Denby to end most sales
Main building to be leased; new focus on consulting, appraisals and referrals
BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER
Denby Real Estate is in transition as the 40-year-old company prepares to end most property sales in approximately two months and to place its focus on licensed appraisals, referrals, professional real estate consulting and the expansion of its Internet services.

"It was basically a family decision because we realized the real estate market is changing and we felt a change to a more Internet-oriented service would do well on Nantucket because it doesn't exist now," said Denby owner and certified appraiser H. Flint Ranney, who made the decision with his daughter Kate Sayle, a principal broker with her father, and his son Rob Ranney, an appraiser and senior vice-president of research, data collection and dissemination for denby.com.

"Denby's was the leader on the Internet - we had the first traditional real estate Web page on Nantucket and we're going to improve it and make it more accessible to the public; more user friendly," Ranney explained. "We're going to continue listing and marketing select properties, and that's part of what the consulting would be - to help the buyer and seller navigate through the Nantucket market."

The consulting will also include explaining the purchase process to first-time home buyers, assistance with finding builders and architects, and with the permitting process, the latter of which will be aided by Ranney's other son, Jamie Ranney, an island attorney. Personal real estate services will include advice and direction for referrals and offer unique approaches to individual listings.

"Basically, it's a whole new direction for Denby and an innovation that doesn't exist now," said Ranney. "As a family we've adopted a forwardthinking approach in response to the change in the market, the change to greater use of the Internet by people looking for properties and a change in market dynamics."

Denby Real Estate was founded by Dick Denby in 1967. Ranney bought the business in 1984 and remained in Denby's Federal Street office until 1986 when he purchased 5 North Water Street, formerly Paul Madden's Antiques, and moved the office to that location. Kate Sayle said her father kept the Denby name because it had been established for nearly 20 years and Dick Denby was still associated with the firm after the sale.

"And Ranney Real Estate sounded silly. We all agreed on that," said Sayle, who is excited about the upcoming shift, which at some point will result in keeping the 'gallery' office to the side of the yard and leasing the main building.

"Talks began about two years ago," said Sayle. "We felt as though things were shifting in the whole marketing industry at the same time I was running the listing service, which is Web-based, and learning quite a bit more about Internet marketing. That reaffirmed my instincts that the market was moving this way. In true Ranney humor we will be a real estate company that doesn't sell real estate. People can come talk to us about their needs and we can refer them to someone else in real estate. The final element is we will continue to collect and disseminate the most accurate information on real estate and branch out and expand on that with articles, charts and graphs."

The information gathering, analyses and distribution is where Rob Ranney comes in, along with his other real estate-related abilities. He, too, fully supports the company's plan.

"My sense of it is that after 40 years a new direction is needed," he said. "It is something that is happening across the nation and we want to be on the cutting edge of that. Buyers and sellers are doing their own research and cutting out the brokers. A lot of the traditional way is shifting. We see it as a way to catch a wave to the future and be ahead of the competition."

Sayle said Denby's will continue to handle the rentals already booked for the year. The Nantucket Listing Service, a separate family-owned company, will soon include rentals and market data and be available to the public.

"It's sort of the end of an era, but for me it's the beginning of a new way real estate is done," Sayle said. "People will have a true, honest opinion, because we will have no stake in the commission. We want to be the people that people go to for

information about real estate on Nantucket." I