Things are changing in the Nashville real estate scene. Coldwell Banker Southern Realty, which has offices in the Tennessee markets of Lawrenceburg, Shelbyville and Columbia, is marking its entrance into Nashville through its acquisition of Coldwell Banker Barnes.
In an announcement on Wednesday, Coldwell Banker Southern Realty broker-owner Rich Cosner said the combined firms would operate under the Coldwell Banker Southern Realty name. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Cosner told HousingWire that merging with Coldwell Banker Barnes is a “dream come true.”
“Both of these are high-quality firms,” Cosner said. “The company that I have built and Barnes have a similar culture — very high-quality sales professionals who are top notch in terms of ethics and how they are perceived in the community.”
Through the acquisition, Coldwell Banker Southern Realty now has a total of 10 offices and more than 300 agents under its brand. Additionally, Cosner noted that the combined firms will retain all existing employees and the management team from Coldwell Banker Barnes.
The acquisition marks Cosner’s latest brokerage-building efforts. Over the course of his career, Cosner transformed Century 21 Hillcrest Realty into the No. 2 Century 21 office within five years and built out Prudential California Realty to more than 1,000 agents.
“This is really kind of a full circle moment,” Cosner said. “It gets me back on top of a significant sized company. My intent with this firm is to build another significant sized company over the next five years.”
Cosner purchased Coldwell Banker Southern Realty in 2019 when he relocated to Tennessee. At the time, he said the firm had fewer than 10 agents, but that didn’t faze him as he wanted to be a part of the Coldwell Banker brand.
“Back in California, my firm’s single biggest competitor was Coldwell Banker and it was a formidable operation, so I had decided that if I got into a new market and the Prudential name wasn’t available anymore, that the only name I wanted was Coldwell Banker,” Cosner said. “It is a fabulous brand with great services from the franchise to our agents and so forth.”
In en emailed statement, Steve Murray, the co-founder of RealTrends Consulting, said that the “acquisition creates a new and strong competitor in the Nashville Tennessee market.”
“Having known Rich Cosner for over 30 years I know he is strong in recruiting and developing real estate agent talent for every firm he’s ever led,” Murray added. “I expect this new company to continue with that strength. “
