At just 19 years old, Denise Rosato got her first taste of success in real estate when the rental she lived in was converted to a housing co-operative.
Rosato negotiated and then bought the rights to buy the apartments from the tenants who couldn’t afford the purchase prices. “That’s what started my whole interest in real estate – there was money to be made,” she said.
Now, 28 years later – with 16 years as a licensed real estate agent – Rosato is one of the managing partners of The Relocation Group in Greenwich, Conn. She said when she first moved to Greenwich about two decades ago and looked for a rental unit of her own, “there was no one to service me. They would show you one thing and never call you back.”
That’s when Rosato realized a niche in southwest Connecticut could be filled. “The beauty about rentals is that someone always needs to rent. They don’t always need to buy,” said Rosato, who got her feet wet running the rental division at Weichert Realtors as regional manager serving New York and Connecticut.
Looking for more independence, Rosato founded The Relocation Group in 2002 with her husband, Peter. The Relocation Group specializes in high-end home sales over $1 million and rentals serving corporate relocation clients, as well as local clients. Rosato runs the Greenwich office, while Peter heads the firm’s Stamford office.
“My love is helping people, finding them that perfect home,” she said. “It’s the customer service, and it’s nice because we get to meet new people from all around the world.”
Rosato clearly also has a way with her company’s 20 employees. Mary Ann Kolevski, officer manager at The Relocation Group for the past five years, joked that most of Rosato’s employees are so inspired by her leadership skills that it’s a commonly held belief that Rosato should become a motivational speaker.
Rosato said her firm usually has over 60 sales and rental transactions per month. Business in the last year is up 50 percent from the prior year, with many high-end commercial sales of late.
Besides real estate, philanthropic work is close to Rosato’s heart. She founded the Peter’s Chance Foundation in response to the rare disease Lennox-Gasault Syndrome. The foundation raised $70,000 last year. Rosato is also on the advisory board of the First Bank of Greenwich, and active with Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital, the Greenwich Association of Realtors and the Greenwich Chamber of Commerce.
