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McCarthy Real Estate returns to roots

Photo by Michele Newbanks Perry Spaur of Copperhead Handyman Services, and Jordana Bungard show the new sign to owners Kerry Westermeyer and Stephen McCarthy Thursday afternoon at the newly rebranded McCarthy Real Estate in Marietta.

After more than 15 years as Real Living McCarthy Real Estate, the company is going back to its roots.

On Thursday afternoon, McCarthy Real Estate held an open house to celebrate going independent, showing off the new logo and newly placed sign in front of its Second Street, Marietta, office.

Friends, business neighbors and realtors from other agencies filed through the front door to congratulate the owners, Kerry Westermeyer and Steve McCarthy, on their rebranding and celebration of 65 years in business.

Joyce Stanley was just one of the McCarthy realtors who visited during the open house. She has worked with McCarthy Real Estate for about 11 years out of the Washington Boulevard, Belpre, office.

She said she lived in Belpre and many offices wouldn’t allow a part time realtor, so she interviewed with McCarthy. He let her work part-time and after a while, she went full-time.

She and Jesse Joseph, another realtor from the Belpre office, talked about the new office sign they would be getting while checking out their new business cards and name tags, all with a green and black logo.

The business has been open for 65 years, but in 2004, the owners decided to go with the red-and-white themed Real Living Real Estate.

“Real LIving brand has decided to discontinue the brand in 2023, so at that point when we got notice of that last fall, Steve and I talked and we wanted to go back independent,” said Westermeyer. “We collaborated with other Real Living brokers around the country. We had Zoom meetings with them and there’s so many facets to having a franchise and then going back to being independent.”

She said there are so many business-type platforms to work with or employ to bring buyer and seller leads to the company. They will be partnering with one in the near future, she said.

“We’re excited to be back to McCarthy Real Estate,” she said. The red and white logos of Real Living were replaced with the green and black when they were formerly independent. This time, they went with an entirely new logo that would be easy to see on yard signs.

“Of course McCarthy is Irish, and we are too, and it was hard to swallow when we had to go to the red with Real Living, so we’re excited to be back to us. We control everything,” Westermeyer said.

She said it’s a great time to rebrand since they are in their 65th year of business, making them “the longest living real estate company in the valley, so we’re proud of that too.”

The last few years, McCarthy Real Estate has been hard at work selling a lot of properties.

“There’s low inventory and high demand and prices have gone up. It’s been a very, very, very busy few years,” Westermeyer said.

Michele Newbanks can be reached at mnewbanks@mariettatimes.com.

At a glance:

¯ McCarthy Real Estate held an open house Thursday.

¯ They are going independent after being with Real Living since 2004.

¯ They showed off their new logo and celebrated 65 years in business.

Source: Kerry Westermeyer.

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