I am a full-time, second generation, award-winning & enthusiastic Realtor. (My mother, Pat Pope, was a highly regarded & successful Realtor in the San Jose, Santa Clara, Cupertino and Saratoga areas from 1956 until her death in 1996.) Real estate was my second career after I’d worked happily in the area of religious education (in Catholic high schools) & ministry for several years. Economics necessitated an employment change, and real estate was a natural fit as it really is a “helping profession” and I’d grown up with it. I like to joke that my first words were “raised foundation".  

An area native, I was raised in Santa Clara and Saratoga, attending public and Catholic schools, and graduated from Saratoga High in 1977. As an adult I lived in several parts of the valley, including 10 years in Cambrian Park, and since 1999, in Los Gatos.

I hold a Bachelor of Arts from Gonzaga University in Spokane (a Catholic university run by Jesuits - in Religious Studies, 1981) and thanks to my parents’ generosity, was able to enjoy a fabulous Junior year abroad at Gonzaga-in-Florence, Italy (1979-1980), which cemented my love of travel and all things Italian. (With some refreshing, I can still manage a simple conversation in Italian - which is fun!) After some teaching, I earned a Master of Arts (in Systematic Theology, 1986) from The Graduate Theological Union/Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. Afterwards I returned to teaching religion in Catholic high schools, a very rewarding career, for a few years, until our children came onto the scene. I did a lot of related volunteer work too, with my favorite being as a volunteer chaplain at Good Samaritan Hospital in the early 90’s. Additionally, I worked in the Rainbows Program at our parish, St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Los Gatos. Rainbows is a peer-to-peer ministry/support group for kids suffering from any major loss, such as the death of a parent or divorce.

My husband, Jim Handy, analyzes the semiconductor market. He grew up in many places due to his father’s line of work and speaks French and he too loves to travel; eons ago we honeymooned in Tahiti on Bora Bora where he got to practice his language skills (between their Polynesian French and his Belgian-Swiss-American accent it got interesting at times). We have been very happily married since 1985. Jim has been a Parks Commission volunteer in the Town of Los Gatos for years, so I get a lot of interesting information about the town’s doings from him!

Our two children, Brian & Clair, are now teenagers. Real estate is inescapable for them, as it had been for me, and when Clair was in second grade she said, “uh oh Mommy, we have termites!” and had correctly spotted the telltale drywood termite pellets on our hardwood floor; I suspect she was the only second grader with the ability to correctly identify termite activity. So, real estate is a little contagious! The kids do some assisting for me in summers and are a big help. Like their parents, they love to travel and together we’ve been in much of the US, plus parts of Mexico, England, France, Switzerland, Italy, and Japan.  Brian is now a freshman at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, having graduated from four happy years at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose. Clair is currently a senior at Notre Dame High School in downtown San Jose.

I hail from a large and loving extended Irish-Catholic family and it’s a very tight-knit group. In my free time, I enjoy keeping in touch with them and with many old friends (who feel like family) - and actually many friends and relatives become my clients, just as my clients often become my friends. In recent years, that’s meant a lot of time with older family members. My grandfather, Col. Michael Buckley, died in 2006 at 104 years old and lived about an hour away at a Catholic nursing home in the east bay. My father, John Pope, passed away at Kaiser Hospital in Santa Clara in late June 2008 after a lot of heath problems and a terribly prolonged battle in the ICU. I was honored to be able to spend a lot of time with both of them in recent years.

I try to put a priority on family visits and reunions. (And I have spent a lot of time at relatives’ retirement homes so earned my designation as a Seniors Real Estate Specialist). My siblings & many other relatives come here to visit often and I’m happy that usually they stay at my house. As one cousin said, “sometimes it’s as if you have a revolving door at the front of your house: just the way you like it!"  

Other hobbies of mine, besides traveling at every opportunity and staying in touch with family & friends, include photography, brushing up on the Italian language, reading mystic, spiritual, theological & church books and articles, enjoying walks in my neighborhood at the base of the foothills, listening to all kinds of music, cheering on the New England Patriots (the quarterback, Tom Brady, is my second cousin) and devouring information related to real estate.  Although I went into Real Estate because it pays better - and Silicon Valley is certainly an expensive place in which to live - I do love it. My enthusiasm spilled over into a book project; I recently co-authored a book, “Get the Best Deal When Selling Your Home In Silicon Valley", which came out in late December 2004. (You can find it at the San Jose library, on Amazon.com and select bookstores.) I’m passionate about this field, but mostly about every client’s happiness, which is why I’m highly referred. 

Links on my family & me 

Mary Elsewhere on the Web


PopeHandy.com aka DelightHomes.com My personal, comprehensive website with hundreds of pages of information. Not to be missed: an “Organizer” for collecting MLS information. Not only can you get alerts (between once a week and 4 times a day, as you like), but you can mark properties as interested, or delete them, or make notes to refer back to on the properties later. Very, very cool.

Move2SiliconValley.com Mary Pope-Handy’s Relocation Website for Silicon Valley

Market Trends & Stats Newsletter for Silicon Valley: The Real Estate Report 
Monthly stats and trends for Silicon Valley broken down by city/town: San Jose, Saratoga, Los Gatos, Campbell, Monte Sereno, Sunnyvale, plus regions within San Jose such as Cambrian Park, Almaden Valley, Willow Glen, Blossom Valley, and so on.

Cyber Tips Newsletter Info to keep you up to date on the latest web shortcuts!

Belwood-Belgatos.com My small site on the Belwood, Belgatos and Surmont neighborhoods of Los Gatos. Tons of good info for residents and prospective residents, from Belgatos Park info (and whom to call if it’s closed and should be open, for instance), to the Belwood Cabaña and how to rent it for your next party to housing stats for the community and a neighborhood calendar of events. More is being added so check back often.

My Book, “Get The Best Deal When Selling Your Home In Silicon Valley” 
My book, “Get The Best Deal When Selling Your Home In Silicon Valley", is now widely available in libraries and bookstores as well as via Amazon.com and directly from Mary. Here’s more info on the book and what’s covered.

HauntedRealEstate.com I like houses, but haunted ones are especially interesting! All about haunted and stigmatized properties, about selling them, about taking a ghost tour, and more!

Blog: Live in Los Gatos! My blog about Los Gatos: neighborhoods, shopping, dining, history, events, Los Gatos real estate, and more.

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