Ocean City’s Coastal Realty merges with Jesse

Written by Ann Richardson Sunday, February 10, 2013 01:00 am

After 36 years, Coastal owners looking to spend more time with family

Submitted / The staff from Coastal Realty and Jesse Real Estate.

OCEAN CITY – Looking to fulfill a longtime dream, Don and Sue Doll bought Coastal Realty in the 300 block of Atlantic Avenue in January 1977. For 36 years they built their business, establishing relationships with owners and tenants in the north end neighborhood they called home.

Hoping to fulfill a new dream of spending more time with their children and grandchildren, the Doll’s merged with Jesse Real Estate last month. They closed the Coastal office and moved, taking their clientele and five agents with them, to the Jesse office on the corner of Ninth Street and Ocean Avenue.  

“It’s bittersweet,” Sue Doll said. “We’re very happy to do this on one hand, but we were a big part of the neighborhood at Coastal. We were a family, on a personal level, we took a great deal of pride in the wonderful people we had working with us.

“The owners and the tenants felt like family, we were like their summer home,” she said.

Doll said Coastal was the place where everyone knew your name. The Dolls are now semi-retired, she said.

“We thought long and hard about this, we were ready to retire, but we did not just want to walk away and close the door,” she said. “We talked to a number of different companies and felt that Jesse and his staff was the best fit for us. They are a family operation and we felt that it was a very good merge.”

All of Coastal’s employees made the move to Jesse, as well.

“We are not in the same spot, but we’re not far, so we’ll be able to keep that relationship with the owners and tenants,” Doll said. “This situation keeps our employees working and allows Don and I to take some time off when we need to. After all these years, we’re really looking forward to spending some quality time together, and with our family. We missed too many of their games and activities.

“We’ll have the best of both worlds,” she said. “We’ll be agents, not owners and we’ll have less responsibility and more flexibility.”

Jesse Briglia, owner of Jesse Real Estate, said he is thrilled to have the Coastal Realty staff on board.

“We couldn’t be happier,” he said. “It was very important to Don and Sue that whoever bought their business kept their agents on board and we were very happy to do that. It’s been a very seamless transition and for the Coastal agents, a very short learning curve since we both use the same rental system. I’m delighted that we all get along so well.”

In 2008, the long-established Jesse Real Estate joined RE/MAX at the Shore, but having recently parted ways, is back to Jesse Real Estate.

“When I left RE/MAX I wanted to come back into the market in a big way,” he said. “By including Coastal, I have doubled the number of agents I have and the volume overnight.”

Coastal, he said, had a very solid rental base.

“Summer rentals are a very important part of our business at the Jersey Shore,” he said. “Coastal has been around since 1960, it was one of the oldest real estate offices on the island.

“Outside of buying Hobby Horse, the office where we are now, in 1991, bringing Coastal on board is one of the smartest moves I’ve ever made. In the annals of history, it’s a great move.”

When the real estate market nearly collapsed a few years ago, Briglia said deals were falling apart and a lot of Realtors were feeling a sense of despair.

“This merger has made the business fun again,” he said. “The phones are ringing; there is a sense of energy and vitality.”

Doll said it was Ocean City’s family atmosphere that attracted her and Don to the island years ago.

“Ocean City is so family-oriented, it’s what we based our business on and how we built our business,” she said. “So it was important that we made the move with that in mind. We took great pride in building our business and now, we couldn’t be happier. Jesse has that same family atmosphere that we had at Coastal.  Everyone has blended together very nicely.”