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WARDLEY REAL ESTATE ANNOUNCES CHANGE IN NATIONAL
AFFILIATION TO BENEFIT AGENTS, CLIENTS IN LOCAL MARKET
LAS VEGAS – Wardley Real Estate, a prominent local brokerage, has ended its affiliation with a high-profile national firm in order to refocus its resources to “better benefit agents and create the best total experience for our customers,” its President said today.
“We’ve concluded our relationship with Coldwell Banker in favor of a new association with Leading Real Estate Companies of the World,” Jeff Sommers said. “We strongly believe the money we would have spent with Coldwell Banker going forward can be invested much more productively here in the Las Vegas community. We are committed to providing our agents and clients with the ultimate real estate experience. Simply stated we are Positively the Best Decision in Las Vegas Real Estate.
Sommers noted the move is significant because it marks an evolution by one of the region’s survivors in the industry’s recent restructuring in the wake of the deep national recession and housing crisis.
“The landscape has shifted significantly. Several major players in our market aren’t here anymore. Several large firms have filed for bankruptcy leaving local business and investors high and dry. A lot of Las Vegas Brokerages have gone out of business,” he said. “We’re a local company that provides jobs to over 300 people. We’ve stayed in there, kept plugging away and kept people employed. We’re going to come out of this market stronger than ever.”
Lynn Wardley, the local firm’s owner announced the move to his 300-plus agents and employees on Thursday. Leading Real Estate Companies of the World is a global network of 550 of the best-known local and regional real estate firms with 4,600 offices and 140,000 sales associates in the United States and 30 other countries.
Sommers said, “Ultimately, real estate is bought and sold on a local level, therefore marketing dollars need to be spent locally. However, buyers in Las Vegas come from all over the world, so we also need a global presence. Leading RE is the largest network of brokers and agents in the world. Through this network of brokers and agents, Leading RE helps connect clients with the right professional in their desired market. Anyone who lives in Las Vegas knows that a tremendous percentage of our residents come from other cities, states and countries. Leading RE will better help us to connect with people moving to Las Vegas.”
“The only reason to buy or sell a home is to get to a better place, whether it’s a bigger place, a downsized home or a more economical situation. Still, getting from where you are to where you want to be can be very stressful,” explained Sommers, who has been in the real estate business since 1982 and with Wardley since 1993. “We want to eliminate that stress and make the real estate experience an exciting event.”
Sommers describes the new relationship with Leading RE as “the best of both worlds for our clients and agents.” Agents will have a clear competitive edge with state of the art tools and systems as they are working with the large number of number buyers in the Las Vegas market and with clients who are selling homes and moving both within Las Vegas and to other cities and states.
Wardley started his firm in 1974, growing from a start-up to the largest, most-successful brokerage in Utah with approximately 1,700 agents and 22 offices. In 1998, he purchased a small brokerage in Denver and grew it to more than 1,000 agents by 2001. That same year, he was inducted into the Better Homes & Gardens Hall of Fame, an elite group comprised on less than 1 percent of the top brokers in America.
In 1999, Better Homes and Gardens approached Wardley to start a Las Vegas brokerage to replace a firm that had changed franchise affiliations. His first move was to purchase the Real Estate School of Nevada, the state’s most-established real estate school, because he believed the key to industry success is training and education.
Both Wardley and Sommers are excited about this opportunity to revolutionize the real estate market here in Las Vegas, as they have done in other markets.
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