Longtime residential real estate agent Jerry Del Rio has entered into a license agreement with German real estate company Engel and Völkers, and will be the growing firm’s sole brokerage in the Baton Rouge market.
Del Rio, who has been working on the partnership for months, officially rebranded her eponymous firm today. Gone are the iconic red and white signs, replaced by crisp, white ones bearing the Engel and Völkers logo. Gone, too, will be Del Rio’s self-styled television commercials, which aired during local newscasts and featured the 28-year-veteran agent in action.
“They’re very upscale,” Del Rio says of her new partner. “They’re the largest residential broker in Europe.”
Several factors were behind Del Rio’s decision to join forces with an international brokerage after more than two decades as an independent agent. For one, Del Rio says the world is becoming a more global place to do business, and an affiliation with a name like Engel and Völkers will help broaden her base and appeal.
Also, because the company is large it offers training, resources and state-of-the art systems for the 14 agents in her firm.
Perhaps above all, Del Rio says her firm was too closely tied to her name, and at 75, she needed to start thinking about an exit strategy—even though she has no plans to retire.
“I didn’t feel like anybody would want to buy Jerry Del Rio Real Estate,” she says. “So this gives us a much broader appeal.”
Engel and Völkers has been expanding into markets around the country of late. It has recently opened offices in New Orleans, Lafayette and Lake Charles.
“As a key political, industrial and cultural center for Louisiana, Baton Rouge presented itself as the ideal location to further our footprint in the dynamic state following the recent openings of our New Orleans, Lake Charles and Lafayette shops,” says Anthony Hitt, CEO of Engel & Völkers North America, in a prepared statement.
Del Rio’s offices will continue to be located at 4874 Bluebonnet Blvd.
—Stephanie Riegel
