Our Stories: 

Joe San Martin – Team Leader
Julie San Martin – Team Manager

Joe’s first visited the Virgin Islands was as a cadet on the Maine Maritime Academy school ship in 1960 – it was love at first sight for a boy who’d grown up in New York City!

Julie arrived on St. Croix in 1957 at the age of 10. St. Croix has been her family’s home ever since. After graduating from Duke University with a BA in Mathematics, she was a systems analyst with the Apollo Program at the Manned Space Craft Center in Houston. Then one day, she met Joe at a motocross race (he was an avid racer). Joe had graduated from the University of Michigan School of Naval Architecture and was at the time an associate professor of Engineering at the Texas A&M Maritime Academy in Galveston.

Joe and Julie have been married, and business partners, for 37 years. They were contractors in Tucson Arizona until 1984, when they relocated to St. Croix to take over the family real estate brokerage, founded in 1960 by Julie’s mother, Sallie Isherwood. Their 29-year-old son, George, is a jeweler and a graduate of Manor School and the Gemology Institute of America (GIA).

Joe is a past President of the St. Croix Board of Realtors and served as Professional Standards Chairman at the Territorial level for 10 years. Julie served both the St. Croix Board and at the Territorial level as Treasurer.

Since purchasing the RE/MAX franchise in 1993, Joe has consistently placed among the top producers in the RE/MAX Caribbean region, earning him the RE/MAX Hall of Fame designation in addition to Platinum and Chairman’s Clubs.

In 2005, Joe and Julie brought the Real Estate Team concept to St. Croix. They are strong believers in continuing education and innovation. Team San Martin is led by Joe, the rainmaker, with Jim, Linda, Kelly and Whitey as listing partners and sales specialists. Each member of the team attends two off island training events yearly as well as a Team Advance in December with a National Coach.
Joe and Julie are both Past Commodores of the St. Croix Yacht Club, where Julie serves as the Director of the International Regatta and Joe races his 23’ trimaran, Piglet. Fun is a day of sailing or kayaking.  Joe is also a past Chairman of the St. Croix Environmental Association.

Whitney Youngens' Story

Whitney Youngen grew up in the suburbs just northwest of Chicago, Illinois. She 1st came to St. Croix on vacation in 2003 and immediately fell in love with the sparkling blue waters and sandy beaches, laid back atmosphere and friendly natives. 3 years later she was still dreaming about St. Croix, which she now calls “America’s Secret Paradise”. She came back to the island on a one-way ticket with a suitcase and a dream of living in a tropical paradise. Her ambition, brave heart and experience selling Real Estate Stateside landed her a position on Team San Martin in November 2006.

She was told by Julie San Martin after just 4 days of being on island, “The good news is we have a position for you and you start tomorrow at 9AM. The bad news is you’re not going back to Chicago anytime soon.” Whitney literally moved to “America’s Secret Paradise” with just a suitcase. Joe and Julie San Martin were instrumental in helping adjust to island life and making Whitney’s dream a reality. When Whitney is not selling St. Croix she enjoys boating, going to the beach, and soaking up the warm Caribbean sun.

Since living on island Whitney got certified to dive and now swims with sharks, seahorses, starfish and the rest of the underwater world! One thing Whitney love about a St. Croix is that you can soak up the sun at a beach bar and dance amidst tourists and locals to live music. Or you can pack your closest friends in your island car and find a beach to yourselves. Whitney truly enjoys living the dream!

Jim Nealon's Story

In 2002 Jim Nealon and his wife Gail sailed into St Croix on their trip back to the States from Venezuela after a 3 year adventure sailing the US east coast and Caribbean. After spending the winter in the Virgin Islands they decided to stay on St Croix. Why leave paradise? They now reside at their home up above the rainforest near Mt Victory Camp in the west end of the island.

Jim spent initial months on St Croix driving dive boats and working in a woodshop then took a position as Operations Manager for Tropico management, a new EDC company. After assisting with start up and organization, he moved on to join the ranks of local real estate agents working on forming a team within RE/MAX with veterans Joe and Julie San Martin.

Way back in the sixty’s Jim earned a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of New Hampshire and took a job with Kodak in Rochester, NY as a development engineer. He held a wide variety of technical, marketing, and management positions in film and digital photographic product development over his long career at Kodak. Along the way he earned an MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology.

An avid snow skier and cruising and racing sailor all his life, Jim has added SCUBA diving to his list of passions. Currently Jim serves on the boards of St Croix Environmental Association and the Trust for Virgin Islands Land.

Joe's Story

In February of 1960, I arrived on St. Thomas as a Merchant Marine Cadet. Being from the Northeast I had no concept of the beauty and colors of the islands. I remember being amazed that you could see through the water to the bottom, and it was comfortably warm.  It was love at first sight.  I spent years between going back to school and going to Sea trying to figure a way to return to the islands for good. After finishing up at the U of Michigan I moved back to NYC and drifted between engineering jobs and a failed marriage. I eventually moved to Texas where I got a teaching position and took up motorcycle racing as a hobby.

