Ocean City, NJ Market goes wild in one early Spring Day
Yes, it was just a normal day. I stopped for my morning paper at Bakley's Deli and went to the 4th Street Cafe on 1st Street for a cup of tea and a blueberry scone. The headline in the Atlantic City Press was my first indication of what the day would be like. It read: "3.5% Mortgage starts today with about 50+ sale listings reduced in a March Madness gala." I hurried out of there and quickly drove a few short blocks to French Real Estate, my home away from home for the past 16 years. It was only 8AM, but the office was active already. Our bookkeeper, Bill, said: "The phones have been ringing for the past half hour."
"Who has the reduced listings?" I asked. "Everybody," he said. "The RXM County Bank in Cape May County is operating on a first come, first serve to realtors bringing in contract. Who knows how long they will continue."
"Let's call the secretaries and the rest of the agents ... it's going to be a long day," I shouted. The next call was from a buyer who had been here over the weekend. "I want the phone number for the bank, and I want you to send me a contract for 899 North Street ... I'll fill in the numbers a bit later for you."
"It's on its way," I said "We need help now," I shouted again.
Well, I was able to complete four contracts by 11AM. I stopped for a hot tea break and ate a couple of jelly beans. "How long do you think it will continue?" one agent asked. "Forever, I hope!" I answered. Reporters had been coming in and out of real estate agencies all morning. Cameras were everywhere. By 10AM most offices were filled with buyers, owners, cats, dogs, anyone and everyone. It was the best of times. We sent one of the secretaries out for lunch. But lunch didn't arrive for two hours. The town was simply to busy to make it work under the load of people all over town, in the restaurants, on the phone, driving slowly by each sale listing. "Chaos with a smile on its face" was one response when I talked to another realtor on the phone.
I called my wife about 2:30 telling her I would probably be working all night if it kept going like this. She offered to bring sandwiches down to the office. I told her to sneak in the back door if she planned to get any food to our staff. Well, it did slow down a bit by 8:30 PM. The sandwiches made it around 6 PM. We decided to close at 9, but one agent volunteered to stay by the phone until 11AM. He was fast asleep when I returned at 7AM the next morning.
The headlines in the Press the next day were big and bold: "77 Properties Sold in Ocean City in 1 Day." I read the entire article, but I had lived it yesterday with a lot of bold and brave real estate agents. I called a close friend at another office: "I guess the Spring Buying Period started." I laughed. "It sure did," he responded. "I heard there's a celebration scheduled tonight."
It was somewhat back to normal the rest of the day. We started to put some organization into all of the paperwork and chaos. We kept talking about what had happened. We tried to analyze the implications of all of it. Various types of follow-up arrived in the coming weeks: national newspaper and magazine reporters, a few government types looking for answers, and others who were just looking.
Well, it truly did occur one fine spring day in April no less. Now some would say that it was just an April Fool's story ... but those of us who lived through it know better. If you doubt any part of this ... just give me a phone call at 888-215-9935 or an email at Dustin@BeachNotes.net ... I'll go into my detail if you're interested, and by the way, we still have some great properties for sale in Ocean City, New Jersey. Dap
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