In the market of California, Morgan Lane Marin, a firm smaller than Pacific Union GMAC Real Estate is buying out the latter big corporation.

It usually does not make sense when the small guy buys the more competent rival.  But this action taken by both companies just might change the trend in the real estate brokerage industry, drastically.

This could actually benefit both firms in a way that, on one hand, when Pacific Union sells out its older technology to Morgan Lane, it could set out with a newer technology and a more hi-tech approach to sales; on the other hand, Morgan Lane gets a step closer to the cutting edge of real estate at a discounted price.

Why discounted? Although the price of the deal has not been disclosed, what is known is that it will assemble 17 Bay Area offices and more than 430 real estate professionals, with combined sales volume projected to reach $2.2 billion this year.  In the year 2000, Pacific Union wasn’t exactly mum about its $3.2 billion sales.  This difference manifests the latest adverse effects in the brokerage industry and it simply follows that Morgan Lane has acquired its rival at a price cut indeed.

Mark McLaughlin, CEO of the Marin real estate company, said that his reason for entering the deal was to get the enterprising approach of his luxury-end focused firm into a dominant local brokerage, since Pacific Union is known as one of the top five regional real estate companies.