ABOUT US

Your Trusted Partners in Columbia County Real Estate

Our Mission

Columbia County Real Estate Specialists was founded with the mission of delivering the highest level of professional service to the Columbia County real estate community. Co-founders Margaret and John Avenia have worked with several real estate brokerages over their careers. After gaining valuable sales and management experience at each they developed a vision for a new, progressive type of real estate company. A company that unwaveringly strives to serve each and every client’s interests without compromise. Founded on old-fashioned business principles and state of the art marketing techniques that vision has become reality in the form of Columbia County Real Estate Specialists, LLC.

Columbia County Real Estate Specialists is a team of experienced licensed real estate agents who were born and raised in the Hudson Valley area. Our team shares a common vision of serving each and every client’s interests and goals without compromise, and a mission of delivering the highest level of customer service to the Columbia County real estate community.

Over the years, we have witnessed Columbia County’s transformation from a farming community into a popular destination for second home buyers — but quietly doing so without sacrificing the rural country charm that makes it such a special place to live. We believe you will find Columbia County to be as delightful a place to live as we do. Let our local knowledge and expertise make the difference in your search for the ideal country home, land parcel, farm or estate in the part of the world we proudly call home.

Accredited Buyer Representative designation
Member of the New York State Association of Realtors®
Member of the Columbia-Greene Board of Realtors®

Meet the Team

Margaret Bower Avenia

Co-Owner & Principal Broker

Margaret Bower Avenia, Principal Broker and Co-Owner of Columbia County Real Estate Specialists, brings a legacy of real estate expertise, local insight, and client-first service to every transaction.

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John Avenia

Co-Owner & Associate Broker

John Avenia, Co-Owner and Associate Broker at Columbia County Real Estate Specialists, combines over 20 years of experience with deep local roots and a passion for helping buyers find their ideal country home.

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Julie Sylvia

Licensed Real Estate Salesperson

Julie Sylvia is a licensed real estate salesperson based in the village of Copake. Originally from Washington State, she and her family were drawn to the area’s natural beauty, rich history and strong sense of community.

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What You Can Expect from Us

Our service promise to every client, colleague, and community member we work with. From personalized guidance and honest communication to local expertise and tireless dedication, we’re committed to doing what’s right — every step of the way.

Service to Homeowners

As residents of Columbia County we have seen first-hand how important real estate values are to our neighbors. For many people in our community, the value of their home is the single largest investment they have. It is important for them to have insight into the state of the real estate market and we are their conduit. We are always happy volunteering our time to help people with their questions and to provide them with in-depth insight into the current market value of their property. We invite all Columbia County property owners to contact us any time we can be of assistance with a valuation of their real estate investment.

Service to Selling Clients

Every client who entrusts Columbia County Real Estate Specialists with selling their home or property deserves nothing less than the absolute best service our entire staff can provide. We recognize the level of trust our client’s are granting us and take that responsibility seriously. We return that trust with honest advice, creative marketing plans, extensive advertising and outstanding professional representation. We dedicate ourselves to achieving our client’s most important goals and will leave no stone unturned until those goals have been accomplished.

Service to Buying Clients

Our company takes great pride in providing potential home buyers with a full range of services aimed at helping them make the most intelligent purchasing decision possible. Many of the clients we work with are interested in purchasing a country home in an area they are not familiar with. These clients require a different set of services than our other clients who already live in Columbia County and are purchasing their first home, a larger home to accommodate their growing family, or a single-story home to enjoy their retirement. Whatever our buyer client’s specific requirements are, we work long and hard to help them in every way possible.

Service to the Real Estate Community

As members of the Columbia County real estate community we have a responsibility to work hand in hand with all other real estate companies. By working together we help to create an efficient real estate market where every buyer has an equal opportunity to purchase any property available on the market. We strongly believe that both buyers and sellers are best served when a market is as open and efficient as possible. That is why we split our commissions equally when representing a selling client. Doing so encourages all other agents to expose our listings to their buyer clients. There are companies operating in Columbia County who offer a lower commission split if another company sells their listing, which discourages all other agents from selling their listings. It is hard to justify how this policy best serves their client, the real estate community, the efficiency of the real estate market, or anyone but themselves. However, this is their policy, and it speaks to a vastly different business philosophy than ours.

Service to Our Staff

Providing a creative, nurturing and stimulating work environment for our staff is an important part of achieving our company goals. We believe it takes well trained, knowledgeable and highly motivated agents to deliver the type of service our company strives for. It also takes agents who are personable and who care about the clients they represent. We seek out agents with these characteristics and in turn, they seek out us. You will find the agents at Columbia County Real Estate Specialists to be the kind of people who care about their clients, care about their profession and care about their community. We are very proud to be associated with them.