Long & Foster Cos.

11351 Random Hills Rd.

Year founded: 1968

Industry: real estate

Post 200 Category: Top Private Companies

Revenue: $1.04 Billion

Net Income/Loss: n/a

Earnings per share: n/a

Dividend: n/a

Stockholder equity: n/a

Auditor: Goodman & Co.

Assets: n/a

Market capitalization: n/a

52-week high: n/a

52-week low: n/a

CEO: P. Wesley Foster Jr.

COO: Brenda B. Shipplett

Employees: 2071

Local employees: 1150

Description: Privately held Long & Foster operates Long & Foster Real Estate Inc., the Washington region's largest residential real estate brokerage and the largest privately owned brokerage in the country. The company has 14,000 agents working on commission in 218 offices in seven states plus the District. Long & Foster Cos. also offers mortgage, insurance, settlement and title services under its brand.

Developments: Long & Foster continued to ride the area's sizzling housing market last year, surpassing $1 billion in annual revenue for the first time. Revenue for all its companies in 2004 reached $1.04 billion, compared with $810 million the year before. Long & Foster also continued its aggressive expansion, buying seven brokerages in Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and the District. With its purchase of Owens & Co. and Boone & Co., Long & Foster last year moved into the southwestern Virginia market for the first time; in 2003, the company expanded into New Jersey. Besides its acquisitions, Long & Foster built 35 office facilities last year; the company owns 21 percent of its sales offices. In 2004, the company continued to concentrate on its affiliated businesses — insurance, settlement, title and mortgage financing. Company officials say profit is decreasing in the brokerage business because of rising overhead costs. To expand the mortgage financing business, the company increased the number of loan officers in some of its offices. Long & Foster's title business was up 40 percent in 2004 over the year before; mortgage financing was up 4 percent, while the company's insurance trade was up 14 percent. The company continued to try to persuade its agents and buyers to use its affiliated products with stepped-up marketing efforts. Long & Foster's founder and chief executive, P. Wesley Foster Jr., predicts that the local housing market will moderate in 2005, a trend he says is positive. Last year's phenomenal appreciation rates are not sustainable for the long term, Foster says.