CA DRE #02100650
NRDS #200013000
408-242-8330 (mobile)
gregory.hyver@exprealty.com
https://greghyver.com
Residential
Real Estate
Santa Cruz &
Santa Clara Counties
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Gregory Hyver
To Understand A Home Is To Build A Home
My building experience taught me a great deal about working with the Santa Cruz County Zoning and Building departments for permits and inspections, as well as engaging with sub-contractors and building material suppliers. I also personally maintain my 5-acre property, consisting of such sacred duties as high-grass cutting, landscaping, sprinkler systems and drip lines, forming and pouring patios and sidewalks, repairing plumbing leaks, trapping gophers, felling dead trees, patching asphalt driveways...you name it. To truly understand a home, you have to build and maintain one. My broad background of both building and maintaining a rural property helps me to guide buyers with seasoned insights when evaluating strengths, weaknesses, and trade-offs of a particular home-buying opportunity.
The Santa Cruz Mountains
When Nature Calls
There are numerous real estate agents offering their services in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Coast. Each of us try to differentiate ourselves from the others in one way or another. I guess that my unique quality and area of specialization is that I have spent my last 50 years living in Santa Cruz Mountain communities, on both both sides of "the hill." I spent the majority of my life in Los Altos Hills (1969-1970, 1972-2001), a city in Santa Clara County, then shifted over to the Santa Cruz County side to build my home in Soquel, residing there with my family from 2001 to today. Many cities in the Santa Cruz Mountains are a blend of "hillsiders" and "flatlanders"--small cities like Los Gatos, Saratoga, Los Altos/Los Altos Hills, Santa Cruz, Aptos and others. And whereas some of the cities lie on one side of the hill and in close proximity to Silicon Valley businesses, the cities on the other side of the hill offer the advantages of a beautiful coastline and recreational activities. In short, life in the Santa Cruz Mountains is nothing less than spectacular!
Santa Cruz County
Where Unsurpassed Beauty and a Rich History Come Together
Having built and still owning my home in the Soquel Hills for the last 20+ years, while having worked in property management in downtown Santa Cruz for the last five years, I am intimately familiar with both rural and urban properties and lifestyles in Santa Cruz County. What makes Santa Cruz County unique is this mix of both urban and rural lifestyles--and the rare opportunity to choose either of these two distinctly different ways of life within the same county.
Rural Properties
For those of you seeking a more rural lifestyle, away from the hustle and bustle of city life, you will most likely have your own well system, maintain your own leach field and septic tank, and lease a propane tank to heat your water and your home. There are concerns with fire safety and fire inspections living in wilderness areas, accessibility to homeowner's insurance coverage, and private road maintenance, among others. Yet, in my opinion, the benefits outweigh the costs to own a rural property if you are one off those who values looking out your bedroom window on a spring morning to watch baby fawns stretching their new legs, or admiring red-tail hawks floating silently and effortlessly on the thermals on a cool summer day, or the hooting duo of the great horned owls, or the congregation of woodpeckers arriving for their evening drink, or the co-mingling of the quail and rabbits, or the parade of wild turkeys, or simply gazing at the lazy fog bank rolling through the steep canyons as the afternoon wanes. I'm intimately knowledgeable about what owning and living in a rural community in the Santa Cruz Mountains requires. Many realtors offering properties in Santa Cruz County lack the direct, day-to-day experience, of living on mountain acreage and my background will provide both buyer and seller with my unique insights to aid your final decision to sell or purchase.
Urban Properties
If you prefer living a bit closer to town, Santa Cruz County has so much to offer in terms of amenities, culture and lifestyle. The county hugs the coastal lands surrounding the world-famous Monterey Bay, a tourism mecca on the California coast offering a variety of restaurants, entertainment venues and one-of-a-kind shops. There are historic districts lined with colorful Victorians, beach communities like Capitola and Santa Cruz, agricultural centers like Watsonville, and the less publicized, yet equally beautiful and more secluded towns of Soquel and Aptos, among others. With more than five years of managing City of Santa Cruz residential properties with Carle & Carle Properties, anything ranging from residential homes in the Seabright district to downtown Victorians, I have developed a strong understanding of the dynamics of the various neighborhoods, the care and maintenance required for 100-year old homes, and the proper matching of properties with new prospect tastes and price ranges.
Served Zip Codes - Santa Cruz County
95003, 95001, 95005, 95006, 95007, 95010, 95017, 95018, 95019, 95033, 95041, 95060, 95065, 95064, 95063, 95062, 95061, 95066, 95067, 95073, 95076, 95077
Served Cities - Santa Cruz County
Aptos, Ben Lomond, Bonny Doon, Boulder Creek, Brookdale, Capitola, Corralitos, Davenport, Felton, Freedom, La Selva Beach, Rio Del Mar, Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley, Soquel, Watsonville, Zayante
Santa Clara County
Where Dreams Come Alive
South Bay Area - Santa Cruz Mountain Communities
One of the greatest motivators for building my first home in the Santa Cruz Mountains was having spent the periods from 1969-1970 and 1972 - 2001 living in Los Altos Hills, where I attended schools like Eastbrook Elementary, Purissima Elementary, Covington Middle School, and Los Altos High School. Living within a stones throw from such Silicon Valley icons as Gordon Moore (Intel), David Packard (Hewlett-Packard), Jerry Yang (Yahoo), Jim Treybig (Tandem Computers) and Charles Sporck (National Semiconductor), this "Who's Who" list of Silicon Valley business leaders of their era lent a certain awe to the simplicity of a country landscape, a rare combination that continues to this day. There is a special stretch of Santa Clara County cities that nestle into the foothills that are unique in nature and coveted among the County's most exclusive properties. These locations capture and attract buyers seeking a refuge to balance their hectic lives navigating Silicon Valley careers. Homes in Los Gatos, Saratoga, Monte Sereno, Portola Valley and Los Altos/Los Altos Hills seem so far away from the hussle-and-bustle of what many hills residents refer to as "downtown," or "the valley," creating parallels to their more rugged and more traditionally rural cousins in Santa Cruz County, which is an important reason why I find both sides of the hill to be equally fertile territories to help my clients find their dream home or parcel.
Served Zip Codes - Santa Clara County
94022, 94023, 94024, 94028, 95014, 95030, 95031, 95032, 95070, 95071
Served Cities - Santa Clara County
Cupertino, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, Portola Valley, Saratoga