Going for brokers
A continued exodus of real estate brokers from the suburban New York region”™s recession-mired housing industry moved Realtor associations this year to join forces across the Hudson River in a merger that takes effect Jan. 1.
The newly formed Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors will include about 9,500 current members of the Westchester Putnam Association of Realtors (WPAR), Rockland County Board of Realtors and Orange County Association of Realtors. The four-county organization will be the second largest Realtors group in New York behind the approximately 20,000-member Long Island Association.
Westchester and Putnam brokers merged their separate county associations in November 2009.
As part of the pending cross-Hudson merger, the Orange and Rockland broker groups will dissolve into the Westchester-Putnam association, which is awaiting approval from the National Association of Realtors for the name change to Hudson Gateway.
The group”™s headquarters will remain in downtown White Plains, with additional offices in Brewster, Goshen and likely in West Nyack.
WPAR CEO P. Gilbert Mercurio said the two-county group he heads has some 6,500 members this year, compared to nearly 8,000 member brokers four years ago.
“It”™s been a pretty steady decline prompted by the persistence of the real estate recession” both nationally and in this region, Mercurio said. The revenue-sapping membership decline likely will continue in 2012. “That is probably the major motivator for this merger,” he said.
Mercurio will retire as CEO at the end of this year but stay on for one year as a consultant to the new regional association. His successor, current Deputy CEO Richard Haggerty, will serve as Hudson Gateway CEO.
Mercurio said broker education courses will continue to be offered in offices across the region. To those offerings will be added a new 22 ½-hour series of online continuing-education courses commissioned by WPAR.
The merging groups”™ two current real estate listing services ”“ Westchester-Putnam”™s Empire Access Multiple Listing Service for Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess and Bronx counties and the Orange County association”™s Greater Hudson Valley Multiple Listing Service for Orange and Rockland counties ”“ for now will remain separate entities. Realtors plan either to merge the database services over the next two years or replace them with an entirely new listing service, Mercurio said.
Though the region”™s stagnant housing market has eroded broker ranks for at least three years, merger talks among the groups only began in early summer this year. “It was one of the fastest mergers ever accomplished in the Realtor community,” said Mercurio. “Everything came together at the right time.”
When advocating for their members”™ interests, “We have always operated as a region politically,” said Mercurio. “The associations around here are at ease with each other. That makes it a lot easier. There”™s a high trust level that we”™re all going to do the right thing.”