In 1972 I broke my ankle while showing off and doing wheelies for some friends.  I couldn''t race for a while, but the local tracks allowed me to get in free and watch the races in exchange for being a safety flag man.  That's when things changed.  There I was with my dog, my crutches and a safety flag in one of the least difficult corners of the track when a cute blonde girl approached and asked me "do you know John Hirosaki ?".  John ( a good friend and fellow racer ) had told me about Julie and warned me that she was very smart.  In those days, it was assumed that a man would feel threatened by such a woman.  I told John that wouldn't be a problem, my Mom was a very smart, but somehow John never arranged a meeting. I found out later that it was Julie's doing.  Some of the dates John had arranged were not so successful ( Julie describes then a bit more vigorously ).  At any rate, it was love at first sight again, and this time with a girl from the island of St. Croix ( I had never heard of the place ).

We left Texas, tried California and then moved to Tucson, Arizona where Julie had some relatives and we settled down and eventually wound up owning a construction company.  Occasionally we would visit Julie's family in St. Croix for Christmas, in 1978 bringing our baby son, George, with us.  It became harder to go back to the States with each visit.  During one of our last visits, we nearly missed the plane.  In those days, the bar at the Alexander Hamilton Airport looked like something out of a Bogart movie, replete with seedy characters and a Parrot.  I ordered a rum punch and sipped slowly as Julie urged me to get moving - they were boarding the plane.  When finally we walked out on the runway, they crew had removed the ladder.  I was delighted, but Julie insisted that they put it back and allow us on board, which they did.   One Spring, my Mother-in-law Sallie announced that she was retiring and was going to sell her Real Estate business.  For the first and last time I made a decision without consulting Julie and told Sallie we would buy it.  In 1984 we came down to St. Croix to stay. I wish we had done so sooner.

Kelly and Clint’s Story

Kelly and Clint were first introduced to St. Croix by Kelly’s parents, Roger and Jan Rothwell. Roger and Jan bought their first piece of St. Croix Real Estate in 2003 from Joe and Julie San Martin. The Rothwell family has been enjoying St. Croix ever since. Kelly and her Dad have participated in the Sprint race at the Half Ironman triathlon since 2004 and in 2006 Kelly and Clint decided to make this paradise home.

Clint, a food scientist and graduate of Johnson & Wales Culinary School in Providence, Rhode Island is originally from Kansas. He and Kelly met while he was working for Kappa Sigma International Fraternity Headquarters in Charlottesville, Virginia. Kelly, a Virginia native, was working as the Director of Special Events for the University of Virginia Department of Athletics. Charlottesville will always hold a special place in their hearts, but Clint and Kelly are proud to call St. Croix home.

Kelly and Clint moved to St. Croix in August of 2006 with two great friends and immediately fell in love with island life. “I love being outside and having time to enjoy friends in this gorgeous environment,” says Kelly, “I can’t imagine living in a place without sunshine every day.” When asked about her favorite part of living on St. Croix, Kelly remarked, “I love the people! Crucians are incredibly friendly, with just a smile and a ‘Good Morning’ it’s easy to make a new friend.”

Kelly officially joined Team San Martin upon arriving on island, but had met with the group in New York the summer before at a Howard Brinton Real Estate Convention. Clint began his career on St. Croix as a chef at the Buccanneer Resort. He joined RE/MAX in April of 2007 as the Closing Coordinator and feeds his love of Culinary Arts as the Production Manager at Crucian Sauces, the makers of St. Croix’s famous Miss Anna’s hot sauce collection.

Married in St. Patrick’s Church in Fredericksted on January 1, 2007, Kelly and Clint were able to introduce the island to over 65 friends and family that flew in for the event. Kelly and Clint will introduce a new family member to St. Croix in April as they welcome their first child.
Update: Kelly and Clint introduced a new family member to St. Croix in 2008, their daughter Anna was born on April 6.

Linda's Story

Linda has been a member of Team San Martin since January 2006. She arrived in St. Croix in 2004 and hasn’t look back since. Native of London, she spent 20 years touring the world working for one of the top international buying offices. She was a Divisional Vice President with employees based around the world spanning many time zones.

Linda worked in 40 + countries on short and long term assignments. Her clients included Galleries Lafayette, Bloomingdale’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Target, Marshall’s, TJ Max, Burdines, Dillard’s, Metro Stores of Singapore and Matsuzakya of Tokyo among many others. This is where she developed her sense of style and elegance with her signature hats and innate sense of island chic.

During her years of travel, she experienced many exciting events such as: being held hostage in a coup in the Philippines; in New Delhi, India when Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated; in Taiwan for a significant earthquake, in Hong Kong high rise buildings for some amazing cyclones; mugged at least 5 times in New York City; arriving for lunch in town with a police escort at the Pierre hotel in New York City; narrowly missing many bombings in Tel Aviv, Israel; surviving food poisoning in Pakistan; robbed of all her clothes, shoes, money, passport and green card in Cancun, Mexico; spending the evening in immigration detention in Toronto having forgotten to bring her passport or green card …She will be happy to share these and many other stories when you meet her in St. Croix.

She has found life in St. Croix to be the perfect antidote to the crazy hustle and bustle life she led in the past. She says of St. Croix, it is the perfect place where everyone smiles and gives you a warm greeting of “good day”, “good afternoon” and “goodnight” …. the place where the sun shines every day and the social life never stops with wine clubs, gourmet foods and great restaurants adorning the island. Linda is a dog lover and can be seen many evenings on the boardwalk walking an assortment of dogs such as Julius and Cleo her long haired mini Dachshunds, Jolie the French Poodle, Lacy the Shitzu and her newest Maltese puppy, Winston.

She is looking forward to showing you the beauty of the island and finding your dream home.