Keyes Co. scoops up another brokerage

The deals are coming fast and furious for the Keyes Co.

A division of the Miami-based brokerage has acquired Jupiter-based Bluffs Real Estate and Investment Properties. Terms were not disclosed.

The sale comes a week after Keyes acquired the Aventura and Palm Beach offices of Shorewood Real Estate and a year after Keyes and Illustrated Properties of Palm Beach Gardens joined forces.

Bluffs, with 25 agents, serves Palm Beach and Martin counties. Its sales volume last year was $25 million.

The firm was founded in 1985, and Gail Lamborn was the owner since 2002. She will stay on as a sales associate, said Mike Pappas, president of Keyes.

Pappas said lower profit margins and consolidations are the way of the world in the brokerage industry these days.

“You have to leverage size and resources,” he said. “And brands matter. People want to know that they’re dealing with the name that’s been around.”

Keyes, founded in 1926, is the largest independently owned brokerage in Florida. Keyes says the Bluffs deal gives the firm 58 offices, more than 3,000 agents and nearly $6 billion in annual real estate sales and services.

Pappas said Keyes isn’t done dealing yet and expects to announce other acquisitions this year.

“We’re working hard on it,” he said.