All those who seek respite in a locale that caters to your every whim, raise your hands.

Imagine living and working in a region that not only provides easy access to the city of San Francisco, but within three hours leads you to the beaches of Big Sur and Carmel, ski slopes on nearby mountains, 15 different golf courses, campgrounds, and Napa Valley wine country. Toss in oak tree-covered rolling hills, a friendly climate, good public schools, and affordable (by Bay Area standards) homes. Yes, such a place really does exist. Broker Associate Judi Franich, San Francisco-born and bred, has spent the last 20 years selling properties in this veritable paradise, otherwise known as Contra Costa and Alameda counties. Franich, who represents Century 21 Contempo Realty, has been one of the San Francisco East Bay area's top-producing agents for 20 years. And just as the region's opportunities are extremely varied, so are the properties she sells -- ranches, condominiums, single-family homes, something for everybody.

After a series of personal setbacks sidelined Franich (she recently endured both a kidney transplant and the passing of her husband), forcing her to take a nearly three-year hiatus, she re-entered the real estate business in 1997 without skipping a beat. "I see the opportunity to be a top producer now more than at any other time in my life," she says. Franich explains how she'll accomplish that objective in this AgentNews interview.

A.N.: What was your career track prior to real estate, and what inspired you to make the transition?
J.F.: I was a government auditor and an internal auditor. I was actually one of the founding fathers of the Department of Energy here in San Francisco. I got into real estate because I decided I wanted to mix business with pleasure. My mother was a Realtor, and so I knew a lot about the field. It was an easy way to make a living -- you could work harder and be paid more, or work less and make less. I wanted to work hard, make what I was worth, and be rewarded for it.

A.N.: What distinguishes the towns within Contra Costa and Alameda counties where you're selling properties?
J.F.: They're the nicest, most affordable communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. These are beautiful and affluent towns. Average prices fall between $300,000 and $450,000. They're varied communities -- ranches, condos, single-family homes, and there's a buyer for every type of property. So your marketing strategy is different for each of those property types. If you're dealing with condos, for instance. you appeal to people within the complex, try to convert them from renters to buyers. Or you might contact mortgage companies ... find out who's offering first-time homeowner classes. For multimillion-dollar properties, your advertising focus is different. With condominiums, the interiors are pretty standard: two bedrooms, two and a half baths ... but with multimillion-dollar properties, they're all unique. Prospective buyers of those properties need more photos, so we're going to start providing virtual tours within 90 days on our Web site.

A.N.: What about ranches?
J.F.: We don't specialize in them, but we do sell some of them. They're usually gentleman-type ranches, not working ranches. The owners might ride a horse on the weekends or raise a couple of chickens -- they're weekend ranchers, so to speak. And the homes on those ranches are beautiful; they're don't look like barns, as homes on working ranches sometimes do.

A.N.: Is your proximity to the Silicon Valley responsible for the bulk of your business?
J.F.: Yes. It's why I chose to work in this area. We get a lot of corporate relocations. Commuting to San Francisco takes a good hour, but people are willing to do it. And within three hours, you can be at the ocean, ski slopes, wine country, Big Sur and Carmel, or campgrounds. We have two kinds of buyers, actually ... those who grew up here and want to remain here, and those who realize it's more of a commute, but it's beautiful.

A.N.: Bay Area real estate is red-hot right now, and prices are through the roof. How is the East Bay Area managing to remain comparatively affordable, especially considering your proximity to a wealth of natural resources?
J.F.: [Laughs]. Realtors started that rumor [about Bay Area real estate costs]. It's affordable in this area only by Bay Area standards. When people first arrive and hear someone saying, 'Hey, this property is only $500,000,' they're ready to fall over. But three days later, they'll consider it a good deal, and I'll tell them, 'I told you so.' It's a real cultural shock. The quality isn't what you'd get if you were purchasing a million-dollar home. You're paying for the demand and the land, not the quality of the construction. You're paying for the lifestyle -- to be able to swim in November. Bedrooms are smaller here, but you don't stay in them; you're outside. But this is one of the few areas around San Francisco that's both affordable and in a good area. That's made our prices stable and kept them stable.

A.N.: Considering those advantages, your inventory must be low.
J.F.: We do have a low inventory. It's nothing to have several offers on a home within a day or so. One listing I got just a few days ago belongs to an owner who won't take less than the full price -- he told me not to bother calling if it's not full price -- and he's got three weeks to sell the home. But he'll get full price. Ninety-day contingencies used to be the standard; now we say two weeks.

A.N.: You recently came back after a few years away from the business. What's it like re-entering real estate?
J.F.: It's different. I love it more, and the reason is the Internet. I can go against Century 21, Coldwell Banker -- all of the big guns -- as an individual because of the Internet. When people are looking at the Internet, they don't know if you're Joe Blow the computer geek or the best Realtor in the world. It's all about the quality of your Web site -- the information and how quickly you respond to inquiries. We've had our site up for just four weeks, and during the first week, we won an award over 70,000 other agents. We have a campaign for the next 14 months to drive more people to our Web site through newspaper ads, postcards, sign writers ... we plan to follow up with people and update them immediately.

A.N.: But you were a success even before your site was born. How did you do it?
J.F.: It's about doing what you enjoy. It just reflects on everything you do. It's seeing an opportunity to grow. No matter how well I do, I'm only at the tip of the iceberg. My only limitation is time. I've learned to clone myself; I work with a team and refer a lot of business to them. I sell strictly within my farm area of 160 homes in Blackhawk, where the average price is $600,000.

A.N.: You serve as a guest lecturer for various real estate seminars. What do you tell other agents? Are there any best-kept secrets to success that more Realtors need to adopt, in your opinion?
J.F.: One mistake Realtors make -- especially when they're young -- is that they see so many opportunities to earn money, and they pursue them all, instead of concentrating on one spinning plate at a time. Then they can move on to the next one. And so many people hold onto a lecturer's every word. They'll run out and start something, and it doesn't necessarily work in that particular marketplace. They also sometimes seek answers outside their areas of expertise. My advice would be to develop a "mastermind group" to help you get to the next level. Choose Realtors who aren't in your marketplace, so you're not in competition with them. Everyone has something to offer. The six of us in my mastermind group recently sent out a card -- we couldn't afford to produce one on an individual basis, but collectively we could -- covering a broad area. That card goes to places I wouldn't ordinarily go. Recently I got a lead because one of our group members went to the National Association of Realtors convention and passed the card out there. I wasn't even at the convention.

A.N.: What would you be doing if you weren't in real estate?
J.F.: I'd be a travel agent -- but there's no money in it. That's why I set out to be the Realtor who travels. I've been to 28 countries and 36 states. I've been to New Zealand, China, Russia ... my plan is to take a major vacation every quarter.

Published: January 14, 1998

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