Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’

Luxury Insider: Facebook vs. Greece

By Alain Pinel | May 23rd, 2012 0 Comments

Do you believe in Santa Claus? I do. I did not when I was a kid, but now I do. I have to. I am so sick and tired of the dull-to-bleak-to-depressing news about the economy that I am now looking to Santa for help. He might as well do something for the adults for a change. Kids cannot have everything. Not in my house anyway.

Today, Santa looks a bit like Mark Zuckerberg. Forget about the beard and the red stuff. Don’t personally know the guy –although he lives a few minutes away-, but I like what he can do for the grown-ups. He can make us believe that people can still make the difference, no matter how badly our political leaders can mess up our affairs. He can bring back the invigorating will of success, the excitement of creating and winning. We used to call that the American spirit.

I know that the stock has been heckled a bit since Day 1, “morning after” syndrome I guess. So what? This IPO thing is still giant and should be celebrated as such, rather than described by some blasé and hard to please commentators as a dud. Everything is relative, to say the least. Are we losing our common sense? As we say in my old country: “Let’s not be more royalist than the king!”

If I were to write a serious book today, I would title it “Facebook vs. Greece”. That’s the 2012 version of “Ambition vs. Complacency”, or “Standing up vs. Laying down”, or “Making money for others vs. Burning other people’s money”. I don’t know what’s going to happen to Greece (or I am afraid to tell) but I was trained to always propose a solution whenever confronted with a problem. Here is my recommendation and my silent prayer to Santa Zuckerberg: “Mark, listen to me, buy Greece, make it a resort for the employees or something like that, today the price is good, you don’t have to say I am the one who told you.”

I have been preparing for the big IPO. I am now waiting for the Facebook lottery winners to buy some nice homes over the next few months. A Realtor friend of mine, someone who is nearly always right when he agrees with me, tried to temper my enthusiasm (should I say my expectations?), suggesting that many new techie millionaires were the subdued type and might not buy a bunch of pricey homes when they finally clear their cash. Well, I’m not sure I buy that.

When a guy wakes up with, say, $50M in his back pocket, I don’t care how subdued he is, he buys real estate. He might put half, that is $25M aside to create another Facebook, but I guarantee that he will put much of the left over on a nice pad with a roof on top….$25M can still buy a decent home in the US!

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Intero Insider: Facebook’s IPO and the American Dream

By Gino Blefari | February 8th, 2012 0 Comments

By now, you’ve heard all about Facebook’s S-1 filing last week – the social networking site’s first steps toward what is expected to be a $5 billion IPO. It’s a fascinating story, and something we’re sure to hear a lot more about over the next three months leading up to the actual offering.

There is also a fascinating real estate story about to unfold. No, not the kind of story in which agents start to find wild success selling homes via Facebook. But the real kind: young Internet minds work hard to build a raving success, take the company public, and get wildly rich in the process. And what’s the inevitable next step? They buy real estate.

That’s right. Our very own Silicon Valley, which is already flush with brilliant tech minds who’ve found amazing success in their careers, is about to be flooded with even more young success stories thanks to Facebook’s IPO. The rippling effect of the wealth about to be made by Mark Zuckerberg and 3,000 Facebook employees on the local economy is expected to spark a jump in real estate sales and also boost the local economy overall for many years.

This is how we know that Americans – regardless of background, age, or current economic standing – still have a healthy appetite for owning their own homes. It’s among the first things we all do when we realize success in our careers.

News stories may have you believe that many Americans are over owning a home – that the wounds of foreclosure, financial hardship and upside down home values have created a huge disconnect in what was once the American Dream. But I’m here to tell you that it’s simply not true, and Facebook is my case in point.

Watch for evidence that the American Dream is alive and well in our local real estate market after this IPO hits Wall Street in May (and leading up to then, too).

This is why I don’t panic when personal finance gurus start to talk about shifting values among America’s young – that our kids are more interested in renting than buying. Because it’s simply not true. Give them success and a healthy income and they will buy a home.

