Zephyr Real Estate

Worked with Vera. She’s super friendly, goes above and beyond to get things done. She drove us around if needed, and even helped remove old appliances from the new apartment we purchased.
Worked with her as a buyer’s agent.

Worked with Peter Goss and Joost Van de Water and found them to be highly-​seasoned, stellar agents, with a lot of integrity. Would recommend them without reservation and whole-​heartedly.
They work together as a business team (which was kind of like getting double the agent power), were highly available and receptive to and patient with our (many!) questions, had an excellent sense of property value and aesthetics (often enabling them to point out flaws in prospective properties that we would not otherwise have noticed) and were also masterful in dealing with transactional/​financial details of bidding. Most importantly, they seemed genuinely more concerned with getting us into something that matched our needs and values vs. a pressured sale. They exude a sense of wanting to do things well and right by their clients.
While touring properties throughout our housing hunt, list agents at open houses would often say things like «oh, you’re in really good hands» when we’d mention our agents names. And they were right. Their excellent reputation is well-​deserved. Especially given the current heated marked, I really believe that working with them made all the difference for us.
In short, we’re very happy with the outcome (which is that we are in a house that we’re thrilled with) but (less intuitive given current market challenges for buyers) we were also very happy with the process along the way, and attribute that to the high degree of professionalism and hard work that both Peter and Joost consistently showed.

Judy Rydell is an agent right out of a horror flick. She lied to me about the market, telling me it was going to crash, waving some article in m face that said, «real estate market crashing». She frightened me into giving her a listing, then brought her friends in, a stager and contractor to fleece me more. Thank God it was tax time and my accountant told me «NOT TO SELL». IMO she just wanted listing. I live across the street from her and as an elderly disabled woman, I am an easy target for fear tactics. I tore up our contract, telling her to take a hike, while she protested vehemently. She had already listed my property, which is a set of flats, as a single family home in Noe Valley, in the Real Estate Times which she said cost her money. This type of false advertising is known as «baiting new clients». Single family homes are the most sought after in Noe Valley so she got dozens of calls out of falsely listing my set of flats. Likely picking up clients searching for homes she could represent or steer towards a different property she knew of. She’s unethical and a nightmare. She told all of the neighbors that I was crazy, to cover her own wrong doing. This is slander and illegal but i had no idea she was saying these things behind my back. I should have reported her to the Real Estate Licensing board at that time. Her escapade cost me $ 10,000.00 for the stager, $ 35,000 for the contractor (who told me he gives her kickbacks for sending new clients her way) and $ 3,000 in moving costs. Not to mention the incredible amount of time and emotion this event caused me. She continues to this day to slander me in my neighborhood, years after the event. I’m sure she has dozens of satisfied clients but just know that she is capable of very unethical behavior to put money in her pocket and watch your back when dealing with her, or better yet, find a different agent to represent you.

Justin Palmer at Zephyr was the outright ideal agent. As a first-​time homebuyer, I had no idea what to expect in the San Francisco market. He was very patient and guided me through the process and was absolutely on point with his communication. He always answered my endless questions promptly — usually within a few minutes. I was always impressed with his diligence and felt like he really was fighting on my behalf. I could not recommend him more for anyone looking for a realtor. In fact — I’ve already confidently referred a few colleagues to him. I look forward to working with him again when I am ready to sell!

Beware! Wes Freas is expert at taking advantage and misleading his buyers. No conscience. Deliberately did not disclose vital title information. Unilocal removes any negative comments for this company… they are equally liable for the unethical practices of it’s agents.

I had the pleasure of working with Larry Stiffler for the past few years. If I could give him 10 stars I would! Larry was my biggest asset here in SF, I was relocating back to SF from NYC and had been looking over the past few years for a place. Obviously our distance made things a little more tricky, and I was very picky on what I wanted. Regardless Larry sent me updates weekly sometime daily about apartments that had come onto the market. When I was here to view apartments Larry would work around my crazy schedule to show me places he had picked for me. When we did view these apartments Larry was never pushy. Larry would even tell me about the pros and cons of the condos, even if he knew it would result in me not taking the property. It is Larry’s persistence, integrity and dedication that made this experience manageable. I now have an amazing condo that I always dreamed of. To top it off the property was in probate and Larry walked me through every step and detail of the complex process. I know that if I or any family and friends ever need to buy a place I will without hesitation demand they use Larry Stiffler!

Working with Ryan Fay was a great pleasure. He was very responsive and proactive in helping me get the transaction closed. I would highly recommend Ryan to anyone and personally would work with him in the future again!

