Mike & Sue, Paragon Real Estate Group

My husband and I used Mike and Sue to purchase our first home in San Francisco and also to sell our first home in San Francisco. We we first started looking to buy we had already met with a different agent and didn’t really see a reason to switch — until we talked to Mike and he gave us some pretty amazing materials that they had put together to show the purchase/​selling process step by step. He was our guy! We switched!
I can’t speak highly enough on how great both our buying and selling process went. When you’re dealing with such a huge life decision and so much money (especially in SF!), you need to be able to trust your agent, have an honest relationship with your agent, and know that they really do have your best interest in mind. Working with Mike and Sue was exactly all those things and beyond.
In particular, the selling process we just went through in this market was a bit more tedious. My husband and I listened to Mike’s advice every step of the way and we had an amazing outcome. We’re so glad we trusted him, he led us in exactly the direction we needed to go in.
If you want the best of the best and the smoothest experience you can possibly have with one of the biggest life decisions you’ll make — choose Mike and Sue.

We own a home in San Francisco — thanks to Sue and Mike. Without them, we would not be homeowners. They had an eye for a young family’s wants and needs as well as the nuisances and timing of the ultra-​competitive market market. They worked around our complicated schedule full-​term pregnant wife and a young toddler as well as a busy professional work schedule. I’d recommend them to any family looking to buy a home in San Francisco.

We were introduced to Mike and Sue by not one, but two of our good friends, both of whom had great experiences selling their homes with this team. And we’re so happy for their referral because we had a fantastic experience working with Mike and Sue! From the jump, they were professional, responsive and really listened to our needs as we were selling a condo in a two unit building and moving across the country. They literally took care of everything: hired painters, helped find stagers, hired cleaners, helped remove final items from apartment after we were out of state, open houses, negotiations, close. I should also mention our unit went for 120% over asking. Yea… there’s that. So if you want to work with a team that will exceed your expectations and are an absolute pleasure to work with… I suggest you pick Mike and Sue. You won’t regret it!

Mike and Sue — a fantastic team. My husband and I worked with them to purchase our first home in San Francisco. And we couldn’t speak more highly of them. They were fantastic and we would not be enjoying our home right now without Mike and Sue.
If you are looking for an agent in SF, you must know how competitive of an environment it is — which adds to the emotion of buying a home. We wanted to work with agents who were honest, communicative and knowledgable. Check, check and check.
Once we got into the process (as it was our first time), we realized there were other things that became really important as well. Mike and Sue were listening to our needs and looking out for us all the time.
They were also so easy to work with. As a buying agent, this is key… not just easy for US to work with, but they also establish relationships with the selling agent, appraisers, inspectors, mortgage brokers, etc. I don’t think we realized this initially when selecting an agent. By the way, they recommended our broker who was incredible (Brandon Hoyles — RPM Mortgage —
).
Additionally, they work well together and back one another up. So, there’s never a scheduling problem or issues. For example, we put an offer on a house when Mike was at a family wedding, and Sue was able to step in on that day to make sure we were submitting our offer.
Finally, a calming force. I knew that buying a home would be exciting, but what an emotional roller-​coaster! Especially as you fall in love with a home, picture yourself living in it, and then… bam…multiple offers. Mike and Sue were calming influences that took away a lot of our stress and concerns.
We love our new home!

I cannot recommend Mike (and his partner, Sue) enough. As first time home buyers, we were nervous about the whole experience. The complexities of a real estate market like San Francisco did not make the task much easier. After interviewing several agents, we chose to work with Mike and are 100% confident we made the right decision. He was extremely professional, reliable, knowledgeable, and patient (and not pushy at all, something that I think a lot of agents are). He is very experienced and this is his full-​time career, which was one of our top criteria in choosing an agent. He’s not one of those baristas/​waiters/​customer service reps moonlighting as a real estate agent to make a fast buck on the side (no offense to those people, of course). We appreciated his honest and direct answers to all of our questions. When it came time to negotiate, we feel Mike was quite aggressive in getting the deal done on our terms, and I can tell he is well-​respected by his peers/​competitors which is a big plus. Lastly, Mike is part of Paragon, so he has a lot of resources to help clients fulfill their homebuying needs. We just moved into our new home so won’t be moving for awhile but I know when it’s time to upgrade to a larger place, I will be giving Mike a call.

