Warren Board of Realtors Merges With Stark County Board
WARREN, Ohio – The Warren Area Board of Realtors has merged with the Stark and Carroll County Association of Realtors.
The new organization, the Stark Trumbull Area Realtors, or Star, was formed to help provide its membership with more services, said Marlin Palich, general manager of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Stouffer Realty.
“There are more than 1,500 members in this combined board,” Palich said. Palich is also the organization’s president-elect for 2022.
Consolidating the boards allows for better leverage regarding government affairs and education, Palich said. “If we put it all together, we can get to more members,” he said.
The organizations received approval from the National Association of Realtors to merge late last year, said Richard Cosgrove, of Keller Williams Legacy Group Realtors, Canton, and Star’s president. In February, Star received approval to change its name.
“The two boards have been in talks since end of 2018 and 2019,” Cosgrove said. “It’s been something we’ve been going back and forth on.”
Cosgrove said the organization for the first time has a government affairs director whose job it is to act as a liaison to communities in Trumbull, Stark and Carroll counties.
“It’s to keep tabs on what’s happening in the communities,” he said, and whether there are important issues that the organization would support.
Another benefit is to provide agents with new technology such as Forewarn, a phone app that helps realtors protect themselves regarding clients they’ve never met. The app is able to perform actions such criminal checks of a potential client prior to a face-to-face meeting, which gives the realtor a sense of security in the field, Cosgrove said.
“There’s also a cost benefit to this,” Cosgrove said, noting he wouldn’t be surprised if other smaller realtor boards merged. “We’ve taken positive steps to continue growth and be relevant in the ever-changing real estate community.”
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
