Coastal Roots, Family Ties

For the Cheek family, life in Ocean Isle Beach and a multigenerational real estate business are intertwined with community and a shared love of Brunswick County.

At Ocean Isle Beach’s town park, there is an orange swing that belongs, at least in the mind of 3-year-old Isabelle Cheek, entirely to her.

At Ocean Isle Beach’s town park, there is an orange swing that belongs, at least in the mind of 3-year-old Isabelle Cheek, entirely to her.

“I wanna go my orange swing,” Isabelle says.

The summer concerts are apparently for her, too, along with the face-painting artist she eagerly anticipates each week. For Katherine and Clif Cheek, watching their youngest daughter embrace these community traditions captures much of what they love about raising their family on the Brunswick County coast.

“It is a magical place to raise a family,” Katherine says.

Clif has understood what makes Brunswick County special for most of his life. His family moved to Sunset Beach in 1984 and later built a home in Brick Landing, where the Cheeks were the neighborhood’s first permanent residents. He spent his childhood riding his bicycle through the golf course and exploring the communities between Sunset Beach and Shallotte. He also helped at his family’s miniature golf course near Holden Beach Pier.

After graduating from West Brunswick High School, Clif attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, studying journalism, graphic design and marketing.

His grandfather was an architect, and Clif had grown up sketching houses on graph paper. Those interests, combined with his parents’ work in real estate, made the profession a natural fit.

Clif’s father, Larry, began his career as a dentist, first in Rockingham and later in Calabash. After retiring from dentistry in 1999, he earned his real estate license and opened Resort Brokerage and Consulting. Clif’s mother, Cherri, had entered real estate at Sea Trail in 1996. A former second-grade teacher, she also served five terms as mayor of Sunset Beach.

Clif returned home after college, began working in property management and earned his real estate license in 2002 and broker license in 2003. He joined his parents in the business and later held leadership roles with the Brunswick County Association of Realtors and the Brunswick County Chamber of Commerce.

Katherine’s path to the coast began in Virginia, where her father was a builder and developer and her grandmother, Libby Howell, owned a real estate company.

Her teenage years brought extraordinary responsibility. At 14, she became a caregiver after both parents were diagnosed with cancer and her brother was diagnosed with a mental illness. Her father died when she was 16, and by 17 she was living independently, attending high school and working two jobs.

Those experiences shaped the determination and instinct to care for others that Katherine later brought to real estate and motherhood. She earned her real estate license in 2013 while raising her children Patrick and Natalie, finding ways to include them in the work she was building. The North Carolina coast remained especially meaningful because of the memories she had made there with her father.

“I knew I wanted to raise my own salty babies,” she says. “I wanted them to enjoy every day the memories I only got to experience two or three times a year.”

Katherine moved to the Hampstead area in 2016 and later met Clif through their work with Keller Williams. She was director of growth for the Wilmington market center, while Clif was broker-in-charge of the Brunswick County office. Once he introduced her to Ocean Isle Beach, she says she never wanted to leave.

Today, Katherine and Clif are raising four children: Patrick, Natalie, Caroline and Isabelle.

Their family was formed through both love and loss. After Patrick and Natalie lost their father, Clif legally adopted them. With children ranging from 3 to 18, the couple jokes that they are experiencing every season of family life at once.

The children have embraced coastal life in their own ways. Natalie enjoys surfing, kayaking and paddleboarding with Caroline, often bringing the family’s dogs along on the water. The older children also help prepare homes for clients, while Caroline enjoys accompanying Katherine to listings and appearing in marketing videos.

Larry and Cherri live only a few streets away on Ocean Isle Beach and remain part of the family’s daily rhythm. The two generations work together, vacation together and share ordinary moments as well as milestones. Katherine says Cherri is often their first call of the morning, and the children see their grandparents almost every day.

“You don’t want to take those relationships for granted,” Katherine says. “The most rewarding part is that our children are able to be with their grandparents almost every day.”

That multigenerational connection is also central to the Cheek Team, the boutique brokerage Katherine and Clif operate with Larry and Cherri. They work alongside agents Carlo Zulla, Tina Countryman and Christa Berciunas as well as operations executive Jayne Andrews, whom Katherine calls the team’s “angel” and “backbone.”

For the Cheeks, a boutique brokerage means clients work directly with the owners and receive service tailored to their property, circumstances and goals. Their office, Cheek Square, sits on Beach Drive between Ocean Isle Beach and Sunset Beach and brings several coastal real estate services together in one location.

The family is also preparing to relaunch Resort Brokerage in 2027. The name carries family history: Clif previously worked with Larry at the original firm before it merged with Keller Williams in 2018. Bringing it back celebrates the business father and son built together.

Clients often become friends, and the Cheeks’ involvement rarely ends at closing. When storms approach, they check on homeowners, help secure outdoor furniture and make sure someone is watching vacant properties. Their unofficial duties have also included babysitting and towing a client’s vehicle.

Balancing business and home is not always easy. Real estate calls can interrupt dinner, and much of the work happens during evenings and weekends. Even so, Clif describes working with his wife and parents as both unique and rewarding.

The same family-centered outlook guides the Cheeks’ community involvement. They support local schools, churches and organizations including Brunswick Family Assistance and The Carousel Center. Their family also sponsors school booster programs, participates in holiday drives and supports the Oyster Festival. The children often take part, learning that caring for Brunswick County means caring for the people who live here.

“Growth is inevitable,” Clif says, “but I want to keep that small-town character and sense of community, with neighbors helping neighbors and giving back.”

FINDING HOME HERE
The Cheek Team
7161 Beach Drive SW, Suite 3, Ocean Isle Beach
(910) 569-9716
thecheekteam.com