Warren Real Estate expands to the Albany market

ITHACA — Ithaca–based Warren Real Estate is venturing east with a newly opened office in the Capital region town of Guilderland. The new office continues the firm’s expansion, which until now has headed west and south of Warren’s Ithaca base.

As with its other expansions, the idea originally came from one of Warren’s agents, who suggested the market would be a good fit for the agency, Bryan Warren, president and principal broker at Warren Real Estate, says. “She has been doing quite a bit of business in the Albany market,” he says of the agent. After due diligence, Warren says Guilderland seemed like the perfect fit for a new Warren Real Estate office. “It’s very similar, I’ll say, to Ithaca,” he says. Warren Real Estate got its start in Ithaca in 1953 with his grandmother, Ann Warren, at the helm. In its early years, the real-estate agency primarily served Cornell University and industries in the Ithaca area. It remained a family-only business until the late 1970s when Warren’s father, James, joined the business and began hiring other agents outside of the family. James Warren grew the business throughout the next two decades, and Bryan Warren joined the agency in 1998, starting in sales before taking over when his father retired in 2005. Warren Real Estate continued to grow, adding new agents and gradually spreading beyond the immediate Ithaca area. Today, Warren Real Estate has eight offices — two in Ithaca along with locations in Corning, Elmira, Binghamton, Vestal, Watkins Glen, and now Guilderland. “We purchased a building there,” Warren says of the new location. Located at 2555 Western Ave. in Guilderland, the building was once home to a wheelchair sales and service store. Warren remodeled the 3,000-square-foot space with 1,500 square feet of offices and conference room space for the real-estate agency and has 1,500 square feet available to lease. Ideally, a tenant in a complementary line of business, such as insurance, will rent the space, Warren says. With the new space, Warren continued a couple of practices. The first was to buy a building because it’s important to invest in the community, he says. Additionally, about half of the real-estate agency’s locations are investment properties that include tenant space. “We’re very well-funded and cautious to take on any debt,” Warren says, so he carefully considers any expansion projects before taking the next steps. Warren Real Estate has already hired two new agents for the Guilderland office, while the agent who suggested the expansion is also based in that office. The agency is looking to hire more, but agents must be the right fit, says Tam Warren, regional VP and manager for the company.

Warren Real Estate is unique in a market that’s full of some small brokerages and a lot of big ones. As a mid-sized brokerage, Warren can offer the best of both worlds with all the technology, “but we’re still able to give that quality service and personalized touch,” she says. The agency also focuses on the success of its agents, wanting them to pursue real estate as a full-time career and not just as a side hustle, she says. “We have a full-time company trainer,” she notes, that helps agents expand their knowledge base to provide the best possible service. That’s especially important in changing times like now, she adds, when changes by the National Association of Realtors mean that beginning on Aug. 17, everyone working with a realtor will have to sign a buyer-representation agreement. “We’re staying ahead of the curve with training,” Bryan Warren notes. While the agency works hard to keep on top of technology and industry changes, one thing that doesn’t change is the way it does business. Warren Real Estate remains family owned and committed to supporting its agents. Looking ahead to future expansion, Bryan Warren says he’s not ruling anything out, but doesn’t have any plans either. “As any opportunity comes our way, we’ll consider it,” he says, adding, “We recognize bigger isn’t always better.” The agency plans to host a ribbon cutting at the Guilderland office at a future date. Warren Real Estate employs about 175 agents and handles more than $600 million in annual sales.