Justin Halbert

I didn't plan on selling real estate. I planned on cooking.

After training at Le Cordon Bleu in San Francisco and spending twenty years as an executive chef — fine dining, private clients, hotels, catering at a level where the details are everything and mediocrity isn't an option — I thought I knew what high standards looked like. Then I got on the jiu jitsu mat.

Thirteen years later, I'm a black belt, a multi-time gold-medalist competitor who has trained under some of the best athletes in the world, and someone who teaches the art. Jiu jitsu taught me something the kitchen didn't: the best position wins. Not the loudest. Not the most aggressive. The one with the best position. That's how I negotiate.

I'm Justin Halbert. Born and raised in San Diego. Point Loma is home — not a market I studied, but a place I've watched change for decades, block by block, sale by sale. I know which streets the fog burns off first. I know which properties the peninsula's longtime owners will never list publicly. I know because I live here.

A few years ago, a friend I met on the mat — a single dad — told me he didn't think he'd ever be able to buy a home again for himself and his boys. Six months later, I handed him the keys to a three-bedroom house. We negotiated seller credits that bought down his rate. We were patient when the market required patience and decisive when it required decisiveness. When he teared up at the door, I thought: that's the job. That's what this is supposed to feel like.

I personally orchestrate the full listing experience: photography, videography, drone, staging consultation, and open house production. Not because I have to. Because I know what it looks like when it's done right.

If you want the agent who will outwork, out-negotiate, and out-think the other side, let's talk. If you want someone to just put a sign in the yard, I can refer you to someone.