VENTURA : Carlton Sells Part of His Realty Firm

Don L. Carlton, who started selling Ventura real estate when houses in the city’s beach area could be purchased for $15,000, announced Wednesday that he is selling the residential arm of Don L. Carlton Realtors and going into semi-retirement.

Starting June 1, the three-office residential division of the Carlton concern, Ventura’s oldest and largest independently owned real-estate brokerage, will be known as Herrick & Co. It will be co-owned by Susan Herrick, now its corporate sales manager, and her husband, John Herrick, a former Carlton agent who now heads a property management company.

In an emotional meeting Wednesday with his agents, Carlton, 63, said, “I’ve decided I must spend more time with my grandchildren and the rest of the family.” He said, however, that he will continue to operate his commercial, industrial and property management divisions under the Don L. Carlton Realtors banner.

Neither Carlton nor the Herricks would disclose the price paid for the residential part of the business, but Susan Herrick said the operation’s revenues amount to about $100 million annually.

Carlton entered the real estate business in 1963, selling modest houses in Ventura’s Pierpont beach area. The houses sold for $15,000 to $18,000, he recalled. “Nowadays they’re worth from $200,000 to $400,000 and even more, depending on how much they’ve been upgraded,” he said.

Carlton said he has had many offers to sell out since founding his firm in 1965. “But I’ve always turned them down because they were from large companies. I wouldn’t want our people to have to call Los Angeles every time a decision had to be made.”

Susan Herrick, who also manages Carlton’s Telegraph Road office, will be president and chief executive of Herrick & Co. She has been with Carlton for 15 years. Her husband, who will be vice president, was a broker with Carlton for 10 years before forming Herrick Property Management in Ventura. He will continue to operate that company and will also be a broker with Herrick & Co.

Carlton and the Herricks said home sales are slowly recovering from their slump. “Both prices and interest rates are lower than they’ve been in some time,” Carlton said. “I see a gradual improvement over the next several years. I don’t expect any major upswings or downturns.”