Carbon County has a new real estate company.

Iron Valley Real Estate Northeast opened its doors with an official ribbon cutting on Aug. 13, hosted by the Carbon Chamber and Economic Development Corp.

Located at 3295 Forest Inn Road, Suite 8, Palmerton, it covers residential, commercial and leasing properties in Carbon, Monroe, Schuylkill, Northampton and Lehigh counties.

Kristen Obert, a broker and owner of Iron Valley Real Estate Northeast, said she and her five agents are willing to list properties further away, but those five counties are their primary stomping ground.

Obert has been in the real estate business for 13 years and has experience managing a real estate office in Palmerton. She decided to venture out on her own last year and opened her new office in January. Unfortunately, she and all real estate companies had to shut down two months later in March due to COVID-19.

“I’m very excited,” she said about opening her own business. “Having managed an office before and being a Realtor, you’re an independent contractor, so you’re used to kind of running your own business anyway.”

Obert has been around business all her life. Her family owned a business installing fire sprinkler systems. Later, her mother-in-law, who was a real estate agent, introduced her to that industry. She said she loves real estate, because the schedule is flexible, every day is always new, and she enjoys meeting new people.

Obert said she didn’t turn to family for financial help to get her business up and running.

“Once I decided to do it, I basically wanted to do it on my own,” she said.

She chose to go with an established franchise real estate company, Iron Valley Real Estate, headquartered in Harrisburg.

“It’s a brokerage in a box,” Obert said.

Going with a franchise provided her with website support and an established business plan.

The agents in her office include: Nicole Fritzinger, Brian Knepper, Kate Anthony, Tamra Poust and Pam Arner, and an office assistant, Sherry Paules.

“We have a different kind of outlook. Our main concern is our buyer and our seller. We put the buyer and seller first. We always feel it is important that our needs get put behind their needs,” she said. “My little saying every day is, ‘As long as we have a happy buyer and seller at the end of the day, then that’s what makes the day worthwhile.’?”

Before looking at properties, Obert said her office can help buyers pursue getting preapproved first. That way, they can focus on properties within their price range.

The next step is to schedule to see some properties. In this age of COVID-19, buyers have to complete a screening form to make sure they have not been exposed to the virus, she said.

When they do go into a property, the real estate agent drives separately and only two people and the agent can go in the house for the appointment to tour it. They must wear masks the whole time. When they are done, the agent has to sanitize everything they touched before they leave, she said.

Obert said that although she didn’t know she would be opening a business in the midst of a pandemic, she’s glad she decided to go for it.

Her best advice for anyone contemplating the idea of starting their own business is, “I think you should go for it. I was that person. If you wait, that time may never come, so you may as well seize the opportunity and do it.”