Realtors can sell a house, but they can’t sell a community.

Members of the Champaign County Association of Realtors recognized the importance of a strong community by hosting Bill Volk, Champaign-Urbana MTD managing director, and Tom Costello, MTD assistant managing director at their luncheon Thursday.

Costello presented “10 things you probably don’t know about the MTD,” an hour-long presentation highlighting the accomplishments of the MTD. The luncheon connected two seemingly unrelated entities; the mass transit district and the real estate business.

Max Mitchell, chairman of special projects working group for the Champaign County Association of Realtors, introduced Costello and began the presentation with a short story:

“When I was showing a property to a client, the client asked to see our MTD ma,” Mitchell had no qualms about showing the map to his client, saying, “We have a great asset in our community.”

Before Costello began his presentation, the Champaign County Association of Realtors inducted six new members, three of which were absent. Kathy Keller, membership chair for the Champaign County Association of Realtors, inducted the new members with a pledge, as well as advice on how to be a great realtor in the Champaign-Urbana community.

By being a part of the Champaign County Association of Realtors, members create “higher standards in the community (for realtors) and gain an increased knowledge of the real estate business,” Keller said.

One of the higher standards pushed by the Association includes showing clients the positive parts of Champaign-Urbana, including its mass transit system.

Costello opened his presentation by giving the realtors a quiz; “10 things you probably don’t know about the MTD.” The first question taught his audience that 97 percent of the Champaign-Urbana community is within three blocks of an MTD bus stop. A few questions later, respondents found out 54 percent of MTD buses are hybrid buses.

“From a financial standpoint, hybrids save us about 25 percent on fuel,” Costello said. “They’re also frighteningly quiet.”

Costello discussed several other accomplishments of MTD in the last five years, including reaching over 11,000,000 riders in fiscal year 2012 and maintaining 24-hour service when the University is in session.

With several phone apps available to tell riders when buses will arrive in real time, Costello believes MTD will only continue to grow, and the application of new technology such as Urbana-Champaign’s Big Broadband project, or UC2B, which aims to bring high-speed, fiber-optic Internet to underserved areas.

“Students have got this down pat,” Costello said about MTD’s phone apps. “And UC2B will make this even easier for people.”

Janelle can be reached at [email protected].