By TIFFANY RAZZANO
In fact, some real estate firms in the village are expanding to accommodate the business they're handling. As of August 15, the former Rockville Realty, located on North Park Avenue, has merged with Coach Realtors, a family-owned real estate firm that focuses solely on Long Island real estate, becoming its twentieth office.
Pat Cantwell, office manager for Rockville Realty and now for Coach in Rockville Centre, said she and Rockville's owner, Pommy Levy, began researching companies for potential mergers two years ago, when they first realized the market was changing. Ultimately, they chose Coach because it is Long Island-based and could offer their real estate team more tools. "We feel it's a first class organization and they have so much technology to offer," she said. "We can better service our clients with all of these things at our fingertips. They have the backing and connections and we can be much more professional with all these extra tools at our hands. It's an advantage to the homeowner."
"We are excited to enter into this new market and bring to Rockville Centre the Coach brand," said Larry Finn, owner of Coach.
At the same time, Links Realty, with an office on Merrick Road for the past year, will be fielding another location in the village. The company will hold the grand opening of its brand new building at the corner of Seaman Avenue and North Long Beach Road in three weeks. This office will handle all residential real estate, while the Merrick Road location, which will remain open, will specialize in condos and coops.
Links co-owner Rich McQuillan is not concerned about Coach coming to the village. "I think it's going to help businesses like mine, because Rockville Centre is more of a community and Coach is more corporate," he said. "Mine is more of a personal service... It's important Rockville Centre stays a community and doesn't become part of a big corporate world. With Coach coming in, you're starting to get into the corporate world and losing the personal feel of the village. Rockville Realty had a great name. You can't get any more Rockville Centre than that."
Liz Wallace, a broker-owner of Century 21-Sherlock Homes, is also not concerned about Coach's arrival in the village. "I don't see it as a problem," she said. "I think that Coach is a pretty big office and company and we belong to a big franchise too, so for us, I don't see any impact at all. [Real estate companies] in Rockville Centre have really well-established roots in the town. Sherlock has been here 25 years. This is not a town where someone is going to open up quick and take away business from anybody else."
While the media portrays a dire situation for real estate on Long Island, as well as nationally, local agents say yes, there is a slight dip, but homes are still selling in Rockville Centre. "People always need somewhere to live," McQuillan said.
Wallace says in the last six months the average closing price of the 51 homes located within the Rockville Centre School District her firm has sold, is $731, 629, with the highest sold price being just over $1 million; the lowest price around $455,000. "So the village is not hurting. It's a lot higher than the national average," she said. "It's taken a dip and there's a lot more for people to choose from, but if your house is well-priced and in good condition, it's going to sell."
She said while the mortgage industry may be in a state of upheaval, it'll straighten itself out. "The market always levels itself out," Wallace said. "The village is a great place to live. Houses are still selling. Houses in the village took a dip, but the people who buy houses in this town are going to establish roots and be here for 20 years. It's not going to hurt them. Even if the market took a dip, they're still going to make a lot of money. If 20 years ago you told someone who bought a house for $80,000 they'd eventually sell it for $700,000, they would have been falling down laughing."
Cantwell says last year Rockville Realty sold 134 homes between January and August; this year in those same months they sold 178. She also said that though homes are staying on the market a bit longer, 104 days in 2007, compared to 88 days in 2006, "prices are pretty much holding."
"The market is not changing, the consumer is changing," Cantwell said. "They're more Internet savvy. The reason we wanted to merge is because there is so much more available on the Internet [with Coach]. It's still a strong market in Rockville Centre, truthfully. But because there is more inventory, buyers can be selective and sellers have to prepare their houses more carefully to be more competitive."
McQuillan says he is seeing a 5 to 10 percent drop in the prices of homes in the village, compared to this time last year. "The only reason the market is changing in this town is because people believe the market is changing and will affect all suburbs," he said. "We have to stay competitive with other realtors whose prices are dropping. If it were up to me, I'd sell all of our houses at top dollar. Other realtors drop their prices because it makes their job easier."
He added, "We're selling homes. I'm not focused on all the bad news. We're selling plenty of homes and are not concerned at all where the market goes. If we stay focused and do our job, do what we're supposed to, we'll weather the storm."
The Rockville Centre market is doing better than other areas nearby, such as Baldwin and Freeport, McQuillan said. Other areas have more homes on the market, which in turn brings down their prices.
"Rockville Centre has something nobody else has and if you preach that to buyers, you won't have to lower prices," McQuillan said. "Rockville Centre is the only town with its own golf course, hospital, police department, fire department, public works, a great school district and all the restaurants. We have the full package in this town and people don't realize that. It's just like the difference between a Mercedes and a Chevy. We are the Mercedes of real estate. We have a lot to offer here."
Comments about this story? TRazzano@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 221.
