Our History
The “Rocking B Story”
It may be a new look for us, but it comes with a long history!
Let’s begin with Ralph Boley, the hardest worker you can imagine. Ralph spent most of his life pursuing his passion for farming and raising cattle. He knew the land like no other and was honest, respected and extremely knowledgeable.
The Rocking B was a branding iron that Ralph Boley had registered with the State of Iowa Secretary of Agriculture in 1967 for his cattle farm in rural Birmingham, IA.
Ralph’s son Jim was only 11 when the branding iron was made but remembers it very well. Glen Hendricks, the local blacksmith built the iron and torch for the Boleys. A few short years later, Jim and Barb, Glen’s daughter, met in school and were later married.
After Ralph sold his farm and had retired from farming, he began his adventures in owning a real estate company in 1985. He started Boley Real Estate out of the basement of a little corner building in Keosauqua, IA, launching the “Boley Family Business”.
A few years after that, he moved his business a couple of buildings down the block to the old Western Auto building and remodeled it into offices. In 1992, Ralph asked daughter-in-law Barb to join his team along with his wife Marilyn. Jim got his real estate license in 2000 and he and Barb purchased Boley Real Estate from Jim’s parents in 2001 when Ralph retired. Jim and Barb’s oldest son, Nick, came back to Iowa and got his real estate license in 2004 and after the Marine Corps and college, their youngest son, Tyler, got his license in 2010 and opened our Albia location in 2012.
After almost 40 years of helping hundreds of people buy and sell real estate, we are still a dedicated, family-owned business and wanted to get back to our roots. We thought it was time for a new look so this is where the Rocking “B” came back to life.
We think Ralph would be proud of his legacy he left.
We carry on the tradition with the same honesty, respect, and love of the land that Ralph was known for.
As a small, family-owned business, our hearts are in the communities we serve, and we truly want what is best for the people we represent.
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