Frank Howard Allen Bucks Trend by Staying Independent

Frank Howard Allen Real Estate is good for Novato, and its largess reaches far beyond the taxes they pay for the privilege of operating its headquarters within city limits.

The 101-year-old company, which celebrated its centennial in 2010 by self-publishing a history called Frank Howard Allen Realtors: The First Hundred Years, is one of Novato’s most high-profile local businesses. In 2010, Readers of both the Pacific Sun and the North Bay Business Journal named Frank Howard Allen Realtors the “Best Real Estate Company” of the year.  The firm has a long history of community involvement; it is a good neighbor.

But why, on the eve of Frank Howard Allen’s announcement that it will open six new company-owned offices in Wine Country, is it so important to single out a real estate firm for their neighborliness and good intentions?

Because the independently-owned real estate company has become an endangered species.

Look to the south, where Coldwell Banker’s recent purchase of Burlingame’s Cashin Company and RE/MAX Star Properties’ merger with Carlmont Properties of Belmont left San Mateo County with just a handful of independent real estate offices. It's a glimpse of what many agents predict – and fear – might be the future.

Is it a coincidence that Frank Howard Allen is opening Wine Country offices two months after its former partner, the Wine Country Group, merged with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate?

A few months ago, I listened as a prominent South Bay agent laid out a possible future in which one large national real estate brand buys up all of the local shops, then divorces itself from the Multiple Listing Service, keeping all of its information in-house. Real estate being an industry in which whoever has the most information wins, you can guess how this would turn out: Anyone wanting access to the now-monolithic company’s listings could do so only through them; no MLS browsing, no lockbox showings, no information shared on different agencies’ websites.

“It’s going to happen,” this agent told me. “As soon as (one firm) gets big enough, they’ll do it.”

And with that, the industry would lose its transparency, vaulting backward to the days of jealously-guarded listings books and agents leading clueless clients by the hand. Hello, monopoly; goodbye consumer choice.

It would be bitter indeed for Frank Howard Allen. In 1949, Charles Howard “Howdy” Allen, son of Frank Howard Allen, was part of the original group that created the MLS in Marin County.

By growing instead of capitulating, Frank Howard Allen gives hope to independent real estate firms – and their customers. By expanding amid a three-year industry slowdown – and responding to the end of their affiliation with the Wine Country Group not by forging a new partnership but by opening new offices, Frank Howard Allen is telling us that the good times, as Shirley Temple might say, are “just around the corner.”

With the Wine Country additions, FHA will have 16 company-owned and seven independently-owned offices and 450 agents. It is the largest independent brokerage in the North Bay. The new offices will be in Sonoma, Glen Ellen, Kenwood and St. Helena, plus two in Napa.

"In a time of nationwide cutbacks and closures, we are fortunate to be in a position where we can grow and expand,” was how Frank Howard Allen President and CEO Noreen Smith put it in the company’s press release announcing the growth.

 “Frank Howard Allen has remained a family-owned, locally-operated brokerage characterized by a unique commitment to the people in our region,” said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, in a December address to the U.S. House of Representatives, honoring the company on its centennial. “The company’s economic and philanthropic contributions to our communities are a model of the kind of business that makes the North Bay a vibrant and unique place to live.”

It’s good to remember that there are intangibles. The importance of locally owned, locally invested businesses didn’t end with the demise of the Main Street general store.