Bill & Eli Fletcher – Red Oak Realty

Bill sold my house for $ 113,000 over the selling price! He presented the assessor with documents of comparables in the neighborhood and worked well with the selling agent. The time between the signing and the close of escrow was a little over 2 weeks! This was the first time I sold a house and there were times when I became frustrated and deeply concerned. But I felt it easy to talk things over with Bill, and he patiently heard me out then worked things out with me. Elijah filled in to run the open houses, which was great. Both Bill and Elijah are genuine people who work hard and long hours, and they make a wonderful team. I found that the best way to communicate with Bill was by phone though he does texts and emails.

Eli consistently went out of his way to help us become knowledgable about the SF East Bay area. From scoping out potential houses, to negotiating, and to finalizing paperwork and escrow, Eli was always available to help, especially because we were buying the house mostly from a long distance; he was always willing to act as our representative for the home inspector, electrician, and other contractors. Even after escrow fully completed, Eli continued to be fully available to help us with some final items.
We are happy with our purchase experience, and would highly recommend Eli and Red Oak Realty to others.
Highly recommended!

In our months long search for our new home, Eli provided consistent support, neighborhood education and a clear read on the quickly changing market to help us finally win a beautiful home in the Dimond/​Laurel District of Oakland.
We had come in at second or third place on multiple other bids, and even when we were devastated by those losses, Eli was there to champion us on and show us there were many more beautiful homes out there. He took pains to work within our budget and quickly came to understand what our aesthetic was. Best of all, he’s a really nice guy, and we were so glad for his support during this process.
His reputation and good standing within the realty community really helped us finally win a bid. We highly recommend that you also go with Eli, and we definitely plan to connect with him in the future if we ever have real estate needs again. Two thumbs up!

I am very grateful to have had Eli Fletcher by my side in the search for my home. As intimidating as I thought the process was going to be, working with Eli was such a positive experience. His dedication is unmatched, and his genuine excitement at the prospect of securing someone a home is contagious. Eli found me a home in a wonderful neighborhood. I am able to ride my bike to work and be involved in the community that I serve. I will be forever thankful for his council throughout the process, and for improving my quality of life.

Selling the family home was not an easy decision or without issues, but Bill and Eli did everything they could to make the process as painless and as profitable as they could. With every situation that cropped up, they had an answer, even if the answer meant we take our time and do nothing for now. Many realtors would have put on the pressure, but not these two. When they say you, your needs and feelings are the priority … believe them!
With their extensive knowledge, experience and contacts, the home sold before it was even listed. 90% of the process was completed online, and they were always calm, caring and responsive to any request or question during the process.
Can not recommend them more highly.
Thanks for all your time and care :-)

We were referred to Bill through a mutual friend when we began our search for our first home in the Oakland/​Alameda area. We also met Eli, his son, at our first meeting. Both of them know the Bay Area very well and were able to advise us on neighborhoods as well as bring many years of experience in real estate to our search. Bill and Eli were very responsive as we came under a time crunch. We went through 9 offers as the market was crazy and being that it was probably the most stressful time of our lives they were very patient with us. Bill would take our calls at crazy hours and went to look at property with us whenever we asked, if he was unavailable then Eli would jump in. It was nice to work with a team! And I will say we looked at a lot of homes. They would also review the disclosures and join us for Sunday open houses when we were putting in an offer. Bill and Eli were invaluable assets. When we finally had our offer accepted they celebrated just as much as we did. I would recommend Bill and Eli to anyone looking to buy in the Oakland area.

Worked with Bill & Eli when I bought my first house in the east bay. I can’t imagine how the process would have worked without them. They were helpful, knowledgeable, understanding, patient and provided great advice. At the end of the day I ended up in a place that was perfect for me, even though when I started the process I would have ruled the place out!
They gave me the time and space to come around to what I needed, even thought that took a bit of time. On top of it all — during the bidding process I had to go to London for work and were able to keep on top of everything, despite time zone issues and having to communicate mainly via texts, email and skype I was able to land a house in a very tight market.

