In a sense, Linda Sherrer’s first real estate deal came decades ago when she was a Navy wife in Hawaii.
And it was a pretty successful one.
Her husband was sent to Vietnam before the couple closed on their home, leaving Sherrer to handle the transaction by herself.
The Veterans Administration closing came with a mile-high stack of paperwork.
“It scared me to death,” she said.
A little over two years later, “that little shack in Hawaii” they bought for $30,000 sold for $60,500.
“I got bit by the bug,” Sherrer recalled. “I said, ‘I like this a lot.’”
As it turns out, she is good at it. Really good.
Early in her career, she worked for real estate icon Bill Watson, then was hired in 1984 by Herb Peyton as head of marketing and sales for his new Epping Forest development.
Four years later, when Prudential Insurance Co. of America decided to get into residential real estate, she was approached about opening a franchise.
It required the daunting task of raising a lot of money to open enough offices to meet the requirements.
“It all happened with a lot of good people,” she said.
The investment paid off. In 2005, Sherrer’s brokerage closed $1 billion in sales.
In 2014, Prudential was sold to HomeServices of America, which is an affiliate of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Network Realty, owned by Warren Buffett.
For years, Sherrer, 70, and her daughter, Christy Budnick, had talked about a succession plan.
Budnick, 46, earned her real estate license around the time she entered college. But she didn’t join the company until almost 15 years ago after a successful career in the financial industry, particularly in training and leadership aspects.
She started as manager of the company’s Atlantic Beach office and today is executive vice president and broker. Her mother is president and CEO.
Budnick has been the heir apparent for years, but what would happen to the company when she was ready to retire?
On the morning of May 17, Sherrer and Budnick shared the answer with their employees.
Building a powerhouse
Before talking about the company’s future that morning, Sherrer started with its past.
“I took them back to what I lovingly call our humble beginnings,” she said, including working out of a garage in Epping Forest.
Together, she told them, they had grown the business to 330 agents, eight offices and several related businesses, including corporate relocation services, a title company and a property management firm.
Sherrer said she’s always nervous at the podium “because I care so much.”
That day at World Golf Village was no exception.
She and Budnick wanted the employees to see the positives of the news that was coming. To know the decision was made as a way to ensure the firm could continue and grow for decades.
Sherrer began with: “Today, we’re taking the next step toward securing our company’s bright future.”
Then she announced HomeServices of America had bought the business.
Sherrer walked employees through the key points: She and Budnick would still run the company, the department heads would stay in place and the firm would benefit from the substantial resources, reputation and capital of HomeServices of America, the second-largest full-service brokerage in the country.
After the announcement, the employees burst into applause and rose to their feet for a standing ovation.
“I’ve never been at the podium and cried so much in my life,” Sherrer said.
Budnick said she and her mother had hoped the employees would be as excited about the news as they were, but a standing ovation?
“It was exhilarating,” Budnick said of the reaction.
That was followed the next days by agents sending flowers and taking them to lunch, Sherrer said.
“This has been a real love-in,” she said of the reaction to the decision.
One built on more than just financial gain.
Sharing the same culture
A key part of the decision was HomeServices of America shares the standards of integrity and dedication on which Sherrer’s brokerage was built.
She knew that after the two companies had worked together since Sherrer joined Berkshire Hathaway. And she knew it from real estate peers around the country whose businesses had been acquired by HomeServices of America.
Without that cultural fit, she said, the deal would never have happened.
Ron Peltier, CEO of HomeServices of America, said the way Sherrer and Budnick handled the announcement and the huge support from their employees “certainly validated everything we thought about the company.”
“You could see the love and admiration and respect for both of them displayed by the agents and the management,” said Peltier, who attended the announcement.
After the event, Peltier and Robert Moline, president of HomeServices of America, attended a lunch with employees and spent a couple of hours answering questions to help put them at ease.
They assured employees they don’t anticipate job losses. “If anything, we’ll see growth,” Peltier said.
And their benefits are likely to better because they’re part of a larger company.
But they’ll still enjoy the consistency of working with Sherrer and Budnick.
Peltier said HomeServices of America isn’t interested in buying brokerages in a state of turmoil or where the owners want to “head off into the sunset.”
The company buys high-performing businesses with strong reputations and lets the current management continue to build on that performance.
Peltier pointed out the firm can now grow without Sherrer or Budnick having to dip into their personal finances.
There are other advantages, as well.
Work and play together
The acquisition allows mother and daughter to continue working together, something they’ve done since Budnick was a kid.
She remembers many days from a very young age of helping measure homes and working open houses.
Real estate was how Sherrer, who became a single mother, supported Budnick and her younger sister, Kimberly Gould, who now splits her time between Boulder, Colo., and New York City.
Budnick has learned a lot from her mom, starting with always do the right thing. Period. “There is no gray area — ever,” she said.
And, try to find a way to say yes by thinking creatively to see if what’s being asked can be done within reason. “It’s so easy to say no,” Budnick said.
She and her mother don’t just work together, they live a block-and-a-half away from each other and go on all their vacations together.
“Our poor husbands,” Budnick said, with a laugh. “All we do is talk real estate.”
Something they’ll continue to do together as colleagues.
Same company name. Same offices. Same business cards.
But a different future. One they’re both happy about.
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