United Country Real Estate

United Country Real Estate
Network
Industry Real Estate
Founded 1925
Headquarters Kansas City, United States
Number of locations
 511[1]
Website http://www.unitedcountry.com/

United Country Real Estate is a franchise-based real estate marketing organization. The company provides leads to affiliated realtors that pay a franchise fee. It operates 1,400 websites that target local markets and the websites collectively obtain 2.9 million monthly unique visitors.[1] It also publishes catalogs and listings, pays for advertising, creates brochures, provides office space and computer systems and support.[2][3][4]

United Country Real Estate was founded in 1925 with a focus on farms and ranches in rural towns[1] by Roscoe Chamberlain out of a Kansas City bank. It published the first rural properties catalog in 1928,[2] which was put on display at the Smithsonian in 1981.[5] Founded under the name United Farm Real Estate, it changed names to United National Real Estate to reflect its expansion into suburban neighborhoods in 1986.[6]

The company was acquired by a management group in 1990 and changed its name again to United Country seven years later.[2] United Country Real Estate had approximately 150 franchises by 1997 and 300 by 1999.[2] This grew to 700 franchise members by 2007, when Dan Duffy and his investment partners acquired the company.[7] As of 2013, it has 4,000 participating real-estate agents.[8]

In 2010 the organization raised $1 million in funding to expand its web presence for suburban areas with a local population of 50,000 or more.[9] Two years later United Real Estate was launched, which built "United Lounges," which provide an office facility for affiliated realtors, in Houston, Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Stratton, Kelly (August 1, 2012). "United Country Real Estate Expands Netowrk in Costa Rica". National Real Estate Investor. Retrieved June 3, 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Companies to Watch: United Country Real Estate". Realtor Magazine. November 1999. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
  3. 1 2 Swanepoel, S.; J. Conaway; R. Hahn; M. Cohen; M. Davison; T. Mitchell (2012). "The United Lounge". Swanepoel.
  4. ↑ Evans, Mariwyn (October 2009). "Let the Bidding Begin". Retrieved June 7, 2013.
  5. ↑ "United Farm's 1928 Catalog Accepted by Smithsonian". Kingman Daily Miner. October 18, 1981. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
  6. ↑ "Behind the Counter". The Union Democrat. May 23, 1986. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
  7. ↑ Davis, Jim (March 23, 2008). "Pastoral Living: United Country Real Estate Cultivates Residential Buyers with Allure of Green Acres". Kansas City Business Journal. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
  8. ↑ Our History, United Country Real Estate, retrieved June 7, 2013
  9. ↑ Klaus, Krista. "United Country Raises $1M to Develop Urban Real Estate Websites". Kansas City Business Journal.
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