James Yang – Sereno Group

I recently purchased my first home with the help of James. Before I started my house hunt I consulted Unilocal to try to find a solid Realtor and James was at the top of the list. After our first meeting I decided to go with James and never regretted the decision. Here are a few reasons why James earned my 5 stars:
— James does not pressure you to get locked into a place. He realizes that some people find a place in 2 weeks, and some people take 2 years
— James is very knowledgeable of the area and has a good strategy for successfully buying/​selling in the crazy Bay Area housing market
— James took care of ALL of the coordination throughout the process and was able to recommend contacts at the bank, title company, home inspectors, etc. He was also good about explaining each step in the process which was helpful since this was my first home purchase.
— James went out of the way to make the process smooth and painless, even when this meant additional time and expense on his end. If that isn’t amazing service, I don’t know what is!
I will not hesitate to call James again when the time comes and have already recommended him to a few close friends/​colleagues. Thanks again James!

James is the go-​to guy! I met James through some friends, and I feel extremely fortunate to have done so.
In each of our interactions, James has been full of information about the Peninsula real estate market. When we talk about Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Los Altos, he KNOWS what is going on, what to look out for, and what to suggest. His experience and work style are both extremely comforting during a naturally stressful time. In the end, we were able to get exactly what we wanted, largely due to James’ efforts.
In summary, James is incredibly knowledgeable, patient, and really fun to talk to. Call him and he will help you figure out what’s best for you and your family!

James helped my wife and I sell our home and buy our current home. He was very knowledgeable and provided answers to all our questions during both the selling and buying process. He was very responsive to our questions unlike other agents we worked with in the past. He has intimate knowledge many of the cities we were looking at including Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Sunnyvale. The selling and buying processes were both very smooth and James helped walk us through it. I’d definitely recommend James to anyone looking to buy or sell their home.

We first met James at an open house in Mountain View. Like most typical home buyers in their early stages, we were partly evaluating different neighborhoods and partly looking for a good agent to work with.
James came across as an extremely analytical and knowledgeable person. He shared some valuable pricing and inventory trends between neighborhoods of our interest based on past years data. To our surprise, he actually pulled up graphs and showed us statistics on his laptop, something we saw a listing agent do for the very first time! That was the moment we thought we have met our perfect agent to help us with our first home buying experience in a challenging bay area real estate market.
James himself has no appetite for pushiness, sales pitches, and pressure tactics. Offering tremendous space, independence, and honest guidance to his clients comes very naturally to him. James was a great real-​estate mentor to us, and he always offered honest advice when we presented our thoughts.
James has very good technical real estate knowledge about the markets, neighborhoods, and the sales trends. He is able to offer a very data centric view of these trends in a logical and rational fashion, which is an extremely «rare» quality in this profession. We generally wanted to avoid making emotional choices and wanted to attempt at taking a very data-​driven approach in this process. With James, our dream was more than fulfilled. We discussed analysis before submitting an offer! His inputs were a big part of our decision making process. There is no other agent like James in this area who would have matched our nuanced expectation.
James stayed at the top of his game at all time for us. When he sensed our interest in a property, he would go to great lengths to get us all the necessary unimaginable details which would help us differentiate our offer from the pool.
As first time home buyers trying to purchase a property in a competitive market, we felt like everything was very very easy! Behind the scenes, James & his team were working hard to help us close the deal in the smoothest possible way.
James’s services exceeded all of our expectations, which we had many. We strongly recommend James to anyone who has real estate needs in Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, and Cupertino area.

James is great! For the entire process, he was extremely professional and responsive. He spent a great deal of time explaining the nuances of the cities we were interested in living in, and how things like school district affect pricing.
Whenever we reached out to him, he got back to us right away. Even when he didn’t know the answer, he would find out quickly through his network of resources. His experience in and around Silicon Valley was really useful in helping us figure out the housing market quickly.
I would totally recommend him to anyone. Five stars for sure!

Thank you, Unilocal!James is a truly amazing Real Estate Agent.
Like many first-​time homebuyers, my husband and I weren’t sure where to begin. James was kind and patient in helping us identify exactly what we were really looking for in a home and where we would be able to find it in our budget. He was extremely knowledgeable and honest about areas in Sunnyvale, Mountain View, and Palo Alto.
We couldn’t ask for more from a real estate agent throughout the whole house hunting process. James answered our many questions and concerns with knowledge and expertise. We’ve felt from the very beginning that he has our best interests in mind to find a home we’ll really love.
We highly recommend James if you’re looking for a real estate agent who really understands and cares about his clients.

