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Realty realignment: Kelly agency switches from Prudential to Berkshire Hathaway

Ben Kelly, lower left, President of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Realty Center, speaks to a crowd of Realtors and local officials at a new alliance celebration ribbon cutting Tuesday at the Hunter Museum of American Art. Ben Kelly, lower left, President of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Realty Center, speaks to a crowd of Realtors and local officials at a new alliance celebration ribbon cutting Tuesday at the Hunter Museum of American Art.

By Dave Flessner January 14, 2015 3 min read

When Ben and Karen Kelly started their real estate business in 1975, 90 percent of Chattanooga’s home sales came through independent Realtors while agents aligned with franchised companies garnered only 10 percent of the market.

Forty years later, franchised real estate agencies now sell nearly 90 percent of the Realtor-assisted home sales in Chattanooga and independent agents sell only about 10 percent of all homes.

“The market has flipped from what it was,” Kelly told more than 150 of his agents and other guests Tuesday in a celebration of his agency’s newest franchise agreement. “But we still have outstanding agents, the best brokers in the South and our local name, Realty Center, remains strong.”

For the fourth time in as many decades, Kelly is switching that name a bit with a new franchise partner. Realty Center, one of Chattanooga’s biggest agencies which generated about $327 million in sales last year, on Tuesday switched its franchise from Prudential to Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices.

Kelly said Berkshire Hathaway, one of the many businesses in the portfolio of famed investor Warren Buffett, “is the most admired company in the world.