Making My Rounds in Los Altos (BTS) | AWV005

AWV Episode 005: I visited two of my upcoming listings in Los Altos where I discuss strategy, encounter painting, problems arise, and eventual progress moving real estate in Silicon Valley.

Reviews and Rise of the Real Estate Team | AWV004

Episode 004: I was invited down to the Santa Cruz Association of Realtors to give a talk where I explained the rise of real estate teams and how aggregated reviews is changing the way the game is being played.

Agent 2021 Gary Vaynerchuk Real Estate Conference | AWV003

In late January I flew out to Miami for Agent 2021, a one-day conference at the Hard Rock Stadium headlined by one of my favorite speaker and entrepreneurs, Gary Vaynerchuk. It was slated as a conference to educate attendees on what are the latest innovative tools, platforms, and approaches to growing their business, especially in today's mobile and social media-focused landscape. 

Other notable real estate themed speaker highlights I attended were Ryan Serhant, TV personality and New York City real estate broker, Tom Ferry, a popular real estate coach, and Chris Smith, co-founder of Curaytor. 

Lots of great takeaways from this conference. Check it all out in my latest vlog to see the highlights. 

Speed Real Estate Mentoring Training and Coaching | AWV002

Taking my 16 years of real estate experience and distilling it down to just 10 minutes is a great way to reflect on what I'd like to most pass on to other agents getting started in the industry. That's exactly what I was asked to do during a recent "speed mentoring" event hosted by the Asian Real Estate Association of America (AREAA). For 10 minutes at a time, I talked to a small group of agents and did my best to share my experiences and answer their questions. Here's some quick highlights: 

1. At the end of the day it doesn't matter what CRM you use, it matters that you use it 
2. Be authentic and sincere, or else your clients will not trust you with any decision
3. The ability to say "no" when negotiating is so crucial
4. Build your online presence now, start with your website and Facebook

I had an outstanding time during the event and I hope I was able to share at least one useful tip to the agents I talked to. It was also a good opportunity to get good feedback on what agents are most concerned about, and see if I can tap into those discussions further. Obviously 10 minutes is a short time to cover everything, so if you'd like to continue the discussion below, leave a comment! 

80/20 Mapping Your Real Estate Business and Life | AWV001

Here it is! Episode 001 of my VLOG documenting my journey as a Silicon Valley real estate agent selling in one of the most competitive markets in the nation. 

Opening the series is a meeting with a mentor who discusses 80/20 Mapping, which is derived from the Pareto principle (wiki). We go over how we can use this method to help prioritize my life (and yours!) and figure out what's important or what's just sucking up time. 

Video series - THE RIGHT DIRT

In this video series we’re at one of my listings in the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, known for being one of the most desirable neighborhoods in not just Palo Alto, but in the entire Silicon Valley. In the heart of Palo Alto, we are minutes from downtown Palo Alto, popular parks, Stanford University, and top-ranked schools.

Downtown Palo Alto

From a real estate sale perspective, my initial impressions of the 2-story house was it had 1940s charm with good curb appeal and a deep lot. But the value is in the land when you’re located in such a prestigious neighborhood. Just to give you an idea, the sale price per square foot of land in this neighborhood typically passes $500.

Although the value might be in the dirt, we still wanted to appeal to the largest group of buyers as possible and that means putting in work on the home to showcase its potential. The landscaping was already nicely done but the sellers had just moved out, so we had some work on day one to get the interior open house ready. That included bringing in a hauler to help me take down the drapes, removing the old carpeting, and clearing out all old personal items from the interior. 

As you can see below, by showcasing the wood flooring under the old carpet we really were able to increase the appeal of the home interior.

Once I had determined with the sellers the amount of work they wanted to put into the house, the second part of preparing a home for market is doing off-market promotion and reaching out to local real estate agents to build up anticipation.  

With this high of a price point, the pool of buyers was smaller and the market moves a little slower. So we had the house on market for 2 weeks before I decided to set an offer deadline. 

When we’re taking offers, I play big role here in managing everyones emotions and negotiating on behalf of my clients to get them the highest possible price. In this situation, we had two strong offers over the asking price and my clients opted to do multiple counters and create competition between the remaining buying agents. 

