Southland Real Estate

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Southland Real Estate Real Estate Brokerage helping homeowners in Pinellas County, FL reliably sell their properties since 1979. (+2000 homes sold) Contact me today to get started.

If you’re looking to buy or sell a home near Saint Petersburg, let me help you! Your satisfaction is my top priority. For a stress-free experience, I am here every step of the way.

Hi everyone,If you've noticed more bright-green parrots flying over the neighborhood lately, you're not imagining it. Th...
10/22/2026

Hi everyone,

If you've noticed more bright-green parrots flying over the neighborhood lately, you're not imagining it. Those are nanday parakeets, and this time of year their flocks get bigger and a lot noisier.

According to Ann Paul, former president of the Tampa Audubon Society, it's seasonal. The birds pair off to breed in spring and summer, and by fall the young ones have joined the group. That doesn't mean the population has exploded, just that the flocks we see in October are larger. And unlike migratory birds, nandays stay put year-round in areas they know.

Originally from South America, they've lived wild in Florida for decades. You can spot them by their green bodies, black heads and blue wing feathers, and you'll definitely hear their high-pitched "kree-ah" calls. They're larger and louder than the small green-and-yellow budgies you see in pet stores.

Fall is tough on them, with hawks and other raptors migrating through. Paul says she isn't aware of any significant harm they cause locally. Their goal is simply to survive until next nesting season.

So next time you hear a chorus of screeches overhead, look up. Have you spotted a flock in your neighborhood yet?

You be careful out there. Tom

Adapted from a story in The Catalyst.

My client didn’t buy a condo. He bought a lanai, and they threw the condo in for free.Years ago I helped a gentleman buy...
10/19/2026

My client didn’t buy a condo. He bought a lanai, and they threw the condo in for free.

Years ago I helped a gentleman buy a condo.

After the closing I asked him what sold him on the place. He grinned and said, “Tom, I bought the lanai overlooking the lake and the pool. They threw the condo in for free.”

I’ve never forgotten it, because he was dead right.

In Florida we don’t just buy square footage, we buy the morning coffee, the sunset, and the breeze off the water.

The kitchen and closets matter, but the view is often what people fall in love with and what they still smile about years later.

So if you’re thinking about buying or selling, remember that the feeling a home gives you is worth something real.

When I help sellers, we make sure buyers see that lanai at its best.

When I help buyers, I ask what view they want to wake up to.

If you ever want to talk about your own view, I’m always happy to chat.

You be careful out there. Tom DeBella

Most people drive past Crescent Lake on their way somewhere else. That's their mistake.This neighborhood sits a mile and...
09/18/2026

Most people drive past Crescent Lake on their way somewhere else. That's their mistake.
This neighborhood sits a mile and a half north of downtown St. Pete, but it feels like it's operating on its own clock — brick streets, oaks that have been there longer than anyone can remember, Spanish moss just doing its thing overhead.

Here's a fact most locals don't even know: the Yankees trained on that ballfield for close to two decades, starting in 1925.

In all that time, only two players ever managed to hit a ball clean out of the park and into the lake, 500 feet away — Babe Ruth was one of them.

As for why he stopped playing right field out there on day one? Alligators kept crawling up out of the water to sunbathe in the outfield.

Man had his priorities straight.

The houses that ring the lake are still mostly original 1920s bungalows — real front porches, the kind you actually sit on in the evening.

And because the land sits up high, you get all that old-Florida charm without the flood headaches so much of St. Pete has to think about.

If that's the kind of neighborhood you've been picturing, let's talk. I know Crescent Lake well, and I'd love to help you find your place in it.

You be careful out there. Tom

If you've sold a home before, what's the one thing you wish your agent had told you upfront — before you listed, before ...
08/03/2026

If you've sold a home before, what's the one thing you wish your agent had told you upfront — before you listed, before the showings started, before you were already in the middle of it?

I ask this because after 47 years I've had the same conversation with sellers countless times after the fact.

And the answer is almost always the same: "I wish someone had been straight with me about the price from the beginning."

Share your experience in the comments.

It could be about price, timing, condition, the negotiation — anything.

Your answer might help someone going through it for the first time who doesn't yet know what questions to ask.

