Lilian Phan – Dilbeck Real Estate

Lilian helped my wife and I find our dream home! I’ve been using Unilocal for years and don’t write reviews, but Lilian did such a wonderful job that it inspired me to write my first review.
My wife and I were house-​hunting on-​and-​off for a few months and weren’t making any progress. We decided to get the help of a professional. We found 4 real estate agents (three on Unilocal,one by referral). My wife and I interviewed all the agents on a single weekend. While the other agents were OK, Lilian was very pro-​active. She was the only one who sent us house listings that matched our search criteria the same day we first met her. This was even before we decided to work with her. That was one of the reasons we decided to work with Lilian. Her cheerful, can-​do attitude was what we were looking for.
Lilian started showing us homes the very next Saturday. After 3 straight weekends of house-​hunting, she showed us our dream home in Alhambra. It took her several days of persistently calling the listing agent, who was very hard to get a hold of, to finally get us in the house. Lilian handled all the details of the offer letter, including help with our personal letter to the seller. Our offer letter was immediately counter-​offered, we accepted, and we started the escrow process.
But that was just the beginning. Lilian made appointments with the home inspector, who recommended additional inspections of the sewer line, plumbing, etc. She made those appointments as well. She always stayed on top of the contingency deadlines, inspections, and communications with the seller and his agent. She gave almost daily updates by email, and would text and call us whenever she needed a critical decision from us.
Long story short: Lilian negotiated for weeks on our behalf. Even when we were about to walk away from the deal due to a disagreement on the price, she continued fighting for us. In the end, with the help of the appraisal price and her real estate experience, Lilian convinced the seller that the price was much higher than the comparable homes in the area. The seller gave us a huge credit, and we closed escrow in less than 30 days.
We are so grateful for Lilian’s help. We never felt pressured by her to buy the first house we saw. She was truly helping us find our dream house. We knew she was working with several other clients, but she always made us feel like we were her top priority. We’ll be inviting her to our housewarming in a few weeks. Thanks so much, Lilian!

This is a long overdue review for Lillian but my significant other and I are able to thank her everyday for helping us get our dream home.
During our first consultation with her, she had asked us what we were looking for in a house and how we would feel once we obtained it. We found our home after 3 weekends of house hunting. Lillian was always a quick text, email, or phone call away during the whole process. She would go the extra mile to prescreen homes for us by recording a walk thru for us while house hunting. She was always prepared when house hunting with market analysis reports and what to anticipate.
Once we found the one, she was great at coordinating everyone and everything together so that we met our goals and deadlines. We were highly satisfied to have her as an advocate for our most important purchase.
As I write this review after owning our home for a month, we can truly say we are FULFILLED, as we told her we would feel. We found the home that hit every one of our criteria. We can’t thank you enough, Lillian. We love everything about our house and our surroundings; we are fully utilizing everything around us. Thank you also for the thoughtful housewarming gifts; Snickers says thank you too! We all love our new life here; it’s everything we hoped and more.

We got a great deal on our home and Lilian backed us up the whole way. She is kind, dedicated, and professional. She was a strong negotiator, who helped us get a home that was more than what we hoped we could get, and at a better price, with better schools, a bigger lot etc. She also helped us get repairs paid for by the sellers, and was prompt and communicative each step of the way. I am so grateful to have had Lilian in my corner, and I strongly recommend her for your purchase!

I would not have been able to find and buy my first home without the wonderful help and guidance of Lilian!
I was a first time house buyer but I had dealt with a few other agents prior to Lilian. I had absolutely no idea what the house hunting and buying process had entailed. So, of course I had many questions, fears and doubts that came along as I went through this journey. As time went by, because of the how competitive the market had become, I was going nowhere as houses were being snatched up left and right. Frustration and hopelessness began to set in. But Lilian was patient throughout the whole process and was there with me every step of the way. Through her insight and guidance I was able to feel calm and in control of the whole process, from house hunting to closing escrow. She works hard to make sure your needs and concerns are dealt with in a timely matter. She treats you like a friend rather than just a client, but still works with you with the utmost professionalism. Lilian definitely made the whole house buying experience less of an stressful ordeal and not so intimidating.
I am blessed to have been under the care of Lilian!