We just purchased a home in November, and I just can’t say enough about James. He’s been truly amazing for us. He’s always available, patient, knowledgeable, and dependable. As first time home buyers who had lots of questions and didn’t know exactly what we wanted, it was important for us to find a real estate agent who was not only knowledgeable and experienced in the local market, but someone we feel comfortable around. You feel absolutely no sales pressure around him, and regardless of what stage you are at in the home buying process, he’d be invaluable to your decision-​making process. He’s tapped into the market here, and has an excellent gauge on the real estate market in the bay area. He can speak some mandarin to boot.
He was literally responsible for us securing our first home. Seriously. We purchased our townhome through a lottery system, and while we were out of town, he attended the sales release and, of 15 other participants, our number was picked! I’ve asked around about James, and other professionals have similar opinions of him. He’s just a hard worker, professional, and someone you can trust. We will continue to go to him for all of our home buying/​selling needs.

Finding the best home in the South Bay can be a nightmare! Especially with my boyfriend’s picky taste for new homes in an area that has the fastest selling community… He is also a first-​time home buyer, so there was a lot of questions and unsureness. But with James’ help and guidance, it had truly made the process much easier!
James’ impeccable services delivered far more than what we asked for. He is honest, knowledgable, and dependable. He kept in mind of all the best interests, and made sure the home buying experience went smoothly and efficiently. You really can’t go wrong for choosing him as your agent! James has good ethics and professionalism, and I believe he has all the right qualities that an agent should have.

After working with James Yang to buy my Sunnyvale condo, I’m happy to confirm that all of his positive Unilocal reviews are true! (I found him the same way you are finding him right now) Yes– he patient. Yes– he’s knowledgeable about real estate processes and the market, and how great to not feel any sales pressure! James instead gave me all of the necessary info and mental space to make my own decisions.
I’ll try to mention things that haven’t been yet. He clearly understands that clients are unique. For example, I’m an analyst by trade and I need data to make decisions. So within 12 hrs of my request for some data, James provided a dataset that he went all the way to his sales office to get. I basically came to the same conclusion about the Sunnyvale market as he had advised, but I was completely convinced by my pushing some numbers around. I thought it was nice of him to accommodate ‘my process’.
James also really does his homework in the Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Sunnyvale markets. This guy drives around the neighborhoods just to stay on top of what’s on sale, what’s selling, who’s selling… etc. He also networks with the other agents for these areas and because he’s plugged in, he brought me the perfect opportunity BEFORE it was advertised. He’s seriously the reason that I own a new condo in the right area and in my price range. Bottom line is that working with him ups your game big time in this super competitive marketplace.
I feel REALLY great about my home purchase and I think that’s a testament to the service James provides. He’s like the trusted family friend that went into real estate– the difference is that you can trust that he’s actually going to be working hard for you!

We had the pleasure of working with James Yang on our first home purchase after being referred by a friend. Besides being courteous, easygoing, and professional, he went over and beyond to make sure we were educated and comfortable with our decisions throughout the process. We truly felt like he always had the best of our interest.
He started by educating us on the different areas we were interested in and then had us doing some homework on the neighborhoods that we liked. That led to efficient open houses where we learned the things that were important to us and realized what we can and cannot afford.
When we eventually got an offer accepted, James made the closing process seamless and made sure we understood each of the steps we were going through. I cannot say enough about how easy he made the entire process to be and how patient he was with us when we became frustrated.

I’m a new physician who just finished residency and started working in the bay area when I decided to buy a new home. From several friend recommendations, I met James and was certainly glad that I did. I’m not really a picky person but I certainly had some specific ideas in mind for my home. James took the time to really explore what I was looking for and was able to give me a «no bullshit» picture of what was available in my area. I went looking around for several months before I came to settle on the very first place that James took me to. I would’ve saved a lot of time had I just went with his intuition initially but I’m chinese and well… I just don’t do that.
Here’s what I really liked about his services:
1) Intuition: James knew exactly what I was looking for… even before I did. Damn his Jedi-​mind tricks.
2) Dedication: James showed up for the lottery system the day I got my place, he went over my documents, he even helped me pick my smurphin’ cabinets. The full package. Haha.
3) Honesty: James didn’t lie to me to make a sale. When a place I was interested in had glaring problems, he was the first to note it. In this arena, a person you can trust is worth way more than 5 stars on Unilocal.
Overall, I would definitely recommend to anyone in the bay area who is looking to find a place. Oh, and btw, James is a cigar aficionado which is super handy come closing time! Happy home shopping!

