Last October,
the giant real estate services company acquired from magazine owner Meredith Corp., in Des Moines, Iowa, the right to license the Better Homes and Gardens name for 50 years with an option to renew for a second 50 years.
One issue that confounds me, though, is the focus of so many of your articles on the corporate side of
real estate the CEOs of
giant companies (who may or may not themselves be REALTORS ®); the growth of corporate
services, such as mortgage lending, escrow and title, inspections, and relocation, which don't fall under the rubric of what NAR members do; and the «sizing up» of
companies by adding more and more associates.
Although labor tends to be the most expensive piece of a
company's budgetary puzzle, the next item on the list is usually
real estate, according to Jeffrey Kottmeier, a research analyst for commercial
real estate services giant CBRE.