In 1972, Joseph Clancy opened a real estate business on the South Shore. It flourished, so much so that it became part of his legacy, one that he passed on to his sons. 

“I hadn't planned on following in my dad's footsteps,” Real Producer Mike Clancy explains. “Back in 1993, when I graduated from Holy Cross, the job market was scarce. I decided to move to the Jersey shore to have some fun in the sun, and I got my first sales job selling Cutco knives, of all things.  But I knew even at that point I wanted to work for myself. I didn't want a corporate nine-to-five desk job because I would feel contained and constrained. I wanted the freedom to be able to work for myself.”

Cutco and a few other ideas didn’t pan out, so he found himself back in Boston working with his dad as a stopgap. “I started doing well, and I fell in love with it,” Mike remembers. “The rest is history, as they say. I've been selling real estate ever since.”

Working with family doesn’t always “work.” It takes a lot of mutual respect, healthy boundaries, and clear communication for a family business to function without dysfunction. 

“There was not a cross word between us,” Mike says. “You can't say that about all employers. I was blessed to work with my dad for thirty years before he passed in 2023, and we built an incredible relationship where he was not only my boss but also my mentor, my best friend, and my sounding board. Many of our best conversations were not about real estate at all. We were together all the time, so I miss him terribly.”

Joseph Clancy built a strong reputation on the South Shore.  “The real estate business, it can be cutthroat," Mike says. "And all the years I was around, I never heard one bad word about my dad. He was so highly respected, and he was someone everyone looked up to. He was a gentle giant—not physically, but as a person with a moral compass and as a man. We have big shoes to fill here at the office.”

The business is in good hands, now, as Mike and his brother Joe are eager to guide it into the future. 

“We haven’t lost sight of the fact that this is my dad's company, and I'm blessed to be working with my brother,” Mike says. “We have twenty agents working here, a great mix of agents with a wide range of years of experience, knowledge, and many different strengths. We all learn from each other, which we know makes us a stronger team. Our goal is to continue to grow this business because it's a business that I think isn't going away. 

“People need help when they're buying and selling houses. A lot has changed since COVID—not as many people are coming into the office, and the use of technology has increased, leading to less human interaction. But people still need real estate agents and brokers to help them buy and sell property. There's too much at stake; these are life-changing personal and financial decisions, and we are there to help guide them.”

Mike took his father’s ethics and reputation to heart, and they guide how he handles every transaction. “The faith and trust that our customers and clients put in us is something that I never take for granted,” he explains. “Often on the selling side, someone may have just lost their dad or their mom, and they need to sell a house. It's a very emotional time, and we're there for them. Or when people have saved up their whole life for a down payment as a first-time buyer, you just can't take it for granted. They're trusting me to help them find the right house.”

That trust motivates Mike to show up for his customers every single day. “That's what I enjoy about it,” Mike says. “There's a lot of responsibility, but there's a lot of satisfaction in it as well.”