GMAC Real Estate closing 15 offices in Mass. and N.H.

GMAC Real Estate is closing 15 offices in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and laying off staff as home selling and shopping increasingly migrate to the Internet amid a housing slump.
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The Minneapolis company said yesterday it would lay off about 50 managers and support staff during the consolidation in New England. By Dec. 31, real estate agents in the affected offices will be relocated to GMAC's remaining 35 offices in the two states.
"We certainly hope they will be willing to work out of one of our other offices. We anticipate most will," said GMAC spokesman Brett Weinberg.
He said the contraction was due more to the growth of the online housing marketplace and other technology changes than to the state's housing slump. Buyers, for example, have become less reliant on real estate brokers as the Internet has made it easier for them to look for houses on their own.
"Agents and consumers have access to tools they have online" that are similar to what's available inside an office, Weinberg said.

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