We had a complicated setup, because of the following reasons:
1) This was our first time home purchase
2) We’d stayed all along in SF, and were planning to move to south bay, but had never really experienced the place before. The reason of move was mostly the crazy commute I had to do as my work place is in Mountain View.
3) The property that we liked was neither a foreclosure, not a direct owner sale. It was a short sale; which later we realized had a double loan (from two banks).
4) This property had a tax lien, which the seller wanted to get removed by IRS. The application can only be sent once the bank approves the purchase. IRS takes at least a month to erase this lien, and the bank gives you a month to close escrow. So, you can imagine.
We’d experienced a bunch of other real estate agents, during our initial search for a property in SF; and had a bad experience, because the agent was not-​in-​sync with our style of living, and had his own opinions about the kind of house we should get. So, we were quite guarded in our approach to estate agents, ensuring that we have a good say in the property that we want. One would think that’s obviously how things _​should_​be; but you’d be surprised how often that’s not true.
Anyways, we reached out to Alex from Rainmaker properties after getting some good reviews from colleagues and Unilocal.Had a lunch together, where Alex introduced us to James. We were instantly pleased with the rationality of discussions we had; there was no selling in the talks, and they both seemed very open to our decision either ways (whether we choose them or not) and just genuinely wanted to help us guide. This was the first time somebody actually sat down with us and explained how one (a buyer) should approach the open houses, what kind of questions to ask, what to look for etc. Few days later, we chose James as our agent.
From the beginning, James was very communicative. He responded within 10s of minutes of any question that we had: email, phone, messages whichever method. If he didn’t know the answers, he dug it up, checked with the seller’s agent, the hoa guys, whoever he had to call; but he made sure that we knew what we were getting into, and that we understood the process, and had our expectations set correctly.
And trust me, he’s the one who ensured that things stayed sane in a very complex process of purchasing a short sale. If I’m not wrong, statistically speaking only 50% of short sales actually go through. The waiting times I’ve heard range from 4 – 5 months to even 1.5 yrs; particularly when two loans are involved; and at least one bank would have to bear the entire 100% wipe-​out of loan amount. In our case, we got an approval within 1.5 months (yeah, that’s really short duration for approval!), which I think was because of the strong and thorough application put forth by James and the seller’s agent.
Things got even more complicated by my mortgage broker, who got super busy and wouldn’t return calls etc. James, even though he shouldn’t have to care about it, helped us understand the loan process, and provided whatever advice was necessary; which should all ideally have come through our broker.
For a time in between we were just super nervous, juggling between the deadline for escrow, the IRS, the loan interest rate lock and what not; and James was just always around helping us make sense of everything.
I was surprised by how patient and understanding he was. When we were not comfortable signing on certain documents (nothing extra-​ordinary, but it was our first time, and we were just super cautious), he took a step back and just explained what impact this has, what we are signing on, and just let us take the time to decide how we wanted to proceed. Never suger-​coated, and never made it look like it was too obvious and hence we should ignore. With him, we always felt that the way the process went our decision, and nothing was imposed. I think that’s a big win as a customer.
He’s one of the younger real estate agents, in the market where most of them are old. And I think that’s perfect. Silicon valley is full of young professionals, and we all have certain mind set about what we need from our homes, and James understands it really well. He’s very knowledgeable and definitely smart. You can have a logical talk with him, ask him if-​else scenarios, and expect really good responses. As an engineer, its important to me to see through what I’m getting into. He’s very much unlike other agents, who only want to get it over with.
Overall, I couldn’t be happier in having chosen James. This process was complex by itself. It wasn’t a general home purchase from owner. And as first time buyers, it felt super complex to us. But, with James around, we felt comfortable and confident about each and every step of the process. I think you wouldn’t be wrong choosing him as your agent. He’s just awesome! :-)

