Own a Silicon Valley or Santa Cruz home you've held for decades?
Then selling it is a financial event, not a listing. I'm a California real estate broker with a CFO's background, and I work with longtime homeowners 55+, trustees, heirs, and the families helping them decide what's next — with the numbers run first.
You get me, not an assistant. Licensed since 2006 · CA DRE #01724888
Four situations. Each one has its own math.
Every link below goes to a real guide or a working calculator. None of them asks for your email first.
Ready for what's next, not sure how the pieces fit.
Sell first or buy first. What the equity actually buys. How to carry your Prop 19 property-tax base to the next house — done in the wrong order, that one decision can cost six figures. And whether moving is even the right call yet.
- GuideThe Downsizing Roadmap
- NewStay-or-Go analysis
- CalculatorYour new Prop 19 tax base
You were named trustee, and you didn't ask for the job.
Which notices start which clocks. Whether the sale needs court confirmation. The date-of-death valuation that sets the step-up in basis. A documented process that protects you if a beneficiary ever asks whether the price was fair.
- Video + playbookThe Trustee & Heir Playbook
- GuideProbate vs. trust sales
- ChecklistThe Trustee's First 30 Days (PDF)
Keep it, rent it, or sell it — in dollars, not opinions.
Since Prop 19, an inherited home keeps its low tax base only if a child moves in within a year; rented out, it's reassessed in full. Put the date of death in and see every deadline on one timeline, then compare the three paths side by side.
- ToolThe Deadline Clock
- GuideSell now, or let them inherit?
- If your spouse diedWhat actually has a deadline
Mom's in Cupertino. You're not.
Adult children usually start the conversation and end up coordinating it from another city. What to locate first, what to decide first, what changes if a parent needs care, and how to get a straight answer about the house without anyone feeling pushed.
- NewThe family guide
- GuideProp 19 in plain English
- CalculatorWhat the house would net
The parts of the job that most listings skip.
A house held for 20 or 30 years comes with decades of belongings, some deferred projects, a capital-gains question, and usually a family. The sale has to be built around that, not bolted onto it.
The numbers meeting
Street-level value, your estimated net after commissions, transfer tax and capital gains, and — if you're 55+ — your Prop 19 options. You know your walk-away number before you commit to anything.
Prep that pays, funded at close
Only the projects that return more than they cost in your micro-market, with the crews managed. Through KW Renew, qualified sellers can access up to $50,000 for staging, painting, repairs and moving with $0 upfront — repaid at closing.
Subject to credit approval; interest and fees apply. See how the prep program works.
Transition help, no referral fees
Senior move managers, estate-sale and clean-out companies, haul-away, and the attorneys and CPAs your situation calls for. I introduce; you hire. California doesn't let a broker pay or take referral fees from them, and I don't.
Stay-or-Go, before any of it
Sometimes the honest answer is “not yet.” A written comparison of what staying costs each year against what selling would net and what the next place would cost to hold — so a move is a decision, not a drift.
A broker's strategy. A CFO's math.
I've been in California real estate since 2006 and held a broker's license since 2021. Before that I did corporate property-tax consulting — arguing assessed values for a living, which is the same muscle Prop 19 work uses — and later served as CFO of a real estate firm. The numbers had to be right because real money moved on them. That's still how I run a listing.
Listings are my side of the practice. Julia, my wife and a REALTOR® on the team, works with the buyers we meet along the way — so a client downsizing into a smaller place isn't handed off to a stranger.
I'm a fourth-generation Santa Cruz native, I sit on the Board of Directors and Finance Committee of the Santa Cruz County Association of REALTORS®, and I've sold on both sides of the hill for two decades.
From the other side of the table
“Lance took on the sale of my property at the most traumatic time in my life. He needed copious amounts of documentation and I was totally unable, both physically and mentally, to comb through decades of paperwork. Lance went above and beyond and held my hand through the entire process. I felt like I had a family member helping me, rather than a realtor.” — Seller, 2024 · ★★★★★ verified Zillow review
- “I didn't need a hyper-aggressive, flashy agent; Lance offered a grounded, steady confidence… he relies on hard data rather than empty sales pitches.”— Melissa W., sold a single-family home, 2026
- “I'm now the proud owner of my beachy little dream home in Aptos, and I'm already working with Lance again to sell my previous home. That says everything.”— Buyer, Aptos, 2026
- “Lance truly was a light in the dark for us… so on the ball with details, paperwork, and communication. A true professional with the utmost integrity.”— Leila F., bought in Santa Cruz, 2025
“You didn't ask for this job.”
If someone died and named you trustee, you inherited deadlines you didn't set. Most of them punish lateness with lost retroactivity rather than disqualification — but two are hard gates, and one of those is the twelve-month move-in rule that decides whether the low property-tax base survives at all. The whole job in six steps.
Santa Clara County and Santa Cruz County, street by street.
Micro-market pricing, the city transfer taxes that differ block to block, which streets flood. The monthly numbers for both counties are on the site and updated every month.
Eight guides, no email required.
Most agents put a form in front of a PDF. I'd rather you read the thing, decide whether I'm worth a phone call, and call me if I am.
Wondering what your home — and your equity — could do next?
A What's-Next Conversation is thirty minutes, not a listing pitch: your home's realistic value today, your net after taxes, your Prop 19 options, and a plain read on timing — including “don't sell yet” when that's the answer. No cost, no obligation.
Prefer to start with a number? Request a hand-built home value analysis — comps that actually compare, not an algorithm's guess.
Not ready to move? Stay in the loop.
Once a month: what actually sold in both counties, what changed in California property-tax law, and the occasional “don't sell yet.” No listings spam. See the current edition first.