Residential Broker: Highest Value of Sales
Winner:
Ron de Salvo
Coldwell Banker Jon Douglas
$91 million
Runners Up:
Raju Chhabira
Shorewood Realtors
$67.7 million
Beverly Gold
Fred Sands
$57.7 million
No one in Los Angeles last year sold more homes, based on total value of sales, than Ron de Salvo, the No. 1 real estate broker in Coldwell Banker’s nationwide army of 67,000 brokers.
A veteran of 20 years in residential sales, de Salvo moved nearly $91 million worth of residential property last year, which he said is his best year ever. It even tops the numbers he posted in 1989 and 1990 a period now remembered as the zenith in Southern California real estate.
UCLA graduate de Salvo partially credits a buoyant economy, which has paid rich dividends for his target audience the very wealthy.
“You should see the messages by my phone right now. ‘Looking for a home between 7 (million) and 10 (million dollars).’ ‘Looking for anything up to 18 (million).’ It’s amazing to think there are that many people out there who can afford these properties.”
Last year, de Salvo sold about 40 homes, and noticed that many of his upscale clients were looking for even more than just one house and lot.
“It seems like many buyers want to buy the adjacent land and house, so they can knock down the other house and have more space,” he said. “That’s different from 1989-90, when people would put up the largest house they could on a smaller lot.”
De Salvo emphasizes that the secret to posting big numbers in residential real estate is working a lot of hours.
“He is the guy who locks up at night, after I leave,” said Tal Parsons, de Salvo’s assistant at Coldwell Banker Jon Douglas Co. in Beverly Hills. “I’ve even gotten calls from him at 2 in the morning about business.”
The typical work day has 12 hours, and a typical week has six work days.
Twenty years ago, when de Salvo was casting about for work during an unsatisfactory stint with the CBS programming sales department , he asked a friend Ken Goldman, now with the real estate law firm Goldman & Kagon what he should do.
“Ken said I was a good salesman, but that I should find a viable product that I shouldn’t try to sell would-be theatrical productions, but something real,” said de Salvo. “That’s when I decided to go into real estate. To this day, Ken takes credit for me.”
Following Goldman’s advice, de Salvo joined brokerage June Scott & Associates in 1978, and later that year started his own company called The Real Estate Exchange.
He sold that business to Realtor Fred Sands in 1981, and went to work for Merrill Lynch Real Estate. In 1987, de Salvo joined the Jon Douglas Co., which 10 years later merged with Coldwell Banker.
Today, de Salvo says his typical client is not a celebrity, but rather a “35-year-old investment banker, looking to settle down and start a family.”
The average house sold by de Salvo is in the $2.5 million to $3 million range, although he has sold some whoppers, including the Harold Lloyd “Green Acres” estate to grocery store tycoon Ron Burkle for $17.5 million.
Beyond long hours and a strong economy, de Salvo cites the importance of attitude.
“I actually think my heart is connected to my work, and that is clear to the people I work with. They sense they are important, that their needs are important to me, that I have their interest at heart,” said de Salvo.
But it’s de Salvo’s negotiating skills and knowledge that Betty Graham, manager of Coldwell Banker Jon Douglas’ Beverly Hills office, credit for his stellar results.
“The first thing you notice about (de Salvo) is that he is an incredible negotiator. He understands the win-win concept, and the dance between buyer and seller,” she said. “He also knows all of the properties in this market that are for sale, and which might be for sale in the future. He also knows all the buyers who are circling.”
Benjamin Mark Cole
