How We Help You Buy

We have helped exceptional people acquire some of the most exceptional properties in Silicon Valley. How? We are premium realtors who are with you every step of the way.

Our Track Record With Buyers

 Do I Even Need A Buyer’s Agent?

Half our work is with buyers. But why? Couldn’t you just go straight to the listing agent and negotiate directly without the expense of an agent? Some buyers do, but here are some things to consider:

Your Biggest Expense Is Overpaying

If you are buying a $5,000,000 house in Silicon Valley, your agent’s commission is likely 2.5%, or $125,000, payable only upon successful purchase. $125,000 sounds like a big number, but is it in the context of buying a $5,000,000 property? Let’s look specifically at Palo Alto 2021-April 2024, for all closed sales in the $4-6 million range. Do they all sell around list, or is there significant variability and negotiation that happens?

Wow, there is a ton of variability! And do you think that the motivation, skill, and experience of the negotiators have nothing to do with the outcome? $125,000 gets swallowed up without much fuss when $5,000,000 properties are selling for $6.5 or 3.5 million! Don’t let yourself overpay!

Someone On Your Side in a High Stakes Transaction

With us on your side, you have us as a fiduciary: we pledge to you the utmost care, integrity, honesty, and loyalty in our dealings with you. We bring our Columbia MBA and Columbia Master’s in Financial Engineering, and years of experience and relationships and market knowledge to your side. Buying a house is inherently adversarial: you want a low price and they want a high price; we look out for your interests.

By waiving your agent, you are essentially using the seller’s agent to represent you. Double Dealing (or dual agency, or one agent representing both sides) is illegal in some states but allowed in California. But it incentivizes that one agent to find a price that works for both parties, not the best deal to you. And they already have a rich relationship with the seller before you even walk in the door. Some agents double-deal frequently (some even advertise it as a benefit!), but we think its an unacceptable conflict of interest. If you were in court, would you ask the other side’s lawyer to represent you to save costs?

You Are Busy; Your Time is Worth a Lot

You are obviously smart and successful if you are reading this; lazy and disappointing people are not seeking to buy multi-million dollar houses in Silicon Valley! So you could teach yourself enough about real estate contracts, and about market conditions, and pay for database access to do your own comps, and views tens of houses each week and track their eventual outcomes, and make relationships with other professionals to get the backchannel intel all by yourself. You could. But do you prepare your own taxes? Do you repair your own car? Do you do fly your own airplane? Likely not. You turn these things over to professionals who can do it more efficiently and with less risk of error, allowing you time for where you add the most value and things you enjoy. We remove stress and complexity from your busy life while we do the detailed work of achieving your goals.

The Initial Consultation

Our goals in the first meeting are to determine if we are a good fit for each other and, if so, we listen a lot and do some fun exercises to understand your needs. Assuming there is a good fit, we schedule an hour for our “intro to buying” class, where we educate you on the players in a transaction and their differing incentives, how the money flows, what the process typically looks like, the actual purchase contract, and how various offers look to the seller’s side. You will feel well-equipped to proceed down the path to home-purchase!

Searching

We’ll set aside some time to visit houses together. This shows you what you get for your money, and also help us calibrate to your needs. It helps us build a shared vocabulary also; people can have quite different definitions for what “modern”, “open”, and spacious” mean, for example. You will likely want to visit open houses by yourself as well, but together we’ll refine your target. We start wide and increasingly narrow down. Our process is a funnel that starts with a broader selection than what you want, but applies increasingly accurate filters to ensure you don’t miss anything, but also do not overpay.

As active realtors in our area, we often hear about upcoming or off-market opportunities. As developers we are often aware of new constructions coming to the market soon. We can be quite clever in sourcing inventory for you once we are all laser-focused on a specific kind of property.

Data-Driven Analysis

We take pride in bringing the very best data analysis to our clients. We regularly go to base data to determine what is really happening. And we bring this sort of fluency with data analysis and intellectual curiosity to your service. Take a look at some of our 100% original content… this is what we do for fun!

The Negotiation

This is the very definition of a high-stakes transaction: high money sums, all-or-nothing outcomes, and very meaningful emotions. We guide you through with procedural expertise and insight gleaned from our relationships with other agents. We win far more than we lose, because by the time you sign the contract we often have a strong idea of what the sellers want, who the other buyers are, and why our offer should succeed.

After The Sale

We quarterback the escrow process for you, helping with deposits, inspections, contingencies, appraisals, lending process, and the inevitable issues that come up. With clear communication, strong project management, and diligence towards your success, we get you over the finish line and celebrate your success. But it does not end there. We have vendors who can help improve your new place to be even more perfect. Landscape Artchitects who can re-imagine your lot to become a lot more. General Contractors who can help with your planned expansion. Electricians to upgrade your juice. Whatever you need, we are with you to make your new home a happy and successful one.