I’m excited to see this generation of dot-coms growing and sustaining, defying the slow growth trend that’s happening in almost every other sector. This is exactly the type of positive news we need right now. Let’s embrace it!

Eight years ago, a young Zuckerberg took a chance and came out to Silicon Valley one summer while enrolled at Harvard. That chance is now paying off, and our local economy is lucky to be a part of it.

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The Luxury Market and Facebook’s IPO

By Teressa Francis | February 2nd, 2012 0 Comments

Last night, The Business Journal posted articles about some of the exciting changes happening in Luxury Real Estate and the effect of Facebook’s IPO on the market.  Who did they ask for expert advice; Intero Real Estate Services.  Check out what we had to say.

Facebook ripple effect projected on Silicon Valley homes

Silicon Valley luxury home market flat in 2011

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Intero Insider – 2011: Slow growth will end the decline

By Gino Blefari | November 17th, 2010 0 Comments

We are about to start a new year that will prove positive upward motion for both our state and local San Francisco Bay Area economy. We’re going to see some job growth, which will help to fuel initial growth in the housing recovery. But it’s going to be a slow start in 2011 – a year of transition is a good way to describe it – and we may not always feel like we’re making progress because of the slow speed.

Despite how slow or fast we’re moving, we are saying goodbye to the bottom and setting our sites on upward movement in 2011.

For housing, I expect to see a rise in sales volume and median prices in California in 2011 from our bottom year of 2010. I think a lot of buyers who’ve been waiting on the sidelines – either for a more secure employment situation or a signal of the market bottom – will finally move and buy.

We’ll continue to see high levels of foreclosures, but the market will continue to work through them.

In the Bay Area, there are a lot of developments that make me feel optimistic about 2011. Facebook game developer Zynga recently signed the largest lease for San Francisco office space in five years. Facebook itself recently announced a joint $250 million fund for social application developments. Stocks have been surging at Oracle, eBay, Google, Intel and other Silicon Valley tech powerhouses. And while sales volume has lagged, home prices in the Bay Area rose for 13 straight months through September, according to MDA Dataquick numbers.

These are all very positive signs that the Bay Area economy is already looking up, though we need to be mindful that miracles are not going to happen in 2011.

Here is what I am projecting:

Home buyers: Expect the loan process to be long and strict. You will need cash, a solid credit history, appropriate salary and job security. You won’t have the lowest of the low interest rates forever so you will come off the fence in droves in the spring of 2011. This rush may even surprise you as you find yourself competing for offers.

Home sellers: The folks at the California Association of Realtors have discussed the tale of two housing markets in our state: the high end versus the low end. How you come out in 2011 as a home seller really depends on which market segment you are in.

Sales of properties valued at less than $500,000 have largely been distressed properties and banks are expected to release more inventory next year. This means sellers of properties in this price range will continue to have a lot of competing inventory.

Meanwhile, sales at the high end – above $500,000 – have seen and will continue to see constraints from tightened lending.

The prognosis? It won’t be the best year to be a home seller in 2011, but be patient as there are buyers on the sidelines waiting to jump in.

Homeowners: Underwater owners are a wildcard in the forecast next year. I don’t see the trend of walking away from a mortgage ending completely, but hopefully some of the positive economic news will create a much needed sense of security for these folks.

The transition we need

We have a lot going for us in 2011. Our state’s sheer size of nearly 37 million residents, expansion of the exporting and technology sectors, and an expected rise in personal incomes are all factors we have working for us. We are still the eighth largest economy in the world with a gross domestic product of some $1.8 trillion.

It takes a lot to keep us down, and it will take a lot to pull us back to normal. 2011 won’t be remembered as a breakout year of growth, but it will be the year we turned the economy back around – the year we needed to transition from decline to moving up.

