About Us

Back in 1962, Mildred Batten Simmons fell in love with Emerald Isle. She and her husband, Clarence, were ready to spend long days surfcasting for bluefish and hoping for that elusive doormat-sized flounder. Other friends from up state visited and they were hooked, too. Gently ensnared by the charms of this island, Mildred's friends bought beach homes, but returned to their mainland lives. They left Mildred and Clarence behind but with one simple request, "If other friends wish to stay on the island for a few days or a week, just charge them a little something" and with that, Emerald Isle Realty was born.

Over a decade later, the family business passed to my parents, Mary and Jim Batten. From Mildred's looking after a dozen or so small beach homes for friends, Mary and Jim inherited a vacation rental business that had grown to over one hundred cottages. Like Mildred, Mary and Jim lived upstairs in the little green cottage and the office was downstairs. In 1975 most beach vacation cottages were furnished quite simply, many were not air-conditioned, telephones were rare, but rarer still were televisions. By the early 1980s my husband, Mark, and I had joined my parents in our growing family business. Reservations kept on index cards and poster reservation boards on office walls gave way to computer networks.

We left behind the little green cottage and moved in 1993 to "downtown" Emerald Isle. Our Emerald Isle family grew to include hundreds of cottage and condo owners and thousands of happily vacationing families. Our staff doubled, then tripled in size as we added more reservationists, maintenance folks, housekeepers and bookkeepers to the family.

We're now three generations working together. Although my father Jim, the Barefoot Broker, beloved by many on our island, passed away in 2001, my mother, Mary, still drops by to visit and make sure we're living up to her high standards of gracious Southern hospitality. My husband, Mark, and I are hands-on owner/managers ensuring a first class vacation experience for our rental guests, top drawer property management services for our homeowners, as well as being cheerleaders for our top producing sales team. Our son, Nathan, is involved with all the day to day details so necessary in our business but he especially enjoys keeping up with our technical innovations. Daughter-in-law Jamie brings her expertise by assisting with special projects and staff customer service training. Allison is now the sales coordinator at the Grande Villas in Indian Beach where Emerald Isle Realty is pleased be to the on-site vacation rental manager. One day we hope our grandsons will leave their mark as the fourth generation to carry on the family tradition begun by Aunt Mildred.

We're grateful to be living the American dream of being part of a thriving family business, and so appreciative of our rental guests and homeowners for believing in our Emerald Isle Realty family and being important players in our family story. Even more gratifying is we are now meeting the third and fourth generation of the families that began staying with Emerald Isle Realty in the 1960s. Many of those first families became island homeowners themselves, hooked like Mildred's friends on the serenity that is the gift of place of Emerald Isle.

Remember always, the most important common thread to a memorable beach vacation is simply being with your loved ones and the way your soul is lovingly restored again and again, renewed with each visit to the shore through the hand of the Creator of this most beautiful of North Carolina's barrier islands, Bogue Banks.

~ Julia Batten Wax
Second Generation Owner, Emerald Isle Realty