Russ Schafer

I want to thank you for all the support you gave us during our recent purchase of the Sea Ray 480. We especially appreciated your knowledge and attention to detail in helping us through the decision and purchasing process. Also, since we flew in from out of town it was very helpful that you were able to line up the survey teams to inspect and report their findings while we were in town. As well as the introductions you made to the different companies who provided 1st class service prior to our moving the boat up to Southern Maryland. Russ Schafer is the best - doubt we could have found a better representative to work with… I can't thank you enough.

Just wanted to shoot you a quick note and tell you how much I enjoyed working with you on the sale of Low Life. You did an outstanding job of keeping me updated throughout the process as well as advising me what you thought it would take to sell the boat. Furthermore it was you going the extra mile and reaching back out to everyone who had contacted you on the boat the previous 9 months that ultimately resulted in the sale. Not many brokers that would have gone to that much effort and give my boat so much special attention.

Given my addiction to all things fiberglass I’m positive we’ll be connecting on many more transactions in the future. Looking forward to a friendship for years to come.

I’m the purchaser of a small boat your company listed.  The broker is Russ Schafer.  The process began simply enough.  Over a year ago, my wife and I started looking for an intermediate boat to enjoy on the fresh water lakes around Atlanta.  We owned a 380 Sea Ray and I have a pretty extensive fresh and salt water boating background.  We dearly loved our 380, but with all the use it got, it simply wasn’t big enough to handle our now thirteen year old daughter and her friends during their stays.

Things got even more pressed when our three older children and their spouses and friends visited.  I sold my company a couple of years ago to WebMD, and have a couple more years on my workout, so I really didn’t want to get anything extravagant on this run and wanted to try and lose as little as possible on the next transaction, while keeping the wife and daughter in the manner to which they were rapidly becoming accustomed.  We looked at dozens of boats all along the coasts of Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.  We made offers on a couple, and even made arrangements almost a year ago to see Russ’ listing in Ft. Lauderdale while we were in Florida looking at some others.  I made arrangements to see it, then schedules changed, and Russ and I weren’t able to connect, although we did email and text pretty extensively.

Nearly a year later, still not having found the perfect boat, I got an odd email from Russ, dated April 14^th 2014.  It was simply a follow up to a year earlier email about scheduling that had gotten lost somewhere in the email cloud.  I chuckled, responded to the email and took a quick look to see what that boat sold for…found that it hadn’t sold, the price had dropped pretty significantly from what I recalled and it now made sense for us at a number of levels.  Pure coincidence…but here we are, about six weeks later, pretty close to closing on a boat and I think we are happy and the owner is happy.  Despite the intervention of fate, this still might not have happened without Russ Schafer.  I am a detail guy, and Russ probably answered a hundred emails and calls.  He picked me up from the airport for the sea trial.  He brought sandwiches and coffee that tasted awfully good when I realized that I was so consumed by the process that I had forgotten to eat along the way.  He showed humor, and patience, and grace and availability and went above and beyond any reasonable expectations anyone would ever have for a yacht broker, especially one dealing with something not much bigger than some tenders, and probably less expensive.  He was informed, unfailingly polite, and made a geographically clumsy process move smoother than it had the right.

Not only would I recommend him to a friend, I look forward to working with him again as the stock freeze lifts from my work out in a couple of years and we get something more substantial.  Boating for me is something of an obsession, I know a fair amount, and knew enough to know that Russ could easily have cut corners when no one was looking, and he didn’t.  I trust him now and going forward, to do what he says he is going to do and to be honest and forthright about it.  Russ took time from his family to make this happen, and I profoundly respect his professionalism and commitment to the process.  I can’t imagine what he could have done to make the process better…but I suspect that if I had thought of something, and mentioned it, he would have been accommodating.

I recently completed the sale of my yacht, Manitou, with the fine assistance of your Salesman, Russ Schafer. The listing for my boat covered a span of over two years and several disappointing prospects before Russ was finally able to get the interest of a buyer who Russ convinced to buy my boat.

Through this selling process, Russ kept me fully and timely informed in order to bring the sale to a close in spite of the buyer being difficult to communicate with. Russ got around this problem and I
commend him for it.

You should be extremely proud to have Russ Schafer on Denison's sales team. I have owned Motoryacht's for several years and have had contact with numerous brokers. Russ works harder and smarter than any broker I've ever met. He's extremely hard working, honest and fair to both the seller and the buyer, and in a heartbeat without reservation, I would strongly recommend Russ to any potential buyer or seller.

Perhaps the strongest statement I could make about Russ came from another very good broker named Brad Hunt. Although Brad is a competitor of Russ, he had nothing but good things to say about Russ. That is an unusual reputation that Russ has earned over his many years as a professional broker. I also commend Denison for empowering top notch brokers like Russ to make certain decisions, without delaying the sales process. He recently sold my 67 foot Hatteras, and once the buyer was located, the
sea trial, and closing process, went as smooth as a peeled onion. Russ was instrumental in every step of the process. My hats off to Russ and Denison.