Two of the area’s premier real estate boutiques are merging in an effort to corral more market share in luxury housing. Ellen Terry, Realtors and Dave Perry-Miller & Associates, currently separate units of Ebby Halliday Real Estate Inc., will merge and operate under the Perry-Miller name, the companies will announce this morning.
The new company will combine Terry’s 86 agents and single office (on Luther Lane), with Perry-Miller’s 195 agents at three offices (in Preston Center, Highland Park and on Routh Street). The merged entity’s roughly 280 agents will outnumber rival Briggs Freeman Real Estate Brokerage, for example, which had 130 agents according to the Dallas Business Journal‘s latest Book of Lists.
Asked the reason for the merger, Terry said: “To recruit and go after the best agents in town.”
That’s more easily accomplished by a larger firm with more resources, she added. Ellen Terry, Realtors, is the exclusive Dallas representative of Leading Estates of the World, while Perry-Miller is an exclusive member of Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate and The Charter of Fine Home Brokers. Last year, Briggs Freeman became a full franchisee of Sotheby’s International Realty.
After starting her career in the 1970s as a sales agent with Coldwell Banker, Terry founded Ellen Terry, Realtors in 1981. Perry-Miller, a top-producing agent in this market for 25 years, worked with her for 10 years, Terry said, eventually becoming the firm’s leading producer. Terry’s company was acquired by Ebby Halliday, Realtors, in 1995.
Ebby Halliday marketing director Randall Graham said the move would “reduce three different names to two” under the Ebby Halliday umbrella, aiming “obviously to grow market share under the one name. Combining [the firms] will make a more cohesive group, as well.
“Ellen has trained some of the city’s very best Realtors,” he added.
