December 13, 2006

By Lance Coleman
Senior reporter
Blount Today

There’s a new masthead at Dwight Price’s real estate office in Alcoa, and very soon, he’ll also have an additional office to house a growing business.

Price left the regional Heath Shuler Real Estate firm on Dec. 1 and is now affiliated with Realty Executives, a company that has offices throughout the nation and in several other countries. The new name of the company will be Realty Executives Price and Associates.

It was that nationwide reach that enticed Price to make the move to Realty Executives, he said. "It gave me the opportunity to be a part of a nationwide referral network. Heath Shuler was a local company and Realty Executives has been a big company in East Tennessee for years," Price said.

"We look forward to being a part of that," he added. "Just the national exposure on websites will really help, instead of being part of an independent organization," he said. "We teamed up to be part of a national franchise."

Another factor Price considered was relocation business from real estate companies without offices in the area who would lean on Real Executive affiliates to help get homes for people with companies relocating to the area. "We hope to get a lot of Prudential relocation business because there’s not a Prudential office in the Knox County area," he said.

What held him back from other companies was the prospect of not being able to own his office.

"When they told me they would allow me to have an independent agency, that made sense, too," he said. "The part that drew me to it was I could still be an independent owner. We’ll be Price and Associates. I’ll be the owner, but I can be part of Realty Executives."

On Monday, Dec. 11, he was waiting for word from the state that the move was official. "As far as our deal with Realty Executives, we’re actually still waiting for licensing to come back from the state," he said. "We talked to them this morning, and they’re saying we should have answer back by the end of the day."

Price said when his listings and those of Pat McGill’s Realty Executives office are combined, they will become an even bigger player in the real estate market.

"When we combine with Pat McGill’s office, we’ll be the biggest listing and selling franchise in Blount County," he said. "Realty Executives have been the biggest in East Tennessee, but not in Blount County. Now that we’re combining forces, our numbers will grow to where we’ll be the biggest."

Right now, Price says his office has 319 listings. "When we combine with the other Realty Executives office, that gives us a total of 679," he said.

Price explained that while he and McGill’s office will have listings under the same "banner," they will be separate offices. "I happen to be affiliated with the same franchise. We’re not really combining our offices," he said. "We’ll both be a part of Realty Executives. Being under same national team, Pat will still own and operate her office totally independent of mine."

Price said his office has 59 agents currently, and he has plans to expand into a new 4,000 square foot facility that construction crews are working on now. "We’re full here, and we’ll have a second office on William Blount Drive," he said, adding that office will be able to hold 40 agents.

Price said that while the sign in his office will change, the people will stay the same. "I think the thing I want people to know, more than anything else, is we’ve still got the same people and same phone number," he said. "We hope to be able to offer better service. We’ve teamed up with the biggest company in East Tennessee. By having more investments to shop, I think it’s a true advantage for the customers."