In the past couple of months, the Bissey real estate team—father Stan, sons Scott and Todd—have sustained all of these injuries. Yet gathered around a conference table at the offices of John C. Formant Real Estate Inc. at 225 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, the men take their recent accidents in stride.

Diving into a hotel pool in Arizona in April, Scott’s injury—he’s the one who damaged a vertebra—could have been far worse. While a doctor on site told him simply to rest for a few days, Scott’s regular physician in D.C. took one look and ordered him to an emergency room—stat.

“’Whatever you do,’” says Todd, recalling the doctor’s stern warning as he prepared to take his younger brother to the hospital, “’don’t get in an accident.’” Even a minor fender bender could have caused significant additional damage to Scott’s neck and spine.

Todd took the physician’s words to heart, driving as carefully as he could to the ER, where Scott was fitted with a neck brace. His mobility is somewhat impaired, but Scott still chugs along with his brother and dad as they work a real-estate market long on buyers, if short on inventory.

The Bisseys’ scrapes may have honed their ability to roll with the punches in such a competitive real-estate market.

“Everyone thinks all we [sell] is Capitol Hill, but that’s not the case,” says Todd, rubbing the fingers his doctor bound with tape after he jammed them in a softball game; he also coaches the Phillies’ Little League team on the Hill. “In May alone, we’ve got closings in Burleith, Georgetown, Chillum, and Woodridge, as well as Capitol Hill.”

Stan—who hurt his knee skiing this winter—observes that the market has pulled out of its typical seasonal slump. “In January, February and March, it was really slow,” he says. “There just wasn’t any inventory.”

“But toward the end of April, we found properties for all of our clients,” Todd adds. “It’s definitely not slowing down.”

Todd worked in marketing for a dot-com, labored on construction sites and painted houses before passing his real-estate exam. By the time Todd was licensed in early 2002, Stan had long since earned his own license, though he wasn’t actively selling properties; his focus then was on the property management and construction businesses he had founded. Todd persuaded his father—whom both sons call ‘Stan’ around the office—to focus more on sales. And so D.C.’s father-and-son real estate team was formed.

Make that two sons. Scott joined on in spring 2004, after stints working as a personal trainer and managing a Krispy Kreme in Washington State. While Scott says he has learned a lot about the business from Todd and Stan, “my brother and I tend to both be kind of stubborn,” so working together has its frustrating moments, he admits.

The younger Bisseys both reside on the Hill but say they enjoy quality time with their father and mother, Jeanie, who still live in Rockville, where Todd and Scott grew up. They’re only half-joking when they talk about bringing Mom—a regional manager for a fundraising company—into the family real-estate fold.

“I love working with them,” says Todd, glancing toward his brother and father. “I was always closer to Mom growing up; she is the one I would talk to when I would call from college. So I’ve gotten a lot closer to Dad. It’s neat seeing your family members in a different light.”

For his part, Stan seems delighted at the chance to partner with his boys.

“It’s very satisfying to see them work and be productive,” he says. “Todd is more interested in the marketing aspects, while Scott concentrates more on the technical and business parts of selling.”

Injuries notwithstanding, Team Bissey still brings its A-game to the rough-and-tumble world of D.C. real estate.

See www.JohnCFormant.com for more information.