United Real Estate has made another move to solidify their foothold in the growing Huntsville Metro becoming a top three brokerage in the area in the process. On Tuesday it was announced that United’s Leading Edge Real Estate Group and Revolved Realty have merged operations.

Leading Edge was the first local real estate operation that United joined forces with in 2022 and with Revolved Realty entering the fold, the two Huntsville based companies which will now go by Leading Edge Real Estate group have 300 agents representing them in the area. HBJ was able to talk with Revolved Realty co-founder Tim Knox and United President Rick Haase about the move.

Tim Knox founded Revolved Realty with his daughter, Chelsea McKinney, in 2018 and the two have grown the company since. Knox said that while it is bittersweet to see the Revolved Realty brand disappear, he is excited about the opportunity to help run the show on a local level with the Leading Edge brand.

“Danny Sullivan, founder of Leading Edge, and I are running the show,” Knox explained. “We still feel very much like a mom and pop type business because of the way we do business and I think United obviously wanted to get a foothold in here, but then they let the brokers on the ground run the business.”

Sullivan will serve as CEO of Leading Edge with Knox filling the role of President. United Real Estate felt this was integral to the plan as the two companies, along with their team of 300 agents, know the area along with the clientele.

“Our modus operandi is to find companies that are true gems in each of the markets. And we are very careful about who we affiliate with,” explained United President Rick Haase. “Real estate is one of those businesses that has had a lot of sophistication brought to it in the last five years but it’s still very much built on the trust and confidence that real estate agents and brokers develop with their own clientele. So it’s still a super local business and we can never lose sight of that.”

Knox was eager to explain that part of the reason why both Revolved Realty and United Real Estate have been able to grow so substantially over the years is the way they treat their agents and keep them happy. While most brokerages operate with a 75 / 25 split with agents, meaning the brokerage takes 25% of the agent’s commission, Leading Edge agents will usually get out the door with about 95% of their commission.

Over the last decade, the real estate industry has started to shift away from commission-split brokerage models to the transaction-fee model that Leading Edge uses. New-generation models that entered the market have shown growth, while legacy models have reported declines in agent count, sales volume and unit sales. According to data in a study examining brokerage profitability by real estate tech strategist Mike DelPrete, United was one of two national brokerages to be profitable in Q1 2023.

“That’s how a company like this grows,” Knox explained. “If you go to most real estate companies, they will tell you the order of importance is the company first, the client second, and the agent third. We kind of flipped that around because I believe that happy, well-trained, well-supported agents will bring in and lead to those happy clients, which will make the company grow.”