It’s been a long, enjoyable road for Dottie Wells, associate broker with Long & Foster. Over the years, she’s had her hand in a number of acclaimed real estate businesses, but it’s with the aforementioned that has helped combine her passion for this line of work with a beautiful area she now calls home. 
Coastal Point • SUBMITTED
Dottie Wells, real estate manager since 1980, now holds the positions of branch manager and associate broker at Long & Foster in Bethany Beach.
Now, as branch manager of Long & Foster’s office on Coastal Highway in Bethany Beach, she has her head — as well as her goals — held high as she steps into a new chapter of her career.
Wells started her real estate career in 1974, when she obtained her Realtor’s license. Six years later, when she got her first break at management, the company was sold to Merrill Lynch, which closed seven branches six months later, including hers.
Wells decided to keep her agents together and, in 1980, called all the big-name brokers in Baltimore — one of whom was Wesley Foster, the chief executive officer and one of the founders of Long & Foster. His broker had never jumped counties and was reluctant to work from Montgomery County over to Carroll County — at first. But after her run in Westminster with O’Conner, Piper and Flynn, inevitably Wells found her way to Long & Foster in Carroll County.
“We kept getting bigger all the time,” she said, “and we ended up being No. 1 throughout Carroll County, year after year. That was one of the highlights of my career.”
Once on board at the company, Wells wasted no time in taking the lead and guiding the other Maryland branches to success. Recently, she headed Long & Foster branches in Easton and St. Michael’s, Md.
“I had always admired Long & Foster,” she said. “I watched it grow [with Foster] all these years. He was very cautious and articulate, and I tried to emulate that.”
Leadership roles are nothing new to Wells. She has held the position of president of the Chamber of Commerce and board of Realtors in Carroll County, and helped organize almost every fund-raising committee housed in the area.
“I was totally involved in that community,” she said, “and I put my whole self into it.”
She’s already made a start at establishing those connections here, attending Chamber of Commerce mixers and familiarizing herself with the community.
It seems as though the longer Wells sticks with the real estate business, the more and more difficult it is to leave. She and her husband, Don, who also worked in real estate, originally thought they’d like an early retirement.
“We later realized that we couldn’t afford to retire,” said Dottie Wells, “given our lifestyle. We like having nice things and traveling. So when we moved back to Annapolis, I went back to real estate, because it’s what I love to do.”
“Real estate has become a way of life for me,” she said. “I love Realtors. People in this business are dreamers, and they like to set goals and do more than traditional corporations. They can break through and make anything they want to.”
Returning to the shore, she noted, was nothing less than a dream come true. She and Don had a second home in Ocean City, Md., for 20 years, and would frequent the Bethany coastline when they could.
Her timing in taking on the role of Long & Foster’s Bethany Beach branch manager, is, in her opinion, perfect.
“In 2007,” she said, “I realized now is the time to buy in this area. I wanted to come back. I missed the ocean and shore.”
Managing in Easton and St. Michael’s allowed for some weekend travel to the ocean, but, finally, they made the move.
“Finally, the inventory was here. The market has been through so many cycles over the years I’ve been in real estate,” she said. “I’ve seen the worst of it all, and what is in this area is not bad at all. Interest rates are fabulous. There was a point in my career when I didn’t think I’d ever see single-digit interest rates ever again.”
She and Don decided to practice what they had been preaching, and bought their Sussex County home at 6 percent interest.
“I never dreamt I’d actually have this opportunity to run the Bethany branch. I felt like I’d died and gone to heaven to be in such a great place, both living and working. I appreciated the quiet resorts. I found that there’s something very special about Bethany. People are still coming year after year.”
One of her fondest memories came after watching and listening to musicians on the boardwalk bandstand in the evening.
“It’s a good, safe, secure feeling to be here,” she said.
Eschewing any hint of a pessimistic outlook, Wells took a hard look at the numbers throughout the larger area, where comparatively little selling and buying of homes has taken place over the last two years.
“As much as the market has slowed down on the eastern area, I really haven’t seen that happen in Bethany,” she said. “They always keep their numbers up.”
Out of the 250 offices that Long & Foster operates in the Mid-Atlantic region, Bethany Beach ranks ninth in the whole region.
“There’s plenty of new development and subdivisions all over the place,” she added. “Most of the time, it’s the media that spreads these nationwide averages and rates that are scaring a lot of people. We hear these national statistics, but it doesn’t apply to our area.
“These generalizations intimidate buyers, and it hurts the whole industry,” she said. “People are thinking it’s that way everywhere, and they’ll go out and make ridiculous offers that don’t need to be made in this region.”
Wells added that she hopes to help people realize the potential in the market these days in lower Sussex.
“People need to buy now,” she insisted. “We don’t know what’s going to happen after the election. Rates could go up. Now is such a super time to get that second home you dream about. There’s plenty of selection, and builders are giving all kinds of incentives. With so many price ranges, there’s something for everybody.”
The Bethany branch of Long & Foster has welcomed Wells with open arms.
“The agents here have been absolutely wonderful,” she said. This week, she has been meeting one-on-one, getting to know each of them. “It’s always a real challenge moving to a new office and seeing things that need to be done,” she said, “but I’m jumping right in there. We have such a great, strong office here, and that makes my job easy.”
She intends to upgrade equipment wherever necessary, spruce up office where needed, and kick off a new spring campaign.
“I’m really happy to be here,” she said. “There’s something relaxing and comforting in the beach areas. I’m learning stuff all over again.”