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Despite their differences, the senior partners of Alliance Commercial stress that they really are more than a group of companies sharing information or partnering on deals like a Colliers or Oncor, they are one company. There are no fees paid to a central office, no mandatory conference calls, though there is a monthly call each office is invited to participate in, said Shaw.

Indeed, the organization is less like a network or alliance and more like CRESA Partners L.L.C., a 2-year-old firm formed by several members of the CRESA alliance who wanted a stronger national reach for their clients than they thought referrals offered.

Clients do not want to be passed off to someone in another market they do not know, said Shaw. They also expect the same process to be followed in each office, he added. "The important thing from the clients' perspective (is that) the same processes they are familiar with and hopefully liked will be carried out in, say, Dallas," said Broaddus.

"In our organization, the process is something we try to sell as a product to our client. ... Most brokerage firms want to introduce a relationship. ... We want to take a project all the way through to a post project report," something networks typically do not do, said Broaddus. On the other hand, he acknowledged that the company cannot expand as quickly as networks can.

But semantics and whatever clashes may have occurred following the Koll/CB merger seem to come second place to the results the Broaddus/Shaw team around the country appear to get for clients, "Not only (would I) hire them again, I'd recommend them," said Hayes.

"The bottom line on those folks is they are producers. They get the job done and they are creative. They are aggressive on behalf of their clients," Abraham said. "They're one of those groups that are unusual, and there's room for that in the industry." With all the consolidation that has gone on in real estate circles, Abraham added, it is refreshing to see a group of entrepreneurs go for it on their own.

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