If you’re like me, when you go on the market for a new home, your first thought will be «my organizational abilities plus the internet can take the place of any realtor». And if you’re like me, that’s not quite true. While personal education can take you a long way, let’s face it, I have a max of 4 or 5 apartment renting experiences under my belt, and a grand total of zero home purchasing experiences. And even if I had bought homes before, what’s a couple of sales compared to a guy who deals with properties every single day and has participated in dozens of deals? It’s literally a couple lifetimes of experience. There’s just no way you can learn everything a good realtor knows without experience, and when purchasing something as big-​ticket as a home, I definitely want ALL the knowledge.
Enter James. He’s an incredibly genuine, friendly guy with a passion to make his mark on the business. As other reviewers have said — it’s actually a good thing that he’s relatively early in his career, because he’s got the fire that a lot of older realtors have lost or never had in the first place. He LISTENS to your needs, without assuming you’re just like the last couple he sold a home to and thus must want the same things. And if those needs change after a few weeks of shopping around (i.e. I didn’t think I needed a kitchen island, but now I do. Oh man, I do), he pivots like a champ, no questions asked.
He’s also extremely knowledgeable, and works hard to keep that knowledge current — he told me that he spends two days a week driving around his neighborhoods of expertise (Atherton, Los Altos, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Mountain View, etc), to stay current on new listings. In his own words «google street view can get you a long way, but it’s just not the same as seeing it». He does the legwork so he can tell you which properties are worth your time and which aren’t. I have really enjoyed working with him and would use him for any future home purchases I made, without hestitation.

James was my agent for the purchase of my first home, and I wouldn’t have gone with anyone else! When I met with James I was so nervous about the whole real estate process I probably looked like a deer caught in headlights.
Comparing stories with friends who have used other agents, here’s the best things about James:
1) He is genuine. Unlike other agents who try to schmooze you, James actually listens to what you want and helps you to find the right home for you. You never feel like you’re just a client that your agent is trying to make money off of — James checked in with me all the time to see how the search was going, how I was feeling about the process. Sure, all agents are good talkers because that’s what they do, right? But it’s the way James is really honest 100% of the time that helps you, ESPECIALLY when it comes time for him to negotiate with other agents.
2) He can be as hands on or off as you like. I really was a total novice going into this and having James break it down to help me understand each step was invaluable.
3) Not pushy — I’ve heard of other agents pushing their clients to end up spending more and James never ever did that. He just listened to what I wanted and helped me to get it. He would only suggest I look at different areas or where it might be possible to negotiate.
4) James is really patient! Boy, I was texting him like a crazy ex-​girlfriend when we found the right place. He probably got really tired of me that month. :) But seriously, he answered all my questions, and dealt with me freaking out quite well, reassuring me when things were all going according to plan and stepping in when had a little trouble getting information back from the seller.
5) A great team — from Walter, the mortgage consultant to all the inspection folks, everyone was super professional and trustworthy.
Go with James! You won’t regret it. Plus, he won’t disappear as soon as the deal is done, he’s going to check up and make sure you’re happy with your new home!

We signed up to sell our home with Rainmaker after being referred by our mortgage broker. I check them out on Unilocal and met with Alex Wang. Very nice guy, solid meeting and we chose them to be our listing agent. Turns out Alex was expecting a child soon so James became the lead agent for us.
Initially meeting James, we were a little nervous because he looks younger and doesn’t have quite the experience that Alex brings, but they both assured us that he would do a great job and we took their word on it.
I’m usually one that wants to know about EVERYTHING that’s going on with the sale process but with a new kid and a move, it was difficult. James did a great job of giving me enough info of listing and sale process without bothering me with small details or things that could potentially be issues. There were Tuesday updates where he’d give us the lowdown of that’s happening and how things were progressing. For the most part, things went well and we were able to sell our place in less than 2 weeks.
Close of escrow was a tight 28 day deadline and it went pretty smoothly from our end. Rainmaker utilized digital signatures which were great because we could read and review the docs at home, then sign and return them all without leaving our couch. If there were any questions, James and Alex were quick to reply. Overall, it was great working with James and loved the digital signature technology.

James has always been my first, and only resource that i’ve needed for his deep and thorough knowledge of the real estate market in the Peninsula and surrounding areas. He’s been more than helpful on numerous occasions as a real estate agent when ive needed advice recently on properties in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and Los Altos.
I’ve found him to be very personable and easy to talk to, and not nearly as in-​your-​face as a lot of the other Realtor folks ive come across in this area. I especially like how he followed up with me in a timely manner, and reliably came through as a great negotiator, and helped keep me confident when i was more than a little nervous with some first-​time jitters. hehe.
I was referred to James by a friend, and would immediately recommend him to my other friends. Great local knowledge, and overall a great guy to do business with.

Professional — Reliable — Patient
These are the three words I would use to describe James. After relocating to the Bay Area about 18 months ago I contacted James in hopes to gain some insight about the local real estate market. James was more than helpful in answering all of my questions and offering me sound advice. Since then I have met with James several times and appreciate his easy going no pressure advice and real estate knowledge. Although I have yet to buy a home James continues to answer my questions and has remained patient with me throughout my timid process. James provides the personal attention that you will not find in most realtors.
I strongly recommend using James for all of your real estate needs, you will not be disappointed!