Bill and Eli are the best realtors we’ve ever dealt with. We were buying a house in Berkeley. From first contact, to multiple bids (common to the area), to finally getting a bid accepted, Bill and Eli were responsive, in-​the-​know, and on top of everything.
Once we finally had a bid accepted, things went south because of the seller (to the point where we hired a lawyer). But Bill and Eli kept in-​step and held our hands through the entire process.
Bill really knows (and loves) everything about the area/​neighborhoods/​etc, and he helped us learn about buying homes in Berkeley. Both Bill and Eli are genuinely good people with a gentle matter-​of-​fact nature that my husband I really appreciated.
We would definitely recommend them to friends and family, and we will use them again when it’s time.

I owned a house in the Hiddenbrooke development in Vallejo, but live in San Diego. I decided to sell the house, and on the recommendation of a relative, I contacted real estate agent, Bill Fletcher of Red Oak Realty in Oakland. While I was impressed with Bill, I was concerned that Hiddenbrooke was not located in the East Bay area where Bill normally works. After talking to Bill about his marketing plan for the house, I was convinced and gave him the listing. That was definitely the right decision.
From start to finish Bill provided excellent service and advice. He inspected the house and told us what needed to be done — basically cleaning up the clutter and some touch-​up painting. He recommended a painter who was responsible and fairly priced. Once we had prepared the house, he had a professional photographer take photos to be used in the marketing material. When I saw the pictures, I had to ask myself why I was selling such a great looking house. Bill then kicked off the marketing effort with our house info and pictures distributed everywhere.
The marketing effort was obviously effective as we received a great offer the day before our first open house. Bill’s efforts on our behalf did not stop once we accepted the offer. He was at the house when the Buyer’s inspector checked it out. He worked out very favorable possession and other terms with the Buyer’s broker and continually checked on the status of the transaction and the Buyer’s waiver of contingencies. He responded quickly and helpfully to every one of our questions.
The sale closed this week. The result was better and faster than we ever imagined.
If you need a real estate agent, I strongly recommend that you contact Bill.

We had no idea how lucky we were to get Bill Fletcher as our agent, with his son Eli. He was with us from the very start of our home search, and kept in close touch with us, explaining and clarifying every step of the way. Work hours, off hours, weekends, Bill had no complaints fitting to our time needs. When my wife and I are heading to dinner and drive by a house with a for sale sign, and call Bill on the spot, he had information ready within minutes, despite no expectation or preparation for our call, and a few minutes after that, had scheduled a walk-​through of the same house.
When we made an offer (accepted!) on a house, Bill was there to explain and help with every step. He coordinated communications between selling agent, lender, broker, ourselves, inspectors, assessors and more — In much the same way that a great air traffic controller keeps the skies clear and amazing even at an incredibly busy airport, Bill keeps the home buying process a painless one from beginning to end.
He is an amazing person, an incredible real estate agent, and a wonderful friend to have in the home buying process.

My Wife and I went to Bill after our house went «underwater» and we’d lost all hope of getting out from under the debt. Bill took our property to market, found us a buyer and closed the sale in under 6 months. He was an incredible advocate who help us get our lives back on track.
He always kept us in the loop, was quick with documents and encouraged us to be patient. Thanks Bill!

We were so happy to find Bill when we began our East Bay housing search in earnest this past summer. He turned out to be kind, calm, and graced with a no-​pressure attitude, qualities that seem to be rare among real estate agents these days. The housing search and escrow process is stressful all by itself, and it really helps to work with someone who comes at it with a serene and upbeat disposition (and who does a great job insulating you from selling agents who are his polar opposite in that regard).
He’s also confident in his abilities: when we met him in late June he estimated that he’d be able to find us a great place for us before the summer was out. I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical of that statement at the time – the housing market was red-​hot, and we’d just lost a bid (prepared by a different agent) that went for well over 20% above asking. We were digging in for a protracted search. But in the end his prediction was fulfilled, and we ended up in an excellent Oakland neighborhood in a home that’s perfect for us. And I think we got a great deal on it too.
We also appreciated Bill’s deep knowledge about the region (he showed us areas of the East Bay we were unaware of yet fit our criteria), ability to handle disappointment (we pulled out of contract on a place that wasn’t going to work for us, and we just dusted off & carried on), and especially his skillful handling of a particularly feisty seller & agent combo for the house we did end up closing on.
We recommend him to anyone searching for a home in the east bay – when looking for a home, there a number of things to be concerned with, but Bill won’t be one of them.

