George Slusser is one of only a select handful of real estate industry M & A experts in the U.S. He has literally authored the successful approach to mergers and acquisitions in the real estate industry with his book, Acquiring Profit. George learned M&A by the numbers at Merrill Lynch but added decades of financial consulting in real estate to create the all-important cultural fit for brokerages.

During his tenure at Merrill Lunch Realty, George co-created the acquisition process, system, and tools used throughout the Merrill Lynch brand. He also conducted analysis and valuation for more than 23 brokerage firms.

George took the high finance approach of Merrill to his roles at ERA-CENDANT, now Realogy systems in New Jersey. There he was responsible for all areas of operations including M&A, sales, service, and training.

After Realogy George led innovative growth solutions at Coldwell Banker Commercial Real Estate in New Jersey. There he enabled record-breaking growth for more than 250 branded- brokerages and more than 1,000 agents worldwide. He was also responsible for more than 130 franchises in 6 countries. George is credited with more than tripling royalty revenue in 10 years as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Growth Officer at SVN International, the world’s largest commercial real estate franchise organization.

George leads WAV Group’s Merger and Acquisition division, providing consulting services to help brokerages with inevitable change. He believes that a combination of baby boomer owned franchises, multiple business models, and a tenuous economy indicates an increase in the number of future mergers. In George’s style of practice, cultural compatibility is as important, if not more so than the spreadsheet. Unfortunately, succession planning is rare among baby boomer owned-franchises and often heirs are not interested in continuing the business.

George has built an M&A business model to accommodate the unique nature of real estate. He evaluates the cultural integration of firms, differing business models, training, commission structures, and agent retention aspects that traditional M&A firms might overlook.

He has been an adviser to more than 130 clients and co-founder of one of the premier consulting groups in the real estate industry.