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Al Russo
TXR Homes

Personally Speaking

 Al is a San Diego native Italian and grew up in his parent’s many local restaurants waiting on guests, managing dining rooms and connecting many of them with each other who could solve pressing issues and challenges. When not growing his clients' net worth, Al trained over a 40 year period in Korean martial arts, attaining multiple degrees of black belt rank and instructing black belts, grew up racing dirt bikes, LOVES cooking for family and friends, and  is a serious space nerd while watching the International Space Station when it flies overhead. His early medical years as a diagnostic cardiovascular technologist is equally geeky and good evidence of his love for detective work and problem solving. Al now insists on 2 cups of coffee in the morning for a jump start but saves money by buying coffee beans at Costco. Too many people have learned that Al sucks at pairing wines with entrees and you'd have better luck using "paper-scissors-rock" in choosing. Sorry. He does however find fulfillment in helping others succeed and will ask you rhetorically, “are not serving and being served just 2 different folds in the same garment?" Al credits God's plan for his life as responsible for his path and the privilege of being used to serve you.




Could this be different?

Real estate tough love: 

If we do work together, I’m your adviser and in escrow I become your project manager. It’s your job is to decide if “this is the one”.  You want to buy that dream home? Let’s go. I’ll write the contract, do the negotiations, talk sense with you and keep you sane while we go through the process of making it all happen. Read on.

Selling?

You’re in a beauty contest AND a price war, and you have to win at both. If you’re not getting showings and if you’re not getting offers it’s the message of the market that you may be over-priced or the buyers are adjusting down price based on that beauty contest comparing other homes to yours.  Value is not determined by those who set the price. Value is determined by those who choose to pay it. I know. You want your home sold in the least amount of time, for the most money and just want the right person to do it. Realtors post their favorite testimonials to show you clients who have trusted us in the past, yours truly included. We all use the same multiple listing services. But nowadays most buyers tell their agent about your house because buyers scour  Zillow and Redfin every night after work and before bed. Consumer sites Zillow and Redfin, by the way, get their information from, yes, the MLS.

And true, we all have a marketing plan for your home.  Yard sign, photographs, drones, open houses and pitch sessions at local agent caravans. SPOILER ALERT: 99.5% of buyers will  first see your home on Zillow and Redfin. Almost all the rest left came from drive-by shoppers. Oops; almost forgot…   …2 people saw your house on Facebook or Craigslist.

Buying?

We’ll start by working with your lender and making sure you have are pre-approved to buy (“your wallet before going to the garage sale”).You want your agent to search high and low for a home you’ll love. While we’re doing that, we know you’re all over the internet at the same time.  Looking for a great negotiator? Most agents are great. We all have the same job and on every home we negotiate price, repairs, who keeps the appliances and a whole lot more as we help both sides arrive at a meeting of the minds. Us agents, well we get along just fine agent-to-agent behind the scenes, and you want that. We’re busy like foreign diplomats keeping the back channels open while we are guiding our clients through the challenges to understand the process even when you’ve bought and sold homes in the past. Yes, many of you have done this a few time or maybe several times. We already know you’re smart. It’s just that we just happen negotiate real estate contracts and deals every day. If you selected us as your realtor, we’re human and there is always something to learn, but we’re pretty good at this. Please trust us to know our stuff. We have our lenders, title professionals and inspectors for the things that they are experts at.  What do you say we get to work?

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