Gift of Giving: Cultivating Relationships One Client at a Time | AWV 009

Episode 009: This week I meet up with Nancy Reynolds, an Alex Wang Group Sales Partner, to talk about how she leads by example and brings joy to those she cares about with a client appreciation gift.

Close it: Like It, Write It, Win It | AWV 008

Episode 8: The house 🏠 your clients wanted yesterday is not the house 🏡 they want today. How do you drop everything and transition to the new house? How do you compete against a strong pre-emptive offer?

You close it that night.

Silicon Valley real estate leaves little room to miss an opportunity. Speed and adaptability are paramount in succeeding in the fast paced market 📈📈.

New Real Estate Agent Advice: Focus on Getting Touches on the Ball | AWV 007

Episode 007: Today I meet with a young and hungry agent who found me through my videos looking for advice, and check in with my friend Markus to check up on his progress building his real estate start-up.

Building Your Online Presence with Social Proof Talk | AWV 006

AWV Episode 006: I was invited by mortgage advisor and friend Sean Herrero to speak in front of a group of real estate agents to answer their questions on social media, marketing, and how to "just do it." 

Making My Rounds in Los Altos (BTS) | AWV005

AWV Episode 005: I visited two of my upcoming listings in Los Altos where I discuss strategy, encounter painting, problems arise, and eventual progress moving real estate in Silicon Valley.

Reviews and Rise of the Real Estate Team | AWV004

Episode 004: I was invited down to the Santa Cruz Association of Realtors to give a talk where I explained the rise of real estate teams and how aggregated reviews is changing the way the game is being played.

Agent 2021 Gary Vaynerchuk Real Estate Conference | AWV003

In late January I flew out to Miami for Agent 2021, a one-day conference at the Hard Rock Stadium headlined by one of my favorite speaker and entrepreneurs, Gary Vaynerchuk. It was slated as a conference to educate attendees on what are the latest innovative tools, platforms, and approaches to growing their business, especially in today's mobile and social media-focused landscape. 

Other notable real estate themed speaker highlights I attended were Ryan Serhant, TV personality and New York City real estate broker, Tom Ferry, a popular real estate coach, and Chris Smith, co-founder of Curaytor. 

Lots of great takeaways from this conference. Check it all out in my latest vlog to see the highlights. 

Speed Real Estate Mentoring Training and Coaching | AWV002

Taking my 16 years of real estate experience and distilling it down to just 10 minutes is a great way to reflect on what I'd like to most pass on to other agents getting started in the industry. That's exactly what I was asked to do during a recent "speed mentoring" event hosted by the Asian Real Estate Association of America (AREAA). For 10 minutes at a time, I talked to a small group of agents and did my best to share my experiences and answer their questions. Here's some quick highlights: 

1. At the end of the day it doesn't matter what CRM you use, it matters that you use it 
2. Be authentic and sincere, or else your clients will not trust you with any decision
3. The ability to say "no" when negotiating is so crucial
4. Build your online presence now, start with your website and Facebook

I had an outstanding time during the event and I hope I was able to share at least one useful tip to the agents I talked to. It was also a good opportunity to get good feedback on what agents are most concerned about, and see if I can tap into those discussions further. Obviously 10 minutes is a short time to cover everything, so if you'd like to continue the discussion below, leave a comment! 

80/20 Mapping Your Real Estate Business and Life | AWV001

Here it is! Episode 001 of my VLOG documenting my journey as a Silicon Valley real estate agent selling in one of the most competitive markets in the nation. 

Opening the series is a meeting with a mentor who discusses 80/20 Mapping, which is derived from the Pareto principle (wiki). We go over how we can use this method to help prioritize my life (and yours!) and figure out what's important or what's just sucking up time. 

Video series - THE RIGHT DIRT

In this video series we’re at one of my listings in the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, known for being one of the most desirable neighborhoods in not just Palo Alto, but in the entire Silicon Valley. In the heart of Palo Alto, we are minutes from downtown Palo Alto, popular parks, Stanford University, and top-ranked schools.

Downtown Palo Alto

From a real estate sale perspective, my initial impressions of the 2-story house was it had 1940s charm with good curb appeal and a deep lot. But the value is in the land when you’re located in such a prestigious neighborhood. Just to give you an idea, the sale price per square foot of land in this neighborhood typically passes $500.

Although the value might be in the dirt, we still wanted to appeal to the largest group of buyers as possible and that means putting in work on the home to showcase its potential. The landscaping was already nicely done but the sellers had just moved out, so we had some work on day one to get the interior open house ready. That included bringing in a hauler to help me take down the drapes, removing the old carpeting, and clearing out all old personal items from the interior. 

As you can see below, by showcasing the wood flooring under the old carpet we really were able to increase the appeal of the home interior.

Once I had determined with the sellers the amount of work they wanted to put into the house, the second part of preparing a home for market is doing off-market promotion and reaching out to local real estate agents to build up anticipation.  

With this high of a price point, the pool of buyers was smaller and the market moves a little slower. So we had the house on market for 2 weeks before I decided to set an offer deadline. 

When we’re taking offers, I play big role here in managing everyones emotions and negotiating on behalf of my clients to get them the highest possible price. In this situation, we had two strong offers over the asking price and my clients opted to do multiple counters and create competition between the remaining buying agents. 

Once we got into contract on Tuesday, the sellers had their money in escrow the following Tuesday. That’s a 7 day close, which is one of the fastest and most impressive closings you can have in real estate.