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Top 10 Silicon Valley Real Estate Trends for 2009

By Dawn Thomas | December 16th, 2009 0 Comments

As 2009 draws to a close – you’ll soon be reading lots of  top 10 lists for the movers, shakers, and trends of the year and the decade!   In the spirit of being just a little ahead of the crowd, here’s our list of the top Silicon Valley Real Estate trends of 2009:

1. Low Interest Rates – with More Strings –  Interest rates have been low this year, with periodic dips into historic record  ”low” territory.   These great rates, though, come with seemingly ever-changing requirements and conditions.  Selecting a great financing source who can get you great rates AND help you navigate through the process has never been more important.

2. We’ve Got to Keep It Together For Longer – With the changing lending guidelines, it’s been taking longer for properties to close escrow and having a signed purchase contract did not automatically mean a closed escrow in 2009.   Having a black belt negotiator on your real estate team has been critical this year.

3. “Turn Key” is Hotter than Ever – A few years ago – buyers could purchase a property & count on some quick appreciation to pay for a remodel in just a little time.  Now – buyers can’t count on home appreciation to finance a remodel in the near term & are looking for great condition, move-in ready homes to buy  (as if location and condition ever go out of style in the world of real estate!).  On the other hand – for buyers seeking to purchase a property in a high-demand area like Palo Alto or Cupertino – it may pay to look for properties needing some work.  If you can see the potential in a fixer – you may have fewer competing bids from other potential buyers.

4. Buying a Silicon Valley Foreclosure is not as Easy As It Sounds - Some of the busiest agents in any real estate office are the ones listing “Real Estate Owned” or REO properties for the banks.    Buying one of these properties means navigating a maze of bank-specific requirements for making the offer, competing against multiple offers (some properties are getting 20, 30 or even 50 offers), and positioning your offer against “all cash” investors.  Finding a deal & making sure it stays a “good deal” through the process is not for the faint-of-heart!

5. No Shortage of Short Sales – over the course of 2009 – we continued to see properties listed for less than what is owed to the lender(s) – resulting in a short sale requiring lender(s) approval to go through.   We’re starting to see short sale listings where the lender has approved a short listing price – allowing the whole process to go smoother and quicker.

6. The Year of the First-Time Buyer – with more affordable home prices, the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit, and sweet interest rates – many of the homes sold in 2009 went to first time home buyers.   In the final months of the year – we are starting to see more and more “move up” buyers rousing the mid and higher-end price points.  Welcome!  Please bring friends!   This is a trend we want to see continue & grow in 2010!

7. Deal Hunting in Palo Alto – Where’s the deal on a single family home in Palo Alto for less than $300,000?  The media in 2009 did a fantastic job of painting the picture of real estate in free fall, and we went through a period in the spring where every day brought Internet inquiries looking for the extraordinary deal in Palo Alto.  According to the MLS – the least expensive Palo Alto single family home sold so far in 2009 went for $703,000 for a 67 year old, 703 square foot cottage with foundation issues.

8. Your Home May Have a Bigger Electronic Footprint than You Do - Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are 2009 Trendsetters above and beyond the world of buying and selling dirt.  In real estate, though,  the savvy home seller now ensures that their Real Estate agent is marketing  their property through multiple Internet channels.    Wouldn’t  you want 30 million visitors at your open house – especially the ones who can’t leave foot prints on your new carpet?

9. Welcome to California! – We are working with an increasing number of clients who are relocating to Silicon Valley for a new job.  It looks like both our job market and our real estate market are picking up!   Welcome!

10. Less to Pick From, More Competition – And finally, in many areas of Silicon Valley – we are seeing fewer homes on the market.    In fact, for Silicon Valley overall – more homes are “pending sale” than are actively for sale.  For buyers – this means that there are fewer homes to consider and more competition to get  your offer accepted. For sellers – it means that there are fewer competing properties.  This sets the stage for an even brighter 2010!

We wish you the best holiday season & look forward to serving you and your referrals in 2010!

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