Austin’s Edina Realty Office to close Nov. 30

Published 6:42 am Thursday, November 5, 2009

Edina Realty announced that it will close its Austin office Nov. 30; however, the agents and Edina Realty will likely continue to be a presence in the community.

“I think companies today are making tough decisions, and we are always looking at ways that we want to be cutting costs and making the right decisions given the current market,” said Barb Jandric, general sales manager for Edina Realty. “That’s why we’re making that decision with Austin.”

At this time, no other Edina Realty offices are closing, and Jandric said this was an isolated decision. However, she said the company is looking at all branches — about 60 offices — to see how they tie into the long-term growth of the company, something she said the company has always done.

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“I think we are always looking to make sure we’re making the right decisions about where we remain for our future growth and for our long term stability,” she said.

Mike Steichen, an agent with Edina Reality in Austin, said Edina Realty offered for agents to stay with the company and serve the Austin area through the Rochester office.

Those agents, numbering about six, would likely work out of their homes, and Jandric said it’s too early to know how many agents could stay with Edina Realty.

“I’m aware of some agents who will continue to carry our brand name there through Rochester and continue to work the Austin market,” Jandric said. “There may be others that choose to go somewhere else, and they have the option to do that.”

Steichen said the agents are discussing their options for the future, which include staying with Edina Realty, switching to a different broker, starting their own firm and quitting the real estate business.

“We’ve got some options,” Steichen said. “Do we stay local and open another office? Do we join another firm? Do we just close and quit selling real estate? Right now we have some options and we’re all just trying to figure that out.”

The plan could include some of the Austin agents continuing to work together, but Steichen said it’s too early to know for sure what they’ll do.

“At this point it’s just business as usual,” he said. “We’re going to take care of the customers, and make sure that they have the option of staying with Edina or moving their listing to another company.”

Aside from the agents, Jandric said there’s no other staff at the Austin office, and she said the Austin area has been serviced out of the Rochester location in the past.

While Steichen said the Austin agents weren’t given a reason for the decision to close, Steichen described it as a corporate decision to consolidate, noting that other offices in small towns have closed.

The Edina Realty office in Albert Lea closed this year and has been operating through the Austin branch.

“Edina’s kind of set up for larger scale operations,” Steichen said.

Owners or sellers with a purchase agreement to buy or sell a home through Edina Realty should know their agreement will be completed by their real estate agent at Edina Realty, Jandric said.

“The good news about a change in a location or a change in a business environment: It really will have no effect on the buying and selling public,” Jandric said. “If there’s a purchase agreement underway, it will be carried through by the agent who wrote it, and it will be carried through wherever they end up.”

For a home that’s currently on the market, the seller will have options. If an agent continues to work with Edina, the listing will remain the same. Should an agent leave Edina Realty and choose to work with a new broker, the agent will then visit with the seller to talk about transferring or releasing the contract.

Jandric said Edina Realty would not stand in the way of releasing a contract if an agent goes to a new firm.

Since agents are independent contractors paid on commission, they won’t receive a severance package if they leave Edina Realty when the office closes, Jandric said.

“Whatever decisions are made, we’ll do everything to be supportive and helpful to that whole group,” Jandric said.

Part of the reason for such a closing is the change in how real estate agents do business. Jandric said much of an agents’ work could be done using laptops and blackberries, which doesn’t require a formal office.

Many meetings and different things are done at a client’s home and the agents can also do much of their work out of their own home.

“It is much less common to need to go to an office to do a lot of the activities that real estate agents do today,” Jandric said.