Skip the ads and the titles — verify three things instead: the agent's license status and disciplinary history on the California DRE public license lookup; actual closed transactions in your price tier over the last 12 months (not blended volume across all tiers); and, if they claim off-market access, whether they can walk you through the structure of a real case — how the home was sourced, how it was negotiated, and why it never listed publicly. Full eight-dimension checklist →
Check three kinds of evidence a third party can verify. For off-market claims, ask for process, not inventory: one unlisted deal from the past 12 months — how they first heard the home was selling, and how they got the other agent to believe their buyer could close. Run the California DRE public license lookup for license type, year of issue, responsible broker, and disciplinary history. And ask for three specific closings in your target price band from the last 12 months — street address and closing month — which you can check yourself at the county recorder. Full $5M+ verification guide →
High-net-worth buyers and sellers in the $3M–$30M+ tier on the SF Peninsula and parts of Silicon Valley — Palo Alto, Atherton, Hillsborough, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Menlo Park, and Cupertino. We are bilingual (English and Mandarin), and a meaningful share of our business is cross-border.
Yes. Marie Wang and Kevin Mo personally run every engagement — strategy, listing, negotiation, close. We deliberately stay small. There is no junior agent handoff at this firm.
No. MK Group serves any serious buyer or seller in the Bay Area high-value market regardless of language or background. Our Mandarin and English fluency is an operational advantage for clients with cross-border complexity, but the advisory is built for anyone who values clear, data-grounded guidance on a high-stakes transaction.
The structural difference is founder-level service. Marie and Kevin personally run every engagement — no junior agent handoff, no transaction coordinator standing in. The bilingual and cross-border operational depth (source-of-funds and AML documentation, KYC, RSU/pre-IPO collateral, China-timezone responsiveness) is built in, not outsourced. On the demand side, our combined audience reach — 68K+ YouTube subscribers across @MarieWang and @KevinMoRE, plus a multi-platform Chinese-language presence on Xiaohongshu and WeChat — gives sellers access to a buyer pool large teams typically don't have native access to. Trade-off: we stay small by design, so we're selective about engagements.
Full-service. Pre-listing prep (staging, repair triage, photography), pricing strategy, marketing, negotiation, escrow management, and post-close follow-through. For sellers we typically engage 8–10 weeks before list.
We start with hard ZIP-level comps (the same dataset behind our public market briefings), then layer the buyer-pool dynamics that operate at $5M, $10M, $20M+ specifically. The pricing call is made before list, not after.
Q3 2026 was a tiered market: 232 Bay Area single-family homes sold for $5M or more, up 33% from 175 in Q3 2025, while the $1.5M–$3M tier slipped 5% (2,057 vs 2,170). Typical timeline from signing the listing agreement to close: 8–12 weeks. We allocate 4–6 weeks of pre-listing prep (staging, repair triage, photography), 1–3 weeks on market collecting offers (Q3 2026 median: 13 days), and about three weeks of escrow (Q3 2026 median: 21 days). For luxury sellers we strongly recommend 8–10 weeks of pre-listing work — the difference between a thoughtful prep cycle and a rushed one shows up directly in final price.
Sources: MLSListings (MK Bay Area Pulse Q3 2026) · as of 2026 Q3
Many of the Peninsula's most desirable estates trade without ever appearing on the MLS — there is no reliable public count. The edge the MLS does show: in Q3 2026, 12.5% of Bay Area $5M+ closings went under contract the day they were listed or the next day, up from 9.7% a year earlier. We work the relationships — listing agents, attorneys, family offices, neighbors who have signaled intent — to source these for our buyer clients before, or instead of, the public market.
Sources: MLSListings (MK Bay Area Pulse Q3 2026) · as of 2026 Q3
As of 2026 Q1, GreatSchools 10/10 districts cluster in Palo Alto Unified, Cupertino Union, Los Altos, Saratoga, Fremont's Mission San Jose area, and the Lynbrook High attendance area. Rough budget tiers: $2M–$3M opens parts of Cupertino and Fremont's strongest feeders; $3M–$5M reaches Palo Alto and Los Altos mid-tier; $5M+ unlocks Atherton, Hillsborough, West Menlo Park, and Crescent Park in Palo Alto. Beyond the score, what matters is feeder pattern (elementary → middle → high), block-level boundaries, and the school's recent trajectory. MK Group has served 200+ high-net-worth families and can match by budget and child age. School district budget guide →
Sources: GreatSchools / California School Dashboard / MLSListings (Q3 2026 city medians) · school ratings as of 2026 Q1
Yes. We have repeat experience with reverse and standard 1031 structures, including identifying replacement properties under the 45-day window in tight Peninsula inventory.
⚠️ This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Consult a qualified tax attorney or CPA for your situation.
Reach Marie or Kevin directly (see Contact). A founder-prepared market review for your property — comps, condition strategy, list-price range — is delivered within 48 hours.
Operationally. We coordinate source-of-funds and AML documentation, wire compliance, bank KYC, RSU and pre-IPO equity as collateral, and China-timezone responsiveness. The complex part of the deal happens in the operations, not in the property tour.
⚠️ This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Consult a qualified tax attorney or CPA for your situation.
Often, yes. We work with several Bay Area private banks comfortable underwriting tech compensation. The structure depends on company stage, lockup status, and your specific risk profile — we can map the options on a call.
⚠️ This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Consult a qualified tax attorney or CPA for your situation.
A 30-minute pre-advisory call with Marie or Kevin is free. If we proceed to representation, our fee is a listing or buyer commission, negotiated and set out in a written agreement before we start.
Keller Williams Realty. Office: 19900 Stevens Creek Blvd, Suite 100, Cupertino, CA 95014. Marie DRE# 02110980, Kevin DRE# 02127623. Equal Housing Opportunity.
Our /en/market section publishes monthly, ZIP-level data for all seven cities we cover. The figures are sourced from Zillow Research and Redfin Data Center (single-family residential filtered) and synced automatically each week. Each quarter we also publish the MK Bay Area Pulse, built from MLSListings closed sales across Santa Clara, San Mateo, and Alameda counties.
Sources: Zillow Research / Redfin Data Center / MLSListings