Howard Hanna Real Estate Services acquires Morgan-Collins [York Daily Record, Pa.]

Oct. 18--YORK, Pa. -- For more than 20 years, Andy Collins has juggled running Morgan-Collins Inc. with mentoring his team of real estate agents.

Now, thanks to a deal struck with Pittsburgh-based Howard Hanna Real Estate services, Collins has eliminated dealing with ownership issues from his list of daily duties.

"I don't want to be the owner of the company anymore," Collins said. "I want more time working with agents in a manager role."

On Tuesday, Howard Hanna acquired Morgan-Collins and its two offices in Spring Garden Township and Shrewsbury, said Howard W. "Hoddy" Hanna, chairman and CEO of Howard Hanna.

Morgan-Collins had adopted the name of its buyer and is now known as Howard Hanna Real Estate Services.

Neither Collins nor Hanna would discuss the specifics of the deal.

"We did the deal and we are both happy," said Collins, who will remain with Howard Hanna as a senior vice president and associate broker.

His day-to-day duties will include managing the former Morgan Collins office in Spring Garden Township.

The roughly 50 agents and workers that staffed both former Morgan-Collins' offices will remain on the job, Hanna said.

In fact, within the next 60 to 90 days, the company will hire an additional 10 to 15 workers whose jobs it will be to handle mortgage, title and insurance services, Hannna said.

Having in-house mortgage and title insurance services helps bring down closing costs and keep rates competitive, Hanna said.

"I wasn't big enough to offer those services," Collins said.

By comparison, before its deal to buy Morgan-Collins, Howard Hanna had 147 offices across five states. Last year, the firm recorded 43,000 real estate transactions.

Morgan-Collins, on the other hand, profited from about 1,200 transactions in 2012, Collins said.

Going forward, Howard Hanna agents will benefit from tools that weren't available under Morgan-Collins.

For example, more than 1 million people visit Howard Hanna's website each month, Hanna said. Morgan Collins had an average of 3,000 visitors a month.

Also, Howard Hanna's call center filters sales' leads to agents in a way never available through Morgan Collins, Hanna said.

"I've been an agent since 1969 and I would rather be affiliated with a larger company than be a sole proprietor."

About Howard Hanna Real Estate Services and Morgan-Collins Inc.

On Tuesday. Pittsburgh-based Howard Hanna Real Estate Services acquired Morgan-Collins and its two offices in Spring Garden Township and Shrewsbury. The office that would one day be renamed Morgan-Collins started in the 1940s as J.W.C. Morgan. In 1990, Andy Collins took over the firm and it became Morgan-Collins.

Now, the company's two locations are part of Hanna Howard's fleet of 149 offices in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, New York and West Virginia. Soon, the Hanna Howard plans to open two additional offices in the York County area, each with a staff of about 20 agents, said Howard W. "Hoddy" Hanna, chairman and CEO of the company.

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