“There’s been a whole shift in the way people find agents,” Raveis said. “I got a call from my sales manager at my office in Danbury, Connecticut, and they said someone had just come in because they asked ChatGPT about the best real estate office in Danbury – and it was us. That really put this in perspective to becoming the No. 1 top search in every city we’re in.”
Blooms along the east coast
In addition to finding ways to make AI models work for them, Raveis and his team are also looking at using AI to help agents with their own marketing and transaction management tasks.
“We have meetings every week about what we can do with AI and how we can integrate it into our business,” Raveis said. “The technology won’t replace or change the agent – they will still be the ones closing the deal – but it will change the way all the data and information an agent interacts with is processed. We as a company want to deliver these solutions to agents before our competitors.”
As Raveis looks ahead to 2026, he said his team is also committed to continued growth, something that has really increased in recent years.
“This year has been a year of growth in our luxury market, from Maine to Florida. It’s about mindset, even if the real estate industry is a little off,” he said.
“We continue to acquire family-owned businesses like ours and win awards for our top luxury service. We recently opened an office in Charleston, South Carolina, and have several more business acquisitions in the pipeline for next year. 2026 will be an exciting year for us.”
He noted that William Raveis is currently exploring five or six potential acquisitions as the company looks to expand its footprint on the East Coast. Given the mergers and acquisitions Raveis explores, it’s not surprising that he agrees with the concept of industry consolidation. But despite this trend, Raveis also believes that the industry is becoming increasingly divided as companies consolidate and go their own way.
“The consolidation between Everywhere And Compass is beneficial to us as a company because it helps us differentiate ourselves even more from them. It is a true luxury brand over a transactional model Chanel compete with TJ Maxx,” he said.
“Everyone pretty much does their own thing, but this means we now have a job that is even bigger than a year ago, which allows us to grow even further.”
Possible ‘disconnection’ from NAR
In addition to leveraging both M&A and organic growth to drive development in 2026, Raveis said his company will also expand the support services it offers in 2026.
Like many full-service brokers, William Raveis offers mortgage, title and insurance services. But in the first half of 2026, the company plans to offer wealth management services to clients.
“We have a wealth advisor that operates in all 50 states that we will be working with,” Raveis said. “It will most likely go live in February or March next year, but that is certainly one of the ways we want to do things a little differently.”
In addition to Compass’ acquisition of Anywhere, Raveis said he has also been keeping a close eye on developments at Compass National Association of Real Estate Agents (NAR), as well as the value proposition discussions taking place at MLSs and broker associations.
According to Raveis, NAR damaged its relationship with his company by leaving it out of the settlement agreement for retainer cases. As a result, he said the company is exploring leaving the national trade association in markets where MLS access and association membership are not tied.
“Spun away from NAR and become directly involved with MLS is something we are looking at very strongly in 2026,” Raveis said. “We’ve always been involved with the broker associations and at all three levels because of the three-tier system, but that’s been blown up a little bit by the lawsuit and them coming after us when we didn’t do anything to actually pay a fine for the way NAR is structured.”
Raveis said he and his team were previously proud NAR members, but that is no longer the case and they see little to no value in belonging to NAR.
“In our view, the MLS is really where the value is. We don’t see a lot of value from NAR right now,” he said.
To repair the relationship, Raveis wants NAR to reimburse the brokers who were left out of the settlement for the amounts they paid to settle. He would also like to see the association provide brokers with technology or systems they can use to reinvest in their own businesses.
“What are they doing to help us be more efficient?” Raveis stated. “They have to convince us of their value, and that wasn’t the case ten years ago.”
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