By Real estate firm that merged with Coldwell Banker 'raised the bar' for service

Photo by Monique Schoenfeld, Town Crier

By Clyde Noel

Town Crier Correspondent

An important piece of Los Altos history came to an end last month, when the Coldwell Banker real estate sign replaced the longstanding Seville Properties sign at 161 S. San Antonio Road.

Judy Bogard-Tanagami, Charlene Geers and Alice Nuzzo, founders of Seville Properties, became acquainted while working together at Cornish & Carey Real Estate, located where the Bank of Los Altos is now.

They decided to form their own company, Seville Properties, in 1979. “Eight of us left (Cornish & Carey), because we felt the time was right to establish our own firm. We wanted to raise the bar of real estate and do it the way it should be done,” Bogard said. Within a few years, ownership was reduced to three equal partners.

They opened their 3,000-square-foot office at 161 S. San Antonio Road and gradually expanded to occupy 9,300 square feet in the same building, which they now own.

Selling real estate wasn’t always easy, said Nuzzo. You had to belong to different boards to show a house. Each city had a real estate board and each used a different lock box with different colored keys. Everything was done by hand.

“We didn’t have computers in those years,” Geers said. “We had a book with all the listings. If you wanted to know new listings, you went to the Friday morning meeting at the Rancho Cookhouse.”

“We knew that to be successful we had to have integrity and provide service and always put the clients’ needs and wants first,” Nuzzo said.

Geers agreed that Seville management was always hands-on. It was a service business, built by taking good care of clients.

They opened an office in Menlo Park in 1982 and another in Cupertino in 1985, later moving it to Saratoga.

“Our agents were involved in molding the culture of the company and we ran it like a family,” Geers said. “The company focused on attracting solid agents who wanted that type of career atmosphere.”

In 1997, Seville Properties was sold to National Realty Trust (NRT), when the latter also purchased Coldwell Banker, Cornish & Carey and Contempo. NRT put Seville in the Century 21/Contempo grouping of fine homes and estates; Coldwell Banker was placed in another group. Now, Coldwell Banker and Seville have been merged under the Coldwell Banker name.

“It was a difficult decision to sell Seville, but with the advent of technology, constant cost increases, the personal time and energy necessary to compete with large corporations … to stay on the leading edge, we had to sell,” Bogard said. “But to us, it will always be Seville.”

“It’s hard not to say ‘Seville Properties’ anymore,” Nuzzo said. “Especially when they referred to us as Fine Homes & Estates Seville-Contempo. Now it’s Coldwell Banker-San Antonio.”

The former owners of Seville Properties all live in Los Altos Hills. “In the early ’70s you could buy a nice home in the Hills for under $200,000, when interest rates were 18 percent,” Geers said. “Now the Hills is built up, homes go for millions and interest rates are under 7 percent. Investing in our unique area will always be a good investment, no matter what price you have to pay.”

The Seville tradition has been passed on to the owners’ daughters. Sheri Hughes, Alicia Tuvell and Vicki Geers joined the firm more than 10 years ago, and each is now in the forefront of residential real estate in Los Altos and Los Altos Hills.

“Each daughter knows that real estate will continue to be a relationship business based on personal relationships and service,” Bogart said.

“Many of the agents who are with us today started in 1977. That’s what you call family,” Geers said.

The Seville tradition will be carried on with Seville agents working under Coldwell Banker leadership.