W.C. & A.N. Miller Realtors, the long-time Potomac and Washington, D.C. metropolitan area real estate fixture has been bought by Long & Foster Realtors.
The company will continue to operate with the same staff and management and will now be called W.C. & A.N. Miller Realtors, a Long & Foster Company, according to officials with both companies. W.C. & A.N. Miller Realtors was one of six companies owned by W.C. & A.N. Miller Companies.
“I am thrilled,” said Michael Seay, the president of Miller Realtors. “The agents, the managers, and everyone just seems thrilled.” Negotiations are ongoing and could be completed this week for Long & Foster to purchase Greenway Lending Group, the lending arm of W.C. & A.N. Miller Companies, said Seay. Greenway Lending Group would team with Prosperity Mortgage, a lending firm owned and operated by Long & Foster, to offer a variety of lending options to customers, Seay said.
Officials from both firms say that the sale will be mutually beneficial.
“Any time that we can grow it’s a good thing, especially with a company with the reputation of [W.C. & A.N. Miller],” said Brenda Shipplett, the President and Chief Operating Officer of Long & Foster Companies. Shipplett said that the business that W.C. & A.N. Miller Realtors do in the higher-end home market was a motivating factor to make the acquisition. As part of the acquisition the firm will attain the services of Christie’s Great Estates, an advertisement and listing service in the higher-end home market.
The real estate agents of W.C. & A.N. Miller will benefit from the financial support of a firm that can afford to invest heavily in online and computer technology, a must in today’s real estate market, said Bob Moorman. Moorman has worked as an agent in Potomac for W.C. & A.N. Miller Realtors for more than 30 years.
“The computer and technical support and… search facilities for our clients are the only way you can really compete today,” said Moorman. “The deeper pockets [of Long & Foster] will really help us there.”
“It’s a win-win for everybody,” said Andrea Alderdice, an agent with W.C. & A.N. Miller Realtors.
WILLIAM C. AND Allison N. Miller were brothers who began a home building company in Northwest Washington, D.C. in 1912. Over the next 90 years the company expanded to include moving, home improvement, lending, commercial and residential management and Realtor services, said Seay. The company is known building the Sumner and Spring Valley communities, as well as Potomac Falls, which was W.C. & A.N. Miller's first foray into Potomac, Seay said.
"We worked out of a little sales office on the corner of Alloway Drive and Falls Road," said Seay. Allison N. Miller, personally sighted and staked out each of the lots in Potomac Falls.
As the companies expanded they moved into an office in Potomac Promenade. In 1991 they moved their Potomac offices into their current location at the corner of Falls and River Roads that used to be the home of the Happy Pickle restaurant.
W.C. & A.N. Miller Companies are owned and operated by Ted Miller, the third generation of the Miller family to run the business that operates in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.
Long & Foster Companies were started by P. Wesley Foster and Henry Long in 1968 in Fairfax, Va., said Julie Verriere of Long & Foster. Foster bought out Long’s interest in the company in the 1970s. The company expanded into Maryland in 1974 and opened a Bethesda office in 1975 and an office in Potomac Village in 1978. The company has expanded to seven states in the mid-Atlantic region and had revenue of $1.1 billion in 2005, Verriere said.
“This is two great local companies coming together,” said Seay.
Keeping the name of W.C. & A.N. Miller Realtors was an important part of the deal, said Moorman.
“Having your individuality is important in our business today,” Moorman said.
Seay said that customers will be the ultimate beneficiaries of the agents having improved technological support, and that the agents will benefit from a wider range of health and benefit packages offered by Long & Foster.
“We wanted what’s best for our agents,” Seay said. “They’re our most precious asset.” Seay added that only one real estate agent has left the firm as a result of the change.