Prudential Carruthers Realtors: Homepage

Company History - The Carruthers Story

Tom Carruthers Jr. and Tommy Carruthers

The Full Story

Tom Carruthers, Jr. was first licensed in 1964 while attending the University of Maryland. He began his career with Colquitt Realty in Bethesda, Maryland. The firm at that time had only one office and six sales professionals. Within the first full year in the business after graduation from college, Tom, Jr. became manager of the office. He quickly went on to become partner in 1969 and the company name was changed to Colquitt-Carruthers Realtors. He then purchased Mr. Colquitt’s interest and became sole owner in 1972. Tom, Jr. quickly grew the company to become the largest real estate company in the Washington metro area with 32 offices and over 1,000 sales professionals by 1976. Due to health concerns stemming from heart bypass surgery, Tom, Jr. sold the company to Merrill Lynch in 1981. At the age of 37, Tom, Jr. was restricted by a five year non-compete agreement.

In 1985, Tom Jr. bought out the balance of his non-compete agreement and the rights to the Colquitt-Carruthers name. Tom, Jr. did not start as aggressively as he did the first go around focusing primarily on commercial real estate brokerage and personal investment. The company did however open residential brokerage offices in Gaithersburg, Maryland and Fairfax, Virginia. In 1991, his son Tom, III graduated from the University of Richmond and immediately joined the company. Tom, III’s initial focus was also on commercial real estate and managing Tom, Jr’s investment portfolio.

Together, the Carruthers then began aggressively looking for opportunities to grow Colquitt-Carruthers the second time around. In 1994, the company acquired Roberts and Lloyd with three offices in Northern Virginia. In 1995, the original company that had been sold to Merrill Lynch and subsequently sold to Prudential was sold to Weichert. Prudential immediately contacted Colquitt-Carruthers about a franchise affiliation and the opportunity to rebuild the Washington metro area under the Prudential brand. A franchise agreement was signed in June, 1995, and the company became Prudential Carruthers REALTORS®.

In less than a year, the vision of the company had rapidly grown into building the best real estate company servicing the Baltimore/Washington region. In only six months, Prudential Carruthers REALTORS® had grown from five to 16 offices. Since that time, the company has grown to 30 offices and over 850 sales professionals and has also expanded its services to include mortgage, title, insurance, home warranty, property management, and resort rental operations. In 2003 these related services were branded under the PCR Home Services umbrella.

Prudential Carruthers REALTORS® and PCR Home Services are committed to the vision of building the highest quality home ownership services company in the region. To fulfill this vision, the company intends to continue its aggressive growth strategy and its commitment to ongoing reinvestment into its systems, programs, and training that will ensure the highest levels of productivity and customer service.