By Fred Seely
Editor
Pete Dalton had a smoothly-running machine in place. Now, he says, he has added a Cadillac to his collection.
“I was happy with my company,” said the owner of Vanguard Realty. “We are profitable and I like our people. But a great opportunity came along.”
The opportunity was what he called “the Cadillac of all national players,” a chance to become the Coldwell Banker affiliate for this area.
And he did. It’s known here from its days as the empire that Walter Williams built, then sold to the Devonshire Realty group from Florida’s Space Coast.
It’s now Coldwell Banker Vanguard Realty.
Dalton, who has owned Vanguard since 1981, made the deal and now had added 150 agents and six offices, more than doubling the size of his company. He’s the largest of the national franchises here and trails only the Jacksonville-based Watson Realty in overall size.
Dalton says he’ll stick with his model: “Agents who do $2 million a year and no new hires.”
“I think that can be done on a bigger scale and I’m interested to try it on a bigger stage,” he said.
Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC is based in New Jersey and has almost 100,000 “associates,” as the brokers and agents are called. The international company is over 100 years old, founded in San Francisco to handle land sales after that city’s devastating earthquake.
“It is a major presence everywhere,” said Dalton. ‘They have a tremendous relocation network.”
Dalton started as an agent in 1973 and was part of a group that formed Vanguard in 1977. He became the sole owner four years later and the company is headquartered in Jacksonville’s Mandarin area.
He had been affiliated with GMAC but dropped that last year.
The addition of new agents means some help in leadership as Monica Hentschel, who had been Devonshire’s regional managing partner, is now the company’s chief operating officer. She is Williams’ daughter and joined Devonshire when the companies merged.
Dalton’s role and title remains the same: president.
He looks forward to the future.
“Our housing market is headed in the right direction,” he said. “We are seeing significant upticks in activity. Home prices, which remain low, have stabilized in most areas and the mortgage interest rates remain at historically low levels.
“In my 37 years in Jacksonville real estate, I have never seen a market like this so conducive to buyers who have financial and job security.”