Carol Jones Realtors merges with sister company

Springfield-based Carol Jones Realtors is merging with a sister company 10 times its size in a move that means the end of the CJR brand founded in 1983.

The new name is ReeceNichols Real Estate.

Officials with CJR and Leawood, Kansas-based Reece & Nichols Realtors Inc. jointly announced the historic agreement on June 20. ReeceNichols will be the surviving name of the combined company when finalized June 27, officials say.

No money is changing hands in the deal, through which CJR’s territory is becoming ReeceNichols’ southern region, said Mike Frazier, president and chief financial officer for ReeceNichols.

Both ReeceNichols and CJR are owned by Minneapolis-based national real estate firm HomeServices of America, an affiliate of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy. ReeceNichols operates in Missouri and Kansas, focusing on the Kansas City metropolitan area.

“ReeceNichols and Carol Jones have been sister companies in the HomeServices family of companies for many years,” said Shaun Duggins, CJR’s CEO who’s transitioning to president of ReeceNichols’ southern region. “As the landscape in real estate changes, it just makes a lot of sense to combine forces.”

Duggins noted the companies’ territories have encroached on one another, with some listings being as close as 20 miles apart near the halfway mark between Springfield and Kansas City.

“It got to the point where we were reaching almost to Clinton,” he said, noting ReeceNichols was doing the same from the north.

Combined, ReeceNichols and CJR last year produced $5.5 billion in sales volume through more than 20,000 transactions. ReeceNichols was responsible for nearly $5 billion of that sales volume and 17,500 transactions, Frazier said, declining to disclose company revenue. Both companies generate about 90 percent of sales through residential real estate.

ReeceNichols currently has 2,400 independently contracted real estate agents and 190 support staff, compared with CJR’s 255 agents and 20 back-office employees. For ReeceNichols, the merger adds CJR’s nine offices in southern Missouri to its list of 20 corporate locations and nearly 30 franchise operations.

With ReeceNichols’ much larger metrics, company officials agreed it should be the remaining brand name.

“The CJR folks tell us they’re ready for something new and exciting to come to town. We both agreed this should be the entity,” ReeceNichols CEO Linda Vaughan said.

Vaughan said the merger is unique under the HomeServices of America umbrella. She was unaware of any other current mergers within the system or plans to combine territories under a single brand name.

For CJR, however, it’s familiar. It’s been affiliated with HomeServices since 1998.

In 2012, HomeServices acquired Branson-based Tri-Lakes Realtors, and CJR took over its territory – adding 40 sales associates in three offices to CJR’s then slate of 180 agents in eight southwest Missouri offices, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting. Tri-Lakes Realtors President Rick Witeka continued to lead the tri-lakes region for CJR, and now, he’s transitioning to general manager of ReeceNichols’ southern region.

Before that, Duggins said CJR’s been open to change. In 2011, the company spent $30,000 for a rebranding with Red Crow Marketing to roll out the new CJR initials on signs, billboards, and TV and radio advertisements. The company’s namesake, Carol Jones, retired in 2008, and customers began to wonder what her connection to the firm was. So, officials streamlined it.

“Carol Jones Realtors was really basically Springfield and Branson focused,” Duggins said. “We diversified out to West Plains and Mount Vernon. We’ve sort of always been in this growth mode.

“ReeceNichols takes us to that next level.”

Duggins said Jones is living in the St. Louis area, where she moved several years ago to be closer to family. Attempts to reach Jones were unsuccessful.

In 2011, SBJ identified her as one of 31 Game Changers in conjunction with the business journal’s 31st anniversary. Beyond her company, she was known for community contributions, including establishing the Carol Jones Recovery Center for Women. She was a founding member of the Ozarks Technical Community College Foundation, and in 2010, she pledged a $500,000 donation to OTC to fund scholarships for disadvantaged women and to support a writing center that bears her name.