Faces Of New Bedford #156: Benny Olmeda

Meet Benny Olmeda, 37-year-old Realtor and Sales Manager at RE/MAX Vantage, as well as co-owner of Shop U7. Benny moved to the US at the age of 5 from Puerto Rico with his sister and mother, growing up in the Westlawn housing complex in the cities West End. Wanting to escape the trouble that surrounded him, he worked hard to secure himself a job working in infrastructure in Boston after graduating high school.

Benny’s longtime friend and broker, Eddie Lopez, had always suggested he get into the real estate market, seeing his entrepreneurial mindset and friendly personality. He got licensed and slowly began assisting family and friends with buying and selling their homes. Benny didn’t get heavily involved in the market until 2015 though when he saw the possibilities his talents could achieve for him. Giving himself 6 months, he told himself if he could focus 2 hours a day and weekends to real estate, he would venture into it full-time, which only took a month and a half for him to make the transition.

Since then Benny has been able to help countless local families buy and sell their homes, hoping to help families who were just like his when they moved to New Bedford. Not only has he focused on real estate but pursuing his passions, one of which is his love for the sneaker culture. He and several friends came together to open Shop U7 in 2014, a consignment shop that buys and sells sneakers not only locally, but all over the world. He loves seeing that the store has been able to bring people from across all walks of life together with one sole purpose, collecting their favorite sneakers.

“Build your own dreams or someone else will hire you to build theirs.”

Faces of New Bedford is a project by Colton Simmons. If you are interested in booking a shoot or getting prints from the series email all inquiries to colton@coltonsimmons.com.

Read more of the Faces of New Bedford series here.