I wish I could give six stars! Of all the people we dealt with in the home-​buying process, James Yang stood far above the rest for his professionalism, reliability, work ethic, and responsiveness.
We just bought a new property in Palo Alto. We were recommended James through an old classmate from Stanford – I only wish we’d spoken with James sooner, it would have saved us a lot of headache.
If you’re a first-​time home buyer, take it from our experience: Buying a new home can be a surprisingly long, opaque, and painful process. You cannot take the aforementioned traits of professionalism et al. for granted. I was shocked at how many times we were given incorrect information, I was told I would get a call back the next day about a time-​sensitive matter and then was still waiting a week later, the other party misread an email, sent us an incorrect document, etc. From mortgage lenders to the builders to other real estate agents… in some cases this got to be the norm, we would just expect that they would forget to follow up.
Maybe I’m spoiled and have skewed expectations coming from the internet generation. But I can say that working with James was a breath of fresh air. Not only did he meet my expectations, he blew them away. He’s computer savvy – you’d be surprised how many people have trouble using email or the internet. He’s responsive and hard-​working – judging by their speed of response, I swear most of the people we were working with were already semi-​retired. And he’s reliable – before James, I sometimes wondered if people even wrote things down after we spoke.
With the quality of service he provides and the amount of time he puts into each client, it wouldn’t surprise me if James’ openings for new clients fills up quickly. If you have to look for an agent other than James, I’d recommend reading Robert Irwin’s book on buying a new house (search Amazon). He has a great section on selecting an agent, that will help you avoid the trap that we initially fell into, and that many of our friends fell into. Irwin’s advice: Avoid part-​time or semi-​retired agents. Many semi-​retired people go into real estate as a part-​time gig, because it’s flexible and lets them stay busy and make a little extra money. For obvious reasons, these people tend to not be as knowledgeable, hungry, or responsive. It’s compelling because the agents seem older and wiser, but they’re not going to go the extra mile (or maybe even work part 2pm…) for you. Irwin recommends going with a young, hungry, full-​time agent, and the experience of us and our friends has shown this to be sound advice.
This is the longest review I’ve written, but I felt I had to share what I’ve learned given the *ridiculous* amount of money involved in buying a house in the Bay Area. If you’re going to be spending that kind of money, you deserve top-​notch professionalism and advice.

James Yang is very passionate and knowledgeable in what he does. With his easy-​going, yet highly professional demeanor, he enjoys sharing his insights on real estate in the Peninsula. He relies on his research and experience growing up in the Bay Area to explain all the factors that go into evaluating property.
He was glad to answer several questions that I had, from market conditions to negotiating strategy. From my experience, i know that I can rely on him to give me the information that I need. I highly recommend turning to him for real estate transactions, both representing buyers and sellers.

When you’re looking to sell or buy your house — especially in this market — it’s difficult to filter through the millions of California realtors and find someone worthwhile. The housing market is bad, so there are plenty of realtors looking for business. How does one sift through the masses and find that *one* to best serve my needs?
I think most homeowners/​homebuyers aren’t looking for much. When trying to find a place to call home/​sell the place I called home for so long, we look for the simplest of attributes in a realtor: someone that is trustworthy, reputable, and simply cares about MY situation. I want someone that will understand that it’s not just property. It’s unique to ME. Therefore, you need to understand ME to properly handle my business.
James is that one in a million realtor that understands the individual first. Where it’s pretty much presumed all realtors know the basics of buying and selling property, James is in a different league all together. He takes the extra step to understand the individual, the family, and service their particular «goal». What I found interesting was his approach of educating and guiding us in the decision making process. We made an informed decision, which was much better than being told what our best option was.
Just to let you Unilocalers know — James is a prime expert to the Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Los Altos and Mountain View areas. He doesn’t handle the East Bay or SF (although I’m sure he could assist people in those areas). You might think why would he limit his practice? Personally, I can share that this focus is what brings the expertise. He is what they call a «local area expert” — providing a distinct knowledge of everything regarding the house, the neighborhood, the schools, etc. If there’s something he doesn’t know, he’ll find out for you. You can feel secure and protected in all aspects of your decision making process.
I highly recommend James Yang for his attentive, personable and skilled negotiations for the dual roles as buyer and as seller. James is — by far — the guy you want of your side when dealing with real estate. If you’re looking for someone that will professionally manage your situation, give him a call. You won’t regret it.
*5 Stars*
No doubt about it.