I would like to echo my wife Jeannie’s review, but also add a few comments of my own.
Having never dealt with real estate before in any real capacity, Mike was very accommodating to this fact and went out of his way to put things in layman’s terms for me every step of the way. He was also extremely friendly and very easy to work with in all aspects.
I have a blanket generalization (Yes, it’s one of my many character flaws) regarding people that I consider «sales-​people» and realtors fall right in with that generalization. But not Mike!
He never tried to push us, psychologically lean on us for a place or push too hard with suggestions. We told him what it was we were looking for and he sent us a few places to check out, which was a perfect approach for me.
What else can I say, the man is awesome?

Mike has helped me buy two places and sell one.
The first time, it was just me and I knew exactly what (and where) I wanted, but what I wanted wasn’t exactly what the sellers were offering. He was wonderful with the negotiation, recommended that I walk away when it was too high a counter offer and gave me the perspective that I needed at that time. I know that when i want something, i can go all out, and in our first dealings, it was very reassuring to know that he wasn’t just going to push me to say yes on a higher (unreasonable) price, just because i wanted it so badly even if it meant losing a higher commission or sale. the sellers came back with a much more appropriate price and he really smoothed the way through negotiations with the other condo owner.
when i sold that place last year to buy a new place with my husband, he helped set a reasonable sale price, recommended a wonderful stager and was creative and honest about how to market the place. in the horrible 2009 real estate market, that place sold for just about (a little over) what my purchase price had been in 2006.
at the same time, we were buying a new place. his knowledge of the market helped us to feel comfortable jumping into an incredible deal of a wonderful house. the combined escrow of the two places (the one i was selling and the one we were buying) hit a very large, very scary, unexpected bump from our buyers right before we closed but with Mike and our wonderful mortgage broker Patrick’s help, we were able to make the deal go through much more quickly and smoothly than we could have hoped. (i have much more praise than i can fit in this review for how that process worked, but suffice to say, we were ridiculously lucky to be working with Mike and Patrick)
Mike is smart, thoroughly knowledgeable about the market, very easy to work with and calm. What’s most important to us, however, is that we can trust him and it’s incredible to have him on our side for negotiations and when things go not-​as-​planned.
I have referred many, many friends who have then referred their friends to him. I couldn’t recommend him more highly.

I could not recommend Mike Murphy more highly. My husband and I had spent a year in Santa Cruz and wanted to move back to Oakland. With a baby on the way and interest rates incredibly low, we decided now might be the time to go for it and purchase a home.
Mike spent months helping us to navigate the relatively unfamiliar territories of home-​buying and financing. He truly listened to our needs and kept our initial values (as of yet untainted by the myriad of options that are sure to present) clear in his vision. He is an excellent, clear, and comprehensible communicator, and quick to respond to nervous queries. When it came to negotiating a buy, it was obvious that Mike had our interests at heart and was a total advocate for us.
He’s honest, communicative, patient, and forthright — and clearly experienced in his field. I would personally use him again and again, and recommend him to everyone I know.

What do you do when you go from 0 – 60 and try to buy a property in this crazy economic mess. You call the A-​team… and Mike Murphy is your man.
Me and da wife were gonna wait till 2010 to make a move on some property, but a gem just popped up and we went for it. It was do or die. We get this property or we just wait.
I can’t say enough about how stressful the whole buying, escrow process is… You don’t want the JV team working for/​with you. You want dynamic, competent real estate professionals at your side.
Technically, our buy wasn’t too complicated, but we definitely needed someone who would competently guide us thru the minefield of the real estate process. Mike is awesome. He is always direct, and to the point. And he was sensitive to the fact that me and the wife knew jack –ish about the buying process.
He masterfully negotiated our purchase and kept us in the loop at every twist and turn. His background in finance is a definitely plus x100. He negotiated closing costs, buydown of interest points, and credits for our purchase. Simply amazing…
He is the real deal and I highly recommend him to guide you in your next purchase…