Other people may think they have the best realtor, but I can pretty much guarantee you don’t…unless you work with Peter Grady at Zephyr.
We met Peter back in November when my husband and I started the process of buying our first home in San Francisco. Peter met with us on a Saturday for over 2 hours and we left the meeting feeling like we had just been with an old friend. He understood us and was so patient. At the time we were only doing «research» and were not ready to put in any offers. Most realtors would have been put off from doing all this extra leg work, but Peter didn’t hesitate for a second. He immediately got us set up with MLS alerts and an online Zephyr profile. We started receiving postings within a day. We were diligent about going to open houses every Saturday and Sunday for over 6 months. Of the 75+ houses we saw, I am pretty sure Peter was by our side at almost all of them. The thing we appreciated the most about Peter was his honesty. He would go to the broker’s tours every Tuesday and would tell us if there were any that were worth our time. There were quite a few houses that we wanted to see «just because» and he happily showed them to us. We also found it much easier to scope out the houses without all of the «open house stampedes», so if the house was on lock-​box, Peter would often meet us off-​hours so we could take our time looking around. He was so incredibly dedicated and supportive throughout the entire house-​hunting process.
He stood by our side through 4 denied offers and kept our spirits up. We came to trust Peter’s instinct as if it were our own, so when he came to us and said, «I think this is the one…» we jumped in with both feet and low and behold it was the one we had been waiting for. He was completely transparent throughout the escrow process answering hundreds of questions and dutifully agreeing to meet us at our new home multiple times so we could snoop around. He has an incredible knowledge of San Francisco in addition to understanding the nuances of buying an older home. He was our home buying touch-​stone and an unmatched resource. We would never buy a home from anyone else.

Gregory Polchow from Zephyr at Castro Branch SF is the best real estate agent in our book!
Greg is a consummate real estate professional. He always puts his clients’ first and above everything else. When he helped us find a lovely condo in Telegraph Hill, we hit multiple snags with our nit picking lender. There were times we thought we would lose the deal for sure. But Greg deftly managed the expectations of the Seller and the seller agent, enduring no small amount of pressures in the process, we finally were able to close the deal. It took longer than expected, but at the end everything worked out to our satisfaction.
If it wasn’t for Greg’s expertise, and his willingness of going above and beyond for us, we wouldn’t be able to close this deal. We would highly recommend Greg to assist you in your next house hunting process!

This review is for Harry Clark and Danny Fernandez (
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We found Harry through a friend who has used his services to locate and purchase a house in Noe Valley. Our search for a property came at a time where San-Francisco’s inventory was very low (early 2012). Harry sat with us to learn our objectives and educate us on the market as we knew nothing about it. Harry came with us to see multiple properties until we found one that fit our needs. He explained the entire process to us, had answers to all of our questions, knew all the professionals we needed to engage with and helped us navigate a complex process we knew nothing about. When we decided to pull back our offer for the property we thought Harry won’t have patience to continue looking for a place with us but we were very wrong. Harry restarted the search with us and shortly thereafter we located a property that fit our needs and began the process again.
Harry has extensive experience with the San-​Francisco real-​estate market, with evaluating the status of properties, understanding/​communicating risks, where to invest our time/​money and how to best move forward with closing a deal. The property we were looking at had multiple issues that required inspections and resolutions, Harry managed the process with us and helped diligently remove contingencies as we moved forward.
When we first started thinking about realtors we thought they really had it going for them, they just show you a couple of places and make a killing. We couldn’t be more wrong, the amount of work Harry has put into our real-​estate deal is phenomenal, he must have visited the property with and without us over a dozen times, notifying us of new things we should be aware of and calming us when we got obsessed about things that don’t require much attention. He also had a lot of patience for our endless barrage of questions and attempts to study what goes and what doesn’t. Its important to state that Harry has a extensive background in real-​estate investments in the city which also came in handy when trying to understand all aspects of a deal. Another great thing we found was that Harry has a capacity to actually answer questions with details while many professionals would respond with ‘it depends…’ Harry was able to verbalize things for us and help us understand the best/​worst case scenarios. When Harry took a scheduled vacation for several days out of the process we got to meet Danny who continued working the deal professionally.
To make things even more complex we had an out-​of-​country trip scheduled for the projected closing date, no problem! Harry continued to manage the process while we were away, communicating very effectively through email and phone when we were thousands of miles away at 10+ hour time difference. Harry continued to visit the property multiple time and follow all the open items. He kept surprising us with his sharp eye for things we wouldn’t think of like figuring out the paint colors for us, negotiating price reductions for us and just making us feel in good hands.
We couldn’t have been luckier, and I really hope each and every reader out there has the chance to work with someone so professional and charming.

