Tom Dallas, the San Francisco Peninsula real estate icon, is teaming up with Intero Real Estate Services to kick off their new Woodside office set to launch at the end of February.  Alongside real estate partner, David Kelsey, Tom will be getting down to business in his home town where if you don’t know Tom, Tom knows you.  Don’t be surprised if you run into him at Roberts Market or enjoying breakfast at Buck’s or The Bakery. With a passion for art and a deep appreciation of fine architecture, he is excited to get down to business in your neighborhood.

Tom joins Intero with 31 years of experience and over $2 Billion in career sales.  A resident of the Peninsula since 1952, he specializes in the select high-end markets of Woodside, Atherton, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. “In such a dynamic real estate market, I’m thrilled to be aligning with a company that has the momentum to keep up and to be back with my friend and mentor Alain Pinel.”  Tom said in a statement today.

In 2000, out of 80,000 agents, he was named the #1 Coldwell Banker agent worldwide and represented the year’s two largest sales in both Woodside ($52,500,000 and $24,500,000) and Atherton ($45,000,000 and $30,000,000).  These amazing achievements define the most successful year of any agent in the history of California real estate.  “To have a Realtor with such a legendary background joining the Intero team is really energizing.” says Gino Blefari, President and CEO of Intero Real Estate Service, Inc. “As one of the #1 agents in the world; Tom’s expertise in the high-end market is extremely beneficial to Intero’s growth and expansion into the luxury market.”

Intero Woodside office located at:

1580 Canada Lane

Woodside, CA 94062

About the Intero® brand

Founded in 2002, Intero Real Estate Services, Inc. has quickly become one of the premier real estate brands in the U.S.  In 2004, Intero Franchise Services Inc. began franchising and currently is operating in many of the western states.  In 2009, Intero International Franchise Services, LLC embarked on developing territories in Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and the Americas.  The companies are private and headquartered in California’s Silicon Valley.

Contact:

Teressa Francis

+1 408 342 3010

tfrancis@interorealestate.com

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Dreaming about buying a luxury home can be exhausting. First, you have to think about where you would like to live: Location…Location…Location… Paris comes to mind but San Francisco would not be bad either, not to mention New York, Rome, Barcelona, Rio de Janeiro… And of course exotic places would be in the mix: The Maldives?  The Seychelles Islands?  Bora Bora?  Maui?  Nantucket? ….Tough to decide, don’t you think?  We may have to buy more than one place after all, one in the city, one on the beach somewhere in the Pacific or the Indian Ocean, and perhaps one in the countryside.  OK, now, what are we going to live in?

Nice dream, right? Well, a lot of people are actually living that dream rather than… dreaming about it. The world has never been so small.  It makes no difference for thousands and thousands of people whether they live in a luxury top floor condo in a Manhattan high rise or a beachfront mansion in Santa Barbara or even a villa in Tuscany.  With the ease of travel and an internet connection, you can now run your business from anywhere you happen to be on the map.  When money is no object, you just have to choose where you want to wake up in the morning.

Back ten years ago or so, a friend of mine, head of international for a major US hi tech firm, did not care to work at headquarters.  He was told that it was OK with the executive team if he chose to live elsewhere.  And so he did, he found himself a nice pad on the French Riviera.  It could be worse.

Amazing how the world has changed over the last 15 years in the high end.  Many Bay Area residents who, back then, were contemplating purchasing a weekend home in Carmel or the wine country, are now considering looking for a flat overlooking La Seine, a chalet in Aspen, a townhouse in Hawaii or perhaps a far-away beach front retreat on a man-made island in Dubai.  At the same time, a host of wealthy foreigners are buying right and left in the US, happy to make a good deal and keep away from the political/economic tribulations in their home country.  Without the European demand, Miami might still be a depressed real estate market.  Cash buyers from India, Russia and China are now coming in waves into the Bay Area looking for huge homes with what they perceive as a very affordable price tag.

Just last week, I met a topflight Indian businessman who told me he knew of a small naked residential lot in New Delhi offered at $2,000 a square foot!  Keep these stories in mind when determining whether to pay what you think is a lot of money for a beautiful home somewhere in the US.  Believe it or not, our prices at the top end of the ladder are not so high anymore.  Other similar world cities aligned their prices on ours long ago since they were catering to the same exact buyers.

