- 3 months ago
LIVE from HousingWire’s Gathering, Tracey Velt sits down with Jim D’Amico, CEO of Brands by Integra, to talk about brokerage growth, industry consolidation and why he’s optimistic about the Compass acquisition of Anywhere.
D’Amico built his company from two agents in Massachusetts into a multi-brand operation with roughly 2,000 agents across 18 states. Today, Brands by Integra includes multiple real estate franchises, mortgage, insurance, asset management and property management companies — all operating under one umbrella.
The conversation centers on the industry’s accelerating consolidation, particularly Compass’ acquisition of Anywhere. D’Amico says the deal injected new energy into a brokerage landscape he felt had grown stagnant, and he believes Compass CEO Robert Reffkin brings a growth-focused mindset that could unlock the scale and lead-generation potential many franchise brands have never fully leveraged.
He also addresses one of the industry’s most debated topics: Compass’ private listing network. In D’Amico’s view, the strategy has been widely misunderstood. Rather than limiting access, he believes the approach is meant to give agents and sellers more control over marketing timelines while restoring some of the value agents once held when listing information wasn’t instantly public.
Beyond mergers, D’Amico sees the future of brokerage tied to scale, technology and ecosystem expansion. While he believes mortgage and brokerage can work together, he notes the operational complexity of running both businesses. What excites him most is how real estate companies are increasingly acquiring technology — a move he believes will define the next phase of industry competition.
Despite rapid consolidation across the sector, D’Amico says the brokerage landscape will always support multiple models — from national platforms to local boutique firms. For his company, the focus now is simple: build density in existing markets, keep expanding through strategic acquisitions and continue growing nationally while maintaining a family-run culture.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
Brands by Integra has about 2,000 agents in 18 states.
The company plans continued expansion and acquisitions.
The Compass–Anywhere deal brings new energy to brokerage.
Robert Reffkin’s private listing strategy is widely misunderstood.
Private listings may give sellers more marketing flexibility.
Industry consolidation is accelerating.
Brokerage scale is increasingly important.
Technology is becoming a major competitive advantage.
Mortgage and brokerage can work together with separate operations.
Multiple brokerage models will continue to coexist.
Related to this episode:
Jim D'Amico's LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-d-amico-72594247/
Brands by Integra
https://brandsbyintegra.com/
The RealTrending podcast features conversations with the brightest minds in real estate. Every Monday, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders,
D’Amico built his company from two agents in Massachusetts into a multi-brand operation with roughly 2,000 agents across 18 states. Today, Brands by Integra includes multiple real estate franchises, mortgage, insurance, asset management and property management companies — all operating under one umbrella.
The conversation centers on the industry’s accelerating consolidation, particularly Compass’ acquisition of Anywhere. D’Amico says the deal injected new energy into a brokerage landscape he felt had grown stagnant, and he believes Compass CEO Robert Reffkin brings a growth-focused mindset that could unlock the scale and lead-generation potential many franchise brands have never fully leveraged.
He also addresses one of the industry’s most debated topics: Compass’ private listing network. In D’Amico’s view, the strategy has been widely misunderstood. Rather than limiting access, he believes the approach is meant to give agents and sellers more control over marketing timelines while restoring some of the value agents once held when listing information wasn’t instantly public.
Beyond mergers, D’Amico sees the future of brokerage tied to scale, technology and ecosystem expansion. While he believes mortgage and brokerage can work together, he notes the operational complexity of running both businesses. What excites him most is how real estate companies are increasingly acquiring technology — a move he believes will define the next phase of industry competition.
Despite rapid consolidation across the sector, D’Amico says the brokerage landscape will always support multiple models — from national platforms to local boutique firms. For his company, the focus now is simple: build density in existing markets, keep expanding through strategic acquisitions and continue growing nationally while maintaining a family-run culture.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
Brands by Integra has about 2,000 agents in 18 states.
The company plans continued expansion and acquisitions.
The Compass–Anywhere deal brings new energy to brokerage.
Robert Reffkin’s private listing strategy is widely misunderstood.
Private listings may give sellers more marketing flexibility.
Industry consolidation is accelerating.
Brokerage scale is increasingly important.
Technology is becoming a major competitive advantage.
Mortgage and brokerage can work together with separate operations.
Multiple brokerage models will continue to coexist.
