The Coldwell Banker Real Estate Name Is Known Worldwide

With offices on six continents in more than 45 countries, The Coldwell Banker Real Estate name is known worldwide. Outside of the USA, there are over 600 Coldwell Banker offices. Yet the company began with just one man and his idealogy to serve the customer in a fair and honest manner. Coldwell Banker was founded in 1906 by a young real estate Sales Associate, Colbert Coldwell. The Great San Francisco earthquake had devastated his hometown and he was determined to help rebuild it .

Many realtors of the day were unethically buying property from the victims of the quake for pennies on the dollar and re-selling them for huge profits. This created an extremely lucrative business for realtors, yet it hurt the victims and the industry as a whole. Colbert Coldwell, had great disdain for this practice and left his firm to form a new real estate company with a mission.

With the help of two associates, Colbert founded Tucker, Lynch and Coldwell. His new company would be based on a revolutionary philosophy: the client’s best interest above all. The company grew and in 1913 took on a new associate, Benjamin Arthur Banker, eventually becoming a full partner. By 1920, Bruce Cornwall joined as a partner, and the company was renamed Coldwell, Cornwall and Banker. They moved to a new 3 story building in San Francisco, CA.

the primary basis of their business up till this time was focused on Commercial real estate. By 1937, the company had 7 offices in northern and southern California and had entered the residential business that same year.

After a comfortable expansion and steady growth for the previous 34 years, The Company was preparing to look forward to expansions beyond California. In 1940, Bruce Cornwall resigned, and the company was renamed Coldwell, Banker & Co. 1950 would see the Coldwell Banker real estate company enter the national market with an opening in Phoenix, AZ, their first office outside of CA, with further expansions into Seattle in 1969. More offices would open up in the 1970s, as the Coldwell Banker real estate company expanded into the Washington, DC, Atlanta and Chicago markets.

Before their vast expansion across the USA, Arthur Banker would pass away in 1965 at 81 years old, and in 1967 Colbert Coldwell died at 84 years of age, working up to the time of his death.

The network already in place by Sears as a franchisor would help catapult the Coldwell Banker real estate company with locations all over the USA.

The Coldwell Banker real estate company had succeeded in opening offices in all 50 states by 1990 and beagn to look to international expansion. By the end of the 20th century, the Coldwell Banker real estate company had achieved international recognition with their worldwide expansion and ultimately they were acquired by HFS, Inc, an international franchisor in the hotel and real estate business. HFS eventually spun off the Coldwell Banker real estate company into its Realogy division. Today, the Coldwell Banker real estate company, and its parent company Realogy, are involved in 25{ef6a2958fe8e96bc49a2b3c1c7204a1bbdb5dac70ce68e07dc54113a68252ca4} of every residential transaction in the United States.