Town & Country, Realtors has opened at 760 Union St., Bangor.

The agency’s name reflects a long history in the Greater Bangor area, where it had previously appeared as Town and Country Brokers. The new agency, which is owned by Earl Black, reflects the merger of Soucy-Black Real Estate and Remax Realty Associates.

During last winter, Earl and Cheryl Madden, a principal in Remax Realty, met to discuss merging the two agencies. They reached an agreement in late winter, and Remax Realty Associates relocated to the Soucy-Black offices at 195 State St., Bangor.

What would be an appropriate name for the new agency? Earl Black said that “I have very intelligent people around me, and I like to tap into that intelligence. All the agents from both companies met for breakfast last spring” to discuss about a dozen proposed names for the new agency.

“The overwhelming consensus was that Town & Country was the best choice,” Earl recalled. The name “seemed to say what we do; we’re in the city, yet work in the country, too.”

Earl acquired the rights to the name “Town & Country” when he bought Town & Country Brokers in 1990. He merged that firm with the Soucy-Black Agency, an existing firm owned by Earl and Dennis “Don” Soucy. Earl handled the real-estate division, while Soucy took care of the insurance matters. Soucy’s long-term planning goals made the real-estate portion available for sale, and on Jan. 1, 1991, Earl purchased the real-estate division, still operating under the Soucy-Black Real Estate.

“I knew that I wanted to change the company name,” Earl said. That step occurred when Soucy-Black Real Estate and Remax Realty Associates joined forces last winter.

The blended agencies would not be on State Street for long. “We had been looking for a new location for some time that would provide higher visibility and better accessibility. The merger made it possible for a first-class location,” Earl said.

Enter the former Hartstone Memorial Building next to Westgate Manor on Union Street. The site was perfect: ample parking, sufficient office space, and a prime location on a busy artery.

The building, which had contained doctors’ offices and a life-insurance company, had to be vacated so that remodeling could begin. “We took the upper level right down to the exterior walls, added a new 2-by-4 interior wall, and reinsulated and constructed all new offices,” Earl said. New wiring, new heating units, new insulation, and a new roof where all part of the process.

A subcontractor constructed an unusual handicap-access ramp. The ramp wraps around the streetside portion of Town & Country, Realtors. The unusual design eliminated the need for posts, so “it blended in with the building very nicely,” Earl said.

Town & Country Realtors moved to its new location on Sept. 3, 1993. Earl was pleased with the immediate response. “Everyone likes our new offices,” he said. “We’ve been complimented on the parking, on our accessibility, on our interior layout. We believe this was a good move on our part.”

The agency also required an eye-catching sign. Earl hired Jay Shaloob to design the sign and the business cards for the Town & Country staff. According to Earl, “we told Jay that we wanted a clean sign, in today’s colors, and with the agents receiving recognition, and other than that, be as creative as you want.”

Shaloob created a sign that incorporated the name of the listing agent with equal billing as the name of the company. To Earl, this was very important: “The agents are the people who make the company work,” he said. “We want their names up there where the public can know who they are.”

Earl said, “We have received lots of compliments on the design and the colors.

“We’ve noticed that all of what we’ve done with the merger, the name change, and the change of location has taken a lot of effort during the summer and fall, but the energy generated has been very exciting,” Earl said. “Everyone has worked very hard to get us off to a good start. We’ve done a lot of round-table discussions, with every agent having the chance to be part of the solution.”

There are 31 licensed real-estate agents at Town & Country, Realtors, including many well-known names in the profession.

“There is a difference at Town & Country,” Earl stressed. “We believe this business can be operated with a high degree of integrity. If you have a complaint with this agency, it’s dealt with. The people at Town & Country, Realtors are all committed to the real-estate profession and committed to doing it in an ethical manner,,” even refusing to deal “with people who aren’t honest with us,” he stated.

According to Earl, Town & Country, Realtors has adopted two approaches to paying agents’ commissions. There is the traditional system, under which the agent splits the commission with the agency, with the agency paying most of the expenses. Town & Country offers its agents a graduated commission scale. “The more you sell, the higher commission split you receive,” Earl said. “This is an incentive to develop more business, and that helps everybody.”

Some agents opt for the new 100-percent concept. Under this system, the agent pays Town & Country a monthly fee, much like renting an office from the agency. The agent is responsible for all expenses, including advertising, signs, stationery, postage, etc., but receives the full commission (minus a small transaction fee) when a property sells.

“One of the more crucial things in real estate is attitude,” Earl noted. “You must like what you’re doing and then develop the skills to do it well.”

Town & Country, Realtors belongs to RELO, the International Relocation Network. “Through RELO, if someone is relocating, we can contact a RELO member agency in the new location. An agent will contact the customer and get started on the house-hunting process even before the customer has left Bangor!” Earl said.

He stressed that “this is not a franchise, but a relocation network. We have decided to remain independent for now.”

Earl, who left a bank position to enter real estate in the mid-1970s, has witnessed the cyclical nature of the business. He believes that after a few slow years, business has started to increase.

“The Bangor market has turned around in the number of sales,” Earl said. Through Oct. 30, 1992, 607 residential units (including single-family and condominiums) had sold in the Greater Bangor area, compared with 665 units for the same period this year, or about a 10-percent increase.

There were a total of 742 sales for all of 1992. Earl believes that for 1993, the total could reach more than 900 units, which “would be a healthy increase in the market.”

Sale prices have risen slightlty, too. In 1992, the median sale price for a home sold through the Greater Bangor Multiple Listing Service was $77,900; this figure has increased to $79,900 this year.

This advertising supplement was prepared by the NEWS special sections staff, Melissa MacCrae and Brian Swartz, with support from free-lance writers Judy Eyerer and Clifton V. Bemis Jr.