At the same time official word that GMAC Real Estate had acquired Hammond Residential Real Estate came across the wires last Monday, the Liberty Corner, N.J., real estate giant was busy inking a deal to acquire another company, Compass Real Estate on Cape Cod.

Although terms of the sale were not disclosed, GMAC is revealing its plans for the region. With the acquisition of Compass, GMAC will consolidate the Compass offices as well as some Kinlin Grover and Bay Village offices the company had acquired last year, again changing the face of real estate on Cape Cod.

Aleta Pruesse, broker/owner of Compass Real Estate, said she wasn’t looking to sell her company when first approached by Richard Carlson of Carlson Real Estate/GMAC in Woburn some seven months ago.

I never even thought about selling, she said. I’m in my 25th year here. But after talking to Dick, he got me so excited about the concept of belonging to GMAC because it’s not like a franchise system.

With a franchise, I didn’t like the competition between agents and offices, but with GMAC, it’s more like a ‘hands across the nation’ approach, Pruesse continued. They build a team of agents both on the local and national levels, where any agent can walk into any GMAC office and feel totally comfortable.

She added that the benefits GMAC provides for its agents, as well as proposed benefits such as health insurance, convinced her that the acquisition was the right move.

[GMAC] wants to establish in real estate a ‘super boutique’ agency, Pruesse said, and that was what I was trying to do on a small scale.

This deal is a winning situation for me because it provides me the opportunity to do better mentoring of my agents, which I love so much, but I haven’t had time for that because of the time needed to run the business, she continued. It’s a win for my agents too, because it provides them with a lot more tools that I would otherwise not have been able to provide.

Compass has offices in Orleans and Wellfleet, as well as a rental office in Eastham, and employs 16 agents.

Pruesse said among other reasons why GMAC pursued her company was its strong presence in the Wellfleet market. With this acquisition, the GMAC offices will have a 40 percent market share in Wellfleet, which is what I think they wanted.

Pruesse said it was exciting to own her own business for a quarter-century, but was looking forward to being a part of the GMAC team. It’s also interesting because there aren’t all that many women-owned businesses that have had that kind of longevity in the marketplace, she said.

The acquisition of Compass is acting as a catalyst to a greater restructuring of GMAC’s operations on the Cape. Compass’ offices in both Orleans and Wellfleet will close, and real estate agents from those offices will be relocated to GMAC offices already established in those towns.

Pruesse said additionally, GMAC’s plans are to consolidate the Bay Village and Kinlin Grover offices in Harwich into one. GMAC will follow a similar plan of action in Chatham, where Bay Village and Kinlin Grover also both have a presence.

They want to combine the two offices in each town, and they’re looking to locate them in new physical structures, she said. Pruesse will assume the role of manager for both new offices.

It’s a big assignment, and I’m looking forward to it, she said. Plans call for the Chatam offices to consolidate in April, followed by a May consolidation of the Harwich offices.

GMAC will keep open the Compass rental office in Eastham

For now, Pruesse said Compass will be called Compass Kinlin Grover/GMAC, and other offices will likely retain their respective names for awhile, but eventually the GMAC offices will take on a uniform identity.

We’re trying to keep all of the names now, to give customers and clients time to adjust to the change, she said. No one’s name is going to drop out over night, but eventually everyone will be called Kinlin Grover/GMAC.

Though GMAC now has a dominating presence on the Cape, Pruesse said the gradual loss of smaller, independent Realtors to larger outfits like GMAC shouldn’t adversely affect the way business is done in the area.

If anything, I think this will raise the bar on the face of real estate on Cape Cod, she said. There will be more professionalism and more community recognition with GMAC, and the more of that the better it is for our industry.

No ‘Corporate Shirts’
Additionally, all of the GMAC offices will still be run by local real estate agents who have had a presence in the Cape market for some time, Pruesse said. It’s a large company, but it will still be all the same faces. It’s the perfect blend of old and new, she said. You won’t be seeing people with corporate shirts walking around the offices. They will still be run by people who have been successful in the business here.

Douglas R. Payson, immediate past president of the Cape Cod & Islands Association of Realtors and the longest-serving agent at Compass Real Estate, said the trend toward acquisitions was inevitable.

The consolidation now happening on Cape Cod has occurred everywhere else in the United States, he said. We’re just catching up to the national trend. You can’t swim against the tides of change.

As was first reported in Banker & Tradesman two weeks ago, Hammond Residential Real Estate has also been targeted by GMAC. Last week Hammond officially announced it had been acquired by GMAC Home Services as well. Terms of that agreement were also not disclosed.

Hammond will continue to operate under the Hammond name as a division of GMAC Real Estate’s New England subsidiary, through which the acquisition was structured. Saul B. Cohen, president and CEO of Hammond, will head up the new Hammond division.

Hammond’s 1999 reported sales volume of $957 million placed the firm among the top 10 residential real estate companies in the United States. The company has offices in Boston, Brookline, Newton, Cambridge and Wellesley.

Hammond has built a reputation for stellar customer service and solid performance, and its reputation for innovative marketing makes it the firm of choice for many of Greater Boston’s most accomplished brokers, said Dick Schlott, president and CEO of GMAC Home Services. Bringing Hammond onto the GMAC Real Estate team will help us solidify our strategic in Boston and New England, a key regional market for GMAC.

Cohen said he joined with GMAC to build on his company’s existing strengths while adding services such as mortgages and executive relocation. Over the years, I have come to know many of the people now leading GMAC’s entry into residential real estate, both regionally and nationally, he said. I have high regard for their management group and look forward to growing Hammond with them in the years ahead.

GMAC first entered into New England with the acquisition of Woburn-based Carlson Real Estate/Better Homes and Gardens in December 1998. Including Hammond’s offices but not including Compass’ offices, GMAC now has 69 offices and more than 1,300 agents in Massachusetts.