Facebook’s Effect on the Appreciation of Menlo Park Housing

The Menlo Park housing market has been fairly consistently experiencing double-digit annual appreciation rates since 2011, as well as an astounding 69 percent overall appreciation since 2011. This should come as no surprise as the marked increase in housing…

How a Single-Story Overlay Zone May Affect Your Neighborhood

Joseph Eichler built 2,700 homes in Palo Alto, more than in any other city in America. These beloved architectural gems have found themselves in the spotlight of a controversy in Palo Alto and surrounding cities. The debate is about whether homeowners…

Real Property Tax Breaks under the Williamson Act

DeLeon Insight - January 1, 2016 Michael Repka Esq., DeLeon Realty CEO, LLM (Taxation) For most California homeowners, their annual property tax is based on one percent of the amount they paid for the property, and increased by up to two percent…

8 Questions to Ask Your Listing Agent

The successful sale of a home requires a listing agent who employs a strong team and a comprehensive marketing approach. The seller will rely upon the listing agent for market expertise, negotiation acumen, and reliable advice regarding various procedural…

Why People Set Up Revocable or “Family” Trusts

A quick perusal of county records reveals a large number of homes are owned in trusts. Typically these trusts are creatively named something like the “John and Jane Doe Family Trust.” Almost everyone who is even the slightest bit affluent, including…

What Exactly Is DeLeon? A Man? A Team? A Brokerage?

There is a bit of a controversy in the real estate community. Many wonder whether it is fair to compare the DeLeon Team to the individual agents or small teams of two or three agents and a couple of assistants. Simply put, the DeLeon Team is unique unto…

Breathing Life into an Expired Listing

Anyone who has ever walked down a café-lined street in an unfamiliar foreign city understands the draw of a crowd. Whether a packed restaurant or a bustling store, interest reflects desirability. A few years ago, my wife and I were in Tokyo looking for…

Fence Disputes and Good Neighbor Fences

We have all heard the expression, “Good fences make good neighbors.” Nevertheless, there are countless bitter disputes between neighbors over the location, construction, and maintenance of fences. Fortunately, the original California Civil Code §841,…

A New Option for Real Estate Commissions that Further Aligns Incentives

Real estate commissions have traditionally been based on a transaction-based model as opposed to a performance-based model. When the time comes to resell, regardless of whether the home doubles in value or declines by half, the real estate agent who helped…

2015: The Year in Review

2015 was a tale of two years. The year started off tremendously well with a surge of prices and activity very early in the spring. Not surprisingly, given its recent performance, the Palo Alto market was particularly strong. From March 2014 to March 2015,…