Bringing suburban markets into the 21st century.

There have been substantial changes in the New York's real estate industry in recent years--its structure; the way it does things in New York City, its suburbs and upstate.

The collapse of the suburban real estate balloon is evident in the fact that the amount of unsold commercial and residential listings has doubled since a year ago. Taxes are up. Sales are down. Residential properties are overpriced. Commercial and rental markets are stagnant.

There are more large real estate corporations, and mid-size agencies, but fewer locally owned mom and pop firms. The mom and pop agencies have lost ground to large well-organized corporate agencies both in the city and suburbs. Small, locally-owned firms must compete technologically with the larger ones in order to survive. This means that their employees need up-to-date equipment and sources of information for research and the skills to use them in our computer-driven world.

What does that require? Money and access to public records are vital. New York City's free public access data sources take the sting out of it for small firms based and operating in the city. Meanwhile, suburban governments have not kept up technologically with the times. When you leave the city and run real estate agencies in the suburbs and outside of the metropolitan area you may run into problems.

Try to get information on properties in one suburban county I know of. You figure, well, I'11 go to the county office building--logically, that's where the records should be. Unfortunately, you must go to sources at different locations.

Zoning maps and block and lot maps are found in various forms in townships. Zoning maps are in one place; block and lots, assessment and taxes elsewhere. Some records are on government computers, others require manual search in unwieldy printed records. There may be zoning requirements that were set when communities were rural and are irrelevant to current conditions. If a real estate agent is searching for information on property that is not on the market, then the agent may be unable to find complete data. In some townships the computerized tax records simply list total acreage rather than a breakdown of, for instance, 375 x 100. That means expensive gas and time wasted driving around and walking around properties in order to estimate the property dimensions.

An alternative source of information is through multiple listing systems. The "current listings" records are submitted by real estate agents, so you have to allow for inconsistency of data, depending on how thorough the agents have been. The information is frequently insufficient for buyers' reps. They must do a lot of slogging to acquire information that their clients require before coming to decisions on making offers. Multiple listing systems provide access to some records that may lack desired information.

In today's real estate market it is vital for real estate firms to have easy access to information, whether in process of obtaining listings, or follow-up to help buyers/sellers conclude their transactions quickly and efficiently.

In order for smaller real estate agencies to survive today, they must acknowledge that times have changed, face the fact that the boom is gone. They must encourage clients to price realistically so that properties can be moved. Potential buyers should be pre-qualified before showing. Within smaller firms accurate records must be maintained to eliminate duplication of effort and provide efficiency of internal operations. Staff needs to be well trained, computer-savvy, knowledgeable, ethical, have negotiation skills and abide by the law. Professionalism pays in real estate regardless of the size of a firm.

On a governmental level the following courses of action are needed.

Standardize definitions and property data systems, and maintain free access records centrally computerized on a county level. If the State of New York would require standardization and centralization of systems then owners, buyers, developers of commercial and residential property, all sized real estate firms, and townships all over the state would benefit.

Money, yes it will take money, but think of the money and time saved through modernization, bringing the 21st century into suburban and upstate real estate markets.

BY THOMAS A. LAURICELLA

ASSOCIATE BROKER, WORKING REALTY LTD.