The sales division of one of the oldest real estate firms in the Wilmington area has merged with a larger local company, Century 21 Sweyer & Associates, officials of both companies said Monday.

Founded in 1978 by Neill Laney, Laney Real Estate Co. is adding just under 30 licensed real estate agents to the Sweyer & Associates team to bring the Century 21 company’s number to more than 200, said Jeff Sweyer, owner of Century 21 Sweyer & Associates.

Sweyer and Laney Real Estate Co. owner George Laney, son of Neill Laney, joined their respective companies in 1998. Both second-generation real estate firm owners of their family businesses, Sweyer and Laney have met regularly throughout their careers to talk about real estate and what it's like to run a real estate company in the Cape Fear region.

“We always had a lot of commonality and always admired each other actually and had mutual respect for 18 years,” said Sweyer, whose parents founded Sweyer & Associates in 1987. “This year, when we had one of our meetings at the beginning of the year, we just kind of said, 'Can you imagine if we joined forces and combine some of the strengths that we each have?'”

The addition of the Laney sales team also comes with Laney office locations in Carolina Beach and downtown Wilmington.

“Those are two markets that we’ve really wanted to get into over the last several years, and they’re thriving markets,” Sweyer said. “Currently we have people in our company that service that, and so this allows us to do a better job with our clients and our sales associates that we have that service those areas.”

Laney Real Estate will vacate its 5,300-square-foot office in The Offices at Mayfaire III, and those agents will work out of Century 21's location at 1612 Military Cutoff Road, Laney said. Meanwhile, some of Century 21's agents will work out of the Carolina Beach and downtown offices.

In addition to agents that focus on residential real estates, the merger adds three commercial real estate brokers to the five Sweyer & Associates already had.

“Change is always good. Sometimes you’ve got to take a look at the market and see what’s best for your company, for your agents,” Laney said. “The market’s changed a ton over the past decade. You have to be really big or really small, and we kind of got caught in the middle. So out of respect for the hard work that our agents do ... we looked at companies that would be a good fit ... I like the fact that Jeff and his company wake up every day and think of ways to make their agents more successful. And in the end, I felt like that was going to be a benefit for all of our agents and be a good fit culturally.”

Laney said he’s excited about the opportunities the future holds as a result of the merger.

“They have the tools and resources to get us where we want to go faster than we could get there without them ... Now we have lots of new things we can offer our current clients and customers and our future clients and customers,” Laney said.  

Sweyer and Laney did not disclose the financial details of the merger.

Laney said as a result of the change, he will be assisting with the transition and then remain active on the sales side under Century 21. Laney will continue in his role as owner of Laney Real Estate Co., which will from now on consist solely of the company’s separate rental division.

The rental division's new office will be in Oleander Oaks at 5725 Oleander Drive, Laney said.