1. PopCasa has access to all of the local boards in the Bay Area. Thus, we have access to all of the listings in the Bay Area. The information presented by the different boards is pretty much the same. What’s not the same is the experience level of the agents looking at this information and how they interpret it. Our agents have the experience to view this information in detail and gain insight on trends that they in turn use to our client’s benefit.
2. Since we have very experienced agents, our company as a whole is very knowledge about most neighborhoods. Now let’s be honest, no one can know everything there is about every neighborhood. That’s why we take the time to get to know our clients. Specifically, when it comes to the home search, we learn what is important to the people we help find homes for. That way when we investigate a neighborhood, we know what to look for. Also, when our home buyers tell us they want to look in a specific city or neighborhood, we take the time to become experts

So, what’s the bottom line of this post. As a home buyer you can be assured that a PopCasa Agent can assist you with your home search throughout the entire Bay Area. Our agents have the experience needed to help you make informed home buying decisions.

Okay, so what can we get out of these awards other than pretty much is possible in your home as long as you have the money to do it? Granted the majority of home owners probably can’t afford to have tech havens such as these, but, we can use these homes as inspiration for our own scaled-down versions. Electronic House does a good job of providing equipment lists for the homes featured. You may not be into home automation, but are looking for an in-house music storage system. Take a look at these wonderful tech homes and not only get inspired, but also informed on what is possible. I wonder if my wife will let me get the video wall for our bedroom?

I like the idea of getting to know how close local stores, shops, etc. are to a certain property. I guess you could do the same type of search on maps.google.com, but Walkscore.com puts it together in a nice, easy to use package. I would definitely put this site into your home buyer toolkit.

Through their Department of Housing, The County of San Mateo offers various home buying assistance programs. It looks like many of the programs that were once available, are now gone. However, they list a few. Many of these programs have some type of restriction (income, city, etc.).  FYI…when considering using a county/city buyer assistance program find out if the county or city will be entitled to a portion of any equity gain when you sell the property.

Below is a nice document outlining the various programs currently available via the County of San Mateo.  Check back often as we plan to keep searching for more assistance programs offered throughout the Bay Area.  If you know of any programs, please let us know through the comments.

Home Buyer Programs In San Mateo Coutny - Get more documents

During the majority of my career, I have specialized in helping first-time home buyers.  What I noticed was that many times my clients were just short in the money they needed to get the house they REALLY wanted.  In an effort to help my clients get the house they really wanted, I would usually credit back part of my commission to make up the difference my clients were short.  Thus came the idea for PopCasa Realty.

We only work with home buyers, providing them with exceptional customer service throughout the entire home buying process.  At the closing, we credit our home buying clients with 1/3 of our commission.  Ok…the one question I always get when I tell them about giving back 1/3 of our commission is….”Why do you do it?”.  Simple answer is because we can, and because it puts our clients in a better position financially.

The second question is “How are you different from the other online/discount real estate firms?”.  Another simple answer.  We are NOT a discount realty company.  We provide full service to all of our clients from start to finish.  I would match the service we provide our clients to any long standing real estate company, and I know we would exceed the level of service and professionalism.

Trust me, I have a ton to say about how we work with home buyers here at PopCasa Realty.  I put together this video where I go into a little more detail.  We are an open book here at PopCasa, so please feel free to contact us via phone, email, or skype.