It was such a pleasure to work with Lilian! She made the home buying and selling process as painless as possible. Not only is she knowledgeable regarding real estate, she is so personable! I know we would not have been able to buy our new house without Lilian. She worked endlessly to make sure our deal worked out– not only did we need to sell our old house, our buyers needed to sell their house as well. Despite the multiple contingencies on our offer on the new house, Lilian was always prompt with updates. She is super professional– never late to any of our appointments or meetings, and Lilian was always quick with communication and updates and was always available to answer my many questions! If you are looking for a realtor, look no further, Lilian and Joan are the best team out there! You will not regret your decision!

After realizing how tight the real estate market was in the Pasadena area, we decided that the two-​day-​later tours booked through Redfin weren’t going to cut it for our home purchase. We needed someone who could move quickly, who had a rapport with local agents, and who knew how to negotiate hard. We interviewed two other highly-​reviewed agents in the area and found that their personalities didn’t align with ours. We decided to interview another agent and got in touch with Lilian, who was able to set up a meeting for the next business day. Lilian’s personality was the opposite of the other agents — where they were outwardly aggressive type-​A personalities who felt free to let us know that they «had the luxury of being picky with their clients,» Lilian was very interested in getting to know us, our goals (even outside of the home we were looking for) and really seemed like she was trying to get a feel for what made us tick. We liked that she felt confident in her representation to the extent that she didn’t have us sign an agent agreement with her, meaning that we were free to cut her loose at any time we felt unsatisfied. She signed us up for a very tailored search of the MLS digest that would send us emails very quickly after a new property fitting those parameters was listed, which was pretty neat. With that tool, we were able to quickly weed through listings and identify properties that interested us. We sent them to Lilian via email and text and she would run a fair market value report, her thoughts on the property, and what she thought the property would go for. She set up tours of open houses and even went to two agent preview open houses on her own and shot video of the walk-​through when we were out of town on vacation. After we’d tour a house, she’d ask us what we liked and disliked about the house to better understand our tastes. About a month after first meeting her, two weekends of open houses, hundreds of emails/​text messages, and one failed bid (the house went for $ 104k over asking!), we identified another house that we wanted to bid on. Lilian drew up the documents and advised us on how to look attractive to the seller in our bid and after a full day of negotiating with the seller’s agent, convinced her and the agent to go with our offer despite it being $ 15k under the highest bid! She kept us appraised of each new development, let us know what we should be doing (and when to relax), and most importantly kept all the various moving parts in contact with each other.
Lilian seemed like she was always giving us her full attention; I’m not sure how many other clients she was working with at the time, but it felt like we were the only ones! She went above and beyond the duties of a real estate agent — she notarized totally unrelated documents for us, gave recommendations for contractors and was even present at the final document signing with a gorgeous celebratory cake! While I don’t doubt that the other aggressive agents can get the job done, Lilian got the same results in a chill yet focused way that was much more comfortable to work with. Thanks!

