Reinventing a Traditional Home

By Leah Li | Interior Designer The process of reinventing a traditional home always excites me. Compared to new homes that are built to look like a Colonial or a Victorian, true Traditional homes with history, character, and a story to tell are…

Inman Connect 2017: Protecting Ourselves From Power Shifts in Real Estate

The pros predict we'll be working in an increasingly polarized industry The real estate industry is going to become more polarized, with discount brokerages at one end and luxury, high-service brokerages at the other. This prediction came from the…

Winning Preemptive Offers

By Huy Vu | Realtor®, Attorney, Palo Alto Buyer Specialist In a hot seller’s market such as Silicon Valley, many buyers have undergone a bidding war and were rejected, at least once or twice. This process is not only frustrating and stressful,…

Reverse 1031 Exchange

By Annaliese Train | Realtor®, JD, Menlo Park Buyer Specialist People love selling real estate at a profit, but they generally hate paying the associated taxes. Fortunately, IRS Code §1031 allows investors to sell appreciated property and replace…

Inman News: Network effects are the only way to future-proof brokerages

Source: Inman News | By Andrew Flachner A key Silicon Valley lesson that all brokers must learn What exactly is a network effect? Simply defined, a business enjoys a network effect when every additional customer or user increases the overall value…

Move-Up Buyers

By Darrell Martin | Realtor®, Mountain View, Sunnyvale Buyer Specialist Many homeowners have owned their current home for a while and would like to “move up” to a larger, nicer, or more conveniently located home, but they may not be familiar…

Renovation & Re-Sale

By Jillian Mrsny | Interior Designer There is a fine line between creating a trendy home renovation and a lasting home upgrade. Using trendy materials and designs in your next upgrade can be appealing ways to bring your home into the current century.…

Menlo Park: Creating Your Lifestyle

 By Annaliese Train | REALTOR®, JD, Menlo Park Buyer Specialist “Lifestyle” is defined as a “particular way of living; the way a person lives or a group of people live.” A lifestyle is a composite of motivations, needs, and wants, influenced…

Neighborhood Spotlight: Community Center of Palo Alto

By Adrian Tan | Realtor®, MBA, Palo Alto Buyer Specialist Community Center, as it is appropriately named, is just that—a community-centric neighborhood of Palo Alto where residents feel a strong connection to each other and the neighborhood itself.…

How to Compete Against an All Cash Offer

By Caroline Wong | Realtor®, Attorney, Los Altos & Los Altos Hills Buyer Specialist I often hear of buyers’ fears of competing against cash buyers. As a Bay Area native, I have witnessed many of my friends move away to more affordable cities,…