by the early ‘90s and continued their expansion to develop into what is now the nation’s third-largest independently-owned real estate firm and the largest serving Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and the Mid-South.
The company has more than 3,200 sales associates and 128 company-owned and franchise offices in a nine-state region (Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Oklahoma) and Puerto Rico.
“We’re proud of our network of Crye-Leike sales associates, who dedicate their services to help home buyers and sellers in and around their communities,” Leike says. “Their hard-work, time and commitment have made it possible for over 650,000 families to make the dream of homeownership a reality since we first opened our doors over 40 years ago.”
Crye-Leike recently celebrated another milestone in the company’s history: The company sold $6.5 billion in real estate to make 2017 their highest sales performance in the company’s history.
“We anticipated there would be some challenges in real estate for 2017 – inventory shortages were an issue, and we saw an increase in the number of years people live in their home before moving,” Crye says. “Despite those challenges, our sales associates were able to excel and make it our best year to date.”
To reach this goal and to stay on top as a real estate leader in the Mid-South, Steve Brown, Crye-Leike’s president of residential sales, encouraged sales associates to continue their professional and personal growth.
“Units were a challenge in 2017. We don’t have enough inventory, and in most of our regions, we don’t have volume builders, so the units were essentially flat,” Brown explains.
“We’re encouraged that the U.S. tax overhaul will help boost jobs and therefore sales in 2018 and even into 2019. We’re focused on customer service, training, retention and prospecting. If we do a good job in those areas, the sales will follow.”
Source: Crye-Leike