NORTH WEBSTER - Kosciusko Board of Realtors (KBOR) has had a “home” of its own for the last year, but Thursday morning they celebrated their office in North Webster with the North Webster-Tippecanoe Township and the Kosciusko chambers of commerce to let everyone know about it.
Fred Steffen, KBOR president, said KBOR is a board of about 200 realtors in Kosciusko County.
“We’re all licensed brokers and we sell and list real estate and help the community buy and sell real estate,” he explained. “We’re an organized group. KBOR is the organization that runs all of that for the county here. And then we have our directors board that has 14 on it that kind of oversees the executive part of all of that.”
In 2023, he said KBOR bought the property at 920 S. Main St., North Webster, and are finally “getting around to telling everybody about it.”
Kami Johnson, president of MLS, said KBOR always rented office space in the past, “but if we’re going to be a board of realtors, we’re going to promote home ownership and business-building ownership.”
Besides the property being available, Steffen said they chose to have their office in North Webster because, “With some of the commercial properties, the market was pretty small. And then, really though, it was a very nice location as far as when we start to look at where all the activity happens with real estate in the county, it’s fairly central. Lot of Warsaw going on, lot of Syracuse going on, this was really nicely in the middle of a lot of that.”
He said the final decision was based on the combination of all of those reasons.
“Location ended up being a big part of that,” Steffen stated.
Johnson said the public is absolutely able to stop by, pick up a directory of all of the realtors in Kosciusko County and find assistance with their home purchase or sale.
Though he hasn’t looked at the numbers lately, Steffen said the market for homes is strong in the county.
“We keep a good eye on that. It was really active a year or two ago, and then when the interest rates went up a little bit, it slowed a little bit but the inventory was still fairly low, so it kept things pretty strong. Right now - I haven’t looked at the recent numbers - but things are going very strong and look like they’re moving in the right direction. We’re just hoping those rates come down just a little bit to help everybody,” he said.
Johnson said it’s a strong buyers’ market right now, too.
“It’s slowed things down a little bit, so they can have more time to do their inspections and negotiate a better price for themselves. Even though interest rates are higher than they have been, we say, ‘Marry the house, date the rate.’ You can always refinance when rates go down,” she said.
KBOR also actively supports the community, Johnson also said.
“There’s (national) core standards that we adhere to, and there’s just a whole bunch of stuff that most of the public probably doesn’t see. They see our signs and stuff like that, but what’s happening is that there’s a lot of community help going on, works going on,” Steffen said.
Those include fundraisers, Boomerang Backpacks, Boots for Scholars, coats collections, a car show, Habitat for Humanity “and lots of other things that kind of go on that help us accomplish those bigger goals,” he said.
Johnson said they have a scholarship program, too.
KBOR is a member of the Indiana Association of Realtors, as well as the National Association of Realtors.
For more information, visit kbor.com.