Business & Tech

Ocean City's NJ Realty Tests 'Bigger Is Better' Notion

The new real estate agency opened earlier this year.

At a time when real estate agencies in Ocean City and nationwide are consolidating, Kevin Redmond decided to test the adage that "all real estate is local."

Redmond helped start Ocean City's newest agency — NJ Realty Ocean City — as his former company, Ocean City Realty, merged last year with the growing Prudential Fox & Roach.

He and Drew Fasy, the broker of record for NJ Realty in Sea Isle City, partnered to open the new Ocean City office in February. NJ Realty has operated in Sea Isle City for 30 years.

Redmond runs the Ocean City office and is banking on the idea of "old-fashioned personal service."

"When you get one of us, you get all of us," Redmond said. "Bigger is not always better."

Redmond, who also serves as president of the Ocean City Board of Realtors this year, managed to attract a group of eight veteran agents, and six months into the new venture, he says the business is going well.

The office is located at the corner of 10th Street and West Avenue, and the agency lists sale and rental properties throughout the island.

The new agency opened less than four months after Superstorm Sandy caused record flooding in Ocean City on Oct. 29, 2012.

"Sandy made a lot of changes to our industry," Redmond said. "There's a new world out there."

He noted how relatively fortunate Ocean City was to escape the devastation that other Jersey Shore towns saw. Much of Ocean City's good fortune was related to its position in relation to Sandy's landfall. But Redmond also credited the city's forward-thinking building codes with elevating a lot of properties long before the storm hit.

But with even more stringent flood insurance and building guidelines now on the books, "people are asking questions," Redmond said.

And Redmond is banking on his team's "one-on-one service that is seldom seen in today's "corporate" environment."

The NJ Realty team from Ocean City and Sea Isle City recently volunteered in a joint project with the New Jersey Association of Realtors (NJAR) to help give a Whitesboro family a home of their own on the mainland in Cape May County.

NJAR donated $40,000 to Cape May County Habitat for Humanity. The home was transported from Spruce Road in Ocean City. And teams of volunteers helped with the renovation. (See photos above.)

For more information on NJ Realty Ocean City, visit: njrealtyoc.com


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