After more than 40 years each in the real estate business, co-owners Amelia Bullock and Barbara Wallace of Amelia Bullock Realtors were looking for a foot in the door to the international market.

That door turned out to be with San Antonio–based Kuper Sotheby's International Realty, a luxury real estate firm founded in 1972 and owned by J Kuper.

On Aug. 12, Kuper Sotheby's International Realty announced the acquisition of Amelia Bullock Realtors as well as ABR's merger with Capital City Sotheby's International Realty, which Kuper acquired two years ago. The new company will use the Kuper Sotheby's International Realty name.

The acquisition puts Kuper Sotheby's International Realty as the No. 4 real estate firm in Austin in terms of sales volume. A total of 139 agents work for the company in Austin.

"We needed a greater brand because everybody wants to move to Austin," Bullock said. "It used to be all of Texas wanted to move to Austin, but now it's all of the United States and Europe and Asia. They would not know Amelia Bullock Realtors, but they would know the Sotheby's brand."

Bullock founded ABR in 1969, and she and Wallace plan to continue working for Kuper Sotheby's International Realty. Kuper said he approached the two women about the acquisition because the two companies share similar values. Both are family owned with family values, he said.

"There's an intense amount of integrity [at ABR] with agents helping each other," Kuper said. "That's not typical in real estate. That's very important to us, and we can merge easily."

Wallace said she was impressed with Kuper Sotheby's International Realty marketing capabilities that it provides to its agents and how its website ranks as a resource for homebuyers and sellers. She also cited a survey conducted by www.similarwebs.com that showed www.sothebysrealty.com received about twice as many web hits from July 2013–July 2014 than its second-closest competitor, www.engelvoelkers.com.

"The web plays such an important in people looking for real estate," Wallace said. "They always go there first."

The merger also opens doors for ABR agents to get into the farm and ranch market, which Kuper said has been a significant part of his business for 20 years.

"It's a great addition because several Amelia Bullock Realtors agents want to do more farm and ranch. We'll give them more resources to do that," he said.

Kuper Sotheby's International Realty has four offices in San Antonio and will now have four offices in Austin, including the ABR locations at 8008 Spicewood Lane in Northwest Austin and 4301 Westbank Drive near Westlake High School. Capital City Sotheby's offices are located at 13420 Galleria Circle in the Hill Country Galleria and at 2700 Barton Creek Blvd. in the Barton Creek area.

For more information, visit Kuper Sotheby's International Realty website.