Photo Courtesy Of Rose Meily

The Bay Area Multi-Cultural Real Estate Summit recognized officials from the 15 organizing real estate associations at the event, from left, Julia Truesdale Keady, George McFadden, Yogendra Singh, Quincy Virgilio, Olivia Edwards, John Lee, Ed Diaz, Wilma Baltar, Rosemarie Figueroa, Dexter Lat, Eva Hom, Joyce Sun, Don Faught, Ramona Chang. Pat Huffman and Karl Lee, chairman of this year’s summit steering committee.

Approximately 200 Bay Area real estate professionals gathered at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View to assess the current real estate market. The third annual Bay Area Multi-Cultural Real Estate Summit, which took place Sept. 28, was organized by 15 real estate associations. The Silicon Valley Association of Realtors hosted the event.

The summit featured industry officials as speakers, and panels of experts on legal, tax, financing alternatives, short sales and escrow issues.

“Please contact your representatives,” Faught told realtors.

Keynote speaker Jeff Davi, California Department of Real Estate Commissioner, stressed the importance of realtors in helping homebuyers in the current market. The situation is better for homebuyers who are seeking to purchase homes for the long-term, he said.

“We know the rates are very low today,” Davi said. “The crazy instruments are gone and replaced with more reasonable financial instruments. If you are able to buy a home and intend to have a roof over your head for you and your family in California today, you will be better off.”

Davi highlighted the impact of the market on multicultural homebuyers with data that show in the past 12 months, 35 percent of first-time homebuyers were white, 30 percent Latino and 22 percent Asian.

It is important for sellers to price their homes right, according to Dennis Moreno, a realtor with MGM Real Estate in Sunnyvale and member of the Silicon Valley Association of Realtors. He cautioned against overvaluing a home. Sellers need to be realistic and understand they cannot squeeze more value than their house is worth, he said.

“It’s just like squeezing out what’s left in a tube of toothpaste,” Moreno said. “You can only squeeze what’s there.”

Moreno, Christina Chung of Coldwell Banker and Miguel Velasco of RE/MAX formed a multicultural top producer panel.

Organizing this year’s summit were the Asian Real Estate Association of the East Bay; Chinese American Real Estate Association; Chinese Real Estate Association of America; Filipino American Real Estate Professionals Association – SF/Peninsula chapter, Alameda County chapter and Santa Clara County chapter; National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals of San Francisco and Silicon Valley; South Asian Real Estate Association of America; and six realtor associations – Bay East Association of Realtors, California Association of Realtors, San Francisco Association of Realtors, San Mateo County Association of Realtors, Santa Clara County Association of Realtors and Silicon Valley Association of Realtors.

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage partnered with the associations in presenting a renovation training and short sales seminar. A finance panel included representatives from Bank of America and MSC Advantage. JCP-LGS Disclosures/First American Title Company and Innovae Designs were booth exhibitors.

Julia Truesdale Keady, president of the Silicon Valley Association of Realtors, said organizers were pleased with the turn-out.

“We hope the summit provided the region’s real estate professionals with tools that can help them better serve their clients in our current market environment,” she said.

The Silicon Valley Association of Realtors provided information for this article. For more information, e-mail Rose Meily at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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