O.C.’s HomeLife Chairman Buys Realty World

The chairman of HomeLife Inc., a real estate franchiser with 220 offices nationwide, has acquired the U.S. operations of Realty World Corp. in Irvine, a larger but struggling competitor.

Andrew Cimerman, HomeLife’s chairman, said he has bought the U.S. licensing rights to Realty World and its network of about 400 offices for an undisclosed price from its owner, Brian MacDonald.

Cimerman said he will operate the company separately from the publicly traded HomeLife, of which he is majority owner. He created Realty World America as a holding company for the U.S. franchise.

MacDonald will continue to head Realty World and focus on developing the brand abroad. Cimerman said Realty World’s small staff has been offered jobs with the new company.

“This was an opportunity I had been waiting for for a long time,” Cimerman said of the deal. “We’re looking to bring a fresh approach to the marketing and growth of the company.”

He wouldn’t explain why he didn’t use HomeLife in Newport Beach to make the acquisition, saying only that it was in the “best interests” of himself and HomeLife to keep the companies separate.

He said HomeLife would look for other companies to acquire.

Industry analysts said Cimerman bought Realty World strictly for its strong name recognition. At its peak in the 1980s, it had about 2,500 affiliated offices. But a string of problems and the recession in the early 1990s whittled that to its current size.

Cimerman’s marketing strategy for HomeLife is dramatically different from other brokerage companies, including Realty World. The company uses a gnome mascot named Jerome in its marketing materials and sends costumed characters to community events to solicit business.

“It’s the McDonald’s and Disney way of marketing,” Cimerman said. “It’s very entertaining and nonthreatening.”

Cimerman also is trying to develop a television show or family movie around the gnome character. He said he plans to incorporate some, but not all, of HomeLife’s marketing techniques into Realty World’s operations, but declined to elaborate.

Analysts say Realty World could use the help after suffering a string of problems, including poor management and a brief tenure as a ward of the federal government.

Realty World, formed in 1972, was one of the first and biggest franchise real estate companies. It eventually was bought by San Jacinto Savings & Loan in Houston. But the government seized the failing thrift in 1989 and later sold the realty firm to MacDonald’s Bond Street Group in Vancouver, Canada.

But Realty World failed to gain ground in the face of competition from giants like Century 21 and Coldwell Banker. MacDonald stepped in to manage the company about two years ago.

One of the changes he implemented this year was a new franchise system, which sells “associations” directly to brokers. The associations are a less expensive version of conventional franchises, mainly because there is less advertising and educational support, said Robert Bilotti, owner of Realty World Lifestyles in Orange.

Bilotti, a franchisee-turned-associate, thinks the new leadership could strengthen the franchise. “If [Cimerman] is aggressive, he’ll bring the name more to the forefront,” he said.

HomeLife operates real estate offices under the banners HomeLife Realty Services, Red Carpet and National Real Estate Service.