We used to be a more “traditional” real estate company (helping everyone and anyone buy or sell a home), but we now mostly work with cash investors focusing on Placer County foreclosures, Placer County trustee sales and lots & land in Placer County. This allows us to spend more time aggressively searching for properties that fit our clients’ needs, whether it be a Placer County short sale, bank-owned property (REO) or one coming up for auction at a trustee's sale.
Bob Souza is a San Francisco Bay Area native and was born and raised in San Jose, California. He graduated from Oak Grove High School and started working as a missile development mechanic at Lockheed Missiles & Space (now known as Lockheed-Martin) in Sunnyvale, California. Bob also went through the Police Academy, aspiring to join the California Highway Patrol…but eventually decided to become an entrepreneur instead and had a window tinting business and an auto detail shop.
Later, Bob joined Local Union 393 and became a commercial pipefitter, working in the high-tech industry for Therma, Inc. and Icom Mechanical, Inc.
In 1999, Bob started working for Full Spectrum Lending (a division of Countrywide Home Loans) as a loan consultant, helping people with less-than-perfect credit refinance their homes. After going through Countrywide’s training program in Southern California and gaining valuable experience in the mortgage industry, Bob moved on to become a mortgage broker at Cal-Bay Mortgage, where he was able to offer loans for everyone, not only the credit-impaired. We made a good team, with me as a real estate agent and him as a mortgage broker, and together we helped our clients buy, sell and finance homes and land in East Contra Costa County, California – Brentwood, Discovery Bay, Oakley and Knightsen.
Bob and I purchased our first real estate franchise in 2001, Realty World Platinum, and opened up a boutique office in downtown Brentwood. We also started a new company, Platinum Property Management, since we began to work with a lot of investors who bought rentals that they wanted us to manage. In 2002, Bob decided to leave the mortgage industry and become a full-time real estate agent (and property manager) with me, since by that time I was getting more business than I could handle!
By 2005, we had a total of 15 properties (all in California), some of which were re-sold and others were held as rentals. At this time, we were making more money investing in real estate than we were selling real estate…so we decided to relocate to Placer County, California and focus on our own real estate portfolio instead of both working full-time as real estate agents. In 2006, we finally became an independent real estate brokerage and discontinued our Realty World franchise.
After buying and selling our first two lots without building homes on them, it was finally time to realize our dream of building a home. Ruby Hill Vineyard Estates was the community we chose to build our first custom home, located in the beautiful Livermore Valley Wine Country in Alameda County, California.
A neighbor’s grandson gave Bob the nickname “Bob the Builder” (even though we had a general contractor) because Bob was at the jobsite every day, working or supervising. After all our hard work and time spent throughout the entire building process, we completed and sold this custom home on a 20-acre vineyard in January 2010.
With the tremendous amount of experience and knowledge gained from the Ruby Hill Vineyard Estates project, Bob had an easy transition becoming a rehabber for foreclosed properties. Whether it’s older homes that need gutting for a complete remodel, or properties that simply need a cosmetic renovation, Bob makes sure everything is done right and usually under budget.
If you’re a cash investor who wants to buy foreclosures in Roseville, Rocklin, Lincoln, Loomis or Granite Bay, Bob can bid on your behalf to buy properties at Placer County trustee sales. He can also show you homes that fit your search criteria that are listed for sale on the MLS. Most of all, he is extra cautious and quite conservative when handling someone else’s real estate portfolio and would not buy a property for any of our clients that he would not purchase himself.
About Leilani Souza, 916-408-5500, leilani@souzarealty.com
I’m a military brat who was born in Texas, raised in Hawaii and went to high school in Mannheim, Germany. My mother taught English at the elementary school I attended in Honolulu, Hawaii. Both my stepfather and ex-stepmother were Sergeant Majors in the U.S. Army and my father retired as a Sergeant First Class.
I spent the first few years of my adult life in Paris, France as a private tutor for children before relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area. When I was hired by United Airlines as a flight attendant, Bob decided the time to propose was now or never…so we got married in 1997 and I became an office manager for a start-up prototype development firm in Silicon Valley instead.
The experience of buying our first home together in Discovery Bay, California was what prompted me to begin a career in real estate. I got my real estate license in 1999 and began selling real estate part-time at Prudential California Realty (which later became Alain Pinel Realtors) while continuing to work full-time. My first two sales within three months of doing real estate were waterfront properties that earned me commission checks significantly larger than my salary, so I decided to quit my job and became a full-time REALTOR, selling real estate in East Contra Costa County, California – Brentwood, Discovery Bay, Oakley and Knightsen.
In 2001, Bob and I opened our own real estate office in downtown Brentwood, California (Realty World Platinum) and that year, we received the “Top Productivity Office” award for sales volume from the Realty World Northern California corporate office. Since then, I’ve earned the e-PRO Internet Professional designation (endorsed by the National Association of REALTORS), TRC (Transnational Referral Certification) and CRS (Certified Residential Specialist), which is the highest designation awarded to sales associates in the residential sales field.
One of the benefits to being a Placer County REALTOR is that after seeing thousands of homes and listening to buyer feedback, I’ve learned the aspects of what makes a floorplan desirable and what works well for different households, whether it be pet or kid friendly, multi-generation living or aging-in-place. I am also very interested in the principles of feng shui when it comes to designing the layout of a home as well as selecting the color palette and creating harmony with correct furniture placement.
Applying everything I’ve learned about home design over the years proved to be a success when we designed and built our first custom home at Ruby Hill Vineyard Estates in Livermore Valley Wine Country, since we sold it without even putting it on the market first! The buyers had been watching the home being constructed and decided to stop by and ask if we were interested in selling it. Once they walked through the home and we described what the finished product was going to look like, they ended up deciding that this home was perfect for them…and we completed and sold the income-producing vineyard estate property in January 2010 for the full asking price of $2,435,000.
While Bob is the “hands-on” person of our Placer County real estate team doing the bidding at trustee sales and rehabbing foreclosed properties, I’m the shopper and I pick out all of the finishes (cabinets, counters, flooring, paint color) plus I do the “behind the scenes” work. I’m the one who does all of the contracts, research, sales comps, foreclosure reports, blogging, tweeting, web design, photography and last but not least, marketing and listing Placer County properties for sale or rent on the MLS (Multiple Listing Service), single-property websites with syndication to the major real estate sites and broker tours.
Whether you’re a cash investor looking for foreclosures in Roseville, Rocklin, Lincoln, Loomis or Granite Bay, or you’re interested in buying a lot and building a custom home in Placer County, Sacramento or El Dorado counties, I generously offer you my knowledge and expertise to look out for your best interest as our client and I treat every single transaction as if it were my own.
2006: Leilani earned the Transnational Referral Certification (TRC) and the Certified Residential Specialist (CRS) designations.
2005: Leilani was a recipient of the Achievement Club Grand Master Award from the Bay East Association of REALTORS®.
2003: Leilani earned the e-PRO Internet Professional designation, endorsed by the National Association of REALTORS®.
2002: Leilani was a recipient of the Achievement Club Silver Award from the Bay East Association of REALTORS®.
2001: Leilani was the recipient of the Premier Salesmasters Award and the Top Productivity Office from Realty World.
2000: Leilani successfully completed LTG (Leadership Training Graduate) courses.
1999: Leilani graduated from the highly-esteemed "Alain Pinel REALTORS® Masters Program".
