Frisco-based JP & Associates Realtors has been acquired by Utah-based Cairn Real Estate Holdings, LLC.
JP & Associates is a home-grown Texas success story. It is the No. 1 Independent Real Estate Brokerage firm in Texas and ranked in the Top 25 Largest Real Estate Brokerage Firms in the U.S., according to RealTrends. It is also ranked as a top 100 New Franchises by Entrepreneur Magazine. JPAR boasts more than 3,300 agents in 61 offices across 23 states. In 2020, more than 22,300 home sales were transacted.
The real estate firm was started by its founding owner, Giuseppe “JP” Piccinini in his Frisco home in 2011. It was one of the early 100 percent commission-based models, saving agents thousands in brokerage fees. Agents traditionally pay a percentage of their commission back to their brokerage. Under this model, they pay transaction fees and retain a greater portion of the commission.)
Coming to Texas from Columbia, South Carolina (he was born in Naples, Italy, and went to high school in Wichita Falls), with a background both as an aerospace engineer and a top-producing agent, Piccinini set the foundation of his company upon rewarding productivity and agent service.
The company prides itself on providing a full-service agent experience, including an industry-leading “tech stack” built on an open API architecture, training, coaching, mentorship programs, and plentiful physical office locations, all in a transaction fee structure.
I recall when JP had Fredrick Eklund up at the Plano office.
“He was a broker in NYC, this before the Million Dollar Listing success,” JP told me. “I paid him $2500 to come, now you cannot get him for less than $75,000.”
Visionary talent combined with serial entrepreneurism helped JPAR grow from that first office to one of the nation’s largest independent real estate brokerages. A month will not go by without a text from JP about a new venture, from a iBuyer platform to health insurance for his agents, who showed up from all corners to the annual SEPPE awards, an Academy Awards-type annual corporate celebration. JPAR Franchising, also included in the purchase, was launched in 2018 and now boasts franchisees in 23 states across the country.
“Cairn Real Estate Holdings is incredibly excited to announce the acquisition of JPAR as our platform investment,” said Rick Davidson, chairman and CEO of Cairn Real Estate Holdings and a 30-year industry veteran. Davidson has served in multiple capacities including a 10-year stint with Realogy in executive leadership roles, and most recently as global CEO of Century 21 Real Estate. “The scale, reputation and market position of the company provides the foundational structure to grow a nationally based and highly competitive real estate services company.”
Cairn Real Estate Holdings is a partnership between Davidson and the private equity firm Aperion Management, which is focused on an integration strategy across the real estate services industry. Their aim is to deliver a nationally based, seamless consumer experience in the home purchase and home sale process.
Mark Johnson, CEO of JPAR Brokerage, will remain in his role under the new ownership, and Giuseppe “JP” Piccinini will be available on a consultancy basis.
“Nothing here changes as far as structure or people,” Johnson told me. “We’re super-excited to serve and continue to grow in the state of Texas, and this is only going to help us serve and grow better and faster.”
Over the past decade, technology has dramatically shaken and improved the real estate industry, providing transparency and a comprehensive suite of services for the consumer, while delivering resources to maximize productivity for agents and operating leverage for the enterprise.
Despite all the technology and predictions that consumers would soon be buying real estate seamlessly online, much like autos, the role of agents in every transaction has not changed.
Think: Compass
“Real estate agents are the lifeblood of the industry. Critical to our strategy is our focus on the agent’s continued growth and success in an ever-evolving environment. According to NAR, the agent is at the center of 90% of consumer real estate transactions and our attention will be focused on providing our agents the best platform, through the best brands in their local market,” Davidson said. “A key differentiating advantage of the Cairn platform is in our ability to serve agents across a multitude of compensation models. Many competitors across the industry have ‘committed to a lane,’ which can limit their ability to grow and expand. Our commitment is to serve the agent and the consumer through local market companies who are focused on service, reputation and market position.”
The real estate industry faces challenges as well as opportunities. For example, consumers now locate their home almost 99 percent of the time through technology, which has changed experience and expectations when purchasing a home. Yet the industry remains highly fragmented with more than 100,000 independent real estate brokerages controlling nearly 40 percent of home sales transactions. The ability of these firms to evolve and remain profitable while delivering a higher level of services and commission splits to agents in an ever-changing environment has challenged margins.
“We believe the best approach is to create operating leverage through scale,” Davidson said. “The ‘silver tsunami’ sweeping across the industry has driven many of the great brokerage companies to seek succession strategies. Cairn Real Estate Holdings, through our partnership with Aperion Management, is structured to quickly scale and deliver a comprehensive suite of services for agents and the consumer.”
Nothing changes at JPAR, says Davidson, except access to more capital to grow.
“JPAR Real Estate was born out of a simple concept to supply real estate agents with everything they could possibly want or need in a brokerage,” Piccinini said. “We have built an incredible culture and legacy that will live on and expand under Cairn Real Estate Holdings.”
Aperion Management, formed in 2006, is a private equity firm that seeks to invest in both equity and debt in middle market businesses valued between $15 million and $250 million with solid fundamentals and attractive growth prospects.
“The JPAR Nation welcomes this exciting new era of growth,” said Johnson. “Rick Davidson is a real estate powerhouse and we’re excited to be part of his bold vision for the future of the real estate services industry.”
