At ERA Insite Realty Services in North White Plains, owners Lou and Debra Budetti celebrated their firm”™s 25th anniversary late last year in a housing market and economy that have thinned the competition in their industry in recent years.
The Budettis, a husband-and-wife-team, have guided their company through a growth spurt since 2008 despite a sales downturn that has given them and their competitors few occasions to celebrate. ERA Insite Realty through mergers has acquired ERA Save and ERA Gem of Yonkers and ERA Advantage of Pleasantville. The Budettis kept open one of the acquired offices, at 639 McLean Ave. in Yonkers, as a second location for their company, which brokers housing sales and rentals in Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess and Rockland counties and in Fairfield and New Haven counties in Connecticut.
ERA Insite is a franchise of ERA Franchise Systems L.L.C., formerly Electronic Realty Associates, a global network of about 2,500 residential real estate offices. The Budettis”™ agency is the top-performing ERA company in this region and is ranked in the top 100 of ERA companies nationwide.
ERA Insite most recently merged with Greentree Realty and Relocation Co. of White Plains, adding heft to its already substantial rental and relocation operations. Principal broker Lou Budetti said his agency”™s rental division likely is the largest in Westchester County.
Greentree Realty”™s owners, Gabriela Kosek and Mel Weill, last fall joined the ERA Insite brokerage team at 600 N. Broadway. So too have most of the real estate agents at the companies they”™ve acquired.
Consolidation in the business
Launched in 1985 as a three-person operation, the Budettis”™ business has grown to about 100 licensed agents. In its 25-year history, ERA Insite at various times has occupied almost every office space available at 600 N. Broadway.
Among residential real estate firms, “There”™s definitely been a consolidation in the downturn,” Lou Budetti said. “It”™s unfortunate that there”™s a consolidation in the business locally. We”™ve tried to identify companies that we thought would be a good partnership for us.” With the merger deals made in the downturn, “We want to come out of it stronger than we went into it,” he said.
In the company”™s two-state service region, Debra Budetti is its relocation specialist, working with relocation companies such as Cartus Corp. that serve corporate clients. In the recession, “It slowed down a little bit,” she said. “One change I”™m seeing now is that many more people are leaving their families put and renting apartments here rather than relocate the whole family.” That might be because of the difficulty relocated employees have in selling their homes in the current market, she said.
A buyer”™s market
“It”™s a great time to buy,” said Debra Budetti, repeating what has become a widely shared mantra among Westchester brokers navigating the slow-moving, lower-priced housing market.
“If there”™s any good news in the housing market,” said Lou Budetti, “it”™s that there truly are a lot of opportunities, great selections in the inventories” for prospective buyers.
In previous downturns in housing sales that their company has weathered, “Rental would strengthen,” Lou Budetti said. “But it didn”™t this time. So both markets were worse off at the same time.”
At ERA Insite, “We”™re starting out looking at a better year already in 2011,” he said. “Already we”™re ahead of 2010 in terms of our closing sales and our pipeline of business. We”™re encouraged by that.”
The Budettis are not waiting for a full recovery to give back to the community in which their business has grown. For every closed sale in 2011, their company is donating $25 to The Bridge Fund of Westchester, a nonprofit agency in White Plains that relies on donations to financially assist the working poor and a growing number of middle-class families facing eviction and homelessness.
Sidebar
OUTTAKE: “It would be nice to have a more conscientious business response to the poverty in the community. Homelessness just isn”™t as popular as other issues.” ”“ Lisa Buck, director, The Bridge Fund of Westchester, White Plains
HED: Efforts to bridge the divide in county
Westchester Real Estate Inc., a consortium of 10 independently owned residential real estate agencies that includes Lou and Debra Budetti”™s ERA Insite Realty, has been “a tremendous support” to The Bridge Fund of Westchester in its efforts to keep residents in housing and out of the growing ranks of the homeless, said Lisa Buck, director of the nonprofit agency in White Plains.
She would like to see more businesses in Westchester follow their example.
In 2010, The Bridge Fund provided about $275,000 in donated funds to help 328 working or laid-off individuals and families avoid housing evictions and homelessness. Joining the working poor long served by the agency, “Now it”™s more middle-class people who are in crisis,” Buck said. “There are so many people who have never been in this position before.
“It would be really nice to have businesses come to the fore here in Westchester. There”™s a good quality of life here and there”™s a huge poverty issue in Westchester,” especially in Yonkers, Mount Vernon and New Rochelle. In Buck”™s view, the divide between those two sides of the county is not adequately bridged.
“The big corporations really aren”™t getting it,” she said of the spreading homelessness crisis. “Banks get it, because they want to be part of the community.
“It would be nice to have a more conscientious business response to the poverty in the community.”
For companies targeting donations to community programs, “Homelessness just isn”™t as popular as other issues.”
