Bette and Sal Gallo mark 30 years
Bette and Sal Gallo have ridden the real estate market’s peaks and valleys for more than three decades. The business they started 30 years ago this month is a reflection of the couple’s business acumen, work ethic and willingness to embrace change.
“We started out as just two people, no secretaries, no agents. We didn’t want any agents. But that didn’t last long, about two years,” Bette said.
Today, Prudential Gallo, Realtors has two offices, 60 agents and nearly a dozen managers, secretaries, bookkeepers and support staff.
In 1973, the Gallos moved from Norristown, Pa., to Lewes where for five years Bette managed the Anderson-Stokes real estate company’s Lewes office.
Anderson-Stokes is widely credited – some say reviled – for the Cape Region’s resort market real estate explosion.
“They were the only big real estate company in the Lewes-Rehoboth area, and everybody branched off from them – we did,” Sal said, naming a half dozen other companies.
The Gallos said throughout the 1970s, Danny Anderson and Paul Stokes “were the big boys” in Cape Region real estate.
“Paul Stokes was 20 years ahead of his time,” Sal said. Anderson-Stokes built and sold the area’s first resort townhomes and condominiums including Pilot Point in Lewes and Star of the Sea in Rehoboth Beach.
“I knocked on doors when we first came here because I didn’t know anyone. When I said I was from Anderson Stokes they said ‘We don’t want to talk to you.’ It was interesting,” Bette said, laughing about the experience.
In mid-July 1979, after going out on their own, the Gallos said jobs weren’t plentiful so they created their own.
“We had a lot of side business. When we first moved here we had a sub shop and an ice cream store,” Bette said.
Sal said he also built a few homes working with then-partner Evans Norwood. “But there was no profit in it. The last home, after working on it six months, I think we made $1,500,” said Sal, laughing.
In the early years, before there was a fax or internet, hitting the road was the only way for them to seal a real estate deal.
“We’d just drive to D.C. and Baltimore, which is where most of the people came from at that time. “We’d meet people after work, maybe at 6, 7, or 8 o’clock at night and drive back,” Bette said.
“Technology wasn’t the way it is today. The only things you’d walk around with were a rate book, a yellow pad and keys,” said Sal. The couple said it wasn’t unusual for them to make two round-trips a day to Washington, D.C.
“It was either that or the mail. When FedEx came in we were thrilled because we could send things and they’d get them the next day and, hopefully, you’d get them back the next day,” Bette said.
In the mid-1970s, when the country was held hostage by gasoline rationing, the couple said they had to assure prospective buyers interested in coming to the area to look at properties that they’d be able to get back home.
“People from D.C. couldn’t get here. They didn’t even have enough gasoline to go to work,” Sal said.
Bette said fax machines soon had an advantage over next-day document delivery services and now email has trumped a fax.
“Buyers today are more sophisticated. There are virtual tours – they can see the whole house. If they think they’re interested, they make a call and come down,” Sal said.
He said years ago buyers needed to be educated about the area, the location of housing developments, costs and so on. Bette said although the internet has put information at buyers’ fingertips, real estate sales still require person-to-person skills. She said one of their agents recently showed a couple 15 homes. “They didn’t like any of them. They had just picked stuff, but they had no idea where the homes were,” Bette said.
“Basically, in this business, you just have to fill needs. You give people what they’re looking for and that leads to repeat business,” Sal said.
He said 80 percent of Prudential Gallo’s sales are repeat customers and referrals. “You don’t want to sell to somebody once and never see them again,” he said.
Gallo Realty’s first office was behind a gasoline service station at Route 1 and Route 24. The building was demolished when Route 1 was widened.
That’s when they built their home office on Kings Highway in Lewes.
“We lived here, and we had the office in one section. We eventually added to it and turned the whole thing into an office,” Bette said.
The Gallos – he’s 76, she’s 72 – have been married 51 years and have four children, Lee Ann, Maria, Steve and Tricia.
After opening the Lewes office, Bette began leasing commercial property in Rehoboth Beach, so the company needed an office there.
“We moved around a lot then and we ended up with an office on Christian Street,” Bette said. Since then, the office has been located on Rehoboth Avenue.
In 1991 the Gallos affiliated with Prudential to form Prudential Gallo, Realtors. The following year, Gallo merged with Virginia Joy Real Estate.
The Gallos said the most recent real estate boom lasted about 12 years. “That spoiled a lot of people,” Sal said. “People were paying more than the property was worth,” Bette said.
Bette said when they first started in 1979, “the market wasn’t great and it got worse.”
“In the early 1980s we had high interest rates – 18 percent – and higher. It was a tough market,” she said.
The Gallos said the last real estate boom was fueled by homebuyers who made purchases at initially low interest rates that later doubled.
But, they said, in the core areas of Lewes and Rehoboth Beach, not many properties were sold under those terms.
“Most of what we’re dealing with is people who want second homes. If you have a second home you have a little bit of money. You don’t buy a second home on a shoestring – unless you’re a speculator.
“They’re the ones who lost money,” Sal said.
The Gallos said 30 years ago home foreclosures were rare, but today they’re numerous. “There used to be a stigma attached to foreclosure and bankruptcy. But today it’s, ‘Who cares?’ There’s a different attitude,” Sal said.
For additional information on Prudential Gallo, Realtors, go to www.prugallo.com