Bill is awesome! We were looking for a house in Berkeley/​Oakland and needed guidance about which neighborhoods would work for us. Bill provided a ton of guidance, helpful suggestions, and general information about the area. He kept us up to date on new listings that fit our criteria, and took the time to understand what we were looking for (possibly better than we did).
He was also incredibly helpful in navigating the (rather crazy) current east bay real estate market and multiple bidding situations. He helped us make our offer as competitive as possible, and provided a ton of guidance about the different tradeoffs involved. We wound up adjusting our initial budget estimate upwards as we figured out how much the kind of house we wanted was going to cost, but Bill didn’t push us.
In the end we have a fabulous house that’s PERFECT for us. We’re happy with what we paid, and have been recommending him any friends looking to buy a house.

We’re nearing close on a house that we’re buying with Bill as our buyer’s agent, and I have to say he’s been everything we could have hoped for in a realtor, and more.
Not only has he been responsive throughout the process, answering questions we might have about everything from the local neighborhood advantages and disadvantages to what certain terms really mean in the never-​ending stream of documents I’ve had to sign, but he’s been invaluable during our closing process. The mortgage company has dragged out our loan for a month beyond the terms of our agreement, but Bill has kept the seller’s agent happy with a steady stream of emails and well-​timed contingency removals to keep us under contract even while the mortgage company has failed to live up to its promises.
I can frankly say that, given my busy workload, if it were not for Bill’s efforts in this regard, we would not be nearing a closing date on a house, especially in the highly competitive Bay Area market. My wife and I picked Bill as our realtor because we felt his experience and familiarity with the Bay Area would give us an advantage over others looking to buy, and he has not disappointed us.

Bill is a great agent. Throughout the entire process of working with Bill, he went above and beyond in terms of negotiating my purchase price, reviewing documents, guiding me through the process, and looking out for all of the minor, but important, details that I would have missed. I trust Bill implicitly and am looking forward to working with Bill again in the future. I would recommend him to anyone who’s looking for real estate in the East Bay.

Bill helped me get my first apartment in Oakland. He’s excellent! He’s very different from other real estate agents, he treated me as a person and not just a customer, always ready to give me extremely good advice. I was very impressed by how smooth the whole process was with him. When I will need a real estate agent again, I hope he’ll still be working!

Bill is an excellent agent! Very knowledgeable about East Bay and very patient. He helped me through a long process of finding the right house in Berkeley followed by a very complicated short sale transaction. He showed expert knowledge is dealing with all the short-​sale challenges, and handled it all very calmly and professionally, dispelling excellent advice to all sides throughout the process. As a bonus, I learned a lot from him about real estate market. Thank you Bill!

We recently bought a house in Berkeley Hills and we owe it all to Bill Fletcher! When my husband and I started looking for a house we were not very sure about the type of house, the budget, the area, none whatsoever. Bill was very patient with us in showing many houses and he helped us find a warm and charming house with a beautiful view in Berkeley hills. Bill is very knowledgeable, not pushy, patient and helpful with every step we took towards buying this house. Get this! He threw us a fabulous House warming party after we settled in our house and we are friends for life. So my 2 cents: Do not think twice before you choose Bill as your Realtor! He is one of the best out there!

To echo the other reviewers, Bill is simply wonderful. We have been looking to purchase a house in the bay area for the last two years. Other realtors were either too pushy, or simply didn’t pay enough attention to what we were wanting from a home to guide us in the right direction. Bill patiently answered all of our questions, calmed all our fears, and led us to the house we’ll hopefully be living in for the next 20 years. Not only did he find the house for us, but he cleverly structured our offer to make it very appealing to the seller. If there were 10 stars, he’d get all ten. I cannot recommend him enough.

There are not enough kind words I have for Bill who sold my North Berkeley home during this challenging housing market. He is calm, patient, listens, understands, explains, and makes you feel assured that you are extremely well taken care of… because you are!