We met Lilian through her wonderful partner, Joan Bang, who was our buying agent on our starter/​first house. And Lilian is just as awesome as Joan. They are a wonderful team who helped us navigate through 2 challenging escrows when it came time to upgrade to our forever /​dream home for our growing family.
Lilian and Joan worked flawlessly together to coordinate our timeline with the 2 escrows (buying and selling) to ensure that we did not have to find temporary house and move twice. And there were also a few curve balls thrown during these 2 escrows because the first buyer on our house sale backed out, and we had to find another seller within 1 week because the house we were purchasing had a backup offer to go to if we stretched the timeline past the 2 week extension that she got us. And I also need to mention that Lilian got us into see our dream home at the last minute, even though they already accepted another offer. Usually, sellers do not want to go to the hassle of showing the house again when they already have an offer. We submitted a backup offer, and within 3 days, our backup offer got accepted due to Lilian’s amazing negotiation skills. The first buyer asked for an extension due to their house sale falling out of escrow, and they had to restart escrow with their backup buyer. Lilian convinced the sellers to not grant their original buyer the extension and work with us because we were further along in escrow with our first house buyer. But then, our first buyer canceled escrow, but Lilian was able to convince the seller to grant us 2 week extension rather than cancel with us.
Then, there were some loan complications that required us to go with another lender, and Lilian helped us through that process as well, working with 2 lenders to ensure that we closed on time and with the best customer service to meet our needs.
Not only did she answer my texts, calls and emails at any time during the process, she also sent weekly updates and checked up status of pending items or anticipated my needs and answered questions before I even had to ask! Lilian is also a licensed notary and offered to notarize some documents for us required by escrow while we met to sign some other docs, because she knew how hectic everything was for us. Not to mention the times that I had to call her and vent, stress about some situation with our escrows, and she patiently listened and offered advice and alternatives every time. And finally, coordinating communications and clarifying/​meeting expectations when my husband and I weren’t always on the same page. That’s going above and beyond for your clients!
Everything worked out, and we have Lilian, and her wonderful partner, Joan, to thank for our new home. I would highly recommend Lillian to any family or friend. We are her customers for life, but realistically, how many times can we buy and sell homes. Well, maybe some rental properties in the future: P

I don’t know where to begin to explain my experience working with Lilian. She was an absolute pleasure to work with. Being a first-​time home buyer, the process was sometimes intimidating and confusing. Lilian was patient with me and answered all my questions and made sure that I understood everything.
She is very knowledgeable and quick to respond. She is committed to her client and genuinely wants the best for them. She recommended a home inspection company that was reliable and better than I would’ve hoped for and I got a discount because it was through her! In addition to being a true professional, she is also kind and understanding. I was looking in a near by city a little out of her area and she still was very helpful, I highly recommend working with Lilian. She’s wonderful!

I really enjoyed working with Lilian! She is very professional, smart, reliable, patient, and very very sweet! She made our home purchasing experience enjoyable and very smooth. Lilian always made sure we understood everything and kept us in the loop with updates during the whole process from start to finish. She was never pushy, listened to what we were looking for in our dream home, and very quick to respond! She would respond to our texts or emails within minutes! She worked around our busy schedules and even sent me a video of one of the property i was unable to go see. I feel like she was not only our agent but also a good friend because of her kindness and how much she really cared about our happiness and made sure we got what we really loved. We appreciate her hard work and i can say she goes above and beyond for her clients. I feel very confident referring Lilian to all my family and friends and will not hesitate to work with her again. Thank you Lilian!

It was such a pleasure working with Lillian Phan! She is a consummate professional, but more than that, she REALLY cares about the success of her clients!!! I am so impressed with how organized she is, and how systematically she goes about making her client’s dreams come true! :) She did SUCH a wonderful job for me, and I posed more than a few challenges with my search!
Firstly, I’m a US Army veteran and I need my home to meet ALL the stringent requirements for a VA Loan. Before hiring Lillian, I had a different Real Estate Agent who was completely intimidated by the VA Loan process. She insisted that everything would be very difficult to arrange, and that VA approved homes were difficult to find in Los Angeles. I walked away from my first day of home searching feeling discouraged and worried! In contrast, Lillian assured me that VA Loans are completely doable!!! She immediately insisted that the extra legwork for her was NO PROBLEM, and promised me that my home was out there! Her self-​assuredness really calmed me, and helped restore my faith in my home search adventure.
Secondly, I am purchasing my home with my sister AND one of our best friends! We are all young ladies, looking for a beautiful starter home that is in a safe neighborhood. We also want 3 bedrooms and at least 2 bathrooms for $ 430,000 or less! In Los Angeles, all of these specifications together are VERY unlikely!!! Instead of treating my goal as unrealistic and foolish, Lillian assured me that we would persevere! She patiently narrowed down our neighborhood options, taking detailed notes of EVERY home we visited! By the third outing, she had all our preferences memorized, and made excellent recommendations for new areas to consider! In fact, Lillian insisted on us considering Pasadena as an option, and that is where we ultimately bought our house!!! Thank you Lillian!!! :)
The last challenge I posed Lillian was in the loan application process. I decided to change my lender in the middle of escrow because I didn’t feel comfortable with my original lender’s fees. Lillian could have EASILY displayed frustration, because my decision delayed the escrow process. However, in typical Lillian fashion, she assured me that I MUST do what I felt is right! She encouraged me to follow my instincts, and supported me throughout the transition. She quickly started working with my new lender, and had all the paperwork up-​to-​date in less than a week! I truly believe Lillian’s professionalism, composure, and integrity are unparalleled in the Real Estate business!
In closing, I would recommend Lillian to absolutely ANYONE looking for a new home. If you want timely help, great energy, and real kindness, you need go no further than Lillian Phan. She even purchased a dozen roses for my Mom on her birthday! So thoughtful!
I would like to wish you luck if you’re still searching, but I guarantee that if you hire Lillian, you won’t need it!!!

