Relocation
Moving to Los Gatos from anywhere.
About a third of our buyers this year came from out of state or overseas. Most bought without a second trip. Here is how that works, and the questions you should be asking us.
Schools, plainly
Which district a street actually feeds.
Los Gatos has two public elementary and middle school districts and one high school district, and the lines do not follow the town boundary. We confirm every address with the district office before you write.
- Los Gatos Union (K to 8)
- Most of town: downtown, Almond Grove, Blossom Hill, Belwood and the hillside. Four elementaries and one middle school. Monte Sereno feeds here too.
- Union School District (K to 8)
- Parts of town east of Highway 17 and toward Almaden. Different calendar, different schools, same high school for some streets.
- Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High
- Los Gatos High for the town and Monte Sereno; Saratoga High for Saratoga addresses. Both are the reason a lot of people move here.
- Private and parochial
- Several within fifteen minutes. We can introduce you to parents at each one, which beats a brochure.
- The honest caveat
- Boundaries change and enrollment can be capped. The district confirms in writing; we ask them to, for every address you get serious about.
The commute
Door to desk, on a normal Tuesday.
Measured from the office on N Santa Cruz Ave, leaving at 8am. Hillside addresses add five to ten minutes to all of these.
| Destination | Route | 8am | Off peak |
|---|---|---|---|
| Campbell and west San Jose | Winchester or Highway 17 | 12 to 18 min | 10 min |
| Cupertino campuses | Highway 85 north | 25 to 40 min | 18 min |
| Mountain View and Sunnyvale | 85 to 237 or 101 | 35 to 55 min | 25 min |
| Palo Alto and Menlo Park | 85 to 280 north | 40 to 65 min | 30 min |
| Downtown San Jose and the airport | Highway 17 to 880 | 25 to 40 min | 20 min |
| Santa Cruz and the beach | Highway 17 over the hill | 40 to 60 min | 35 min |
| San Francisco | 280 or Caltrain from San Jose | 75 to 100 min | 60 min |
Remote tours
How we show a house to someone in another time zone.
- 01The live walk
Sofia on a video call, phone on a gimbal, in every room and every closet, with the water running and the garage door opening. You drive. She goes where you say.
- 02The street video
A second clip, no commentary: the walk from the front door to the corner, the traffic, the sound. Sent the same evening and again at 7am if you want it.
- 03The paper
Disclosures and the seller's inspections read together on a screen share, with our notes on what matters and what is boilerplate.
- 04Our inspectors
Even with the seller's reports, we bring our own general and sewer inspectors before you remove contingencies. You join by video.
The soft landing, and the related pages.
We keep a short list of furnished rentals for the first few months, movers who know the hillside roads, and the pediatrician, vet and tree guy everybody ends up using. Buying a house here works the same for you as for a local; the buying page covers the seven steps and who pays our fee. If you are looking above $3M, read hillside and estates. Keeping a home in the old city as a rental? Investment has the 1031 basics. Selling there first? Selling explains how we sequence it with a partner agent in your city.