There have been mergers, buyouts, and reorganizations galore in the real estate industry, over the past year. I expect more of the same, due to the maturation of the industry, due to a slower real estate market and due the increased threat from the Internet, among other reasons.

Some large brokerage companies have reported office closures, consolidations and "rightsizing" to trim operating budgets and stay in step with the changing real estate market. Officials at Realogy, the former Cendant real estate company that is now an independent publicly traded company (though a possible sale to a private equity firm has been announced), had announced a plan to cut $60 million in annual operating expenses through office mergers, consolidations and closures in 2006, for example ...

Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, a Cendant NRT Realogy company, recently merged its two South End offices.

Seeing as there are two companies owned by Realogy on Tremont Street, alone (CBRB RE and Gibson Sotheby's) and another four within half a mile (two CBRB RE offices in Back Bay, and a Century 21 and ERA office on Newbury Street), we might see more consolidation, in our own backyard.

At the same time, new companies are entering the crowded Boston market, including recent entries Keller Williams, William Raveis, and, soon, "apple-cart disrupter" Redfin.

Of course, while all this consolidation is going on, more and more agents are stepping out on their own, myself included, of course.

With change comes opportunity, right?

More: Office Obsolescence - By Glenn Roberts, Jr., Inman News