RGR MOTOR CARS

518-857-8709

1202 Troy Schenectady Road, Latham, NY, United States

10 Minutes With Richard Rosetti
By Michael DeMasi of The Business Review

Growing up, Rich Rosetti took apart every toy just to see how it worked. His fascination with mechanics fueled an interest in cars that he pursues with vigor today. One of his dreams: driving in the Mille Miglia, a 1,000-mile classic car race through Italy. You received your real estate license while a senior at Siena College. 
How old were you when you made your first home sale?  I was 20. I did an open house and met a woman who was getting a divorce. She needed a house right away. It sold the next Friday. I thought, ‘This is easy.’ It wasn’t though, right? I learned a tremendous amount. Today, kids go to grad school for additional business experience. Working at a real estate office for two years [after graduating] was a really good experience. I was fortunate enough to be able to work with a lot of different people who you learn stuff from. What happened then?  My dad was doing a little bit of home building. I really had a strong interest in that. I kind of turned that into Rosewood Home Builders. Probably my best year I built 120 houses, that was four or five years ago. We were averaging 80 to 90 houses. That’s a lot. What was the first car you bought with own money?  1966 Buick Riviera. $1,500. I was 18. My father told me not to buy it because he said I had a car. He gave me my mom’s car. The Riviera was a sports car. I bought it anyway, and then I told the guy I couldn’t pick it up right away because I had to figure out how I was going to tell my father, even though I bought it with my own money. Did it need work? I took the car completely apart. I rebuilt the motor. I repainted and completely restored it. When my dad comes over to my garage where I keep all my cars, I always remind him, ‘Dad, remember when you told me not to buy that car? I must have really wanted it because I still have it.’

Did you take the car apart not knowing what you were doing?

Yeah. I learned you should probably bag every bolt separately as opposed to putting it in a cookie tin with all the bolts mixed together. So I learned from my mistakes.

You have your own shop where you restore cars.

I have some guys who help me, and I have a warehouse where I keep my cars. I’ve sold a few over the years but I have a hard time parting with them sometimes. The Riviera is probably not worth a whole lot of money but to me probably one of my most valuable cars.

How many do you own?

I stopped counting, but it’s probably somewhere in the 60-something range.

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