Rainmaker Properties - Improving Lives with Silicon Valley Real Estate

I received a letter in the mail today from  a company called Equity Management Services.  It tells me of a late relative with the same surname as me (what are the chances of that!) who died in 1999 and this company has been making every effort to track down any member of his family or next of kin.  Guess who that might be?

The letter continues by saying…

My intention is to transfer this sum of $15.5M in the aforementioned account to a safe account overseas.  I am therefore proposing that you quietly partner with me and provide an account of set up a new one that will serve the purpose of receiving this fund.  For your assistance in this venture, I am ready to part with 30% of the entire funds to you.

Well, if you haven’t caught on yet, THIS IS A SCAM. I see a great deal of these types of scams (see Nigerian Scams) flooding my email inbox, but I was surprised to see one come directly to me through snail mail.

Receiving this letter got me thinking about how I deal with unwanted mail.  Whenever I receive any junk mail in my mailbox, I immediately do what i can to stop it from coming again.  Today, I receive very unwanted solicitations in my mailbox.

Here are some resources that may not stop someone from sending you a Nigerian Letter, but at least these tools should be able to help you stop the majority of junk mail flooing your mailbox:

CatalogChoice.org - Catalog Choice is the free service that lets you opt-out of unwanted catalogs.

GreenDimes.com - This service was pretty cool.  The sign up is easy and I was amazed that I the amount of mailing and marketing lists I was on.  Green Dimes says that they can help eliminate 90% of your unwanted mail.

41Pounds.org - This environmentally friendly non-profit has a $41 for a five-year antI-junk-mail plan.

Hope you find these sites useful.

P.S. As I had mentioned earlier, nowadays I receive very few junk mail solicitations, however in the past, I would receive a ton of junk mail.  I learned a great and useful tip on what to do with the unwanted junk mail and how to support our United States Postal Office (USPS) at the same time:

Step 1: Take everything that was included in the solicitation, including the envelope, and place them all into the “postage paid return” envelope.

Step 2: Mail it back to sender.

Step 3: Feel good that you have less trash to throw away and you helped the USPS with some additional revenue.

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Sunnyvale reisdents are invited to come dispose of out-dated paper documents to prevent identity theft and free up space in their homes.

The City of Sunnyvale is sponsoring this papershredding event.  No appointment needed and it’s free of charge!

Bring your boxes or bags of personal paper records and files for on-site shredding by a professional document management company.  For more infomation, call the City of Sunnyvale Recycling Program at (408) 730-7262.

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The August/September issue of The Registry, the popular Bay Area real estate journal, on page 17, I talk about the growing trend for “green” and how even though many builders are providing “green” amenities, the majority of resale homes are do not have as many of these features installed.

“As the trend turns into reality and more people become aware of the impacts their desires might have on the environment and its resources, the American Dream may very well one day be a cooler shade of green.”

I’m noticing a lot more people being aware of the impact that they are having on the environment. Though I haven’t negotiated a deal yet where “green” amenities or lack of were a deal breaker, I think it’s just a matter of time…

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I frequently get invited by Silicon Valley developers and builders to tour new construction developments and quite often, they offer free food! I’m going to start a category dedicated to letting readers know of events including where you can enjoy free food while touring some model homes. One catch, you’ll have to contact me, so I can RSVP you.

Here’s an event that’s for tomorrow evening…

Serrawood VIP Event by John Laing Homes

September 18, 2008

4:00p.m.-7:00.p.m

582 DeGuigne Drive,

Sunnyvale, CA 94085

There is a new community called Serrawood in Sunnyvale. There will be beautifully decorated model homes to tour as well as delicious delicacies and complimentary wine and champagne, featuring a Master Chef demonstration of dishes straight from the Sunnyvale farmer’s market.

If you are interested, please RSVP to Alex at 408.898.7786.

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It’s always helpful to have people excited about your listing, whether it’s a rental or a home for sale. A bit of anticipation and a sense that there’s competition often serves to generate strong offers. I use a couple strategies to create buzz about properties.

One approach is putting a house on the MLS for a week or so, but not letting anyone see it until I hold an open house. Holding back on access to the listing creates a little extra eagerness and sometimes it even yields better offers. After all, when 20 people show up at an open house and they see others oohing and aahing about a property, it ends up creating a sense of competition. Truly interested buyers feel a sense of pressure because they don’t want to miss an opportunity. Most also see that lowball offers won’t fly.

