Realtor groups to merge
Two Realtor groups with a long history of cooperation, the Westchester County Board of Realtors (WCBR) and Putnam County Association of Realtors (PCAR), plan to merge later this year.
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If approved by the groups”™ general membership this fall, the merger could take effect Nov. 1, in time for membership renewals, WCBR CEO P. Gilbert Mercurio said last week. Both groups”™ boards of directors already have approved the merger.
The new organization will be called the Westchester-Putnam Association of Realtors.
The Westchester Realtors group was formed in 1916 and the Putnam association in 1932. In 1996 the two organizations merged their multiple listing services, forming the Westchester-Putnam Multiple Listing Service Inc. (WPMLS), which shares offices with the WCBR in White Plains.
“In a long-term sense,” Mercurio said of the merger, “it”™s increasingly a single Westchester-Putnam real estate market and we”™ve been collaborating with the Putnam County Association for many years now. There”™s a long history, a long relationship between the two organizations. I think what brought it on recently was the economy.”
Mercurio said both groups have lost members in the last two years as Realtors have left the business in the housing market slump. WCBR now has about 6,700 members, after membership swelled to nearly 8,000 during the housing market boom a few years ago. The Putnam County association has about 425 members, down from a membership roll of more than 600 Realtors two years ago.
With the merger, the two-county group will continue to operate an office in Brewster led by PCAR Executive Officer Nancy Rubino. “We will actually attempt to offer more educational opportunities” in Brewster, said Mercurio, who heads a staff of 15 full-time employees at WCBR and WPMLS in White Plains.
“We see it as having possibilities for making things more convenient for the Realtors not only in Putnam but in northern Westchester County.”
Mercurio said the group also serves more Dutchess County brokers.