This review is a little overdue but allowing a few months to pass has given me even more perspective and appreciation for Debbie, Danielle and their SF Hotlist team. I decided I wanted to buy my own place in San Francisco after getting fed up with overpriced rent and was referred to Debbie and Danielle. From my first introduction to the day I closed, Debbie and her colleagues exuded nothing but professionalism, concern for my wants and needs and the utmost expertise in this region. Not to mention, their collective reputation precedes them.
Danielle runs a tight ship with her team, and their coordinated efforts (especially once in escrow) reflect their combined experience and desire for perfection. To speak more specifically to my experience, I gave Debbie some difficult criteria to work with, given my very high expectations and very low financial commitment. I hate overpaying for anything and explained that I wanted to prioritize good value and a smart financial purchase, while ticking as many of my "must-have" boxes as possible. Although we originally targeted some less desirable neighborhoods, Debbie and Danielle were able to help me write a compelling enough offer to get into a prime SF neighborhood under market rates, due in large part to their reputation and the seller's agent's desire to work with Debbie over agents with clients putting more on the table. Even though I felt like I was a challenging client, Debbie never made me feel that I was any less important than any other client. Debbie is always very responsive, notwithstanding how remarkably busy she is, and she always makes you feel like you are her only client. She is very savvy but practical at the same time and always has her clients' best interests at heart.
The affiliates that SF Hotlist works with (for things like financing, escrow, title insurance, etc.) are all top-notch and you always feel like you are in good hands.
I cannot speak highly enough of this team and look forward to getting back in touch in a few years when I'm ready for an upgrade!
After working with another agent and writing at least 14 offers we decided to rethink our agent selection. After multiple referrals to Lucas Sorah and his SFhotlist team we decided to give him a call. Within 2 weeks of searching with Lucas for a new home, he had gotten us into contract on the most gorgeous home ever in the Sunset. Best part, the house was not even on the market yet, therefore we had no competition with other offers and we were able to snatch it up before anyone else could view it.
Lucas's contacts and networks within the SF real estate market is what made this transaction possible. His knowledge of current market conditions is amazing. Every step of the home search was customized to our needs and made us feel extremely confident and comfortable with all of our decisions.
We can't say enough great things about Lucas! Seriously, we wished we would have worked with him from the very beginning! He is truly talented at what he does and you can tell he really enjoys being a Realtor in SF! I will be referring him and his team to all my friends and colleagues, no doubt!!
This review is long overdue, especially since my home-buying experience began in earnest about seven months ago. My girlfriend and I were looking to purchase a place in San Francisco, which, seemed like quite a harrowing experience at the start given all the possible complications associated with purchasing a home here (i.e. dated buildings, earthquake prone areas etc).
However, once we met Debbie in person and chatted about our plans, we felt that Debbie was definitely the right person to assist us in looking for a home. Through the course of the next few months, Debbie was frequently on the lookout for new homes that came on the market and regularly suggesting new open houses that we should check out on the weekends (this was no small feat considering we didn't have a particular area / type of home in mind). After visiting more open houses together and sharing our thoughts about certain homes, Debbie seemed to know exactly what we were looking for. In no time at all, she showed a great intuition for finding and suggesting homes she thought we would like. Debbie would often check out an open house on a weekday while both my girlfriend and I are working, and if there was something about the place she thought we would like / didn't like, she'd share her thoughts and help us prioritize how we would look at the open houses. This definitely helped us save a lot of precious time shuttling between open houses on the weekends.
While we were still looking out for homes, Debbie was very responsive with all forms of communications. On some occasions, when we randomly saw new units come up on Zillow / Trulia, we'd ask if Debbie could help us schedule a showing. Somehow she was able to always find some time on her calendar to accompany us to the showing, or do some research about the unit, or schedule some time with the selling broker within the next day or two. She was always very candid with her thoughts on different places as well, and we always valued the knowledge she shared about different homes / districts in SF.
When we eventually shortlisted a couple of homes that we were interested in making offers for, the purchasing experience became slightly tense. We realized on a fine Monday afternoon that we only had several hours to choose and make an offer for one of three homes that we really liked as two of the three units were closing on their offers. I still remember how stressed my girlfriend and I were that afternoon since it was a huge decision to make in the space of a few hours. We called Debbie countless times that afternoon to seek her advice, and we were extremely grateful to Debbie for keeping us calm, guiding us to making a great decision and expertly negotiating the offer that we were making. She was always more than happy to reach out to the buyer's agents to negotiate on our behalf and go above and beyond to help us out in more ways than we could count.
Eventually, we found a truly exceptional home, and we're happy to say that we couldn't have done it without Debbie! Many thanks to her, Danielle, and the rest of the Keller-Williams team for making our dream possible!
