ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED FOR THE PIEDMONT POST JUNE 24, 2026
Taxes, Anian Tunney and 43 years of Piedmont Real Estate… Oh and the fines too.
Remember Jan from The Brady Bunch? Taxes, Taxes, Taxes…
Let’s get the boring stuff out of the way first. Piedmont is putting a real estate transfer tax increase on the November ballot. The proposed change would raise the tax from 1.3% to 1.75% and is expected to generate about $1.5 million a year. The Council took the first step on June 15, and a second vote is tentatively scheduled for July 6 before the Registrar of Voters deadline on August 7.
The city says the increase is needed because the budget is moving from a period of major project delivery into long-term stewardship. In plain English, Piedmont has spent heavily on capital improvements in recent years and now has to keep the new facilities running, staffed, and maintained.
In The Tradition of Excellence… 43 years in Piedmont Real Estate
I sat down with Anian Tunney Broker Associate and Realtor ® with the kind of prepared questions any reporter brings to a profile. And then I threw most of them out.
That’s because the conversation quickly turned into what it ctually takes to stay in this business for 43 years - in a town where someone told her on her very first day that she’d never make it.
After graduating from USC but before real estate, Anian briefly taught school and then became a stunt car driver in Hollywood. When her husband got the opportunity to return to the Bay Area to run Golden Gate Fields, she had to figure out what came next.
“I had to do something. So, one of my girlfriends and I decided we would study for our real estate licenses.”
Anian earned her license in Pasadena in 1980. She was so nervous she memorized every single question and answer on the exam while her “smarter” friend, who studied casually, failed. She returned to her hometown, a fifth generation Piedmonter, ready to start her career and did what agents do, she networked.
She still remembers going to a fancy tea party, in Piedmont, where a few established agents were also guests.
“So, dearie, what do you do?”
“I said, ‘Oh, I just got my real estate license, and I’m going to work in Piedmont.’ And a woman said, ‘Oh, honey, you’ll never make it in Piedmont.’”
I know that feeling. When I came to Piedmont in 2011 after a decade doing commercial and institutional REO work, it was cliquish. Anian was one of the first agents genuinely kind to me.
I asked her once what her secret was. She told me something I’ve repeated to every agent I’ve mentored since.
“You go to work every day, because this is your job now, and success takes time.” It also takes hard work and a willingness to do your best.
"I set up a little table on the sidewalk"
Her first open house was a lot on Hampton Road. She put out a card table and a chair, sat on the sidewalk, and waited. In those days there were no lockboxes. You drove to each brokerage to pick up a physical key. Offers written with carbon paper. Fax machines were cutting edge.
A year into her career, Don Grubb Sr. recruited her from Coldwell Banker. She used to see him at the Piedmont Grocery and run the other direction . He cornered her one day while she picked up a key, brought her into his office, and said, “Anian, I want you to come work at The Grubb Company.”
Forty-two years later she’s still at her same desk.
Grubb Company
Anian told me about Marion Schwartz, a very established agent at the firm when she started. “I watched her like a hawk, because she was so good. I followed everything she did. She didn’t know it, but she was my tutor.”
That is the quiet architecture of a long career. You find someone worth following. You do necessarily need to tell them. You just watch and learn.
Reputation Is Key
I asked her about a quote I found from 2016, that she negotiates with grace and clarity of purpose.
She laughed. “That sounds a little poof poof.”
But then she explained it plainly.
“I am not an aggressive real estate agent. I am fair, and I am balanced. I don’t want to be that wolf going after people. I just want it to work for everyone.”
“All you have is your reputation, and it takes one misstep to lose it all.”
Downsizing
I also asked her about one of the newer trends she is seeing in real estate: seniors feeling stuck in their large homes. Long-time owners are often afraid to move because of property tax and capital gains implications.
“There’s a lot of people kind of trapped, unless they want to bite the bullet on capital gains taxes.”
She told me about Proposition 19, which lets homeowners 55 and older transfer their tax base to a new home anywhere in California. “More sellers need to know about it and the best place to find out more is to call your attorney or accountant.”
Forty-three years is a long time to remain relevant, and Anian makes it look effortless. She shows up, tells the truth, stays current, works hard for her clients, and does it all without making a spectacle of herself.
That may be the rarest skill in real estate.
Charlie and Emma on the Exedra
I ran into Charlie and Emma on the Exedra and, as usual, they had definite opinions this time about Piedmont’s crackdown on dogs. Emma, measured as always, sees value in rules and the need to follow them. “As long as dogs are licensed in Piedmont, they can be off-leash.” Charlie, however, was incredibly cross about the entire situation.
Piedmont is serious about leash laws. Dogs must be leashed in public unless you have a dog license, an off-leash permit, and you are inside one of the designated off-leash areas at Blair Park, Dracena Park, or Piedmont Park. Break those rules and the consequences can get expensive.
Piedmont is doing its best to keep the city updated and functioning. Between the transfer tax vote, the leash laws, the parking rules, anything with wheels, paws, or a primary residence In Piedmont will be doing their part.
America Foy is a Broker Associate and Realtor® with The Grubb Company
Questions, comments, tips, I want to know! america@grubbco.com
