Bulletin Board Magazine [Volume 2 - 2025]

Michael Brick & Harbor Properties: BEAM Recipient

This is the story Michael shared at FAME upon receiving the BEAM Award. It’s powerful message is a must read for all SBACNJ members. Perseverance and Relationships Provide the Keys to Success First off, I would like to give a big thank you to Gina, Christine and the rest of the FAME committee for putting together such a special event this evening. We all appreciate the hard work you put into making this event happen and as always, it has been great. I would also like to thank all of the associate members for completing the questionnaire for my BEAM award application and giving me such high praise. Your drinks are on me tonight. For those of you who don’t know me, or the history of Harbor Properties, let’s take a little trip back in time. Consider this your warning, because I do like to talk, so I apologize in advance for this long winded story. After I graduated from college in 2007, I had bounced around a few different jobs, some in construction, before I started working for a mortgage company as a loan officer. In 2013, my wife and I bought our first house, in Island Heights, which was a complete remodel. I spent my nights and weekends tearing the house apart and putting it back together. I had worked for a builder on summer breaks in college, I also spent some time working for a remodeler, flipping houses. So, I did have some construction experience. In early 2015 my dad, who was nearing retirement as a real estate developer in Burlington County, approached me about starting a business together building spec homes. He was going to mentor me and help get the business up and running for the first few years and then be more of a silent partner, while enjoying retirement. Although I had construction experience, I had no clue how to take a wooded lot and turn it into a home for a family to live in. Fortunately, my dad had built roughly 100 spec homes and developed around 40 subdivisions, in his career, so I was in pretty good hands. We ended up buying 3 building lots in Stafford Township and quickly got to work with plans and permits. By September of 2015 we had 2 lots cleared, and we were getting ready to start construction. In October of 2015, 8 months after we started the business, after a short battle with pancreatic cancer, my dad died. He died before our first foundation was even in the ground. There was never a question of if I was going to continue with Harbor Properties, but more of a question of how I was going to continue. I spent the next few years building a few more spec homes, trying to learn the business pretty much on my

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