Real Estate Syndicate » San Francisco

Six Keys to a Great Site: Looking at Commercial Real Estate

Max Diez — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:19:37 +0000

1. Parking. Little or inconveniently located parking can be the kiss of death for a retailer. Most retailers want four or five spaces for every 1,000 square feet of floor area. As many spaces as possible within 100 feet of the door is desirable.

2. Access. Today’s customer demands convenience, so having more than one way to enter or leave a store is preferable. Avoid sites that require turns across medians, which prevent cross lane turning.

3. Signing. Signs play a critical role in business identity and in helping customers find a business. A retailer’s facade sign should be visible from at least 200 feet away.

4. Traffic. Whether vehicular or pedestrian, every site needs traffic to prosper. Prime areas are located near intersecting streets with traffic lights. Streets with slower speed limits make it easier for drivers to see signage.

5. Activity. Unless a retail business is strictly destination-oriented, a site must have a good amount of diverse, nearby activity to draw shoppers to an area. Grocery stores, gas stations, post offices, and schools all bring people to an area frequently.

6. Visibility. No site selection factor is more important. Watch for barriers such as trees or download slopes that block long-distance views of the site.

Welcome Back EJ

Max Diez — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:58:17 +0000

Here are some of the stats that we talked about on Market Street Radio on January 10th, 2011. It was provided by Altos Research for the city of San Francisco.

To listen, click here

Home sales have been exceeding new inventory for several weeks.
However because of excess inventory, prices have not yet stopped
falling. Should the sales trend continue, expect prices to level off
soon and potentially to resume their climb from there. Watch prices
as the market transitions from a Buyer’s market to a Seller’s market.

Median List Price: $655,000(trending down)

Asking Price Per Square Foot: $448(sideways)

Average Days on Market: 122 Days(trending up)

Featured a live mix by K-Cee of BJP Entertainment

Music played on air: Two Door Cinema, Kaskade, Lenka

Hosted by Max and EJ of CALPMG.com

Find us on facebook: facebook.com/calpmg

Who Launches a Real Estate Business in This Economy?

Max Diez — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 06:28:09 +0000

CALPMG Launches Next-Gen Real Estate Model

PRLog (Press Release) – Oct 04, 2011 -

It’s a counter-intuitive move. In a down economy, with a depressed real estate market, Maximillian Diez and Ernesto Pineda—formerly with Redfin, ZipRealty and Century Homes and Investment Group—are doing what they do best: Launching a new real estate e-commerce brokerage called CALPMG.

As top producers at two real-estate start-ups, Diez and Pineda helped define how today’s online real estate transactions are managed and helped transition the industry from a broker/agent-centric model to the new online/client-centric model. Today CALPMG is building on that success by bringing back the personalized service—the irreplaceable human touch—that has been lost in the real estate industry’s race to embrace high volume, online sales.

“Real estate transactions are too emotional and complex to be managed as online-only transactions,” said Maximillian Diez, Founder and CEO of CALPMG. “While Google maps may improve the user experience and search engines will get faster, these technological advances will never replace the human factor that comes with working alongside a real estate professional who is passionate about their client’s needs. Personal attention PLUS Technology is what the next generation of real estate services must provide, and that’s what separates CALPMG from other online real estate services.”

Looking forward—to define what the future of real estate service should be—Diez and Pineda designed CALPMG to serve as the premier, one-stop source offering the most desirable real estate services, features and benefits: brokerage services to buy or sell property; discount pricing; rebates; online search and tour capabilities; property rental and leasing; and most importantly, personalized service with a licensed Realtor® or agent.

“While 89%* of all home buyers use the Internet in their search for a home, online searches, virtual tours and electronic signatures can’t replace the peace of mind that comes from working with a trusted source—an expert who can help navigate complexities associated with real estate transactions,” said Ernesto Pineda, CALPMG Managing Partner. “We learned from Redfin and ZipRealty, and from our work in traditional models. We know where those models fall short and we have corrected the issues.”

Making Real Estate Transactions Equitable for You, the Client!
One of the most popular transaction structures for clients is the “Transaction Rebate”—or CALPMG’s “Service First, Rebate Second” value model—which allows buyers to receive 52 percent of any commission that results from their transaction. Extending that into new markets, CALPMG also offers a similar option to renters, who can receive 25 percent of any commission that results from their transaction.

“Some of the larger online real estate outlets, that started with and realized great success with the rebate model—have dropped this option in an effort to bolster profits,” said Diez. “Information that used to be available only to real estate professionals is available online. Today, clients are Internet savvy and much more involved in their property transactions with research, pricing and more. They want to see their efforts rewarded and we agree. At CALPMG, we see this as a core offering and intend for it to be a permanent part of our business model.”

