The Century 21 Real Estate company was founded by Art Bartlett and Marsh Fisher in California in 1971. In 1977, the two initiated a public offering on the stock exchange in order to raise capital to expand their company throughout the US. By 1984, the Century 21 Real Estate company was bought entirely by the Metropolitan Life Insurance company. Like a lot of other companies of the 1980s, Century 21 Real Estate was the mark of big financial companies looking to expand their product lines to customers.

Eventually, Century 21 Real Estate was acquired by the conglomerate HFS, a company that had varied interests in other franchised companies. Subsequently, HFS and Cendant merged and the real estate division, was spun off. The new parent company, Realogy, would also control Coldwell Banker and ERA, as well as Century 21 Real Estate. This put Realogy in 25% of every residential real estate transaction conducted in the United States.

Worldwide, Century 21 Real Estate has over eight thousand offices and more than 140,000 independent agents, in more than 40 countries. Practically every major city in the United States, and a large majority of smaller cities, has at least one Century 21 Real Estate branch office.

Real estate brokers, licensed by their respective state or jurisdiction independently own their own office. The Century 21 Real Estate franchisor provides company support along with the MLS (Multi-List Service) to help bring clients to the individual office in their location.

The progressive systems and technology Century 21 Real Estate utilizes in an effort to pair buyers and sellers through their web sites and internet presence makes the global challenge of buying or selling property much simpler than it did nearly 40 years ago when the Century 21 Real Estate company began.

Although every office is independently owned and operated, the Century 21 Real Estate corporate office has the right to terminate a franchisee if they should be involved in illegal activities or break the franchise agreement. This added protection for the consumer means that you have the backing of the corporate offices of Century 21 Real Estate.

The main corporate office is in Parsippany, NJ, USA. In a recent press release, Century 21 Real Estate has informed they added over 1500 new agents and 11 offices last quarter. Although many would argue the home buying market is in a slump, the recent activity at many of these realtors would suggest otherwise. A further release has indicated the Albanian and Hispanic markets are expanded with Century 21 Real Estate offices.

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