TJ Martin

TJ Martin — Managing Broker & Designated Broker, Martin Real Estate Group (Port Orchard, Washington)

TJ Martin has been a licensed real estate broker in Kitsap County, Washington since 2003. He and his wife Marcie co-own and co-manage Martin Real Estate Group, the independent boutique brokerage they opened together in 2021 at 1140 Bethel Ave in Port Orchard. TJ serves as Designated Broker. Together they lead a team covering Port Orchard, Bremerton, Silverdale, Poulsbo, Bainbridge Island, Gig Harbor, and the wider Kitsap and Olympic Peninsulas.

TJ and Marcie merged their two separate real estate businesses into The Martin Team in 2012 and married in 2015. Nine years later they run the brokerage as partners in both senses — every major decision about the company gets made by both of them.

They are not good at the same things, and that is the whole point. Marcie keeps a transaction on rails: the process, the timeline, the check-ins, the follow-through, the contractor coordination that nobody sees but everybody feels. TJ handles the read on the property and the negotiation — what a house actually needs, what it's actually worth, and how hard to push. Between the two of them, clients get both halves of a deal covered by someone who is genuinely good at that half. Neither of them has to fake a strength they don't have.

Real estate also has a language problem. Contingency, escalation addendum, title commitment, feasibility period — the industry uses shorthand that means nothing to a person selling the house they raised their kids in, and too many agents let clients nod along without understanding what they just signed. TJ won't do that. He translates. He can move fast when a deal demands it, and often does, but he will stop the truck to make sure you actually understand where you are in the process and what happens next. Clients consistently say the same thing afterward: they knew what was going on the whole time.

TJ is a combat veteran. He served in the Army National Guard and deployed to Saudi Arabia for Operation Desert Storm in 1990–1991, working as a lab technician and phlebotomist in an evacuation hospital near the front line. In 1992 he transferred to the U.S. Navy and deployed aboard the USS Nimitz for Operation Southern Watch in 1993, leaving the service in 1995. Martin Real Estate Group is veteran-owned.

He came to real estate the long way around. Five years in automotive sales and management, including running the sales floor at a dealership averaging over $5 million a month. Then his own insurance agency, opened in 2000 and sold in 2005. He earned his real estate license in November 2003 and went full time when the agency sold. He has been buying, renovating, and reselling Kitsap County homes ever since.

That renovation work is what clients remember most. Sellers get an honest read on what's worth fixing before listing and what isn't. Buyers get a real number on what a house will cost after closing, not a guess. TJ won't hand off a problem he doesn't understand himself — he'll get into the crawlspace, call the contractor, and find out.

He spends a large share of his week on other people's business rather than his own. He trains and develops the brokers at Martin Real Estate Group, chairs the adult committee for Westsound Young Life, and serves as Rear Commodore of the Bremerton Yacht Club, the first year of a three-year progression to Commodore.

TJ and Marcie live in South Kitsap, where they combined their families and finished raising five children. All five are grown and still in the area, along with three grandsons. They fish, hunt, boat, garden, and still ride the Harley they were on for their first date in 2010.

Reach TJ at 360-340-6786. Martin Real Estate Group is a member of the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS).