SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) – After reading about a secret society of high-end realtors, another under-the-radar group of real estate industry professionals decided to tell their story publicly.

The Sarasota-based group is called GREEN, an acronym for the Gay Real Estate Executive Network. Its membership, all gay and lesbian, represents half a dozen brokerages.

On a recent Thursday afternoon, a large group of “Greenies” gathered in a home near Palmer Ranch. Besides realtors, there are mortgage brokers, contractors, home inspectors, painters and even an architect.

The two-year-old association describes itself as a “family-oriented” group of friends and colleagues who have banded together in a business network to better market real estate and related products.

They got the notion about taking their story to the Herald-Tribune from an article about the high-end realtors that appeared in July. Some members of Sarasota’s Pinnacle still refuse to acknowledge its existence, but the Greenies are much less guarded.

The titular head is Donald Geikie, a realtor with Michael Saunders & Co., who describes GREEN’s goal as supporting one another in the quest to “sell more houses and make more money.” At the meeting, Geikie serves as moderator and cheerleader.

Like most real estate professionals, members of GREEN are feeling the effects of the recent market slowdown and, on this particular rainy afternoon, absorbing sobering news that the local market has dropped by 11 percent in value and 50 percent in sales activity.

“Now is not the time to lose heart,” Geikie says.

“We don’t want to get discouraged – don’t give up,” he exhorts the group to a smattering of weak applause.

Green’s members include well-known and influential area residents such as Felix Power, president of the Sarasota Association of Realtors; David Cromwell, president of the Venice Area Board of Realtors; and Matt Orr, a Michael Saunders & Co. executive who also serves as president of the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce’s Young Professionals Group.

All of the city’s top real estate brokerages are represented, including not only Saunders, but Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate, Re/Max Properties and Prudential Palms.

Kathy Carbone and Bev Alter are “partners in real estate” at Saunders, where Carbone is a realtor and Alter a broker associate. Their thoughts about the Greenies center on “strength in numbers, customer service and camaraderie.”

The group provides “confidential access” to individuals with “sensitive understanding of the specific needs of our gay and lesbian clientele,” says Carbone, a member of Saunders’ Ambassador’s Circle.

“Applying for a mortgage as a same-sex or unmarried couple presents no special challenge for the applicants,” said GREEN member Michael Weintraub, a senior loan officer and licensed mortgage broker for ProStone Financial of Sarasota.

The marital status of the couple has no bearing on the creditworthiness of the applicants or the likelihood that the loan will be approved, Weintraub said.

As with couples whose marriages are legally recognized by the state, the lender makes its credit decision based upon the credit score and income of each applicant, the down payment, if any, and the value of the property relative to the loan.

The important difference is the manner in which title to the property is held and any additional agreement between the applicants.

In Florida, married couples own property as “tenancy by the entireties.” Unmarried couples might choose to own property either as “tenancy in common” or “joint tenants with right of survivorship.”

In any case, Weintraub recommends that unmarried couples consult with an attorney or another adviser before entering into a contract to purchase property.

Peter Lyddy of First Choice Mortgage Services is the original mortgage broker affiliated with GREEN. Lyddy says it has been a “pleasure as well as profitable to be a part of this unusual alliance.”

GREEN is “a well organized bipartisan political group,” he said. “It can be compared to when politicians cross party lines to accomplish the greater good.”

A lot of members’ business is with mostly gay clientele.

Consider Andrea Rankin, who also is a mortgage broker through her business, Rankin Mortgage. About half her clientele is gay. She has closed about $9 million in loans so far this year and says she feels “blessed.”

Mike Bruno, a Coldwell Banker agent, has sold about 800 homes during his 18 years in real estate, about half to the gay community.

Bruno has “mentored dozens of new agents over the years,” and serves at the Sarasota Association of Realtors.

Michael Cochrane, a Coldwell Banker Realtor, said the GREEN group’s aim is not simply to make more money.

“That’s a byproduct in my mind, but it’s definitely not the only reason that I joined the group,” he said.

Especially in a difficult market, buyers and sellers need “constant, individualized and personal attention,” Cochrane said. “I do whatever I can to help them. If that means joining a network group such as GREEN as just another avenue to help my clients achieve their goals, then I am only too happy to do it. The group is gay in its orientation, but this isn’t really about sexual orientation. It’s about a group of professionals who happen to be gay bonding together to help one another professionally, and as a result helping our clients.”