This is a review for Harry Clark and Danny Fernandez (
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My wife and I recently engaged Harry Clark in our search for a home in San Francisco and we had an exceptionally good experience with him. If you are looking for someone who is friendly and knowledgable, and also maintains a very high degree of professionalism, Harry is your guy.
As part of kicking off our house hunt, we had planned on interviewing a few realtors in order to find someone great who could work with us in the competitive San Francisco market and guide us in making what we assumed would be bids on multiple properties until we found «the one». We wanted someone with extensive experience, knowledge of the neighborhoods we were interested in and the patience to hear out our Must Have/Wants/Don’t Wants lists.
I had worked with Harry on another real estate transaction years ago, and so I set up the initial meeting for my wife to meet him — it was very important that both of us feel comfortable sharing so many details, financial and personal, with our realtor and Harry made us feel comfortable from the first meeting. After we selected him, he took the time to get to know us and understand what we were looking for in a home, what our budget was and what our timeline looked like. Because of this getting to know you phase, he was able to send us listings of appropriate properties to check out, without us having to waste our time on a lot of cruft.
During the actual bid/​offer phase, Harry maintained a high level of communication with us and with the seller’s agent (s). He took the time to explain the processes, terminology and possible outcomes in laymen’s terms to us — giving us perspective on decision-​making that instilled confidence about our choices. When we found the house that we eventually purchased, an older Marina-​style house, Harry was right there to recommend the relavent inspections, and helping adjust our bid appropriately based on the inspection reports. In cases where Harry was not available his partner, Danny Fernandez, was able to step in and seamlessly follow up with phone calls, document transmission and general information.
All in all, I couldn’t have asked for a better realtor. From that first meeting, to the hand-​off of the house keys after closing, Harry was pleasant, organized and professional. I will certainly use his services again and would recommend him to friends.

We worked with Harry Clark and Danny Fernandez on the sale of our home in Corona Heights, this past February and it was a fantastic experience. The team of Clark and Fernandez were both professional and personable, and made the entire transaction a pleasure. Their attention to detail and preparation before the house went on the market was stellar, and it clearly came through that their years of experience and working as a team is what makes them so great.
The house basically sold at the first public open and it was that preparation of the property and the right pricing that made it possible thanks to Harry and Danny’s advice and direction. Thanks guys– hope to work with you again someday.

Joost Van de Water of Zephyr is an amazing agent. He is one of Zephyr’s top producers and it’s not hard to figure out why. Joost is professional, patient, honest and incredibly nice. Joost is the type of agent you could see yourself being friends with. He has a very sweet demeanor and is trustworthy.
Joost is not pretentious and works hard for you no matter how much your property is worth.
Joost sold our small condo in less than a week. He does a great job marketing the property, staging, etc. We couldn’t be happier with our choice of agents.

The best real estate agents in SF! They will actually listen to what you are looking for and their agents are hard working people that will find you a house within your price range without having to settle. I highly recommend them if you are in the market to buy or sell your home!

Virginia Kim Cooper is the best. We had a SF real estate quagmire with slimy brokers, crooked deals, deals where the ugly catch wasn’t revealed until we were about to pay the deposit, waste of time open houses, THEN one day I met this cheerful pleasant broker, Kim Cooper. She waded through the crud, did the leg work to steer us clear of wasted time and bad deals without us having to even see the places, she had the utmost of patience, wasn’t just trying to get it done and get her commission. Wanted us to find the right place and pushes us to be sure it was the right situation. In short, she’s professional and she has very high integrity. I’ve dealt with a lot of brokers and she is special.

Review for Joan Loeffler (
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My wife and I had a great experience working with Joan. This was our first home purchase, and Joan’s professionalism, advice, and concern with our interests was incredible. From the outset, she asked the right questions and quickly knew the types of houses in which we were most interested.
She was patient and understanding in our long 10+ month search, which included a few offers. Joan, unlike what we had expected or heard about some agents, told us a few times to lower our offers or even not to bid on a house, citing specific problems she recognized due to her years of experience.
Joan really cared about our interests. After we found the perfect house (and closed on it!), Joan continues to stop by and check-​in with us, giving great recommendations on any work we need. It was tremendous to have a real estate agent looking out fully for our interests and someone that cared about us personally as we navigated the home buying market!

This review for Zephyr Real Estate is based on our experience with Joan Loeffler.
Joan came to us as a recommendation and helped us purchase our first home in SF. She has all the incredible qualities of a solid real estate agent and friend (!!):
1. Ability to communicate effectively
2. Make us feel comfortable and appreciated through the entire process
3. Offer solid recommendations for mortgage brokers, contractors, etc…
4. Always readily available
Her wealth of experience helped us understand what to expect and of course close on a gorgeous home! Thank you Joan!

For work I have to deal with these guys a few times a week, in the office and over the phone. They are always awesome and all of their clients/​my clients are all so satisfied.
They keep an everlasting realationship with clients even after the final sale, they go way beyond my expectations.

Zephyr was my agent 10 years ago when I broke my real estate buying cherry. After escrow closed on the house, the agent presented me with free Zephyr t-​shirts along with the final paperwork. Back in the pre Dot-​com days of 1997 a free t-​shirt meant something…

Zephyr is the only realty I will work with if I ever buy/​sell again in San Francisco.
I worked with Vicki Valandra (I also made a separate review for her on Unilocal) and she has my strongest endorsement. She’s personable, ethical, knowledgeable, and easy to talk to. Vicki was there every step of the process and made the home-​buying enjoyable.