Meet Rocktown Realty: Local Real Estate, Property Management & More
Finding the right place to live, buying or selling a home, managing an investment property, or serving on an HOA board can all come with a lot of questions. At Rocktown Realty, our job is to help make those decisions and responsibilities a little easier to navigate.
Rocktown Realty is a full-service real estate firm serving Harrisonburg and the surrounding area. Our team works with renters, property owners, buyers, sellers, and homeowner associations—but at the center of all of those services is something pretty simple: people and the places they call home.
Why Was Rocktown Realty Started?
Rocktown Realty's story started with Julie and Bernard Hamann's own rental properties.
In 2010, Julie was working as a REALTOR® and helping investors buy rental properties. Because she and Bernard owned rentals themselves, some of those clients began asking if she would manage their properties, too. They had seen the way Julie and Bernard approached their own rentals, keeping the properties in good condition, attracting tenants, and maintaining strong occupancy, and they wanted the same kind of care for their investments.
Those requests planted the seed for what would become Rocktown Realty.
We initially focused on rental management, but soon realized our clients needed more. Property owners might need help purchasing another investment or eventually selling one. Renters might later become homebuyers. Over time, Rocktown grew into a full-service real estate firm offering property management, real estate sales, and homeowner association management.
What hasn't changed is the approach behind it. We never set out to build the biggest company possible. Instead, we wanted to create a more boutique real estate firm where our team could stay involved, know the properties we represent, and provide a level of service that becomes harder to maintain when a company grows simply for the sake of growth.
The focus has always been on quality over quantity.
What Services Does Rocktown Realty Provide?
Rocktown Realty works with people on many different sides of real estate.
We're not only a rental company or only a property management company. We're a full-service real estate firm, which allows us to help people through different stages of owning, renting, and investing in property.
- Our team manages rental properties and helps property owners take care of the day-to-day details of their investments.
- We help people buy and sell homes and other real estate.
- We manage homeowner associations.
- And we help renters, from college students looking for off-campus housing to families and people who are new to the area, find a place that fits their needs.
If you don’t know much about real estate, this also means you don't have to figure everything out before coming to us.
One of our team's most important roles is guiding people through unfamiliar processes—whether that's an owner trying to determine how to rent out their property, a tenant looking for the right home, or someone preparing to buy or sell.
What Makes Our Approach Different?
If there's one idea at the center of how we approach our work, it's care.
Since the beginning, we've held our rental properties to a simple standard: we want every property we manage to be one we’d put our families in.
That can mean working with an owner to replace worn carpet, update an outdated kitchen or bathroom, add new furniture to a student rental, or make other improvements that create a better place to live. It also means treating an owner's property like an investment we have a stake in protecting.
“My family taught me that no one is better than anyone else. So when we’re getting a property ready, regardless of if it’s a lower-income property or a very expensive property, we’re going to treat them all the same, because I think everybody deserves that.”
— Julie Hamann, Owner, Principal Broker, REALTOR®
That same care extends to the people living in those properties. Since we work with both property owners and residents, we want everyone involved to know we're there for them.
That commitment to care shapes how we approach every relationship. We strive to be empathetic, sincere, and honest—taking the time to understand the person and situation in front of us and being open and fair whether we're working with a buyer, seller, property owner, or tenant.
How Does the Rocktown Team Make Real Estate and Renting Feel Less Stressful?
Real estate doesn't always go according to plan. A maintenance issue comes up. Roommates have a conflict. A property owner faces an unexpected repair. Someone is trying to understand a rental process they've never been through before.
That's where having a team with different backgrounds and experiences matters.
Our team’s combined experience helps our customers navigate stressful situations. When something unexpected happens, there's usually someone on the team who can help identify the next step.
This may mean helping an owner gather estimates and determine the best approach to an unexpected expense. Other times, it may be helping the parents of a student explore different housing options when roommate issues made them wonder whether moving would be the better fit.
“Having the ability to connect with someone and make them feel heard and understood—I think that’s the best approach that any property manager can take.”
— Karin Crawford, Senior Property Manager, REALTOR®
And sometimes going the extra mile is much more literal.
Shortly before a group of students was scheduled to move into their townhouse, Julie found that the property still needed attention. She inspected it, realized it needed additional cleaning, touch-up paint, curtains and mattress pads, and headed out to buy what was needed. Before the students arrived, she was back at the property helping get everything ready herself.
Even as the owner of the company, she says that's part of the job.
What Goes Into the Work Done by Rocktown Realty?
Customers often see the finished result: a lease signed, a maintenance issue resolved, a property ready for move-in, or a real estate transaction completed. What they don't always see is how many people and moving pieces can be involved in getting there.
Property management alone can include tenant and owner communication, paperwork, financial responsibilities, maintenance coordination, and administrative work. On any given day, the team may be responding to several very different situations at once.
That makes behind-the-scenes communication especially important.
We've intentionally built a supportive, family-oriented culture within Rocktown Realty. The idea is that caring for our customers starts with having people inside the company who care about and support one another.
What Does Being Part of the Harrisonburg and Rockingham County Community Mean to Us?
For Rocktown Realty, Harrisonburg isn't simply where our office happens to be. It's home.
Our roots here go back long before Rocktown Realty. Julie grew up nearby in Dayton and returned to the area after spending time in Richmond. She and Bernard raised their children in the Shenandoah Valley, and much of her family still lives nearby. When the two decided to start the company, Harrisonburg was the natural place to do it.
We've intentionally stayed focused on the local market rather than trying to expand as far as possible. Many members of our team have lived in the Valley and watched its neighborhoods and communities change over time.
“Rocktown Realty is unique because we are homegrown in the Valley and have seen these communities from what they were to what they are today.”
— Lauren Preston, Director of Property Management, REALTOR®
Being part of this community also means providing a service people genuinely need. One experience that has been particularly meaningful to us has been helping people who are new to the United States navigate a rental system they may know nothing about. We've had opportunities to help people arriving through refugee resettlement find housing, get settled, and begin building a life here.
That’s why the idea of “home” matters so much to what we do.