Our prices, today, may in fact be low and getting lower relative to the “competition”:  other similar homes in a “comparable” town in Europe, Asia or the Middle East.  Yes, our luxury real estate is a good deal considering new international standards.  Perhaps we are due for a raise and with what looks like a mini-bubble in the making on the West Coast; we may very well get it.

There is also a fascinating real estate story about to unfold. No, not the kind of story in which agents start to find wild success selling homes via Facebook. But the real kind: young Internet minds work hard to build a raving success, take the company public, and get wildly rich in the process. And what’s the inevitable next step? They buy real estate.

That’s right. Our very own Silicon Valley, which is already flush with brilliant tech minds who’ve found amazing success in their careers, is about to be flooded with even more young success stories thanks to Facebook’s IPO. The rippling effect of the wealth about to be made by Mark Zuckerberg and 3,000 Facebook employees on the local economy is expected to spark a jump in real estate sales and also boost the local economy overall for many years.

This is how we know that Americans – regardless of background, age, or current economic standing – still have a healthy appetite for owning their own homes. It’s among the first things we all do when we realize success in our careers.

News stories may have you believe that many Americans are over owning a home – that the wounds of foreclosure, financial hardship and upside down home values have created a huge disconnect in what was once the American Dream. But I’m here to tell you that it’s simply not true, and Facebook is my case in point.

Watch for evidence that the American Dream is alive and well in our local real estate market after this IPO hits Wall Street in May (and leading up to then, too).

This is why I don’t panic when personal finance gurus start to talk about shifting values among America’s young – that our kids are more interested in renting than buying. Because it’s simply not true. Give them success and a healthy income and they will buy a home.

I’m excited to see this generation of dot-coms growing and sustaining, defying the slow growth trend that’s happening in almost every other sector. This is exactly the type of positive news we need right now. Let’s embrace it!

Eight years ago, a young Zuckerberg took a chance and came out to Silicon Valley one summer while enrolled at Harvard. That chance is now paying off, and our local economy is lucky to be a part of it.

Facebook ripple effect projected on Silicon Valley homes

Silicon Valley luxury home market flat in 2011

Marketing a home today is not just a question of good intentions and noble promises. It’s a question of means. As a real estate company, you have them or you don’t.

Take a very pricey estate for example. What are the Sellers’ expectations when choosing an agent? Well, they want the Realtor to use diligence in trying to produce a financially qualified buyer ASAP. It seems simple enough. It used to be somewhat easier in the old days because we were looking for buyers in our own backyard so to speak. The promotion of the property rarely went beyond the regional boundaries. Well, at the risk of hurting the feelings of some brokers, this is not quite enough in the high end. Not even close.

In the high end, looking for a buyer is no small task. There are only so many people who can play in that league. The challenge is to find them since, otherwise, they may not find the house, and we might not sell it. How do you go about searching for buyers since you don’t know who they are and you don’t know where they live?  Well, It is entirely possible that buyers who can afford the property live nearby. After all, we are in Silicon Valley country where money grows on trees it seems like when the market is good. But it is just as possible -if not more likely- that the buyers are from Los Angeles, or New York, or London, or Dubai, or Hong Kong, or Moscow, etc.

Now, ask yourself: knowing the above, what should you really expect from the agent you will need to trust with the marketing of your luxury property? Here is a list of questions to ask: Where will the house be showcased to maximize the opportunities to connect with prospective buyers? Can the agent, or rather his company, actually do what they say? Do they have the necessary technology tools? The marketing services? Do they have a specific high end marketing program? If yes, what does it entail? Are they affiliated with a global network of specialized brokers covering all continents?

Last bottom line question: Do they really have the power & the money to do what may be required to do the job?

These are reasonable questions. Frankly I am amazed that some homeowners in the most coveted zip codes are not considering them when signing a listing agreement. Having a nice & seemingly impressive agent is wonderful but can he walk the talk? Your call.

In its December Pending Home Sales Index released last week, the National Association of Realtors said that pending home sales remained strong at 96.6 – still well above the same month a year earlier when the index was at 91.5. (An index of 100 is considered to be a healthy market.)

The index measures the number of contract signings made in a month and is viewed as a forward-looking indicator because contract signings in a perfect world lead to actual sales either the following month or month after. So, with all the positive numbers here, why aren’t we seeing a boom in closed sales? The answer is  simply that deals are falling through.

NAR says that one-third of Realtors are reporting that contract failures remain a big issue. This is no small potatoes. Now that we know more buyers are ready to bite, we can’t let you get blindsided or discouraged by contract failures. Here are five home purchase cancellation prevention techniques:

1. Have enough cash: A no-brainer, I know. Lenders are much stricter these days about how much cash they want to see at closing. You should know how much you can bring – for both down payment and closing costs – well in advance of your house hunt.

