Amelia Island Resales Realty has been open since 2004 and is located within Harrison Park at 5548 1st Coast Highway on Amelia Island.
WHO IS THE BROKER/OWNER?
Dale Reece is the broker and her husband Martyn is the co-owner.
WHAT DO THEY DO?
Dale keeps the books, pays the bills and runs the office in addition to listing and selling real estate. Martyn helps run the company and lists and sells as well. They both work with the agents and help train them. They have an administrative assistant, Robyn Potter, who handles their paperwork.
HISTORY OF THE COMPANY?
Dale has been a licensed Realtor since 1978 and Martyn earned his license in 1982 when they lived in Delray Beach. When they moved to Amelia Island, Martyn worked at Amelia Island Realty for six years until he and his wife decided to open their own firm and work for themselves. They wanted more of an opportunity to tap into a larger market, than just within the Plantation. “We specialize mainly on the south end of the island,” said Martyn.
THEIR AGENTS?
Martyn said they started the company with just the two of them and then decided to add more agents. “Nine of the 11 agents we have live in Amelia Island Plantation,” said Martyn. “These are people that I may have sold properties to over the years and they decided to go into real estate. They know a lot of people in the Plantation and wanted to be Realtors.”
WHO ELSE
IS IN THE OFFICE?
John Hartich, John DeVries, Chip Reamy, Barbara Schoell, Dick Schoell, George Lannon, Linda Duffield, Stacy Swinson and Phil Patton are Realtors.
‘RESALES’ IS IN YOUR NAME. DO YOU ONLY SELL RESALES?
No, Martyn said they sell new homes as well as resales. “When we were searching for the name, there were a lot with ‘Amelia Island’ already in them. Amelia Island Resales Realty looked good on a Web site and on search engines.”
THE MARKET?
“There is a little bit of a slowdown,” said Martyn.
Dale agreed and said that their listings are staying on the market a little longer at this particular time. “We have a lot more inventory than we had last year,” said Dale. But, said Martyn, their closings are up a bit too this year.
HOW DO YOU COMPETE IN THIS MARKET?
“I think we have a little extra time to go out and get listings and more time to be creative,” said Dale. Martyn added that with a lot of investment properties in Amelia Island that they may suggest reducing the price to help the property to sell. “Suppose someone bought a home five years ago for $400,000 and now it’s worth $800,000. If they want to sell it for $750,000, it might sell quicker than waiting for the $800,000.”
ARE THEY PLANNING TO GROW THE OFFICE?
“If the right people come along, we’ll talk to them,” said Martyn. They would like to add one or two more agents to the office.
DO YOU HIRE NEW AGENTS?
Yes and they use their combined 25 years experience in real estate to train them. “After they go through the orientation at the board, we bring them in and they kind of tag along with us as we show them how to get listings, do contracts and how we operate,” said Dale.
WHAT TYPE OF QUALITIES DO YOU LOOK FOR IN AGENTS?
They said they have to have integrity and be ethical and nice.
ENCOURAGE PROFESSIONAL INVOLVEMENT?
“We encourage our agents to take advantage of the educational opportunities and seminars that our board offers them,” said Dale.
TEAM MEETINGS?
They meet a few times a month to discuss what is on the market, what listings people have and prospects that are coming to town and how they can help them. “When we have prospects from out of town coming in looking at real estate, we have an oceanfront condominium that we put them in,” said Martyn. “We’ve had great success with that because we let them stay there and enjoy the lifestyle.”
WEB SITE
www.AmeliaIslandResales.com
- by Michele Newbern Gillis