The following article was originally published in the Long Island Business News, another Dolan Media-owned publication.

It wasn't your typical bus tour. But then, they weren't your typical tourists.

About a dozen executives considering jobs at OSI Pharmaceuticals, the Melville-based maker of the anti-cancer drug Tarceva, took a whirlwind tour of Long Island in a luxury bus a few weeks ago. Coach Realtor sales associates provided them with information about schools, shopping and demographics during the tour, which highlighted parks, golf courses, beaches and more.
The group also got a glimpse of high-ticket real estate opportunities - this was, after all, a Coach excursion - including a $500,000 Colonial in Huntington, a $600,000 split in Syosset and a $1 million Victorian in Northport.

But one thing the Coach agents didn't do was try to sell any houses.

They were in a fact-finding mode, said L.P. Finn, Coach's director of corporate services.

In the high-pressure world of real estate, where the deal is everything, relocation is a complicated, lucrative business with big sales potential. Brokers have taken to offering recruiting tours for executives in the hopes of landing fat fees later, if those executives choose not only to move here, but to use that broker to buy a house.

And there are plenty of fat fees to go around. Certain businesses rely largely on relocation to grow; OSI, for instance, relocated about 50 people to Long Island over the past two years, largely because other pharmaceutical companies are mostly in New Jersey, according to OSI spokeswoman Diane Celeste.

For us to recruit people with pharmaceutical backgrounds, it entails relocation, Celeste said.

Dallas-based Corporate Relocation Inc., Connecticut-based American International and Chicago-based Sirva Relocation all help with these early starts, tapping local brokers to show areas and creating opportunities for eventual sales. Some real estate firms, including Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty, have their own relocation operations with staff to help manage moves, but make money only if customers buy homes through Daniel Gale brokers.

The service is beyond just selling real estate, said Marie Montchal, senior vice president of relocation and ancillary services for Daniel Gale. It's connecting the person to the community.

Daniel Gale begins by learning about people's interests and providing information on parks, libraries, schools and shopping. An agent then shows prospective buyers the sites - beaches, homes, malls - to give them what Montchal called a good feel for the community.

Daniel Gale also helps people find moving companies, carpet cleaners, attorneys and others (without referral fees), and may offer comment on topics such as local schools and crime rates.

We can dispel so many of the misconceptions that a person might have about Long Island, Montchal noted.

The early starts also help because brokers often deal with executives who have money, but not time, to house-hunt, which can complicate the process. Sometimes, they're given two or three opportunities to come and find a house, noted Phyllis Melandro, a vice president at Coldwell Banker Residential in Hauppauge. [Brokers] have to be on call.

Americans are on the move more than ever, making relocation a bigger focus for brokers. It has been busier, said Finn. I'm dealing with more relocating clients now than in the last two years.

After the post-9/11 lull, many firms are bulking up again and many movers are busier than ever.

Companies are hiring new employees or relocating employees, said Anthony Federico, vice president of Hauppauge-based Liberty Moving & Storage and a board member of trade group Tri-State Relocation Services Inc. There's more activity than there was in the same period last year.

In-company transfers are up, according to the 2005 Worldwide Employee Relocation Council survey. Relocation activity rose 2 percent in 2002, 3 percent in 2004 and nearly 9 percent in 2005, according to ERC surveys - and 70 percent of employees who relocated were not new hires.

More women are on the move, taking new jobs and bringing their husbands along, and there are more international moves, according to brokers.

About half of the companies that relocated people over the past few years said employees weren't reluctant to go; nearly one-third said employees had minor problems with moving; and about 13 percent said employees had moderate problems. One percent reported major problems, with high housing costs the biggest reason cited by those reluctant to move.

Employees who are hesitating to accept a transfer are doing so more often based on concerns of not being able to find affordable and comparable housing, according to an ERC study.

Finn agreed that high housing costs make it harder to relocate employees to Long Island. They're selling a home somewhere and moving to a house the same price on Long Island, said Finn, but it's one-half the size.