Once we got into contract on Tuesday, the sellers had their money in escrow the following Tuesday. That’s a 7 day close, which is one of the fastest and most impressive closings you can have in real estate. 

Video series - ALL ABOUT THE VIEW

We’re back again with another home transformation, this time in the beautiful Emerald Hills neighborhood of Redwood city. Located on a hillside cul-de-sac, this particular 4-bedroom home was spacious and had plenty of potential, however, the most desirable feature of the property was hidden behind a row of junipers that obscured fantastic views of the Silicon Valley below. With a little landscaping, along with interior updates, we elevated the home to be “All About The View.”

Phase One

Like the first property I showcased in our video series “Gloom to Bloom”, our goal was to transform the home and attract the a larger pool of buyers. We started off quickly by painting all the cabinetry and interior walls, installing flooring, and building a wall in one of the bedrooms to better define the space. We touched up the front door and walkway, and prepared for landscaping to come in and dramatically change the back yard and take advantage of that incredible view.

The kitchen undergoing a new paint job.

Picking out new flooring.

Brand new bedroom wall installed.

Phase Two

Phase two began with the immense transformation of the view from the back of the house. The landscaper came to remove the junipers, plant rows of fresh flowers and new mulch. To make things challenging, the usually temperate Silicon Valley weather gave us a rare heat wave. The solution was for me to pick up a hose and water the plants myself over the weekend.

Watering the plants after a heatwave.

One real estate tip is to pull off all the window and door screens. It really brightens up the house, and gave an unobscured look out to our panoramic views. 

Removing window screens to let light in.

With all the interior work finished, it was time for the stagers to come in. Stagers play a large role in making the photography stand out, but also staging allows a buyer to build an emotional bond with the home by seeing the potential of building a new life for themselves inside.

Stagers coming in to place furniture in the home.

The Sale

After seeing what the stagers had done to the house, I was amazed. It had really come together and felt like home. With the house ready to go on market, we went into the final stages with photography, producing copy and marketing assets, and holding open houses.

In less than a week of going on market, I had property into contract with multiple competitive offers. When a client entrusts me with the sale of his home, they can be sure that I will take care of every aspect of the sale from start to finish. It's one of my favorite parts of my job to see a home transformed like this, the sellers always comment that they want to move back in! 

What a view!

If you have questions about selling your Silicon Valley home, let’s talk.

Worst Real Estate Agent Reviews

We told these actors they'd be reading some of the worst online reviews.

Here's what happened when they read real estate agent Alex Wang's online reviews.

1. oh, thank you

2. remember the adage, you get what you pay for?

3. after our experience with Alex Wang I would have to say that this holds true

4. I expected Realtors in the Bay Area to be working at an especially high level of professionalism

5. but Alex Wang, he stood apart.

6. after meeting Alex and interviewing him

7. I thought I've found just the broker I was looking for

8. Alex seemed to know what he was doing

9. in my case

10. Alex is marketing and staging teams presented our house beautifully

11. great photos and marketing materials guys

12. they were always upbeat

13. positive and fun to deal with unlike some Realtors who focused on high-end clients or

14. volume clients Alex is all about the one-on-one

15. relationship and is devoted to all of his clients

16. working with Alex was a unique pleasure

17. In short Alex is a bad... ass

18. agent very intelligent

19. experienced and balanced and harmonious person to deal with you have a home you want to sell a top-dollar

20. call this man

21. we are very happy to have worked with him to sell our house and to now think of him as a friend

22. not how I thought that would go

Hope you enjoyed this video! Your comments and reviews are the lifeblood of my business. See what other clients are saying about their experience working with me below:

► Yelp ► Facebook ► Google ► Zillow

Gloom to Bloom in 12 Days

This is one of the most exciting aspects of my profession — working on a tight 12-day renovation deadline to transform a worn-out home into a beautifully staged and photographed home just in time to go on market. This Mountain View listing located in the heart Silicon Valley brought together a lot of the expertise I’ve gained over the years, so we documented the entire process to show how I took the home from “gloom to bloom.”

