Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories
Realtor alliance is a win for buyers and sellers
jfink@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1611
An Upstate alliance between some major residential real estate groups has created a multiple listing network that extends from the Pennsylvania state line to Syracuse.
Crafted and driven by WNY Real Estate Information Services - a grouping of real estate firms, agents and brokers - the expanded residential listing network includes more than 13,000 listings. The new system is beginning to make its way through Upstate residential real estate circles.
"The joy of this is that an agent in Buffalo can now tap into listings in Rochester or Syracuse," said Phil Aquila, president of WNY Real Estate Information Services. He also is general manager of M.J. Peterson Real Estate Corp.
The alliance, more than two years in the making, was cemented when Rochester and Syracuse agreed to join the group, along with Niagara Falls and, more recently, Cattaraugus and Genesee counties. As a result, the former Buffalo-only listing, which averages 5,000 homes, has nearly tripled. It is now the largest residential ML system in the state, outside the New York metropolitan area.
Among the Upstate residential real estate communities and networks, only Chautauqua County has yet to join the alliance.
Aquila said the alliance aids home buyers and sellers, as well as agents.
"Think of a place like Batavia," he said. "Before we created this alliance, half of the homes were listed in the Buffalo (ML) system and the other half were in Rochester. Now everything is listed in one place."
Aquila said agents and brokers are calling the alliance and expanded ML system a benefit. An expanded ML system had been considered for a number of years, but it took on a sense of urgency in recent years as agents and brokers dealt with clients who shifted between such places as Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse.
"We really needed a regional system," Aquila said. "People are clearly more mobile. It is becoming fairly common now to see someone live in Brockport and work in Buffalo, so you need listings for both cities."