Hanover
Ned Redpath, owner of Coldwell Banker Redpath & Co., in Hanover, has sold the agency to Joe Burns and Stefan Timbrell, partners in the New London-headquartered real estate agency Country Houses.
Country Houses, which has been independent, will change its name to Coldwell Banker Lifestyles to reflect its new affiliation with the property brokerage services giant.
“This is a unique opportunity and now gives us a presence all along the Interstate 89 corridor,” Timbrell said in an interview last week with Burns and Redpath at the agency’s offices on East Wheelock Street in Hanover. The acquisition gives the firm its fifth office and a combined total of 66 agents spread along the Interstate 89 corridor between Lebanon and Concord.
Redpath has had a leading presence in the Upper Valley real estate scene since moving to the area in 1972 and striking out on his own in 1979. He traditionally presents, along with Bruce McLaughry, chief operating officer of Four Seasons Sotheby’s International Realty in West Lebanon, the economic analysis of the regional property market during the Upper Valley Housing Coalition’s bi-annual real estate industry breakfast — which he said he will do at least one more time.
“Please don’t call this a retirement,” Redpath said.
Burns and Timbrell said that although Redpath is relinquishing day-to-day management responsibilities, they nonetheless are looking forward to calling upon him for his market expertise and counsel.
“Ned agreed to stay on as a consultant and broker,” Burns explained. “That was really important to us.” Also staying on will be the Hanover office’s four staff members, Redpath said.
Redpath’s relationship with Burns and Timbrell extends back to 2009, when he sold them his Eastman real estate division in Grantham. The transaction went so smoothly that “at the end of it I said, ‘I will move closer to retirement one day and (will be selling) Hanover and then we should talk,’ ” Redpath related.
In October, Redpath said he called Burns and Timbrell and announced, “OK, guys, it’s time to talk.”
The acquisition is a significant change for Country Houses, which Timbrell described as being “fiercely independent” by having resisted affiliating with one of the national chains. But remaining under the Coldwell Banker umbrella was important to Redpath, who has been a local Coldwell affiliate since 1986. Redpath said he even turned away another firm’s interest in acquiring his firm because the prospective buyer wasn’t committed to remaining part of the Coldwell network.
Timbrell, a New London native, former helicopter pilot and flight instructor in Los Angeles, acquired Country Houses in 1998.
Burns grew up in Sutton, N.H., and worked in the hospitality and home building industries before joining Country Houses in 2001. Burns became a partner in 2006.
Besides the Eastman office they bought from Redpath in 2009 and headquarters in New London, their 46-person agency also has offices in Warner and Sunapee.
Burns said what began as an “exploration” about affiliating with Coldwell Banker turned into a “full conversion” after he and Timbrell met with Coldwell executives and were “blown away” by the giant’s support system for local agencies, which includes everything from technology to professional educational programs for brokers and access to its global listings and networks of representatives.
The same issues — access to a wider network of listings, contacts and technology — helped to drive Lang McLaughry Real Estate and Four Seasons Sotheby’s International Realty, both based in Hanover, to merge with Vermont Country Properties last year. The newly merged firm dropped Lang and McLaughry from its name, one of the best-known in the Upper Valley, and now goes under Four Seasons Sotheby’s to signal the region’s appeal to a global client base.
Redpath got his start in the real estate business in New Jersey in 1968 with the family of a classmate from St. Lawrence University. He moved to the Upper Valley in 1972 to become a partner with Clint Bean in Webster Associates, then opened Redpath & Co. in 1979 and shortly had a four-agent firm. He later moved into the Musgrove Building on Hanover’s Main Street before purchasing his current building on East Wheelock Street in 1992.
Perhaps showing the shrewdness of someone who knows the value of a good real estate investment, however, the building is not included in his firm’s sale to Country Houses.
“Keeping that for now,” Redpath said.
John Lippman can be reached at 603-727-3219 or jlippman@vnews.com.
Correction
A photo in the Sept. 11 Sunday Valley News that accompanied a story about the sale of the Coldwell Banker Redpath & Co. real estate agency to Country Houses showed Stefan Timbrell, one of the partners of Country Houses, listening to a presentation. The photo caption misidentified him. Country Houses renamed itself Coldwell Banker Lifestyles after the acquisition. An earlier version of this story misspelled the new name.
