Do you know anything about a Cincinnati (Blue Ash)-based company called Berkshire Realty?

Answer 1

The owners of Huff Realty, one of the region's biggest sellers of residential real estate, agreed Wednesday to sell the company, putting the Fort Mitchell firm under the control of the nation's second-richest man, Warren Buffett.

Berkshire Hathaway, the Buffett conglomerate that owns a variety of companies including restaurants and insurance, will add Fort Mitchell-based Huff to its HomeServices of America unit based in Minneapolis.

HomeServices, the second-biggest real estate brokerage in the country, would not say how much it will pay majority owner Jim Huff and his family members when the sale closes.


Huff Realty has 12 offices and more than 700 agents in the region.

"With HomeServices, we will continue to operate in the Huff Realty tradition but enjoy a much bigger platform from which to pursue our opportunities," said Jim Huff, 63, who founded Huff Realty in 1975 and serves as its chairman and chief executive. "We are poised to take the company to the next level."

Reaching the next level would require shaking off its neck-and-neck rival Coldwell Banker West Shell and outselling Sibcy Cline, the region's residential brokerage juggernaut.

Ron Peltier, president and chief executive of HomeServices, plans to extend Huff Realty's supremacy in Northern Kentucky to Cincinnati and its suburbs.

"We think there's a great deal of opportunity to expand and grow, either organically or through acquisitions," Peltier said Wednesday. "We're also quite proficient at enhancing (acquired) companies' revenue from mortgage loans and casualty insurance as part of a one-stop-shopping enterprise.

"Our goal will be to make Huff number one in the Greater Cincinnati-Tristate market," he said.

Rob Sibcy, owner of Kenwood-based Sibcy Cline, praised HomeServices as a "good organization" and welcomed the company to town. But he retorted that he doesn't intend to "lie down and play dead."

"They're well capitalized with Berkshire and Buffett behind them, but money doesn't necessarily buy you a market," Sibcy said. "You have to get out there and work it every day."

Sibcy added that the opening of a new office in Florence last year gives his firm three offices in Northern Kentucky. He said he intends to compete with Huff Realty on its home turf.

Huff Realty sold $1.3 billion worth of homes in 2005, up 12 percent from the year before, Jim Huff said.

Peltier said HomeServices sold $64 billion worth of homes last year in its 22 markets in 19 states. The company already owns Semonin Realtors in Louisville and Rector-Hayden Realtors in Lexington. It has acquired 36 companies - none in Ohio - since its 1996 inception.

"We seek to identify the No. 1 or No. 2 broker in each of the top 60 or 65 markets across the country," Peltier said. "We're looking for companies that are highly regarded with strong brands, strong leadership and strong values."

Jim Huff isn't going anywhere. Huff Realty will keep its name, and Jim Huff will remain chairman and CEO. He said the deal would allow his company to expand.

"I think it'll really enhance everything that we do in the market because of their resources and the quality of their people," Huff said. "A smaller company like us wouldn't have been able to afford to carry it off."

Huff Realty helped spur interest in urban living through the sale of rehabbed condos and houses in downtown Cincinnati and Over-the-Rhine.

"They've been very important both as pioneers and partners in the resurgence of downtown residential living," said David Ginsburg, president and CEO of Downtown Cincinnati Inc. "Downtown living is a relatively new phenomenon in this region, and in the early years it really takes real estate agents who know downtown to help sell that to people."

Berkshire Hathaway was ranked 12th on the Fortune 500 last year with $74.4 billion in revenue. Forbes magazine estimated Buffett's net worth this month at $42 billion, second only to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

Berkshire Hathaway also owns NetJets, which in turn owns Executive Jet Management, a corporate jet charter and maintenance firm based at Lunken Airport. Other companies owned by the Omaha, Neb.-based conglomerate are paintmaker Benjamin Moore & Co., Helzberg Diamonds (which has three locations in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky), Fruit of the Loom, GEICO, Dairy Queen, The Pampered Chef and flooring company Shaw Industries.

Answer 2

no