Investment Sets Foundation for National Real Estate Services Platform
DALLAS, Texas and SALT LAKE CITY (May 3, 2021) — Cairn Real Estate Holdings, LLC and its Chairman and CEO Rick Davidson announced today that it has acquired JP & Associates Realtors and JPAR Franchising, a leading real estate brokerage and franchise enterprise headquartered in Frisco, TX. According to Real Trends, JP & Associates Realtors is currently ranked in the Top 25 Largest Real Estate Brokerage Firms in the U.S.; the #1 Independent Real Estate Brokerage Firm in Texas; and a Top 100 New Franchises by Entrepreneur Magazine. The combined enterprise boasts more than 3,300 agents in 61 offices across 23 states and in 2020 completed more than 22,300 home sale transactions.
“Cairn Real Estate Holdings is incredibly excited to announce the acquisition of JPAR as our platform investment,” Davidson said. “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.”
Davidson is a 30-year industry veteran who has served in multiple capacities including a 10-year run with Realogy in executive leadership roles, most recently as global chief executive officer of Century 21 Real Estate. Cairn Real Estate Holdings is a partnership between Davidson and private equity firm Aperion Management, 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.
Over the past decade, technology has dramatically 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. What has not changed is the critical role agents play in the home sale, home purchase process.
“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.”
Cairn will acquire and or greenfield ancillary service providers, independent brokerages, franchise branded brokerages and franchise platforms operating across the spectrum of agent compensation models from traditional split to transaction fee models.
The real estate industry has evolved rapidly over the past decade and faces numerous challenges. The proliferation of technology has changed the expectations of both agents and consumers in terms of the value of services rendered. The industry is highly fragmented with more than 100,000 real estate brokerages controlling nearly 40% of home sale transactions. The ability for many of these firms to evolve within an ever-changing environment has been challenged, impacting margins and the continuing pressure to deliver a higher level of service.
“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.”
JPAR was founded by Giuseppe ‘JP’ Piccinini in 2011 as a 100% commission-based model and over the past decade has grown to be one of the nation’s largest independent real estate brokerages. JPAR Franchising was launched in 2018 and has grown quickly to serve franchisees in 23 states across the country.
With a background as a top producing agent, Piccinini set the foundation of his industry disruptive company upon the critical components of productivity and service. The company prides itself on providing a full-service experience for its agents including an industry-leading tech stack built on an open API architecture, training, coaching, mentorship programs and physical office locations, all in a transaction fee structure.
“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.”
“The JPAR Nation welcomes this exciting new era of growth,” said Mark Johnson, CEO of JPAR Brokerage. “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.”
About JPAR:
JPAR Real Estate and JPAR Franchising is a full-service real estate brokerage and franchise platform offering a highly competitive transaction fee-based model and agent-centric culture. The JPAR platform provides agents 7 day-per-week broker support, physical office locations, a comprehensive tech stack and open architecture, physical office locations, marketing, lead generation, training, coaching, mentoring and agent health care. The company boasts more than 3,300 agents operating in 61 offices across 23 states.
About Cairn Real Estate Holdings:
Cairn Real Estate Holdings, LLC is a partnership between industry veteran Rick Davidson and private equity firm Aperion Management. The company 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. The Cairn model will enhance agent and consumer experiences through the delivery of a comprehensive ecosystem of real estate-related services.
About Aperion Management:
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. Aperion seeks to partner with driven management teams to identify key business drivers and unlock opportunities for value creation and growth. JPAR will join Aperion portfolio companies LJP Enterprises, Inc., a leading provider of solid waste processing and transportation services; Tri Con Works, LLC, a leading environmental services provider specializing in the construction and maintenance of landfill gas monitoring, collection and recovery systems, as well as leachate systems; BrandShare, an eCommerce media network in the United States providing exclusive access for marketers of consumer packaged goods and other blue-chip advertisers to reach consumers in their homes through a variety of means and Ontario Drive & Gear Limited, the world’s leading manufacturer of amphibious utility/extreme terrain vehicles for commercial and recreational use under the Argo brand, as well as a leading provider of high-quality gears, couplings and transmission components.
Media Contact:
Rick Davidson
Cairn Real Estate Holdings
rick@cairnre.com
202-236-5103
