Sonoma County Real Estate, with Bernie Stephan

0:01 Welcome to the Executorium Podcast I'm host Bill Gross at Bill Gross probate and we get together and interview the various resources are available on the Executorium directory today in Sonoma County California famous for its wine just like fine wine gets better with age so do some Realtors® and one of them is Bernie Steven Bernie thank you for joining us today well thank you so much Bill could Ju Just I point out that I pronounced it Stefan I knew I was G get it wrong once I started but here in La there's a big plumber Jack stefen and people say Stephen stefen stepen stefen so I should have got that right so BR St well thanks so much I know we've we've met over the years on online and such so give me your background you're a real estate broker and you're in I think Marin and Sonoma County I am and my background really starts as a second career my first career was in it for 30 years wow and that had me in the latter stages traveling too much I went to something local so I became an appraiser and then a real estate broker and then I bought a couple RE/MAX franchises and grew a brokerage wow and then I collapsed that and then I created Eco Realty that was ecologically focused and over time I've recognized there's another part of the market that makes sense for me and that is the more complex Parts where it's not just about selling a house but it's about dealing with people that are in a space that is new to them complex often stressful and you know I feel like that's an area that I can bring to bear other attributes I feel I've you know gathered over the years so talk a little bit about the difference of how you experience the difference of a real estate transaction when there is a an estate or an ex involved what are the differences for you as a practitioner

2:03 That you're paying attention to yeah first let me make a generalization obviously it's not always true but as Realtors® we're always eager to get going so when we get someone in contact with them and we'd like to move it forward let me evaluate your property let's figure out what the Mark is doing right now what are you interested in doing and so it's a lot of focus about what are you ready for now as we deal with the more challenging life transitions like when you're a successor trustee for a trust or if you're a personal representative for a probate you're you're working the will you're whatever handling the estate the idea of moving quickly on the real estate doesn't really fit in with all that you have to consider so one of the things as a Realtor® I think I need to resist is the notion of how can I help you in the real estate realm and back up a little bit how can I help you in the execution of the responsibility the role that you're in right now which often real estate has is a major component but it's not the first component the first component of course is you're grieving you've been subjected to some transition in life that you hadn't maybe planned on don't have much experience with and so that is what we need to help with first and foremost and the real estate of course is a competency but it doesn't come front and center and so sounds like patience in listening are key parts of this right they are they are and that's something I'm learning better as I get older I think we all are I think it's as part of life is to learn I think as you get older you learn that it's about the relationship not about the transaction and that takes patience and

4:05 Listening both so talk about maybe the difference of doing real estate in Sonoma Marin County versus the rest of the country what do you think is unique about your Market that people who may be out of state and have a property they're inheriting or they're managing for a trust or an estate may not be aware of what's different about your Market well first of all it's part of the Bay Area and it's expensive so in Marin County we're you know at a median price of 2 million in Sonoma it's a little over a million so for some other parts of the country that sounds like a lot of money and of course it is a lot of money and that is U Def and it's it's still a sell's market in that homes don't stay on the market very long there's a high demand for these specialty properties that are very desirable and when something is made desirable or is innately desirable there's lots of competition for it moves quickly so we just have to understand what the local current real estate market is and it's been that way for a while and even though interest rates are high right now buyers that might be able to afford other parts of California often don't even consider a Marin or Sonoma what we've had a history of over time is when Co hit for example a lot of people working in San Francisco and then living in San Francisco because they needed to go in the office quite a bit but when they realized that with covid maybe that was reduced to once a week then they felt they could make the commute over the Golden Gate Bridge and live further out and be less Urban and be more Suburban or even rural residential is very appealing when you have the internet connection to let you still do your work so as you know Executorium is a service oriented towards executors and

6:11 And give them a chance to kind of be at the center of the process but give them resources to be effective one of the traits I find as successful Realtors® is we tend to be a Rolodex of people services and vendors that we've tested and tried along the way so you know I know that that you're on the directory some of the vendors you have are not you know speak to maybe vendors you work with through the course of your business what types of vendors have you brought to your customers and why might those vendors consider adding themselves for free to the executor directory well it generally balls down to first and foremost are you working with an attorney or are you trying to do it yourself per se and you know I know tools to help you per se but in most cases you want to be working with an attorney that is familiar with administering a trust or administering the process through probate helping with all the legal possibilities and intricacies of that so that is an important realm for me to know attorneys that specialize in this and I do in both counties and there different courts in Marin and sua County each have their own probate court and generally people are more as attorneys more focused on their local court and then accountants are important for people to have and some financial advisors and then we get into the other skills of that there are some more Regional and National Services that you can tap into for example if you're getting started and you want to make sure that you give notice to all of the government and other institutions that the deceased had memberships with or had accounts with how to sort of manage that and there are services that you can call on and they can

