Core grows rental biz

Core marketing group is expanding its core business to include more rentals.

The company has enlarged its rental presence and acquired its first rental director, Regis Roumila. Osher said he still plans to focus on high-end units and new developments.

“I think there’s a niche that is very much needed in this marketplace, where the rental market is very much perceived as something on the lower end,” said company CEO Shaun Osher. “I think there’s been a void in the market, and we’re looking to fill that void.”

This move comes amid a time when more agents are getting into the rental game, to ride out a bad market. Osher said that his brokers — there are currently 38 at the group, according to Core’s Web site — will work on both sales and rental deals. While the group plans to expand — Osher wouldn’t say how many new agents he plans to hire — it will remain a boutique firm.

Roumila, who first joined Core four weeks ago, won’t be forging a new rental branch; Osher said Roumila’s role largely is to beef up the group’s presence beyond sales, into the rental market. He said that Roumila was ideal for the job because of his on-the-job experience as a rental broker.

“Regis [Roumila] was a very high performing rental agent,” Osher said. “He owned his own company, and before that he was at Century 21 and Manhattan Apartments.”

Osher would not reveal any specific rental listings it plans to represent. TRD