Related to this episode:
Jim D'Amico's LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-d-amico-72594247/
Brands by Integra
https://brandsbyintegra.com/
The RealTrending podcast features conversations with the brightest minds in real estate. Every Monday, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders,
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NewsTranscript
00:08um today on the real trending podcast we are live from the gathering housing wires the gathering
00:14and i have jim domico he is the ceo of brands by integra so thanks for joining me thanks for
00:20having me yeah so this is exciting um we're at the gathering so we're doing this live that's fun
00:26so why don't you tell the audience um our listeners a little bit about what brands by integra actually
00:32is okay so brands by integra is an uh umbrella of companies uh i started century 21 domico and
00:41associates back in 1994 it was myself and two agents and we began growing the company we had
00:48multiple century 21s throughout massachusetts multiple names and dbas because of the territories
00:55and the in the cities and towns that we were in we finally got it to one name century 21
01:00northeast
01:01and then we decided to grow into florida and that name didn't work so we bought a company named
01:06century 21 integra and um that was back in 2021 and we bought some companies in new york and some
01:15companies in texas and then we bought a carl banker franchise in pennsylvania so at that point we said
01:20okay we have multiple brands this will be the brands by integra and we will encompass also our
01:26mortgage company which is new fed mortgage corporation uh we own new fed insurance james rose
01:31asset management is our property management division and and our 501c3 and our sober living facility and
01:38and so forth so we have multiple companies under this brands by integra okay great and so um what is
01:45your ultimate growth strategy now moving forward um are you looking like how many agents do you have
01:52right now and are you looking to um you know how big are you looking to grow so we have
01:59right now
01:59roughly 2 000 agents which i feel is a little small for the footprint to be honest um we have
02:06multiple states we're in 18 states our next focus is to create density in those states okay i think that
02:13we are not opposed to being a 50 state company uh right now we're like again we're in 18 states
02:20we're
02:21in 28 states in mortgage so uh we're growing through our network so our network being uh this loan officer
02:29knows this loan officer in this state and so like recently our most recent hire was in ohio okay we
02:35don't have brokerage in ohio but now we have mortgage in ohio so maybe we'll look at brokerage there so
02:40we just i kind of just take each day as it comes okay i do the next thing okay and
02:46then wherever that
02:47leads us a year from now we'll look back and say okay here we are are you looking at other
02:52any other
02:53um century 21 or coldwell banker roll-ins or acquisitions um if they offer if there's an
02:59opportunity out there absolutely yeah we are actually um going to acquire two more century 21s in
03:07the coming weeks and we're continuously looking for not only just century 21s and cold bankers but
03:13also independent companies independent companies um give us a different like kind of outlook on the
03:19market you know we feel like we learn a lot from companies that are not in the system yeah and
03:24so
03:25yeah we're open i know you just had a couple of announcements i know one was texas and then the
03:30other one i can't remember i just wrote it so arizona oh arizona okay arizona yes teamed up with
03:36greg haig and teresa haig yeah over at cydia great company and it's been such a great process
03:42uh onboarding and getting our teams together and so we're right in the middle of that right now and
03:46it's a lot of fun yeah great um so the big news obviously is that you recommitted to compass um
03:53after
03:54the compass international now um international holdings i better do the whole thing compass
04:00international holdings um and you you recommitted to them you're excited about the the acquisition
04:06so talk to me a little bit about that like how you found out what your immediate thoughts were
04:13what you've um i assume you've probably either met with robert already um what that was like
04:20and tell me a little bit about it sure so back when they announced the compass acquisition uh i think
04:28it was like september october of 25 i had an opportunity to extend my franchise agreement i felt
04:35that i wanted to be committed at that point because i've been with anywhere for their whole existence and
04:44prior to that realogy and i've been with the brand since 1992 as an agent and 1994 of 95 as
04:53an owner
04:53and so i've seen every different team come through and when i heard it was compass i didn't know much
05:00about robert refkin i knew a little bit about the private network um private listing network i i was
05:06confused like everybody else is at that point i i thought it was about something different than what
05:10it really is about um and so i just felt that compass had that mentality that matched with my
05:19mentality and i felt that anywhere had the leadership in place that i believe compass needed
05:25like the liz geringers and mike meelers and jason was and and our teams that we have over at
05:30anywhere i thought it was just going to be a great match and i wanted to have i wanted to
05:35have
05:35the most time left when he came in because yeah he's a growth guy and i'm a growth guy and
05:41if i
05:41have like one year two years left of my franchise agreement how valuable am i to this new entity coming
05:49in so i i took a gamble and and and i believe just with the arizona acquisition uh merger that
05:56we just did
05:56and it was a merger true merger um that um you know i i believe i was in the right
06:03position to do that