2. Prepare your paperwork now: Agents say that many times contracts fall through because the buyers didn’t have their paperwork ready when it was needed. To save your deal, make sure you’ve got all your financial information in line before you make an offer: proof of income, assets, debt, and proof of down payment, and letters you may need to explain gaps in income or employment.

3. Tighten up your finances: Just because your offer was accepted doesn’t mean you’ve got the house. You still need to get a loan (unless, of course, you’re independently wealthy and plan to pay cash). Long before you go house hunting, be sure to visit with a loan officer or mortgage broker to get a picture of your finances so that you’ll know whether a bank will lend to you and how much.

4. Understand your comps: Many deals are falling through because of appraisals coming in below the purchase price. While there’s nothing an agent or home buyer can do about a low appraisal, you can do something about the offer price. Make sure you know your market inside out. Pull good comps that are similar, local and recent. Get a good inspection and be sure that any defects are accounted for in some way. You need to know about any little thing that may come up to negatively impact the appraisal the bank will use to determine the home’s value.

5. If buying a short sale or foreclosure, educate yourself on these processes in advance: These types of transactions take much longer to complete in many cases. But when they move, you need to be ready to move with them. That means you should first know what to expect before making your offer, and then follow through on what is expected of you every step of the way.

Extreme caution, hyper preparedness and highly informed home buyers are the only combination that’s going to make a dent in the large portion of contract failures the market is experiencing. While we can’t control lenders, we can control our readiness to respond.

- Gino Blefari

2011 is gone. Thank you. Don’t know too many home sellers and home buyers who will remember it fondly. I will venture to say that most Realtors share that sentiment. Actually, the best thing that can be said about last year in the real estate business is that… It did not get worse. We’ll take it. After some four years of nasty economic news and agonizing uncertainty, a flat year is a welcome transition. Real estate values have stabilized in the Silicon Valley. The ground is firmer. We now have a more stable foundation to build on. The business climate also is changing: the many “For Lease” signs that we used to see in the hi tech districts have disappeared from the curbs and the job situation has improved considerably. We still have to jump a few hurdles such as a tight credit but, together with low mortgage rates, a decent inventory of homes, attractive prices and a growing pent up demand, today’s picture calls for optimism.

The segment of the market most likely to benefit from the above is the luxury market, the “high end of the high end.” In a way, it was to be expected since it is the segment of the market that suffered the most over the last 12 years or so. Since the dotcom hay-days of 1999 and 2000, prices and number of sales have been cut significantly.

Case in point, let’s take a look at Atherton, the perfect “high end market,” during that stretch of time.

In 2000, 28 sales over $5,000,000 were posted on the MLS for an overall market average price of $3.8M. From that point on, the number of transactions shrunk and ended up at 10 last year, roughly a third of the 2000 high mark. The stats for 2004 came close (21 sales), but no cigar.  In terms of price, the overall Atherton market average last year was $3.4M, still 10% below the price achieved in 2000.

At a time when cash is coming back to the valley, fed by new IPO’s, a new wave of  buyers in the $ million range anxious to move their equity to higher grounds and foreign investors looking for a safer refuge for their money, things are looking up in the luxury market. I bet the high end is going to be again the market locomotive it used to be. Happy New Year!

But many times you wouldn’t know this as a home buyer or seller while out shopping for a Realtor. It seems that many agents’ marketing materials don’t seem to get this point across – that not only is this agent a master at closing sales in a particular neighborhood or area, he’s also an expert at all things local. He knows the right plumbers, contractors, inspectors, landscapers, cleaning services, florists, and interior decorators. You name it.

I think it’s time agents get the recognition they deserve as neighborhood connoisseurs, specialists, experts. Sure, you want an agent with an impeccable track record of selling houses in your area or area of interest. You want a master negotiator, a well respected and well connected professional. But you also want someone who’s going to be able to either tell you exactly what it’s like to live somewhere, how close life’s essentials are, and so forth or connect you directly with the people who can answer those questions.

One of my hopes for 2012 is that our agents realize their local expertise as the true asset that it is, and that they can convey its value to consumers before meeting face to face.

