Silicon Valley Real Estate

Thinking of selling your home in Silicon Valley? No matter what kind of residential real estate you may own, this book offers guidance that will be a huge help in maximizing your profits from the sale of your home and doing it with the least amount of “hassle” possible!

Written with the consumers’ biggest questions in mind, “Get The Best Deal When Selling Your Home in Silicon Valley” aims to help property owners tackle the enormous task of selling their homes from start to finish. We, the authors, (Ken Deshaies and I, Mary Pope-Handy), address the gamut of topics in this comprehensive book, from how to chose an agent (or whether to “go it alone"), the role of the internet in marketing and selling your home, presenting your silicon valley home in its best light (staging tips, showing tips), selling your property in any kind of market (buyers market or sellers market), how to screen potential buyers and what to expect in the escrow process. The second part of the book discusses buying the next home, avoiding mortgage headaches, provides a moving list and a real estate glossary.

How can you get this book?

The book is available throughout the greater San Jose and Silicon Valley areas in Border’s and Barnes & Noble bookstores. If they run out, it can be ordered for you. Or order it online at Amazon and have it delivered to you at your home.

It is also available directly from me and is a tool I provide to prospective seller and buyer clients. (Although the book is largely about homeselling, the second part of the book is also about home buying.) Call or email me today for your free 30-60 minute consultation and receive this book at our meeting.

Several people, companies, and systems assist me in my work with buyers and sellers in Silicon Valley. Most often, my clients will not see or speak with many of them much (if at all), but they are all part of the package, if on the “back end” much of the time.

Within My Brokerage:

At my brokerage, our “admin", Nelda Petri, makes sure that the paperwork is correct. With a myriad of places to sign and initial and papers not to forget, it’s helpful to have a second set of eyes on the file. Additionally, my manager, or “team leader", Chris Alston, reviews all files.  When there are legal questions, which can come up from time to time, we have a legal staff available through Chris and we get answers back within a business day, if not a few hours. Finally, there are several agents who assist me in some cases (vacation, sickness, family emergencies). So I’m well supported on the office or firm level. When you hire me, you get a full staff behind me.

Outside Specialists:

(A) INSPECTORS

Whether buying or selling a silicon valley home or investment property, good inspections are critical. I don’t have one list for buyers and another for sellers - no matter which end of the transaction you’re on, you want excellent information. Surprises tend to sour escrows, so part of the plan in helping you avoid trouble is to avoid surprises. Only with excellent information can you make good decisions and have more control of the way your real estate sale progresses.

1. Home or Property Inspectors. It is crucial that your property inspector be exceedingly well trained, experienced, careful, clear, and through. In California, there is no license for home inspectors. However, there are a couple of trade groups which have a very high standard of practice. One is ASHI (American Society of Home Inspectors) and the other is CREIA (California Real Estate Inspection Association).

There are many good home inspectors in the San Jose area, but my #1 choice is Duane Serrano of Tri Star Home Inspections. Duane is an ASHI member with 15 years experience. I have not found him to either miss or over call issues (I have sometimes had inspectors who say a chimney or roof is bad, have the clients hire more experts, only to find out that it was fine - that aggressive over-calling is expensive, time consuming and upsetting). Duane also provides my clients with suggestions as to solutions and how to make the home last longer with proper care. He gets the reports out, with digital photos, on a same-day basis. Duane’s website is http://www.tristarinspections.com/ or he can be reached by phone at 408 266-2706.

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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.

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