06:04deal based on my position with the company so i got to meet robert refkin and i'm a big fan
06:13i think
06:13he's the hardest working man in real estate he is extremely intelligent he thinks like i think when
06:20it comes to he's a broker and so it's it's refreshing to have a broker in that seat yeah that
06:26runs you know all these uh brands and he is growth oriented and he is a he's a roadblock clearer
06:37when
06:38it comes to um growth strategies for independent you know franchisees yeah i mean he came into this
06:45industry and did things a completely different innovative way um people didn't like it always
06:51but you know they didn't like it because it affected them right so so yeah um and one of the
06:58things you talked about is that he's misunderstood on the whole three-phased marketing and the private
07:03listing so talk to me a little bit about that and what you learned about it and your view of
07:10of the
07:10marketing technique sure and and you know i'm non-confrontational like i don't have i'm not i'm
07:17not uh i think it affects more the luxury space than it affects a lot of my space yeah um
07:24but you
07:25know i do know the luxury space we have some luxury offices and and teams and brokers and agents um
07:33when it comes to luxury when it when you're sitting down at the kitchen table and you're putting
07:38together a listing opportunity as an agent yeah um you don't want to leave that listing table without
07:43the listing and i believe that the restrictions that were placed on by the mls is about how much
07:50time you had to actually start the clock ticking yeah was the concern and we've always had ways around
07:56it um you know the non-mls listing for however how many days or what have you he just he
08:03just moved
08:04that needle and a lot of people are saying that he wants to double end the listings and sell both
08:11but that's really not it like he's sharing it now with the mls in in chicago right he's sharing them
08:17with redfin the private listing network is basically my view and this is my view of it based on what
08:25i've
08:25heard him say i feel like he's bringing back the mls book where realtors have value and buyers
08:35don't have the information when i started in this business we had a book oh yeah and and if you
08:40wanted to know what was for sale yeah and and did it matter that it took a week for the
08:45book to come
08:45out back then you know yes technology things are faster and that's great i love the technology i
08:51love everything about uh being in this age yeah but there's some value to the old way of the of
09:00the
09:00mls book where the realtor has value yeah and i think he really wants a realtor to have value yeah
09:05and so i believe in that too yeah and you know it's interesting because i actually was at florida
09:11realtors at the time that listings started going online tells you how old i am but um you know and
09:17people were just aghast by the idea that like or in zillow um that listings would a go online that
09:24the consumers could potentially see them and wouldn't need the agent to come to them for information
09:30um right so it's interesting that he's kind of going back to what a lot of agents wanted
09:37in the beginning right um at that point at least and i think and i think he does i i
09:44think the
09:44perspective for the sellers is valid the days on market is a concern i have a house on the market
09:50right now days on market kills yeah um sellers don't have uh necessarily all of the right information
09:57when they start the process to sell their house sometimes they start high now we all know you can
10:03price reduce and i'm not sure that that i'm i'm all that you know we've had price reduction issues in
10:11the past historically as as real estate agents the days on market you know that are public um those
10:17challenging because people think something's wrong with the house yeah and so if you have to spend a week
10:23staging a house or taking professional photographs or you want to kind of get you know your caravan back
10:29in the day it was a caravan right you get the agents out there you do a caravan usually before
10:34the house hit the market when i bought an office my first acquisition as a as a young agent a
10:40young
10:40broker um we had caravan and and this company that i acquired they would play this game called guess
10:47the price yeah and they would guess the price and it would help the listing agent go back to the
10:53seller and say you know we have your house on back then for like 99 000 right and the agents
10:58think
10:58it's worth 75 000 and then it gave them an opportunity to put it on for the right price so
11:03i mean i i don't think it's as i you know last year we all we talked about was class
11:09action lawsuits
11:10this year it's private listing networks and next year it'll be something else yeah i really do believe
11:15that he has um a valid argument i and and i also think that everyone has a valid argument you
11:23know
11:23it's just i i just choose not to be in the argument i i want to do business and i
11:28want to bring in
11:28talent and i want to create opportunities for agents to grow their business and that's that's what i'm
11:36about yeah i mean businesses should be able to run within obviously certain parameters um the way they
11:43want to do business um you know it's kind of like i feel like it's the atmosphere of the whole
11:51country
11:51now that we have to find something to divide us absolutely so what could that next thing be absolutely
11:57um because i do think that conversation around it is always good and people can have their opinions
12:03about it um you don't want to do that for your company don't do it for your company right i
12:09mean
12:09um the potential impact i think though on the industry is that someone as large as compass
12:19international holdings now um has a lot of influence on how that gets done so other companies are now
12:27wondering if they should put together their own private listing network in that um i mean there's a
