United Country Real Estate is a

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

-based

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

marketing company. The company provides leads, marketing programs, advanced training and technology solutions to affiliated

realtor A real estate agent or real estate broker is a person who represents sellers or buyers of real estate or real property. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients. Brokers and agen ...

s that pay a

franchise fee A franchise fee is a fee or charge that one party, known as the franchisee, pays another party, known as the franchisor, for the right to enter in a franchise agreement. Generally by paying the franchise fee a franchisee receives the rights to se ...

. It operates more than 3,000 websites targeting local markets. The websites collectively obtain 2.9 million monthly unique visitors. The franchise system provides vast support in terms of marketing, technology and training. From a marketing standpoint, United Country publishes catalogs and listings, pays for advertising, develops marketing programs, creates brochures, postcards and email content, provides computer systems and support. The company also offers an in-house real estate advertising agency, "Enhanced Marketing Solutions". It also does so by its focus on rural real estate (farms, ranches, country homes for sale, and small town/lakeside property) as opposed to urban and suburban real estate.

History

United Country Real Estate was founded in 1925 with a focus on farms and ranches in rural towns by Roscoe Chamberlain out of a

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

bank. It published the first rural properties catalog in 1928, which was put on display at the Smithsonian in 1981. In 1951, Chamberlain's son, Robert M. Chamberlain, became the president of the company. Founded under the name United Farm Real Estate, it changed names to United National Real Estate to reflect its expansion into suburban neighborhoods in 1986. The company was acquired by a management group in 1990 and changed its name again to United Country seven years later. United Country Real Estate had approximately 150 franchises by 1997 and 300 by 1999. This grew to 700 franchise members by 2007, when Dan Duffy and his investment partners acquired the company. In 2010 the organization raised $1 million in funding to expand its web presence for

suburban areas A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

with a local population of 50,000 or more. Two years later, United Real Estate was launched, which built "United Lounges," which provide an office facility for affiliated realtors, in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

and

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. As of 2013, it has 4,000 participating real-estate agents. In 2015, the company partnered with McCarthy Capital Fund V to expand plans for growth. Existing management increased its ownership as part of the transaction and will remain in place without exception. Today, the company operates under the name United Country Real Estate and specializes in "lifestyle", country and small town properties around the country and in Mexico and Central America.

Fundraising

United Country Real Estate raised $24,000 for the Carrington Charitable Foundation at their annual Training and Awards Conference March 13, 2020, at a live auction event.

References

{{reflist, 2 Real estate companies of the United States American companies established in 1925