8:14 Remotely help you in that process so it's not just about local vendors although that's a big part of it's also with these bigger resources of people that I have met from your webinars Bill and you've been a mentor to me whether you know it or not because as I've been learning more about supporting the administrators of probat or trust I've been doing a lot of listening to webinars of all kinds and in that process I'm building up a database a Rolodex essentially although it's in my phone it's in my contacts under different lists so I have a list for almost every category ategory of whether it's a Stager photographer contractor specialty a mover it's an exhaustive list but I can go to that and then I can remember the various people that are in that I don't really keep in touch with all of them all the time but I do work on that Rolodex if you will of people that allow me to offer what can be called concierge service is there some problem that you're trying to address let me help you with some people that can help you deal with that it might be dealing with your driveway and doing that quickly it might be little things or it might be you need help with dealing the personal property and who are Liquidators that can help with this and what kind of a situation are we in are we in highend and dealing with arts and things that should ultimately go to auction or are we dealing with things that want to bid on that somebody buys all completely so the various Liquidators are not all the same they have different programs and so it really ultimately boils down to what's your situation what can I help with and there's a lot I can help

10:18 So that's my vague answer if you want to be ring down on that please go well let's get those let's get those vendors on the executor executor directory as well so they can promote themselves to other people but obviously anybody who's in the business anybody's in the need for help in those areas calling Bernie for service and Marin and Sonoma County you're gon to get the benefit of his wisdom and experience Bernie if someone wants to get a hold of you the best way is [unclear] is that your best yes it is and the new one will be berniestephan.com oh but the old one will point you there it'll redirect you there so Maroma probate I also have a website called Marin which is where I've had my listings that then point to the other website that is more about informing on the specialty you know within that I have four books that I offer you can read the ebooks or you can ask for a printed copy sent your way I have a Blog where I posted lots of Articles and mostly on probate at this point but I'm expanding that to articles that deal with divorce that deal with senior downsizing that that are helpful I think if you Cruise your way through them to see what does the title say that you might want to learn something about and then in the new process I will be having a lot more of my videos I have a YouTube channel called broker Bernie and that is a bit dated right now but I'm setting myself up to do as you're doing more live streaming now then recording and then be having those put into shorts and the longer ones posted on YouTube of course so broker Bernie is a place a channel on YouTube on Facebook I have a business page called Eco Realty and then there's my websites and so a lot of that is in development now because I've gone from Fairly narrowly focused on probate to a

12:22 Little broader dealing with people that are needing time to grieve while they work to make the best of the situation that they find themselves in and of course we can find you on the Executorium podcast if you go there the Executorium service provider directory and if you go into Sonoma County California Sonoma and hit search it'll bring you down to realate agents and there's Eco Realty has this information there phone number and so on. Executorium is a great resource for executors you have directory of service providers counties across the country government resources we can get forms information on filing various legal matters that are required and then great articles and learning information I think for professionals as well great source of P of social media posts that you can comment on add to your social media program as well both the Articles and the learnings offer great opportunities there so Bernie thanks again for being on the Executorium Podcast thanks for your support of our program and look forward to talking to you soon well thank you Bill I consider an honor and I definitely want to help you in this effort because I know that sometimes it's hard for people to find someone locally that can help them you've been there for California as a whole but of course you're most helpful in LA and we here in the Bay Area I don't even I can't help people Beyond two counties but I like having a facility like executor where in right now for my counties it's not well populated yet so the idea of encouraging those service providers is definitely a great idea well great well thank you thank you so much for being there and again for the rest of you I'm Bill Gross at Bill Gross probate this Executorium Podcast. Executorium.com is the website all kinds of resources you have a vendor directory you have government resources and great education information I'm at Bild gross probate and social media if I can help

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