Business & Tech
Business of the Week: Bradley Real Estate
With offices in Fairfax and San Anselmo, Bradley built real estate from the ground up.
55 Broadway, Fairfax
44 Bolinas Avenue, Fairfax
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What do they offer?
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Bradley Real Estate offers residential and commercial real estate services. They help people buy, sell, and lease properties throughout Marin and the surrounding Bay Area.
The agents in both the and Fairfax offices of Bradley Real Estate live in the community, so they are able to answer the many questions potential home buyers ask. Their children have attended the schools here, and they know all about shopping, restaurants, traffic, and hiking and biking trails. They can describe in detail the quality of life for both Fairfax and San Anselmo residents.
Who are they?
Melissa Bradley was born in Bolinas and grew up in Fairfax and San Anselmo. She went to for elementary school, for junior high, and then to . When she was little, her family lived on Willow Avenue (near and she rode her bike to school.
She's always been ambitious and started working at a young age, selling subscriptions "forever" for the Independent Journal. She still has a reoccurring dream about selling newspapers.
After Drake, she knew what she wanted to do. Her grandmother had been selling real estate in Marin for a number of years. Her mother had a real estate license too, but didn't do anything much with it until Melissa got hers. Bradley always knew she wanted to be a real estate agent. At first, she assisted her grandmother. Now, she and her mom work together.
Bradley and her husband have four children and currently reside in the Los Ranchitos area of San Rafael, just over the hill on the other side of Sleepy Hollow. She had looked at many houses in Sleepy Hollow, which was her first choice of location, but wanted something unique, all one level and big, with a flat yard for the kids.
Like many women who work, Bradley juggles the needs of home and office. This past weekend, she made candles with her children. On a regular basis, she personally visits all of the Bradley Real Estate offices, acting as a roving real estate ambassador.
How long have they been here?
Melissa Bradley opened the first of their Fairfax offices on Broadway Avenue in 2004. They took over the second one, which was Prudential at the time, on Bolinas Road in 2007. Most of the agents stayed on. Bradley said that the reason they didn't ask the agents to move into the Broadway office is that they liked being in that physical space and she just rolled with it.
Not only is Bradley Real Estate the sole real estate office in Fairfax, but they have two branches just around the corner from each other.
When she went into business in 1997, Melissa Bradley opened her first office in San Anselmo's Red Hill Shopping Center. Now there are eight offices around Marin County and one in Napa. The original one at Red Hill, near the , has moved a few doors down to a bigger space.
Why are they business of the week?
In San Anselmo and Fairfax, Bradley Real Estate, as a firm, is a huge supporter of the community -- especially the schools and the Chamber of Commerce. They participate in the Fairfax Festival and the Brew Fest. Melissa Bradley shops at local businesses in Fairfax and San Anselmo, as do her agents. The agents in the local offices said they want Fairfax to stay Fairfax.
"November and December are good months to buy houses. If a seller has a house on the market during the holiday season, you are dealing with a serious person," Bradley said.
"During the winter is a good time to look at a house, because you can see what kind of drainage it has, how the gutters perform, if the roof leaks, etc," said Bradley. "Interest rates are low right now. It's a good time to buy."
She feels that both San Anselmo and Fairfax are great towns for families, though they are very different.
Bradley underscores the point that they are not a big corporation like many of the franchises that have moved into Marin. She started her business from scratch and has succeeded through hard work and determination, much like she did selling newspaper subscriptions as a child.
Because she is a Marin native, one of the company tag lines is: "Think global and shop local." That can mean houses too.