You be careful out there. Tom

I was the top producer in my office my first year in real estate.I didn't have connections. I didn't have a built-in cli...
07/31/2026

I was the top producer in my office my first year in real estate.

I didn't have connections.

I didn't have a built-in client base.

I had no experience to lean on whatsoever.

What I had was a willingness to outwork everyone around me and a genuine curiosity about every person I sat across from.

I asked questions.

I listened more than I talked.

I showed up when other agents didn't.

Those two habits — hard work and real listening — have been the foundation of everything built over the last 47 years.

Not fancy strategies.

Not gimmicks.

Just showing up fully for the people who trusted me with their business.

The tools have changed completely since 1979.

The market has gone through more cycles than I can count.

But the fundamentals of what makes an agent worth trusting haven't changed at all.

Work hard.

Listen carefully.

Tell the truth.

Do what you said you'd do.

That's the whole thing.

You be careful out there. Tom

Over 3,500 homes sold in Pinellas County across 47 years.I've thought about what that number actually represents.Behind ...
07/29/2026

Over 3,500 homes sold in Pinellas County across 47 years.
I've thought about what that number actually represents.
Behind each of those transactions is a family. A person. A life in motion. Someone moving toward something — a new job, a bigger home for a growing family, a fresh start after a difficult chapter. Or someone moving away from something — a home that had become too much to manage, a situation that required a decision they hadn't planned on making.
Every one of those 3,500 transactions mattered deeply to someone.
I don't take that lightly. I never have. The day a real estate closing starts to feel routine is the day I'll know it's time to stop.
This work is about people first. It always has been. And that belief is as strong today as it was in 1979.
You be careful out there. Tom

Over 3,500 homes sold in Pinellas County across 47 years.I've thought about what that number actually represents.Behind ...
07/29/2026

Over 3,500 homes sold in Pinellas County across 47 years.

I've thought about what that number actually represents.

Behind each of those transactions is a family. A person. A life in motion. Someone moving toward something — a new job, a bigger home for a growing family, a fresh start after a difficult chapter. Or someone moving away from something — a home that had become too much to manage, a situation that required a decision they hadn't planned on making.

Every one of those 3,500 transactions mattered deeply to someone.
I don't take that lightly. I never have. The day a real estate closing starts to feel routine is the day I'll know it's time to stop.
This work is about people first. It always has been. And that belief is as strong today as it was in 1979.
You be careful out there. Tom

47 years in real estate.When I say that number out loud, even I have to pause.That's not something I planned when I got ...
07/24/2026

47 years in real estate.

When I say that number out loud, even I have to pause.

That's not something I planned when I got into this business in 1979. I wasn't thinking about 47 years.

I was thinking about learning the market, earning trust, and figuring out how to be good at something I'd just started.

But I fell in love with it. The people. The problem-solving.

The fact that every transaction is different and every client's situation demands something specific from you.

I've seen interest rates at 18% — and helped sellers close deals anyway.

I watched the 2008 crash devastate equity that families had spent years building.

I saw COVID freeze the market for weeks and then release it into the most frenzied seller's market any of us had ever witnessed.

And I'm navigating the current environment now, drawing on everything those cycles have taught me.

Every market made me better.

Every difficult transaction sharpened something.

Every client who trusted me with one of the most significant financial decisions of their life reminded me why this work matters.

47 years isn't just a number. It's a body of knowledge you can't get any other way.

You be careful out there. Tom

Here's something I've believed my whole career:Balance is the key to everything.Work hard — absolutely. Show up for your...
07/22/2026

Here's something I've believed my whole career:

Balance is the key to everything.

Work hard — absolutely. Show up for your clients, answer the phone, go the extra mile. That part is non-negotiable for me.

But also — go fishing. Get out on the golf course. Spend time with the people you love. Enjoy this incredible place we get to call home here in Pinellas County.

The agents who burn out are usually the ones who forgot that real estate is what they do — not who they are.

I've been doing this for 47 years. Balance is a big reason why.

What does balance look like for you? Drop it in the comments — I'm curious. 👇

You be careful out there. Tom

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Saint Petersburg, FL
33709

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+17274816056

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