Thad Wong, Co-Founder of @properties

Take a walk around the leafy, geometrically precise streets of Chicago’s North Side, lakefront neighborhoods and you will see one @properties front yard sign after another.

The Chicagoland market’s no. 1 residential real estate brokerage by sales volume – and no. 8 nationally, according to RealTrends – is now expanding. On Tuesday, @properties announced a franchise in Dallas helmed by Dallas businessman Jerry Mooty.

The new franchise “has commitments from a number of founding agents,” the press release reads, and “Mooty is in final negotiations for @properties’ first local office.”

The franchise is a risk for @properties, which for years has comfortably dominated Chicago without spreading its wings. Quad-C, a private equity firm based in Charlottesville, Virginia, invested an undisclosed stake in @properties back in 2018. But the move has had little noticeable effect, save perhaps prior announcements for @properties franchises in Detroit and LaCrosse, Wisconsin.

Just before the Dallas announcement, HousingWire sat down with @properties co-founder, and co-CEO Thad Wong in the companies’ Chicago headquarters (Wong leads the company with Michael Golden). The office lies in a somewhat sparse locale, northwest of downtown. It is appointed with an array of contemporary art, windows with views of the city skyline, and, during a late Monday afternoon, only a few people.