The approach is especially effective when you have a unique offering. I had an Eichler located in Sunnyvale’s Cumberland Elementary school district and I knew they were pretty popular among buyers interested in mid-century modern houses. In fact, one had sold recently in Sunnyvale at $227,000 over the asking price. So I listed my Eichler on the MLS, applied my customized online marketing campaign,  and set a date for the first open house a week later. When I arrived 30 minutes before the scheduled open house time to prepare, I discovered 14 people standing in line!

With that property, I also listed it at $850,000–about $50,000 below what I though it would sell for. By undercutting the price a bit, the listing created even more buzz, especially among Eichler enthusiasts. The result: The house sold for $910,000– $60,000 over the asking price.

This delayed open house strategy also works for rental property. I use in when I’m serving as a property manager, and you can do it for apartments you manage on your own. Right now, there’s already some built-in competition for apartments because demand for them is so high now. So pulling in 15 or 20 prospective renters to an open house provides a just one more competitive edge helping to land the best tenants. When people see 15 or 20 others vying for a unit, prospective renters are more likely to submit an application and move quickly on an apartment they like.

Another benefit is that I save time by doing group open houses. Rather than running over to show an apartment seven separate times, I often find the perfect tenant—or buyer—during a two-hour, specified group open house.

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Silicon Valley has always been known for being at the forefront of technology.  Residential real estate listings should not be marketed any different.

In real estate marketing, 360 degree virtual tours and slide shows are out.  Real video is in.

With some help, I’ve been playing around with various types of video marketing for our team and our listings.

Our first video a YouTube video using an unorthodox and unique approach in explaining why Silicon Valley residents should choose to work with Rainmaker Properties when making a decision to buy or sell real estate.

And for our recent listing at 1934 Limetree Lane in Mountain View, we did a complete video tour of the house and neighborhood.  Be nice, this was our first try at video marketing!

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I received a voicemail today from an apparent nearby neighbor to my new Gest Ranch listing at 1934 Limetree Lane in Mountain View .

Here’s the transcript of the voicemail…

“This is not Gest Ranch, it is not Blossom Valley. You need to learn the area, you also need to learn how to prepare a home and how to write it up. This is appalling that in the best neighborhood of Mountain View you would write it up like this. I am astonished and I will make sure that none of the people I know will ever use you.”

The caller didn’t leave a call back number or name.

I must say I was pretty hurt by this voicemail. As most of your know my background , I take my job as a real estate professional very seriously, try to do the best that I can, and do what I can to provide Silicon Valley with a real estate company with a holistic approach to serving clients and “paying it forward” back to the community. Reputation is everything and having a woman feel this angry towards me and my services is quite upsetting.

My first reaction was to feel defensive. I wanted to give the seller a “piece of my mind” and let her know that she was the one with her facts wrong. Looking at the Santa Clara County title reports, 1934 Limetree Lane is listed in the Gest Ranch neighborhood. County title reports are not always correct, but they area usually a good reference point for real estate agents.

As for the Blossom Valley neighborhood, this neighborhood is comprised of four neighborhoods (Springer Meadows, Varsity Park, Blossom Valley Estates and Gest Ranch) fitted together on either side of Cuesta between Springer and Miramonte Avenues.

As I started to take into consideration a few more things about the angry caller’s tone in the voicemail, I came to a realization that it doesn’t matter if I was right or wrong, she was going to think the way she did and there’s nothing that I can do to stop that. The is the first hateful voicemail I’ve gotten my entire real estate career and I must say that regardless of it’s validity, this type of call sucks. I hope I won’t ever have to hear another one of these for awhile.

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I spoke with Craig Skylar of KRON 4 News about today’s big news of the government bail out of mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and what the effects this has on Silicon Valley residents trying to enter into the real estate market.

With the news of bailout, stocks ended the day on a good note. With consumer confidence up and stability with the government stepping in to help Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it will be interesting to see the long term effects this will have own home ownership here in Silicon Valley.

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Just last week in Cupertino, I spoke with KRON4’s Kate Thompson about Silicon Valley schools and the impact they have on the local real estate market.

I feel blessed that this month I’ve had some great opportunities to share my views in the mainstream media.

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