Phase One

With a flea infestation and near dilapidated conditions, we hit the ground running on day one. First things first, we had to rid the home of the mountains of trash that had accumulated over time. The hauling helped us remove everything from the home so that we could get to work on renovations.

Multiple truckloads of junk were removed from the home with the help of our hauling crew.

The only way to tackle this much trash is with a shovel, and that's exactly what we did.

Phase Two

The second phase was undoubtedly the busiest, starting with flea bombing the entire property. From there, the landscapers and painters got to work while my assistant, Kris, and I went over the property with the handyman to ensure all repairs would be completed on time.

The landscaping crew rids the front yard of unsightly junipers to enhance its curb appeal.

Kris and I go over kitchen repairs with the handyman.

You'd be surprised how far a fresh coat of paint goes when it comes to making a property pop.

This phase was a blur of activity, and we made significant strides as a team in preparing the home for sale. See all of the action in the video clip below.

Phase Three

By phase three, the home had come to life. All that was left was to stage it so that prospective buyers could envision what it would be like to live there. Once the furnishings were in place, it was time to go over every last detail to ensure the home was ready for showing, and ultimately, move in. We also brought in a team of inspectors to prepare pre-sale inspections. After three days of hard work, this home was ready to hit the market.

The professional stagers put the finishing touches on the home.

To ensure the renovation was successful, I personally go over every aspect of the home.

A pre-sale property inspection helps to make sure there aren't any surprises during the sales process.

While the home’s initial conditions didn’t shock me, the final reveal did. The home turned out even better than I could have imaged. I went into the open houses with confidence, knowing that the work would pay off for my sellers. Check out the clip below to get a full look at phase three and see the finished product.

Securing the Sale

Preparing a home for market means nothing if an agent can’t deliver on the sale. Within a week of concluding the renovation process, I had received three offers. Ultimately, the sale was finalized in just nine days with an all-cash offer above asking price. All in all, it was a great experience for everyone involved, myself included.

When a client entrusts me with the sale of his home, he can be sure that I will take care of every aspect of the sale from start to finish.

If you have questions about selling your Silicon Valley home, let’s talk.

To see the full process from start to finish, check out the video below!

Is Your Email Signature Referring You More Business?

The average business user sends more than 120 emails per day. Your email signatures is a very effective (and free) tool to brand yourself to the people you communicate with.

Here are top three questions to ask about your current email signature:

1. Does the email signature represent who I am as a person, professional, and Realtor?

Full name? Nickname (more casual)? Middle initial (more formal)?
Alex H. Wang

Title? Designations? - Tell the world what you do *
Alex H. Wang, Realtor, MBA, CPA, CIPS, GRI, CRS, SRES, etc.

Company name? Office address(es)? Best number to reach you?
Sereno Group
258 High Street, Palo Alto, CA 94301
369 S. San Antonio Road, Los Altos, CA 94022
(650) 331-9088 (do you want everyone to have this number?)

BRE license number?
BRE#01351503

* If you do have designations at the end of your name, I recommend information on your website explaining what the designations are and why it brings value to your clients.

2. Is my phone number and website included and ‘clickable’ whether it’s being viewed on a website or mobile device?

Tip #1: Be Device Neutral - Test out how your phone number looks on multiple devices. The goal is to be ‘device neutral’ so that anyone viewing your email signature can call you or access your website with just ‘one-click’ regardless of what device they are using. It can be frustrating for someone to have to copy and paste your contact information from your email in order to refer you or get a hold of you.

Tip #2: Less is More - Depending on the devices that your clients are using, there may be attachment problems when your email signature is being forwarded. Try removing attachments that can take up space and end up annoying your recipients. Focus on text with links and “call-to-actions”!

3. Have I included (or not included) links to social media and other websites that will help reinforce who I am as a person, professional, and Realtor?

Tip: If your last blog post was seven months ago or you have an inactive social media account, think twice before adding it to your signature.

Extra credit / bonus tip: Raziel Ungar is an awesome agent that I know and he posts his recent solds and upcoming listings linking to his website at the bottom of his email signature. A little more work to maintain, but definitely helps build credibility and experience in given market area.