12:33ton of consolidation and we just heard by the real remax um deal that that went down um how do
12:40how do you
12:40see the consolidation um impacting the industry do you feel like it's an inflection point right now
12:49i i like the movement i like the movement i think that the compass acquiring anywhere is is super
12:56exciting to me like i just think it adds so much value the technology that they have and all the
13:01things that
13:02we're going to have is added yeah value prop is great i think the real to remax is great as
13:07well
13:08because i think real brings a value to remax and remax brings a value to real i don't believe in
13:17acquisition for the sake of acquisition yeah i i think that um at the end of the day there's there's
13:23always going to be just so many agents right and then where those agents work it's everything changes
13:29it's just the names that change yeah you know the um i would say like the overall
13:37perspective of the company or the the um the personality of each company uh it takes takes the
13:44place of the last company that had that personality it's just a different name yeah so i feel like
13:50there's agents who like this model and there's agents who like that model and there's agents who like
13:55my model and what the key is is to just get your message out right so but the acquisitions are
14:01kind
14:01of fun i like i like living under them and not you know i don't want to be the one
14:05creating the private
14:06listing network i could tell you that yeah yeah i want to stay out of those i want to stay
14:10off of that
14:11radar yeah uh but i do love learning about all of these different things that keep happening and
14:16reading about them and following you and housing wire and everything so it's yeah it's been fun yeah i mean
14:21it's fun for us obviously we get a lot of a lot of good things to report on right there's
14:26a lot of
14:27good content i will say i read my email newsletters a lot more now than i did three years three
14:33or four
14:33years absolutely absolutely um so let's talk about because i do see um the industry is moving toward a
14:42more you know complete ecosystem where you know a lot of companies they're looking beyond ancillary services
14:50and actually looking into acquisitions of those um companies and even you know there's always
14:58rumblings too that uh mortgage will buy brokerage um it's not always going to be another broker buying
15:06another broker there are other industries looking to buy brokerages as well um so you know at housing
15:13where our event obviously encompasses both real estate and mortgage so talk to me about this is your first
15:20time here so talk to me a little bit about what you see as kind of the future of real
15:25estate and how
15:26this plays into it sure um yeah this is my first time at uh at the gathering and i will
15:34definitely be
15:35back this was by far my favorite conference that i've been to in the past probably of any conference
15:42that i've been to this was this has been a lot of fun yeah and you guys know how to
15:46do it and do it right
15:47i've had some great opportunities to network with great people got to play some golf uh had this is
15:53a great hotel great venue great speakers uh just a lot of who's who in the industry which is great
16:00i own a mortgage company new fed mortgage um i think that mortgage and real estate go very well
16:07together but i also think that mortgage is a very challenging industry so i think that mortgage
16:12and real estate together mortgage acquiring real estate i i don't see the interesting thing that
16:19i do see is real estate acquiring tech yeah which i which you know i learned yesterday with robert
16:25palm yeah robert palmer yeah lpt and he's not acquiring brokerages he's acquiring tech right and
16:32that's interesting too compass acquires tech yeah a lot of these companies now acquiring tech it's not
16:37something that i've ever you know had any experience with so i i love that part of it i'll follow
16:42that
16:42more uh mortgage um acquiring brokerage i see this i see the synergy um but i do think that being
16:54in both
16:54businesses yeah you really do need separation and separation of teams you know we have a cfo in each
17:01business we have a coo in each business yeah and it's not something that like with property management
17:06and real estate you could do right right so like i think that there's some there's some definite
17:10synergy this event having both mortgage and real estate being strongly represented is is really
17:18excellent yeah it's been an excellent uh the subject matter has just been you know it bounces
17:24in it and it really flows and it's it's been really helpful great yeah i i think i mean obviously
17:30with respa you can't the synergies have to be a certain way
17:34the darn respa yeah i mean i've heard rumblings about companies you know outside of respa that
17:45would are looking at real estate it's really interesting i don't know them personally like
17:51i don't know what they are these are all conversations that i've had a lot of private equity
17:55yeah and and you know there's there's a lot of outside interest in yeah you know real estate brokerage
18:02is a machine right and so why is there so much consolidation because it's not a very profitable
18:07machine yeah and so if you're only doing two million dollars in uh let's say annual commission
18:14revenue yeah i mean realistically your profit margin is not six figures yeah so if your profit margin is
18:21not six figures and you're owning a business i mean yeah it's there's a lot of other things you could
18:25be
18:26doing yeah to make that amount of profit so i think that scale and volume is is definitely um
18:35necessary in the in the brokerage industry like you either have to be big or you have to commit to
18:40being
18:41an agent that owns a brokerage yeah and you know that's the commitment that that each person has to
18:47decide there's some awesome boutique brokerages that make a lot of money yeah but you know you have to be
