Brockway-Carpenter Real Estate moves to new Utica office

UTICA, N.Y. — Brockway-Carpenter Real Estate LLC has come a long way since starting as a home-based business just a few years ago. The company recently celebrated its new office in Utica as it continues to grow. Andrew Carpenter-Brockway, owner and broker, first got into selling real estate in 2016, right after completing his first year as a high-school teacher. “I really just wanted to supplement my income,” he says. That first year was a little slow, but things started to pick up enough in his second year that Andrew convinced his husband Daniel Brockway to also earn his real-estate license. Together, the pair marketed their services as the Brockway-Carpenter team, and business continued to increase. By 2021, Carpenter-Brockway was ready to take the venture full time, even though his husband was no longer in the business, and launched Brockway-Carpenter Real Estate. Working out of his home that first year, “I had my best year that year,” he says. He knew the next logical steps were to add some agents to help the business grow even more, and to do that, he needed an office. Carpenter-Brockway found space in Whitesboro in 2022 that he leased for three years until moving to the new Utica office, at 288 Genesee St. Along with being larger, the new office offers more defined workspace. The previous space was basically one large room for his 10 agents to share and a small office for Carpenter-Brockway. The new office features a common area and reception space, conference room, private office, shared office space, and a storage room. Even more appealing is the location, which is closer to the resources the agency uses including lawyers and title companies, Carpenter-Brockway says. “I think it’s just a melting pot of a whole bunch of resources and businesses we can support,” he notes. “We had access to all these people before, but now they’re even closer.” To kick things off, Brockway-Carpenter Real Estate recently held a meeting featuring a title company, mortgage banker, attorney, and real-estate photographer. Now that the agency is settled into its new space, Carpenter-Brockway says growth is the goal, and that means growth for his agents as well as for the company. “A lot of my agents are new agents,” he says, adding that he has developed a number of tools to support them as they learn the business. That includes an agent portal for his team where he regularly uploads training materials. Carpenter-Brockway does the same for his clients, and he believes that educational component sets his agency apart from the competition. The home-buying process can be confusing, especially for first-time buyers, so he offers a client portal with information on each step of the process and what to expect next. “They’re always informed all throughout the transaction,” he notes. Locally, the home-buying market has not slowed down much, he adds, especially in the New Hartford and Whitesboro areas. In addition to his real-estate business, Carpenter-Brockway and his husband also recently purchased Woody’s Ice Cream Place at 246 Mohawk St. in Herkimer.