About HomeDingo's Creator

My name is Sal DeStefano, and I created HomeDingo. My two favorite hobbies are writing, and buying and selling homes.

 
I grew up in Hicksville, Long Island, a suburb of New York City. After graduating high school, I attended Nassau Community College, where I tutored special needs students at the Remedial Writing Laboratory. I transferred to the State University of New York at Binghamton for my Bachelor of Arts in Psychology.

 
I moved to Brooklyn, New York, and attended New York University Stern School of Business, where I earned an M.B.A. I worked three years as an operations officer for Chemical Bank (now JP Morgan Chase), then enrolled as a full-time student at St. John’s University School of Law. After marrying my wife, Doreen, I transferred to the evening division, and one year later completed my law degree at night while working days as office services manager for The Rockefeller Foundation.

 
After passing the New York and New Jersey Bar exams, I landed a full-time job as a real estate title examiner for Colonial Title and Abstract Service, a leading title insurance agency in Morris County, New Jersey. I also opened a part-time real estate law practice. After four years as an employee of the title agency, I became a partner, and since then have served as the agency’s clearance officer and in-house counsel.

 
My wife and I live in northwest New Jersey with our three children. Besides writing and real estate, I enjoy movies, walks on the beach, riding my motorcycle, visiting art and science museums, and cruising the waters of Barnegat Bay.

I have previously written two books, The Methuselah Gene, a science fiction novel, and A Reason To Die, an action-adventure novel. The Methuselah Gene was published by Trans-Atlantic Publications in 2000, and A Reason To Die by Llumina Press in 2006. SONY Pictures Television bought an option for the film and television rights to A Reason To Die.

I have finished the manuscript for my third book, which I am now editing. My newest book combines my love of real estate with writing. The title is How To Buy a Home and Keep Your Sanity: 12 Simple Rules in Any Market. My home buying guide gives home shoppers the essential tools they need to find and buy a home—from helping them decide whether to buy a home at all, to picking the right home and mortgage, negotiating price and terms, and closing title.  I have also started working on my next book, Sell Your Home in Any Market: Sal's Top 10 Tips. 

Home-Buying Rule #1

If after reading Rule #1 from Sal DeStefano's home buyers guide you believe HomeDingo can give you sound, independent advice on how to buy a home or sell a home - choose one of the following:

I am buying a home                           I am selling a home

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Praise for The Methuselah Gene

Back to Text"DeStefano skillfully weaves a fast-paced, intriguing science fiction thriller.  Masterful!"
•  Melissa McGinley, Ocean County Observer

"An imaginative tale that thrills readers, and blurs the lines between science fact and
 science fiction."
•  Kevin Lechiski, The Star Journal

"Intriguing ... like one of those TV thrillers that's too engaging to turn off." 
•  New Jersey Monthly

"The author mixes a blend of reality and fantasy to create a wonderful read.  The oceans are the last undiscovered frontier, and no one knows what lies beneath the surface - new animals, disease-curing chemicals, and medical products are all possible."
•  Robert W. Fournier, Jr., Director of Animal Husbandry, New Jersey State Aquarium 

Back to Text 

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Praise for A Reason To Die
Back to Text

"A secret government organization sends a terminally-ill demolitions expert to assassinate a dictator."

"John Covello is in trouble.

"His house is about to be repossessed, he has saddled his family with millions of dollars of debt and his demolitions business, once one of the largest in the nation, has crumbled. To make matters worse, he learns that he has an aggressive pancreatic cancer that will kill him in a few short months. In short, he’s just the type of man the U.S. government needs for a secret program that recruits terminally-ill citizens to conduct suicide missions Driven to desperation—insane fundamentalist Pakistani dictator Ali Khan has just detonated a nuclear bomb over India in an attempt to take control of Kashmir—the government seeks out Covello for the job: imploding the government headquarters of Pakistan while Khan and his generals meet to discuss strategy. Covello’s family will be well-compensated, but he must disappear without breathing a word of his illness or mission to anyone.

"The author’s brisk narrative sends an undercover Covello into the heart of fundamentalist Pakistan, where his contact, the brilliant and gorgeous doctor Salena Zamal, is engaged against her will to Khan. Covello and Zamal have only a few days to accomplish the task—the Indian prime minister is preparing for an all-out nuclear retaliation—and the fate of the world hangs in the balance. DeStefano’s evocation of the Pakistani landscape and skillful manipulation of the sexual, ethnic and ideological tension between Covello and Zamal serve as welcome counterpoints to the story's many plot twists.

"A well-paced, enjoyable thriller."

•  Kirkus Discoveries