How does your location benefit your clients?
I am a California native, but I’ve been living in Gilroy for the last 25 years. So I think it’s important to work with someone who lives in the area being sought after.
If someone calls me and says ‘I want this address or that street—what do you know about it?’ I can respond to that.
I have a broker’s license and I’ve always been affiliated with a larger company because I think there’s a lot of value in branding and knowledge. I bring much more value to my clients with having an affiliation to a company such as RE/MAX that has that global reach.
Is the market going down?
I think we do see on a national level that things may be declining. But because of where we are in Silicon Valley and in close proximity to the new Apple campus, Yahoo and all the tech companies that are a driveable distance from South County, we’re really seeing a competitive market out here.
This week alone, I had four brokers call me from different areas with clients looking for homes. Our price points are definitely different than they are in the midwest.
There are still people transferring here and getting jobs and buying houses. So we don’t see the big hit the market has taken in other areas in the nation.
South County is still a good place to relocate and have access to those jobs.
What keeps you interested in real estate?
It’s very rewarding—I think—making that connection between either a first-time buyer buying their first home or a move-up buyer buying their dream home and then teaming up with an agent on the other side. It really does takes a village to get all of the pieces to fit.
To get the seller what they want; the buyer what they want; the meetings of the minds so-to-speak. I really like the deep collaboration and the results make clients happy.
What do you do for fun?
I used to say my hobbies are spending time with family and watching them play sports. But now that they are out of the house, I usually enjoy watch HGTV and food network, going to concerts, wine tasting—Napa Valley trips that sort of thing. My husband and I would like to start travelling more now that we can make a choice of our destination not based on a baseball team.
Contact Michelle Montez at Mi******@mi************.com or 408.621.6625 or michellemontez.com.
