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The Century 21 Brand Expands Along The Florida-Georgia Border

By: Century 21 |  1 Shares     166 Reads

February 10, 2025 // Franchising.com // ST. MARYS, Ga. - Century 21 Real Estate LLC. expands its network along the border of Florida and Georgia with the latest affiliation of female-led Crest Realty based in St. Marys, Georgia.

The firm is led by Sarah Wood, a lifelong saleswoman and ultimate people person, who joined the real estate industry in 2012, later founding the brokerage in 2019. Wood's very first job was in a sales position, where she noticed she had the natural ability to negotiate and connect with customers. After she graduated college with a master's degree in business administration and a bachelor's degree in psychology, she upgraded her sales skills by purchasing a retail location with her husband and then spending her time working on the ground floor of the company. With the funds she earned from the business, she began investing in rental properties, where she realized that real estate offered the perfect blend of selling and social services that she had long sought after. Her career change quickly paid off, as Sarah found her niche as a people-oriented leader and guided her company to earn awards such as the Camden Chamber of Commerce's "Best Medium Business of the Year," in 2022.

As the spouse of a Navy veteran, Wood is very familiar with the process of "the Navy move," which constantly brings a flow of military personnel in and out of the St. Marys area. The majority of Wood's company is also comprised of military spouses or military veterans, who are well-versed with military relocation, as well as rental properties and traditional residential real estate. Their excellent reputation extends throughout their service areas of Camden, Charlton and Glynn counties.

Now doing business as CENTURY 21 Crest Realty, Wood and her driven, independent sales professionals will have access to the CENTURY 21® brand's technology and marketing, lead generation and agent learning and coaching to help deliver the highest quality of service to buyers, sellers and commercial real estate investors. Wood is already a forward-thinking marketer, with a strong presence across multiple social media platforms and a unique local persona visible on her company's billboards. With the new tools, she can continue to enhance her pre-existing marketing efforts.

"I knew it was time to join a larger real estate network so the agents and clients could have access to state-of-the-art tools and services," said Wood. "However, we operate on the mantra that professionalism doesn't need to come at the expense of having fun and being yourself, so we had to make sure we found a brand that embraced our philosophy."

CENTURY 21 Crest Realty has a personality that strongly resonates with the communities it serves. Wood remarks that she's had multiple client interactions starting with "You're the company with the funny billboard." She and her affiliated agents strongly believe in the value of connecting with their clients as people, instead of two sides of a business transaction. Behind the scenes, the firm's independent sales professionals are just as committed to staying ahead of local market trends as they are to being involved with their community.

"We work closely with many organizations in town so that we stay as connected to the people we serve as possible," said Wood. "We even work with the local Chamber of Commerce to help lead their weekly community tours for newly stationed military members so that our faces are some of the first that new St. Marys residents see. The agents try to stay involved with everything, and I'm incredibly grateful to be surrounded by a group of people who are as passionate about doing what's best for our community as I am."

Known as the "Gateway to Cumberland Island," St. Marys sits squarely along the Florida-Georgia border, directly on Georgia's coast. With clean beaches, historic 18th and 19th-century architecture, and a lower-than-average cost of living, the area attracts everyone from retirees to vacationers. The area is also largely defined by the nearby military presence. With military personnel and tourists constantly coming and going, St. Marys offers plenty of excitement for a small, coastal town.

"Sarah does an excellent job at standing apart from her competition," said Mike Miedler, president and CEO of Century 21 Real Estate LLC. "She's developed an unmistakable personality for her business, and she also offers invaluable knowledge of the area's military-based real estate industry. It's always a pleasure to support someone who finds genuine joy in what we do, and in this case, it's even more exciting that we get to do so while benefiting our nation's service members."

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