Buying your first home is a lot like running the New York City Marathon. A friend of mine woke up one day and said to himself, «I’m going to try and run the NYC Marathon next year» and he started training, submitted his name into the lottery, got selected and ran it. He had never run a marathon in his life. Somewhat like my buddy, my wife and I decided after a couple of conversations with friends and family «Hey, lets stop throwing our money away on rent and try to buy something.» And so our training began. After making sure we could afford what we wanted and got ourselves prequalified, our quest for a real estate agent began much like my buddy sought out training groups and coaches to help him prepare for his race. My wife and I met with several agents, each one very different. One was a family friend and the others were selected based on Internet reviews and ratings. I was sold on the first agent we met, our family friend. But at the behest of my wife, she made me meet with several other agents before deciding. This is probably the single most important decision we made in the whole process because that is what ultimately led us to the office of Lilian Phan of Dilbeck Real Estate Real Living.
Simply put, she’s professional, polished and personable. She quickly impressed us about her knowledge of the home buying process and was able to make quick assessments as to our likes and dislikes of not only what we wanted in a home, but also what we wanted our home buying process to be. She spoke of herself, her real estate team and the company she works for in such a professional and polished way that although she outlined all of the services that they would provide for us as clients, we never felt as if she was trying to get our business or sell us on anything.
There were a lot of subtle personal touches that she integrated into our initial meeting that really made us feel like our happiness with the entire process mattered to her and that she would do everything in her power to ensure that we got what we wanted. And not only did she deliver; she did it with complete grace.
Lilian worked tirelessly, was always available and extraordinarily accommodating and flexible. My wife and I have very unique schedules and Lilian was able to streamline everything for us to ensure that we were staying on top of things, meeting deadlines and not duplicating our efforts. Due to her exceptional investigative skills, she fastly identified my home-​buying pain threshold and was able to breakdown my to-do’s so that I never felt overwhelmed. The level of service that Lilian and her team provided far exceeded our expectations and Lilian’s performance gave us complete trust that everything would be done in a professional and timely manner which provided us with much comfort.
When you run in the New York City Marathon, which snakes its way through all of the city’s five boroughs, obviously the farther you run, the harder it gets. But to keep the runners inspired through the long journey, many New Yorkers come out in their neighborhoods and cheer people on in their own unique way. In Brooklyn, runners encounter a gospel choir. On other blocks throughout the city, garage bands and DJs are playing music. And then there are just random people cheering you on and passing you a cup of water as the going gets tough. For our real estate marathon, Lilian was there for us at every turn either as a coach, a cheerleader or a friend. When we needed to get things done, she was there to tell us to get things done. When we were pulling our hair out because our lender was slowing up the process, Lilian told us not to worry and gave us a pair of movie tickets so that we could forget about things for a couple of hours. When we got close to the finish line, she bought us a cake and when we crossed the finish and got our keys… well… I don’t want to be a spoiler. You’ll see for yourself.

