Laura P. Dunlap
Meet Laura Dunlap: Your Trusted Real Estate Partner
I bought on Long Beach Island before I ever held a license.
It was a vacation rental, and I was the client. I emptied my account to buy it and needed the rental income to carry it. I was nervous, and I leaned hard on my agent. She came through. That is when I understood what a good agent is actually for, and it shaped everything that came after.
That was nearly thirty years ago. Since then I've guided buyers, sellers, investors, and renters through LBI's most competitive markets: $152M in closed volume, a 95%+ sale-to-list price ratio, and recognition across three decades as a top producer and top listing agent — most recently the 2025 BHHS Chairman's Circle Award and RealTrends verification as a top 1.5% agent nationally.
Before real estate, I spent twelve years with the New Jersey Superior Court in Ocean County. I started as a probation officer working with juvenile offenders and moved through case management leadership into human resources and management. I learned to read people under pressure, to mediate when positions hardened, and to build systems that held up when the stakes were real.
I also built and sold houses on spec here for years. That gave me a working knowledge most agents don't have: what a renovation actually costs, how flood requirements and building rules shape what's possible on a given lot, and which properties rent well and which ones only look like they will. When a buyer asks whether a house is worth what it's listed at, I can answer with more than a comparable. And when a question runs past what I know — survey, title, structural, legal — thirty years here means I know exactly whom to call.
A transaction at this level is rarely only about the property. Someone buying is starting a chapter. Someone selling is closing one. My job is to know which chapter a client is in and help them move through it with a clear head. I've worked this island through the 2008 crash, Superstorm Sandy, and a pandemic. Those years taught me that the people who navigate a transition well are the ones who get clear about what they actually want before they move.
I've lived on LBI for forty years and raised my family here. Barnegat Light to Holgate, and the mainland towns alongside it. I know how this island has changed, and what hasn't.
If you're thinking about selling, I'd welcome a conversation before you're ready to list. That's usually when the most useful decisions get made.
And if you've already found a house here you can't stop thinking about, call me about that one. I'll give you a straight read on what it's worth, what it will ask of you, and what can't be changed later.
