DeLeon Insight- September 2025 Cover Page

The DeLeon Insight – September 2025



Update Your Bath on a Budget

All homes have their imperfections and quirks. We often put up with a dark, dingy powder room or a hall bath with its yellow tub and sink because we love the rest of the house. It has been on your to-do list long enough! Now that you are ready to get…

DeLeon Realty Marketing Perspective: It’s All in the Details

Buying a home can be a very emotional experience — even the most subtle details of a home may influence a home’s sale. Though experienced real estate photographers and videographers do a lot to capture the look of the home, these stunning images alone…

Putting Sellers’ Interests First

There are a number of very good and ethical real estate agents in Silicon Valley. Unfortunately, as someone well-versed in the field of real estate law, I am all too aware of the games that some other agents and brokerages play for self-serving reasons.…

The Magic of the DeLeon Business Model—the Listing Side

DeLeon Realty’s new business model is the talk of the real estate community. We hear regular reports of our competitors’ office managers and other agents bringing us up at their sales meetings. That is very flattering, especially given that many of…

Ignore Your Own Taste When Prepping a Home for Sale

Everybody loves their own tastes, which certainly makes sense when you think about it. However, prepping and staging a home to achieve the highest possible sales price is both an art and a science. Problems arise when Sellers allow their own style preferences…

The Trap of Long-Term Listing Agreements

Long-term listing agreements are great for Realtors® and bad for Sellers. Period. As a real estate attorney and real estate broker, I have encountered countless clients who felt their agent wasn’t living up to their expectations, yet the agent would…

DeLeon Realty Expands the China Initiative

While still only a small part of the DeLeon team’s marketing approach, we have enjoyed tremendous success in tapping into the burgeoning Chinese buyer pool. In fact, we have become well-known to the Chinese community throughout the Bay Area through…

Agents’ Heightened Duties to Clients under Saffie v. Schmeling

Last year, the California Court of Appeals handed down a decision that may have serious repercussions for the real estate broker community (Saffie v. Schmeling, Fourth Appellate District, Case No. E055716, dated March 7, 2014). In Saffie, a Buyer’s…

Vacation Areas Poised for Strong Real Estate Appreciation

Over the past year or so, there has been a marked increase in people selling their Bay Area homes and moving to certain easily accessible get-a-way locations. In addition to offering a refreshing change of pace, many of these areas also offer a tempting…

Unlocking Value Before You Sell

In the March edition of the DeLeon Insight, we examined “fixer-uppers” as an opportunity for buyers to get a relative value in this red-hot sellers’ market. In this article, we will look at ways in which prospective sellers can make sure they aren’t…