Amy Fitzgerald (Photo: QueensPost)
April 4, 2013 By Christian Murray
Welcome Home Real Estate, one of Sunnyside’s more established real estate firms, was sold last week for an undisclosed sum of money.
Long time owner Rita Lowry sold the business to Amy Fitzgerald, a well-known Sunnyside resident and real estate veteran. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Welcome Home, located at 46-15 Skillman Ave., was established in 1983, with Lowery owning it for the past 12 years. Lowery said she sold the business to pursue other interests.
Fitzgerald, originally from upstate New York, has spent 15 years living in New York, with 13 of those in Sunnyside. She started selling real estate out of a Manhattan firm in 2002 and later began selling real estate in Sunnyside for Dorothy Morehead Real Estate.
Lowery had been planning to sell the business for months and approached Fitzgerald about purchasing it. Both women are neighbors and know each other well through the tight-knit Sunnyside real estate community.
“I bought the business because it has a reputation for treating people fairly and honestly,” Fitzgerald said, adding that the agents are held in very high regard. She said the firm has many “return landlords” and repeat customers.
The firm– excluding Fitzgerald– has 3 licensed associate brokers, all of whom have worked at the firm for at least 10 years. In addition, there are 2 licensed sales people. All have pledged to stay with the firm, Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald said she has no plans to make any significant changes in the short term. “The firm is working well and I want to continue the legacy,” she said. “The next phase is still to be determined.”
8 Comments
Thanks for keeping it local!
Very nice Amy, good luck!
Rita,
Thanks for all your help. Best of luck with your new pursuits. Come to the Oregon coast and see what we did with our share of the old homestead.
Is it true that Rita Lowry will be pursuing her career as a lounge singer with appearances at Bar 43 starting in May?
Hey Rita, did you leave the Sunnyside Plat Map I gave you? I hope it’s up on the wall in there. I’ll come back and check, one day. Thanks for all your help!
Carmela was absolutly wonderful in helping me purchase my first place!!! I will return to her when I decide to upgrade and have reffered several friends to her. I wish them all well!!! I am glad that it is staying in local hands!!!
They like to play people against each other, I really did not care for their practices when we were bidding for apartments. Since they are not a national company, they don’t go by the national rules and ethics, rather take a totally different approach. Anyway, I really hope that place do much better under new management.
Carmela is one of the charming, decent real estate agents I have ever met! I hope she stays, Sunnyside would no tbe the same without her <3