New York-based brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate will no longer acquire Houston-based John Daugherty Realtors due to a “legal technicality,” according to a report by the Houston Chronicle.
However, a spokesman for Douglas Elliman told the Chronicle that it would still absorb John Daugherty’s remaining team and John Daugherty Jr., who founded the firm in 1967, still plans to move to Douglas Elliman. Many of John Daugherty’s 125 agents have already joined Douglas Elliman, according to the Chronicle.
The deal had previously been announced in December and was expected to close in January with the Houston firm operating under the banner of John Daugherty Realtors. Now, however, the deal will be executed under a new structure that will not incorporate the John Daugherty name.
Back in August, Douglas Elliman announced its partnership with Houston-based brokerage Sudhoff Companies and its then impending move to Texas. Since then, Douglas Elliman has opened offices in Austin and Dallas under leadership of its Texas CEO, Jacob Sudhoff. The deal to acquire John Daugherty was driven by Douglas Elliman’s motives to grow its local resale business in Texas, according to a report by the Houston Business Journal.
Sudhoff has not disclosed how much Douglas Elliman paid to acquire John Daugherty.
Douglas Elliman is the largest brokerage in the New York metro area and the second largest independent residential real estate brokerage in the U.S. by volume, according to the firm’s website. John Daugherty was ranked no. 8 on the Houston Business Journal’s 2019 list of largest Houston-area residential real estate brokerages by sales volume. In 2018 the firm reported a local sales volume of $1.12 billion and 1,419 transactions.
At the time of publication, Douglas Elliman Real Estate and John Daugherty Realtors had not responded to requests for comment.
