About Ofen
Independent since 1998, six offices later
$1.9B
Closed last year, all of it on our own listings
0
Franchise fees. The name on the door is ours.
Tom Brennan opened one office on Beacon Street in 1998 with two agents and a rented fax machine. Six offices and forty agents later, we still take our own listings and answer for every one of them.
How we work
Nobody hands you off. The agent
who prices your house is the one who photographs it
and the one who sits in it
on Sunday.
Tom Brennan spent nine years at a franchise before he left it. The commission split was the smaller half of why. The larger half was that a seller in Brookline got a call centre in Chicago, and the photographer who shot the listing had never seen the street.
So the whole chain stays in one office. We shoot the photography and hold the open houses ourselves, and the license number on a listing at the first valuation is the one on it at closing. Forty agents later that has not changed.
Since 1998
Twenty-eight years, in six dates
The first office
(1998)
Tom Brennan leaves a franchise and rents two rooms over a bank on Beacon Street. Four listings that year, all of them in Brookline.
Back Bay
(2004)
A second office, on Newbury Street. The brownstone book starts there and has not moved since.
Lettings
(2011)
We start renting the flats we had only been selling. A fifth of the book is leases now.
Our own photography
(2016)
The firm puts two photographers on the payroll rather than booking them. Every listing since has been shot the week it came on.
The broker reads first
(2021)
Offers start going past a broker before they leave the office. It costs a day and it has saved a dozen closings.
Six offices, forty agents
(2026)
Jamaica Plain was the last of the six, over a bakery on Centre Street. Nine of the forty take listings in the areas this site covers.
The numbers
Twenty-eight years of them, and they are all ours
Every figure here counts Ofen transactions rather than the market's. Six offices, one set of books.
- Licensed brokerage
- MA #01998765
- Fair housing
- Equal Housing Opportunity
Selling in Greater Boston, since 1998
28years
Offices, each one staffed by the agents who list there
6
Homes closed last year, every one of them ours
1,140
Median time from listing to first offer
11days
Where we are
Six offices. Walk into any of them.
Each one is staffed by the agents who list in that area, so whoever picks up knows the street you are asking about. All six keep Saturday hours.
Back Bay
275 Newbury Street
Boston, MA 02116
(617) 555-0132three agents hereBeacon Hill
84 Charles Street
Boston, MA 02114
(617) 555-0119two agents hereCambridge
1200 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
(617) 555-0157three agents hereBrookline
Head office
1400 Beacon Street
Brookline, MA 02446
(617) 555-0148three agents hereSomerville
240 Elm Street
Somerville, MA 02144
(617) 555-0163four agents hereJamaica Plain
703 Centre Street
Boston, MA 02130
(617) 555-0175three agents here
Fair housing
Ofen Realty follows the Fair Housing Act, and so does every agent who signs a listing here.
We do not select, steer or advise buyers and renters on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status or source of income.
Talk to Tom BrennanEqual Housing Opportunity
The mark is on every listing sheet we print and every window card we hang.
MA #01998765
Ofen Realty LLC, licensed in Massachusetts
Tell the broker first
If you think one of our agents has done otherwise, tell the broker of record before you tell anyone else.
Tom Brennan, MA #04410077
Or file it yourself
You can also file with HUD or with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, and filing costs you nothing.
Book a viewing
Tell us the street and we will open the door
An agent replies within two hours, in person rather than by autoresponder. If nothing on the site fits, say so. Most of what we sell is not on it yet.
- An agent replies within 2 hours
- One agent, first call to closing
- No obligation to list or to buy
- No fee until the sale completes