18:53in one place and you have to be that person and when you go to dinner you're going to know
18:56everyone
18:56at the restaurant you have to be that always working in your community and i think that there's
19:02i think that some of those people can make a lot more money than a person like myself that's in
19:0618 states
19:07so i think there's that there's there's a lot of interest in our industry because it's a machine
19:12there's a lot of data there's a lot of people getting touched there's a lot of you know you have
19:16a lot of data you have houses you have yeah individuals that want to buy sell uh refinance
19:24get mortgages title property management it just goes all the way down the line home improvement
19:29yeah absolutely so with the consolidation or with the um with the acquisition of anywhere
19:34what did you feel compass or robert really did right that made you um you know feel good about i
19:45think
19:45when the when it's first announced because it's public a public company they can't really give you
19:51notice um but they can give you a little bit of notice but not you know it's kind of sprung
19:57on you
19:57a little bit um so everybody's usually it's a lot of chaos in the beginning like oh my gosh what
20:03does
20:03that mean what's going to happen to us what do you feel like they did right um when this happened
20:08that
20:09immediately made you you know feel comfortable with with everything going on well he i think if
20:19anyone came in and bought anywhere at that point i'd have been happy because not not to yeah you
20:24know but just to be completely honest i felt like it was a little bit stagnant i don't feel that
20:29there
20:29was a lot of excitement around brokerage i felt like it we were more like a publicly traded company who
20:34was very cautious and careful and didn't really want to take any action and so with robert coming
20:41in and really saying hey now we have nine brands and we're going to market to the public and we're
20:48actually going to bring leads into the company yeah how can you complain anywhere had that ability
20:53for so many years and just didn't act on it yeah realogy six brands we can literally go on tv
21:01with a
21:02with an excellent website and say come and find your listings here yeah just yeah you know even
21:08if we got a little bit of business it would have been better than zero and really i think that
21:12that's
21:13where they dropped the ball and so we were we were all happy i mean when i say we like
21:18the franchisees
21:19that i know that i talk to on a regular basis we were excited right right yeah right out of
21:24the gate
21:24but robert what did he do right he made it a point to come and see all of us and
21:28he's still doing it if
21:29you follow him yeah he's the hardest working man and he'll give you his cell phone and he'll answer
21:34your texts and he'll call you back i mean he answered he answered a phone call for me it was
21:39at an airport
21:40in europe and he said let me just get through customs and i'll call you right back yeah so i
21:44mean he's that
21:44he's that guy that's that's how that's what i that's what i like to think i am and so i
21:50like having
21:51that in the big seat yeah i think he's very misunderstood in the industry um and i'm not sure
21:58you know how i i don't think people really give him the benefit or benefit of doubt over the some
22:08of
22:08the things that he does they automatically make up their assumption um it could be just because
22:13their competition i don't know um but he also isn't afraid to tell you he doesn't agree with you right
22:19he's very decisive yes and he makes moves and he makes them fast and because people don't understand it
22:27doesn't mean that it isn't right yeah right and so i think that there's a lot of that like you
22:31started with in this country yeah um just because they don't understand it it doesn't mean it's wrong
22:36and you know yeah i've had a couple of conversations here where i've been like i don't know if you
22:39really understand what he's you know what he's about because yeah i believe that he is he operates
22:46with more integrity than anyone i've met in that seat okay and so that to me is very important yeah
22:53absolutely um any last thoughts about you know your future um with the brands by integra or um just the
23:01future of the industry in general i mean our future we're going to continue to be the engine that could
23:07you know we we just take on each challenge we're a family-run company and you know our employees our
23:15agents our loan officers our staff are all family uh are all like family and so we really do and
23:23people
23:23say this all the time you know like oh we're a family this really is a family i mean my
23:28cousin runs
23:28the brokerage operation his wife pays the agent so i mean we we we are family owned and operated
23:34agents can call me i answer my phone yeah we want to be able to continue to do that we
23:40love being on a
23:41larger scale we love the difference in markets when it's slow in boston it's busy in florida when it's
23:46low in new york it's busy in texas and all the migration that's happening so we'll continue to
23:53look at that like i said we want to try to build some density we just hired a couple of
23:56new leadership
23:57positions in texas so we really want to lean into our texas operation illinois we just did a major
24:03acquisition up in schaumburg so we also want to lean into that and so okay we're we're having fun and
24:08when it's not fun anymore then we'll then we'll talk robert uh but no we we uh we're having a
24:15lot of
24:15fun i i love what i do i don't see myself as retiring i feel like i'm just hitting my
24:20stride
24:20so um hopefully god willing we get the ability to do this for a long time yeah well jim thanks
24:26so much for joining real trending on site here at the gathering thank you for having me thanks
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