Real Estate Syndicate

The Real Estate Commission Debate Continue

Max Diez — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:39:11 +0000

Receive 52% when you buy a home with CalPMG

Last week Redfin.com introduced Redfin 3.0, we decided to focus our show around this topic and more importantly discuss the ramifications of this change and how it would affect the markets we compete in. Special Guest host K-Cee of BJP Entertainment chimed in on his thoughts on service and the real estate experience.

Click here for the show that aired on February 21st, 2012.

About Market Street Radio:

Market Street Radio is a show that consists of eclectic music, real estate and intelligent talk. Your hosts Max and EJ attempt to document their crazy lives; war stories and experiences as every day super real estate agents in the bustling San Francisco Bay Area. Market Street Radio will have guest DJs from around the city showcasing what’s hot and what’s not mixed in with local real estate news and scandal plus guest interviews of what is going on in the community.

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.

Facebook goes IPO this week? Let’s see who buys what in Silicon Valley: Real Estate Fun

Max Diez — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:33:19 +0000

Max and EJ interview Ralph Migliozzi author of the book Collateral Damage Life as A Mortgage Broker.

Ralph Migliozzi began his career in finance in 1982. After his promotion to management in the consumer finance industry, he moved to Great Western Financial Services where he performed second mortgages. In 1986 he took a commission job originating first mortgages for a mortgage firm. After his promotion to vice president in 1988, he started his own mortgage corporation in 1989. In 1993 he began broadcasting a radio show he produces and hosts, known as “Mortgage Magazine,” on KNCO am in Grass Valley, CA.

Max and EJ talk about foreclosure and the mortgage meltdown. They also listen to Lana Del Rey, Of Monsters and Men and Pretty Lights mixed in between.

Fun times with Max and EJ as they talk about Real Estate, Music, and Mortgages.

Find us on facebook.com/calpmg

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

Renting Apartments: 2011 as the market shifts.

Max Diez — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 01:36:30 +0000

Over the last 11 days, I helped a family friend of ours rent an apartment. The details of the apartment are not really that important what is important is determining if there were things that I could have done differently in marketing this apartment.

CALPMG rents Apartments

Screening is very important; we rented it to a very qualified prospect, good credit, good job history and a clean record. He had just completed law school and had taken the bar. Awaiting the results in November, he wanted to have some flexibility in where he was going to live.

Leasing one apartment for an owner is different that renting a community of apartments for an investor. While the process is the same, being that there is only 1 apartment to rent compared to a number of apartments available to rent choosing the right tenant is important for cash flow. Credit, references and job history are scrutinized more diligently because the risk to the property owner is amplified with only having 1 apartment.Loss of rent, can make a substantial affect in cash flow in comparison to an owner who owns 15 units. The chances of a problem are greater but the risk is balanced by the number of units paying rent and not causing a problem. Where a owner who owns 1 apartment for rent does not have the luxury of.

CALPMG rents in law suite

We take the same measures when analyzing a prospective tenant’s ability to pay their rent on time in addition to take care of the property.

Our new partnership with TransUnion really does make a difference and it allows us to provide our property owners a safer and more reliable way to choose between prospective tenants.

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.

So long Sahara Hotel: Las Vegas, NV

Max Diez — Wed, 18 May 2011 19:16:13 +0000

I spent a couple of days in Las Vegas last week, it happened to coincide with SBE Entertainment and Stockbridge Real Estate’s decision to close the once Las Vegas landmark. According to SBE Entertainment CEO Sam Nazarian after buying the 1,720 hotel-casino(18 Acres) in 2007 and the real estate market collapse they quickly found out that the Sahara was “no longer economically viable” to operate.

Saraha Hotel Casino Las Vegas (entrance)

As other developments were moving south on the Strip, the Sahara was left behind. The halting of construction projects on the north end completely sealed the Sahara’s fate.

Opening in 1952, many of the Strip’s legendary performers in the 1960s and 1970s which included Johnny Carson, Don Rickles, Tina Turner and Dean Martin all performed there. The resort was the site of the annual Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon for many years and was the back drop to Ocean’s 11 the 1960s version. Even my mentor, who passed away in 2008 used to talk about his drinking and gamblinge trips at the Sahara.

So during a Vegas trip where I had plenty of extra and alone time to hang out, I asked Francis A. and his girlfriend Jenny to take me to this space. Curiously, when I told him that it was closing down he thought that this would be an opportunity to break the bank one more time.

Go figure.

Sahara Poker Room, the night before it was scheduled to close.

When we got there, we waited for a valet that never showed up, and for an elevator that was no longer working. Foreshadowing to what we would see in the actual casino. All of the restaurants were closed even the famed ‘House of Lords’ which Mr. Z used to talk about had shut down. Mr. Z told me that he had won a case involving a defective electric blanket and he convinced Mrs. Z to take their convertible to Vegas to celebrate.

Guess where he went? The Sahara. I would imagine when they got there it looked like this. This was the picture that one would see when they would sit in the sports book area. A window into an era of what was. I wish I could have seen it in its hey day.

1960s woman getting out of her car at the Sahara.

It was a somber event, a place that was once decorated with celebrities and mobsters was now just a tower of black and white pictures, empty $1 blackjack rooms, and silent slot machines.

According to Nazarian, they plan on coming back — in a final statement to a generation of patrons he hand wrote a letter on hotel stationery and posted it on the door saying,” “Be back soon! Thank you for 59 years.”

My guess for their new development being that they also own two parcels next to the Sahara, would be some type of TimeShare/Resort living experience. It seems that many of the new developments have gone in that direction. Only time will tell - Farewell Sahara, and thanks for filling in the memories.

What’s on tap? New listings and Building a new house

Max Diez — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 04:35:50 +0000

This year has just started and so many suprises are jumping up at us at the corners. I will have 2 new listings for the summer, one is a town home in the only gated community in South San Francisco. The other is a 3/3 single story home with breath taking views of Millbrae. A good friend of mine said it perfectly, ” from here you can see all modes of transportation, by air, by car, by boat and by BART, the Bay Area is amazing!”.

We are also going to be completing a project that took 5 years to create. I was in law school then, single and was still working with my family at the old brokerage. Time really did fly by. In all of that little span of time, I moved back and forth from San Diego, have a child and am living in a city called American Canyon. Who would have thought?

Over the last few months, more changes in my life have really started to tell me that things are not forever – and after the beginning of this year I have no arguments with that saying. As much as I would like think that some things are without end, it certainly can’t be true. You go to sleep one night thinking you are this person and wake up the next morning being another. A loss of identity maybe, reinventing myself definitely.

My daughter is growing up so fast, it is really amazing where the time goes. Maybe I should spend more time with her now, I just know that I may not have the opportunity later. She will be 10 months old this month and I am just astonished at old she looks.

I do see the writing on the wall, it is time for a change and I know that I have been waiting in the wings long enough. So it starts again.

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.