The Speicher Group, a 20-person residential real estate team serving Greater Washington, has left The Long & Foster Cos. for The Real Brokerage Inc. (NASDAQ: REAX), a tech-forward real estate company headquartered in New York City.
The McLean-based group, led by Peggy Lyn and Chris Speicher, includes 15 agents and has been one of Long & Foster’s top-producing firms, counting more than 100 years of combined real estate experience and $1 billion in career sales. Across 2022, the Speicher Group said it closed more than 200 real estate transactions valued at more than $100 million.
“We are excited to be joining a company like Real that values the revenue-generating potential of self-sustaining teams like ours and is focused on building a culture and brand based on collaboration,” Chris Speicher said in a statement. “Joining a company where we can share in its growth and help to shape the culture is important to us.
The announcement of the move comes about two months after Chantilly’s Long & Foster, Greater Washington’s second-largest residential real estate company and one of the region’s largest employers, announced changes in its top ranks. In mid-March, Patrick Bain was named its new president and CEO, replacing Jeff Detwiler, and Jackie Thiel was named president of the Long & Foster Real Estate brokerage brand, replacing Boomer Foster, nephew of company co-founder Wes Foster.
Long & Foster sold in 2017 to Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK) affiliate HomeServices of America. The company counts more than 200 offices and 8,500 agents and employees across the East Coast and its many real estate, insurance and other arms.
Real offers a cloud-based platform for agents it says improves efficiencies and provides “a seamless end-to-end experience for homebuyers and sellers.” The company was founded in 2014 and today counts 10,000 agents in 46 states, D.C. and four Canadian provinces.
In addition to the D.C.-area team, the Speichers run two other brokerage teams — Speicher Group of Coldwell Banker Island Properties in Maui, Hawaii, and Speicher Group of Northrop Realty in Fenwick Island, Delaware, just north of Ocean City, Maryland.
