A Rocky Mount-based real estate company is now co-owned by an agribusinessman and a businessman once linked to the Carolina Panthers professional football team.
Coldwell Banker Watson Properties, which was owned by Janet Watson, has become Coldwell Banker Allied Real Estate, which is owned by a holding company owned by Marvin Shearin and Steve Wordsworth.
Shearin, in a recent interview at Coldwell Banker Allied Real Estate’s office, said that the deal was closed in December and made clear what is coming.
“Our goal for the business is to be the number one real estate company in Rocky Mount and the surrounding areas,” Shearin said.
The company is a tenant at a location in the 3000 block of Westridge Circle Drive, which is just off the Sunset Avenue corridor and adjacent to the Westridge shopping center.
Shearin said that the company is going to be relocated to an acquired currently vacant building off North Winstead Avenue and Woodridge Court across from First Carolina Bank and with convenient access to U.S. 64 and Interstate 95. Shearin said that he expects that the location change will occur mid-May to allow for some interior renovations.
Shearin said that while he does not know whether he is going to have an office with a desk, “I’ll be here hands-on with the business.”
“I will be in and out on a daily basis, checking on what needs to be done, what’s going on, looking at the deals, making sure we’re doing what we need to do,” Shearin said.
Shearin, who himself has long had a real estate broker’s license, said that he is not going to be listing and selling real estate in competition with the other brokers.
Shearin said that he and Wordsworth believed the deal “was an opportunity to keep the ball moving forward” after Watson had long done a fantastic job in the real estate business.
“And she couldn’t have been any happier when we approached her about the purchase of the business because she knew that we would look after the employees and the agents,” Shearin said. “And we had the capital to put in the business and make it thrive.”
Shearin also made clear that there is an anticipation that more real estate brokers are going to be added to the team.
One addition, Shearin noted, is Tara Thomas, who had been with Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage in Washington in Beaufort County. Thomas is now with Coldwell Banker Allied Real Estate as a marketer and a recruiter.
Shearin lives in the Oak Level area of Nash County. Shearin and Wordsworth also work together in real estate in a sister company, Red Oak Farms Development, which develops properties for building contractors to construct residential subdivisions.
One such development in progress, Shearin noted, is called The Farm at Red Oak in the Red Oak area of Nash County.
Shearin is a native of Halifax County. His wife, Audrey, owns Eastern Petroleum, which is based in Enfield in Halifax County and has a chain of Exxon EP Marts and Shell EP Marts in the area.
Wordsworth’s brother, Jerry, led what was the Meadowbrook Meat food service distributorship, which was sold to McLane, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
At one time, Jerry Wordsworth and Steve Wordsworth were minority co-owners of the Panthers.
“The family is North Carolina royalty,” Forbes magazine said of the Wordsworths.
As for the future of Coldwell Banker Allied Real Estate, company Broker in Charge Laura Durham said in a phone interview that she is optimistic about the Rocky Mount area real estate market given the development coming from the Raleigh-Durham area.
“We’ve been seeing buyers moving from the Triangle area for the past several years — and that’s only going to increase, I believe,” Durham said.
“Now, the dynamic might change a little bit because some of it will hinge on how the trend continues for people being able to work remotely,” Durham said. “That’ll make a difference, but there are a lot of people commuting from Rocky Mount to Raleigh now.”
Durham has been in the real estate business for a total of 44 years.
She said that she moved to Rocky Mount in 1989 from the Outer Banks and started her career here with Watson. That was before Watson transitioned in with Coldwell Banker in 1996.
One of Coldwell Banker Allied Real Estate’s brokers, Hannah Jones, is 86 and has been selling real estate a total of 38 years. Jones has been a part of Watson’s team for nearly seven years.
Jones, in an interview at her office, said she that has found what makes a good real estate broker in the Rocky Mount area is listening to people, being kind and doing the best job possible.
Jones also said that she does not set monetary goals.
“I give just as much attention to that $100,000 client as I do the $500,000 client,” she said.
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