I cringed a little upon reading a recent news item about a new app that plugs into your Facebook account and segments your Facebook friends based on a location you type in. For instance, if you’re interested in moving to Palo Alto, this app could pull info for you on people who have either indicated that they live there or tend to check in there a lot on Facebook (indicating that they spend a lot of time there).

It’s a good idea: being able to pinpoint whom to ask local questions. And friend and family input is meaningful to people. But my gut reaction was that our Realtors are already really good at providing this information. Maybe it’s just time we put more emphasis on this knowledge asset.

Buying or selling a home is still one of the largest transactions a person will take part in in their lifetime. Where you live is an essential part of your being – and can have serious consequences on your family’s future. Let’s not lose sight of this high-touch aspect to being an agent – that sometimes through all the complications of a jargon-filled transaction, what a consumer really needs is for someone to understand their more intangible needs that help them realize whether or not they can actually live in a particular home or neighborhood. This is one of our greatest strengths as real estate professionals.

Cupertino, California – (January 20, 2012) – Intero El Dorado Hills has announced it will operate under the new leadership of Dale Cogan, Office Manager, and Bob Bronswick, Chief Operating Officer. Together Dale and Bob will expand the Intero brand in the greater Sacramento region.

Over the course of a 27-year career involving real estate, Bob Bronswick, former President and COO of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage/NRT, LLC. for the Sacramento region, has earned a reputation as a dynamic, results-oriented senior management-level executive with a proven track record of providing vision and leadership through highly volatile market conditions. He has utilized the proactive approach to enhance operational effectiveness and visibility for market penetration and sales; recruiting, training, and managing professional and support staff to form motivated, top-producing teams.

Prior to being named President and COO of Coldwell Banker, Bob was Director of Sales for Realty Plus Online in Sacramento; Sales Manager/Broker for Prudential Burnet Realty in Arlington Heights, Illinois; and General Sales Manager for Lebovic Realty Group in Lincolnwood, Illinois.

Bronswick explains, “Dale and I are thrilled to become part of the Intero® family, and feel good knowing that we’ll have the strong operational, fiscal and management skills needed to win in today’s market.”

Dale Cogan spent the previous 5 years as a Manager for C21 Select Real Estate Group. At one point he was the Team Leader of four Century 21 Select offices, overseeing 200 agents. His primary responsibility was Team Leader for the El Dorado Hills and Cameron Park Century 21 Select offices.

Previous to serving as Manager of C21 Select Real Estate Group, Dale was with Lyon RE and has been in real estate a total of 12 years.

Dale adds, “I am honored to be joining the Intero brand, a truly innovative organization that is growing while others are shrinking. I am excited for the opportunity and all that we can achieve together.”

“We are excited to align with Dale Cogan and Bob Bronswick and leverage Intero’s bay area presence,” said Jason Stephens, owner and CEO of Intero El Dorado Hills. “Their progressive business philosophy coupled with their real estate expertise will revolutionize the way real estate is done in Sacramento.”

Two messages are important in this news for home buyers and sellers. They are:

1. Low interest rates are significant for home buyers, equating to big savings when locked in at the right time. This is a point that can actually motivate a lot of buyers to get off the fence.

For instance, let’s look at a .5% increase in a mortgage rate on a 30-year mortgage for $425,000. Say our buyers could get a 4.75% interest rate when they first start their real estate search. If they indeed buy a home and lock in a mortgage at this rate, they’ll end up paying $373,120.42 in total interest over the life of the loan.

But say these buyers get lost in their decision-making process and end up taking eight months to make a decision on a home. By the time they lock in their rate, they end up with a 5.25% interest rate on a 30-year mortgage for the same $425,000 loan. Now, they’ll end up paying $419,871.66 in interest over the life of the loan. That’s a $46,751.24 increase in the final interest bill – substantial to the average family buying a home.

Taking advantage of the lowest rates possible is a key message that will help to motivate a lot of buyers in 2012.

2. While no one can predict when interest rates will increase or by how much, we know they inevitably will increase, but can also feel comfortable that they’re not going to jump suddenly. Most analysts and industry observers expect rates to remain low as long as the economy is still in a slow recovery. That’s good news for buyers and sellers alike (more affordable borrowing means more buyers in the market, in most cases).

Low interest rates alone cannot save a housing slump, or single-handedly create a boom (remember that our last boom was also fueled by very loose loan underwriting standards that created a lot demand from market segments that would not be eligible for loans under today’s standards). But they’re still extremely important to the recovery story. They still have a vital role. Let’s not undermine that, or let that point get lost in the shuffle.