Hurricane Sandy — a massive storm that has impacted more than 50 million people — slammed into the East Coast late Monday, ripping down trees and causing unprecedented amounts of damage. Recovery efforts begin today. The storm, which is expected to cause $67 billion in damages, is forecasted to spread across 10 states and the District of Columbia. Unfortunately, its destruction could affect numerous RE/MAX Offices and Affiliates — not to mention, potentially destroy buildings and homes. Please support the RE/MAX Relief Fund, which provides financial aid to RE/MAX Affiliates affected by disasters.Donate to the Relief Fund today, or if you need it, apply for assistance by filling out the application for individuals or the application for offices. Email questions to relieffund@remax.net. "As this storm continues to cripple the day-to-day activity on the East Coast, it’s important we keep not only our RE/MAX family members in our thoughts and prayers, but also al...

101 Year Old Family Owned Company A cquires Promising Young Firm 101 year old Buffalo-based HUNT Real Estate ERA, with residential sales well in excess of $1 Billion so far in 2012, announces the acquisition of the promising young real estate firm, Turning Key Realty. Owned and operated by industry-veteran Terri Kern, Turning Key has 14 sales associates and a state-of-the-art facility at 4784 North French Road in East Amherst.   HUNT will maintain the current Turning Key Realty location.   In addition to remaining as the leader of her sales team at the East Amherst location, Kern will become the Niagara Region Supervising Branch Leader for HUNT’s branch office locations in Wheatfield, Lockport and Lewiston.   HUNT recently appointed 25-year industry leader Jamie Mendel-Kolb as Broker Consultant for its Lockport Branch, located in the Ulrich City Center in Lockport.   Mendel-Kolb will be part of the Niagara Regional Leadership Team with Terri...

The Hamburg office of 101 year old Buffalo-based HUNT Real Estate ERA is hosting a computer and electronics recycling event at their offices at 485 Sunset Drive on Saturday, October 6 from 9am-1pm. People can bring in everything from computer equipment to microwaves, cell phones, CD players, copiers, GPS units and more. Monies and any proceeds from items donated for recycling will go to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Eden. The sales associates, staff and leadership of HUNT Real Estate ERA are no strangers to giving back to their communities. The company is a principal participant in United Way each year, and they recently held their Annual United Way Golf Outing & Wine Tour on Friday, September 21 st of this year.   All proceeds for this event – upwards of $20,000 - were donated to the United Way and invested into the community to take care of those with urgent needs. “Giving back to the community is an important part of HUNT's core beliefs.   ...

Craigslist.com, a popular place to advertise everything from jobs and homes to puppies and perspective mates has issued a warning of a new scam. If you're planning on selling your home, be mindful of the following -- once a home has been advertised or placed into the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), your property could become "bait" for scammers luring unwitting victims into handing over hundreds or thousands of dollars.     In a number of recent cases, scammers have taken information from real estate ads including photos of the houses for sale and posted classified ads on Craigslist.com. In theses ad THEY (the scammers) are actually renting these houses.     The scammers act as landlords living out of the country.  They ask for small sums of money from their victims (potential renters) to retrieve the house keys and take a walk-thru of the property.     In other cases, scammers actually gained access to vacant houses, gave tours to the p...

Almost seven years since the housing bubble burst, most indexes of housing prices are arcing upward.  Nearly 10 percent more homes were sold in May than in the same month in 2011.  The number of foreclosed homes has fallen and vacant homes are at their lowest level since 2006. This reduced inventory of unsold homes is the key.  For the past couple of years, house prices have risen in the spring and then slumped; the declining supply of houses for sale is reason to believe that won't happen again this year. Also, builders are working on 26 percent more single family homes then this time last year.  The stock of unsold newly built homes is back to 2005 levels.  Housing construction is a sure sign of economic growth. Though we are still a long way from a full recovery, housing should no longer be a factor in dragging the U.S. economy down.  We should be assured that the American dream of owning a home is attainable by any one of us.  To that point, with m...

Buffalo, NY – July 9, 2012 – In keeping with their commitment to attract and develop the best talent in the real estate business, HUNT Real Estate ERA held its second quarterly Business Leaders meeting for 2012 on June 12 at the Buffalo/Niagara Millennium Hotel. Over 130 attendees were empowered with leading industry speaker David Knox’s expert advice on responding to customer leads generated through HUNT’s exclusive HUNT Hotline. The HUNT Hotline is a new technology tool introduced earlier in the year that allows customers to get instant information on any listing when and where they want it, 24/7, whether through voice, text or mobile site. While other companies are scaling down and cutting resources due to challenging economic turns, HUNT Real Estate ERA has been turning on the investments – when it comes to providing their agents with the tools and systems they need to better service buyers and sellers today. David Knox has been a featured speaker at HUNT regional eve...

(Amherst, NY) – Representatives from the New York State Association of Realtors® (NYSAR) and Buffalo Niagara Association of Realtors® (BNAR) were present to award two scholarships at a reception ceremony at the BNAR’s headquarters at 200 John James Audubon Pkwy. on May 9, 2012. Recognizing the need to support the future of the real estate industry, NYSAR Real Estate Services, together with the New York State Real Estate Education Foundation, created the Next Generation Scholarship Fund to award scholarships to the next generation of real estate professionals for higher education. Relatives of Realtor® members entering or attending a two or four-year institution or pursuing graduate studies in real estate or a real estate-related field were invited to apply for the Next Generation Scholarship. Scholarships in the amount of five hundred ($500) dollars each were awarded to Christina Logan, daughter of Realtor® Lynne Logan, of Williamsville, NY and to Claire Sukiennik, daughte...