WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — When the three new owners of Moseley Associates discussed buying the 40-year-old property management and real estate business, their shared gender was not foremost in their minds.
The fact that they are all women had no bearing on the decision by Jessica Neily, Christina Teffner and Amy LaCroix to pursue the purchase. Instead, they were focused on the opportunity that presented itself when they heard Jack and Kathy Moseley were thinking of retiring.
Although some of their clients noted the women-only ownership, the trio bought the Moseley Associates because they saw it as a logical fit for their professional careers and a chance to stay with the business, with the added benefit of their long-standing personal relationships, Neily said during an interview last month at Moseley’s offices on Stagecoach Road.
The three women had been working at Moseley — for between two and four years — when they made their initial inquiry about buying from the Moseleys in December 2023.
Neily said she spoke to Teffner and LaCroix at the time about the idea of becoming owners.
“It doesn’t hurt to ask and see if they would be willing to entertain selling to us,” Neily recalled telling her co-owners. Comfortable in their careers, Neily, 45, said they had their real estate licenses and none of them wanted to start over somewhere else, which were also factors in their decision to pursue ownership.
In the spring of 2024, the Moseleys made the offer to sell and the sale closed on May 1.
Attempts to reach Jack Moseley for this article were unsuccessful.
Moseley is primarily a property management company, which constitutes 80% of the business, with the other 20% being real estate sales. The business manages primarily homeowner association residential properties and office buildings in Quechee, Lebanon, Hanover and White River Junction.
Each client has a one-year contract that spells out Moseley’s responsibilities. These include attendance at HOA board meetings, finance committee and annual meeting preparation, bid preparation for outside contracts and monthly managers reports.
Moseley has its own maintenance department and contracts larger projects with outside vendors.
Finding financing to buy the business proved a little tricky, Neily said.
“It is hard to pull together financing because there are no tangible assets,” she said. “It is a book of business, not something a bank could attach (in the event of default).”
Sugar River Bank in Grantham and Newport agreed to finance the sale, terms of which were not disclosed. The new name is CJA Inc., doing business as Moseley Associates.
Neily said another important piece to the acquisition was understanding the talents each of them bring to business and who would handle different duties.
Having longtime personal relationships, Neily and Teffner (LaCroix was not present for the interview) said they had no reservations about being able to work together.
Teffner and LaCroix have known each other since first grade. Both attended Lebanon High School. Neily is a Mascoma graduate, who has known LaCroix for 20 years and Teffner for 10.
“I was excited and ready to try it out because I felt we had a good handle on our individual positions as association managers and we are all roughly the same age,” Teffner said. “I thought it would be a natural progression to move forward with the sale.”
The women each have a third ownership as the senior management team. At weekly meetings, they sometimes vote on when decisions are made. Neily said “majority rules” and if the vote is 2-1, they all respect and will stand by the vote.
Neily said as an independent company, they can tailor each contract to the client’s needs and circumstances, which is typically not how it works with property management businesses that are part of larger, national companies that write each contract the same way.
As they enter 2025, Neily, Moseley’s president, with Teffner as treasurer and LaCroix as secretary, said one of their goals is to ramp up the real estate and commercial parts of the business.
“I suspect the real estate market side will come into play more this winter and we will be ready in the spring and summer (when single-family home sales are higher),” Neily said.
“A lot of condo owners (that Moseley manages) are not coming here to sell their units,” Neily continued. “We are thinking why is that. Part of our business plan in the upcoming year is to have people who manage your associations, market and sell your home for you. It will bridge a gap and make us more full service.”
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.