As of the end of business on Friday afternoon, Coldwell Banker in Port Townsend closed it's doors. Most of the Port Townsend real estate community was shocked, and dismayed, as this is a long standing company with a very excellent reputation. As far as I could tell, it was about 3rd in the rankings of volume, number of transactions, and number of listings. They had about 5 or 6 top producing agents, and the owner of the company was a working broker who also owned 3 other locations. The Port Ludlow office was sold to the top producer there, and he will continue to work out of his Sequim office.
This left many agents literally out in the cold along with a lot of sellers whose listings they held. I can't think of much worse in our business than moving to a new office, but to do it without having the luxury of checking things out first would be really difficult. Of course this is a very small town with only 4 (now 3) offices with a total of 100 agents in our county. So we all actually do know one another pretty well. Still there will be contracts to be resigned, signs to move and new flyers to make. Glad it's not me, for now anyway.
For more information look for an article in the Peninsula Daily News http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20100711/news/307119980/port-townsend-real-estate-office-closes-putting-up-to-18-out-of-work
Hi, Sandra.
We just had to pay our $336 Knoxville MLS "participation fee" which is due every July 1st. The MLS association dues are $375 on January 1st, so it costs $771 per year to belong and to participate (huh?)
There was some attrition in January but the number of agents who vanished on 7/1 was really shocking.