Field Notes from a Realtor
Gloom to Bloom in 12 Days
This Mountain View listing located in the heart Silicon Valley brought together a lot of the expertise I’ve gained over the years, so we documented the entire process to show how I took the home from “gloom to bloom.”
Is Your Email Signature Referring You More Business?
The average business user sends more than 120 emails per day. Your email signatures is a very effective (and free) tool to brand yourself to the people you communicate with.
Here are top three questions to ask about your current email signature:
5 Quick and Easy Social Media for Real Estate Tips
Big thanks to the Sereno Group Willow Glen office for hosting the social media round table today. Wanted to share a couple takeaways from the amazing panel today as well as a "5 quick steps to get started..." infographic that was shared with me.
A Better Way for Real Estate Agents to Provide Disclosure Packages Using Google Drive
In our fast-paced Silicon Valley real estate market, the time it takes to prepare, distribute, and track disclosure packages can be daunting for any top agent. It also takes time away from closing deals! So what can be done to streamline the process?
Using Google Drive for Disclosures
If you are not familiar with Google Drive, don’t worry, here’s a great interactive tour to help get up to speed on how to use Drive. You’ll want to learn how to upload documents and reference the templates that I have below.
Things Real Estate Agents Should Not Say - #1
I am consistently amused by the words that I hear some "ethically-challenged" real estate agents say. With an industry where the barrier to entry is so low (raise the bar please!) and over 50,000 licensed agents in our MLS, it's just bound to happen that our paths cross. Since I'm getting older and I think I'm starting to forget things, I'm now committed to documenting these unbelievable (or believable, depending on how you look at it) statements that I hear from real estate agents. This is partly to poke fun at these agents for my own amusement, but even more so to hopefully raise the professional standards of real estate professionals.

Inman Real Estate Connect 2014 Highlights and Take-Aways
Spent two-and-a-half days at the Inman Real Estate Connect conference. It was great to be invited to speak on a panel about "Great Real Estate Transactions" and to learn from so many forward thinking real estate professionals. There was a ton of info and I couldn't be in multiple places at once, but here are some highlights, take-aways and personal action items from last week's event:
Chronicles of a Silicon Valley Real Estate Agent - Day 2,954
8am: new construction 90-day post-move-in walk thru - builder walks thru the home to make sure that all the cabinets are working, grout/caulking is intact, no leaks, etc... I see a trend that this is commonly done by the larger, national builders but less so for the smaller local developers and builders in our area.
Chronicles of a Silicon Valley Real Estate Agent - Day 2,952
This Saturdy was one of those half work/half home days. It's possible (but not easy) to turn completely "off", but today was not one of those days.
Started the morning contacting someone interested in selling their family's home in San Mateo and relocating to the Palo Alto area. Played a little phone/email/text tag, but we were able to connect and schedule a tentative meeting for Tuesday. I know there are some agents that think that they must pick up every phone call otherwise they will lose business. I'm not one of those agents. Our business is hard enough as it is with just returning phone calls! If someone is not willing to wait for me to call them back at a more appropriate time, then what value do I have as an agent? Chopped liver is all that I would be. What's your value?
Chronicles of a Silicon Valley Real Estate AGENT - Day 2,951
7:31 am: received a random call from someone saying that they noticed that my office hours were posted as opening at 7:30 am (have no idea where that would be) and they were at my office looking for me. Beware of the non-scheduled-drop-in-out-of-nowhere prospective clients… I usually tread very lightly here.
Chronicles of a Silicon Valley Real Estate Agent - Day 2,950
A lot on my mind recently. Reflection is a word that comes to mind. I think you do this more when you are older and more mature? :) So, I'm just going to start writing.
Woke up late today and wasn’t able to find the time to spend some time centering myself with scripture or some positive affirmations. (Note to self: when I don't spend time in the morning to just be silent, I find myself being more quick tempered and impatient). Quickly jumped on the phone with some out-of-state sellers to discuss negotiation strategy on their North Los Altos property. Motivation is key. Motivated sellers. Motivated buyers. Motivated agents. Without motivation, real estate is like drudgery. With motivation, you can create happy buyers, happy sellers, and wonderful real estate experiences.
Follow Alex
Topics
- Real Estate (1)
- Real Estate Career (1)
- Saratoga (1)
- design (1)
- office space (1)
- Economic Update (2)
- Journal (2)
- News (2)
- santa clara county (2)
- Home Sellers (3)
- Bay Area Real Estate (4)
- Los Altos (4)
- Menlo Park (4)
- Investors (7)
- Palo Alto (8)
- New Construction (9)
- Communities (11)
- Cupertino (11)
- Schools (11)
- Mountain View (13)
- Sunnyvale (18)
- Bay Area Info (22)
- Home Owners (22)
- Mortgages (26)
- Market Updates (31)
- Home Buyers (62)
- Silicon Valley News (83)