About CALPMG:
CALPMG is California’s first and only property management company to also provide personalized service with discount real estate brokerage services. Founded in 2009 as the California Property Management Group by childhood friends turned real estate colleagues—Maximillian Diez and Ernesto Pineda—CALPMG reunites market builders turned leaders from Redfin, ZipRealty and Century Homes and Investment Group. CALPMG was launched in San Diego with a mission to develop a better real estate service model grounded in honesty, transparency, expert interpretation and knowledge of local markets. Today—with offices in San Francisco and San Diego—CALPMG serves two markets in California, facilitating property transactions for buyers, sellers, prospective tenants and landlords and offers discount pricing, rebates, online search options and, most importantly, personalized service with a licensed Realtor or agent. http://CALPMG.com

For more information contact CALPMG Corporation: (877) 787-8525 or info@calpmg.com

Originally posted on:

http://www.prlog.org/11684078-who-launches-real-estate-business-in-this-economy.html

Re-launching a site that has been 4 years in the making

Max Diez — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 01:55:23 +0000

CALPMG

Almost 4 years ago, I left a team in Southern California to venture on my own. With a number of companies in between, I find myself exactly where I started looking for someone to create a MLS driven site that was fully indexable and I found it. Amazingly, I met some really cool people along the way from engineers, entrepreneurs and even some **sholes – it is amazing what a little money can do to people.

Anyway, my launch is for end of the month. We already have one MLS in, and I planning to add San Francisco’s MLS as soon as we make sure that we can handle the increased traffic. For those of you wondering and thank you for the emails by the way – we are putting together a brokerage – with a customer first, agent second attitude. The plan was to give people great service and save them a ton of money along the way. Sounded easy enough, but trying to implement that with the new leasing model was going to be a struggle. My time at Redfin and ZipRealty also helped me develop my own ideas of how to make a client happy – happy clients equal repeat business-

Enough for now, thanks for reading and we will talk soon.

Three – fourths of the year ramblings…2010.

Max Diez — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 05:34:55 +0000

The last few weeks has been interesting the SF Giants are on the verge of making the World Series, Bank of America has restarted foreclosing on homes, and of course 101010 occurred. I have learned quite a bit this year, I have see that while so much money was lost during the real estate collapse in 2007-08, there are still quite a bit of cash sitting on the sideline. I can say that while the boom, I did not get overly aggressive buying homes..

A good friend of mine who did his first real estate purchase with me in 2003 was recently indicted for allegedly hosting a ponzi scheme. He was a friend to me before we started doing business and likewise I think about those times rather than what is being said of him now. There are two frames of thought when this comes to mind:

1. When you lose other people’s money, people get mad and they find something to sue you over.

2. When you make other people’s money grow, people rarely ask questions.

I don’t have all the facts in front of me, but of what I know of my friend I do feel like he had their best interests at heart. I sometimes think to myself that I should have been more aggressive, we had a number of deals that we just did not have the guts for – the McAllister project (1.1m investment turned 1.2m profit) – the Bryant project (770k investment turned 200k profit) but for those I sat on the sideline while I watched others make money.

Keep in mind, I was involved and made some money as a result but I did not put all my chips in hoping that there would be a big payoff. Real estate was and is still good to me.

When will the Real Estate Broker be needed again?

Max Diez — Fri, 28 May 2010 06:12:51 +0000

Housing construction and sales have always followed job growth. Looking around and seeing the number of layoffs from companies like Pfizer, Texas Instruments, GM, Boeing, Motorola, Sprint, Microsoft and Webcor one would think that times are grim. I personally think that when companies start to let go of employees, these were a lagging indicator of the current climate. Even amidst my mild optimism, I realize that many will not feel the same way. Take today’s news stating that more Americans than forecasted filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, indicating firing persists even as the economy rebounds and employment is picking up. My only argument is that many Americans are forced to work for less than what they were making and while they do have jobs ~ getting by is not living.

Cities like Las Vegas, Riverside. Calif., and Phoenix have seen median home prices fall 50%, 44% and 37% from their respective peaks. If you were to take a look at the jobs that are being posted on Craigslist, jobs are ~ dare I say it truly vanishing and companies are paying less for those once coveted services.

What is the future of Real Estate?

Max Diez — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:10:11 +0000

From Redfin to Century Homes what does the future of real estate mean to real estate brokers like myself. My first sale of 2010 was for a friend of mine. After spending 2009 thinking about buying a home, he calls me in January to find him a house. We took one week to find him a home to make an offer on. The nice thing about this offer was I had negotiated the price before we presented the contract. This is one of my favorite things to do. A few years ago I wrote a post about this, but being that I no longer have my old site is no longer live. I am tempted to repost it..maybe.

So as of today, I have begun to repost my work that I have done over the years. It has been a great deal of work but of some of my loyal readers have asked for it so here it is.