Marcus and Millichap

Marcus & Millichap (NYSE: MMI) is a company founded in Palo Alto in 1971 by George Marcus that works in the field of commercial real estate, providing real estate brokerage, investment brokerage, research, and advisory services in the U.S. and Canada. It is famous in its industry for popularizing the practice of exclusively listing properties with one broker, which by 2015 had become standard practice in the industry.

William Millichap was one of the first salespeople Marcus hired, and was made a partner in 1976.

In the early 1990s it participated in the wave of Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) vehicles that became publicly traded; it put together Essex Property Trust Inc which went public in 1993 and which by 2015 was the biggest apartment landlord on the West Coast.

In 2009, New York State investigators investigated the company following charges that Glen Kunofsky, senior vice president of investments, and nine other Marcus & Millichap brokers were accused of acting fraudulently and violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). The federal charges were dismissed in 2014 following a 3-year investigation.

In July 2012, a lawsuit filed by Marcus & Millichap in Washington, D.C. against Greysteel Co. LLC, a firm started by a former broker, Ari Firoozabadi, was thrown out, with the judge noting that the firm sought to cause economic harm and ruin their opponents. Marcus & Millichap settled the lawsuit and said they “regret” the lawsuit.

It went public in 2013.

In 2014 the company closed around 7,700 real estate transactions worth around $33 billion, with more closings and more listings than its competitors that year.

In 2015 the company closed 8,715 transactions with a value of approximately $37.8 billion.

In 2016 the company closed 8,995 transactions with a sales volume of approximately $42.3 billion.