DeLeon Insight- September 2025 Cover Page

The DeLeon Insight – September 2025



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…

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,…

Make Any Space Modern

Do you love modern style but live in a not-so-modern home? To achieve a modern vibe in your home, you don’t have to make very large adjustments. By using these easy guidelines, you can quickly bring modern touches to any space. Scheme a New Scheme Color…

Common Staging Mistakes and How to Fix Them

DeLeon Insight - January 1, 2016 Margie Fontanilla, DeLeon Design Coordinator    A well-staged home shows better and has a better chance of selling faster than an unstaged home. Many buyers have difficulty seeing beyond the room…

How to Choose Paint Colors for Your Home

When redecorating your home, one of the most important decisions is choosing paint colors. Painting is a quick and reasonable way to give old rooms a fresh, new look. However, you must be careful to match colors with your home’s style and decorations,…

How the Real Estate Industry Works

As the real estate market heats up and commission checks continue to grow, people often wonder how the real estate industry works. This curiosity may stem from interest in a career move or surprise over the size of the commission checks in Silicon Valley—either…

4 Tips for Refurbishing Your Landscaping on a Moderate Budget

During the summer, we as Californians love taking advantage of our outdoor spaces. However, by spending more time in these spaces that we have forgotten most of the year, we tend to notice the imperfections we ignored all winter. That brown lawn or dead…

Chinese Stock Market Woes and the RMB Devaluations Impact on Silicon Valley Real Estate

The recent turmoil in the Asian stock markets, most notably in China, and the devaluation of the Chinese currency have evoked many questions about the likelihood of continued investment in Bay Area real estate by Chinese buyers. Coincidentally, we were…