Aalways coming in first

Aaxon Realty strives to become 'family realtor'

It's not hard to find Aaxon Realty in the phonebook.

And that's how broker and owner Philip Grosso likes it.

"I made it up," he said, referring to the name of his new business. "It gets you in the phonebook first. Also, we put a lot of keywords in our search engine, and so generally we get hit, and when we get hit, we get on the top again."

Aaxon also sounds a little older than it is, because of the similarities to a certain gas station.

But in aall aactuality, Aaxon Realty opened at 2219 W. Broadway, Suite A on Nov. 1, 2003.

Grosso originally hails from the coast; he said it was the weather, lifestyle and traffic that made him make the original move to the area about five years ago. He used to run a construction business in Ephrata.

"I've been in real estate mortgages and construction all my life," he said.

Opening Aaxon took only a month, Grosso said.

"I believe there's, at least if not a need, room for a real estate company (in the area), especially with our philosophy, which is a lot more customer and service-oriented," Grosso said. "I don't believe that you really sell a house to somebody; you have to help them find the right house and they decide to buy it. And then all the legal stuff that has to be done, that people just don't know about."

As part of Grosso's philosophy, the phrase "By Referral Only" gets special positioning on his business cards. He explained that the real estate business is pretty much a referral business.

"The thing you have to do is stay in touch with people," he said. "You have a family doctor, right? A family dentist? Who's your family realtor? Not most people (have one). What we're trying to do is build that kind of professionalism, where you feel, you think about a house or you hear somebody talking about one, you say 'Hey my friend Phil works in the real estate business. You should give him a call.'"

Grosso employs one other salesperson at the moment, although he does plan to expand.

"We're looking," he said. "The community's pretty tight. We definitely want to get more people, and it hasn't been easy. We'd probably have to recruit new people coming to get into the business."

Grosso said he's been working with a number of people from the coast and is trying to get a builder to come over and do some work.

The future appears bright, in Grosso's opinion.

"I see this market as just right on the edge of taking off," he said. "The (baby) boomers are coming. I think that's what's going to drive this market over the next ten years. I see more and more boomers coming. Just in the last month, I've sold four waterfront properties to boomers."