2019 Year in Review No. 9: New real estate firms shake up market

SPRINGFIELD—It was a big year for the local real estate industry, as new firms entered the mix and shook up the status quo.

It started in January when the Adam Johnson Team at Keller Williams Greater Springfield broke off to form Alpha Realty MO LLC.

“We wanted to start a young, fresh brokerage that really focused on clients’ experience and helping them accomplishing their goals and dreams,” co-owner Aaron Owens said in a January announcement video. “We felt like there was a gap.”

The Adam Johnson Team’s 2018 residential real estate volume reached nearly $20 million. Through June 2019, Alpha Realty reported $15 million in residential sales, according to Springfield Business Journal list research. The company’s first closing was in March, officials said.

Next up, the May opening of AMax Real Estate had consequences for the owners’ former firm.

Husband-and-wife team Art and Alisa Maxwell attracted multiple agents from Coldwell Banker Vanguard. It triggered the end of Coldwell Banker’s local presence, with owner and President Judy Huntsman announcing plans to retire. She purchased the office in 1984. In 2018, Coldwell Banker closed the year with over $212.2 million in gross real estate sales and 1,235 residential transactions.

For the Maxwells, it was a chance to break out on their own.

“There’s always that desire to actually do it yourself. I think almost everybody has that,” Art Maxwell said in June.

Also in June, businessman Titus Williams announced a name change to his group of real estate development firms, including the addition of a new division.

With the change to Prosperiti Partners LLC, replacing the year-old Enterprise Commercial Group LLC, Williams and his business partners added Prosperiti Brokers, which works in residential and commercial real estate. W2M Global was unveiled as Prosperiti Brokers’ new dba in October.

Among Prosperiti Partners’ moves, it purchased roughly 180 properties formerly owned by embattled landlord 417 Rentals LLC. Company owner Chris Gatley filed for bankruptcy of 417 Rentals in January, and foreclosure sales became the norm for several months as banks sought the return of funds.

“We believe that everything we do has an effect on the community at large. But how our talents can help the most vulnerable is assisting them to find safe, secure, stable housing,” Williams said in June.