Lilian Phan is an excellent real estate professional and a great problem solver. I can’t imagine buying a home without Lilian’s help.
Lilian has helped my family with finding a home in just about 4 months. In today’s market, that’s light-​year speed. Before Lilian, we had been looking for almost 6 months with another agent but had a fallout due to his failure to provide us with due diligence on numerous occasions. With Lilian, we saw an immediate difference in service, quality, communication, expertise, and resourcefulness. (You guessed right if you say we found her on Unilocal!I found my eyes (Lasik) through Unilocal and now I found my home through Unilocal).
Lilian has a warm personality. She is very easy to talk to and is instinctively intuitive. She communicates well and always conducts herself in a professional manner. Very impressive.
She is very tactical in problem solving. She is proactive in identifying flaws and problems when we view properties. She points out each problem to us during our walks. She also present solutions and remediation strategies for each of these problems. This is a skill set of a true real estate professional and one that sets them apart from all others.
She is also very analytical. She kept her us informed with market trends and provided ad hoc analysis for us to understand if pricing is reasonable. She is very strategic in working with the seller. She had guided us on a few impressive strategies that had helped us with buying our home.
Overall, my wife and I are very impressed with Lilian. She had guided us from the beginning to the end, and was even there for us even after the process was over. Today, we still keep in contact. That is priceless.

This is how Lilian helped me get a cute studio apartment at a very good location. The listing was put up on Saturday and I left messages, sent emails as early as Sunday morning and Lilian was quick to respond before it was even noon. She showed me the place on Monday morning, and I found myself filling the application.
Here’s the hard part — I was a foreign student. The issue was the lack of credit history. Knowing that there’s competition out there for this studio, I told Lilian that I wanted the apartment and she helped me and walked me through on how to improve my case. She also put in a good word for me to the landlady. I fought hard to get the apartment (almost losing sleep) and Lilian was very quick to respond, and she gave very straightforward advice and answers. The communication is exactly the way you want when dealing with things like this — fast and efficient.
Five days later, I have the keys to the apartment that I now call home. Thank you so much Lilian! :)

I found Lilian through a Unilocal search of local agents, so this review is just some more positive vibes on top of the already fantastic reviews of Joan Bang and the Lilian Phan gang at Dilbeck Real Estate Pasadena. Lilian and I hunted around for what seems like a year, complete with house to house excursions while she laughed at my dumb jokes in the car. When I finally found something I felt comfortable with, everything in my life suddenly became more hectic. Lilian was always there to remind me of appointments and details that I would’ve missed because of my crazy schedule. Lilian made the whole process possible way beyond what my efforts could have and she was always a ray of sunshine every time we spoke. Thank You Lilian… I will be staying in touch!

***SIX STARS***I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Lilian and her team!
My family and I just closed escrow last week with Lilian Phan from Dilbeck. Our family could NOT be more pleased with Ms. Phan and her team! She was extremely supportive, professional, attentive, honest, available, responsive to emails and texts and so positive — such a GO GETTER from the very beginning.
We started off pre-​qualifying with a low amount and from the beginning she said, «as long as you are pre-​qualified you can start looking!» We felt very discouraged from meeting with the lender who stated, «maybe you are not ready to buy» — YET, after meeting with Lilian– her support was tremendous– our confidence was boosted as she encouraged us to keep positive and start looking! A few months later (with a new lender) we were able to increase our approval amount SIGNIFICANTLY more (by almost 100K more) than original amount. This opened up a host of new opportunities for us. However the market was/​is still VERY competitive– but Lilian was able to present our bids QUICKLY and PROFESSIONALLY. She created a very clean, marketable and professional portfolio of our family and our story– which helped us gain favor in bidding. Her skill set and professionalism speak volumes!
What sold me so much was when we got an inspection on a home and it came back with needing more work than expected. We STILL wanted to buy because we fell in love with the home– AND we also knew we didn’t have much out of pocket to fix it after closing– Lilian COULD HAVE encouraged us to move forward and buy– BUT she instead she helped us weigh through the pros and cons and stated, «I want you to have a good home, not just any home». She was right! Literally a month later, we found a home at 25k more, that had a new kitchen, restroom, roof, hardwood floors– it was gorgeous and move in mint condition! We are so blessed and thankful we did NOT take the initial home.
Lilian will definitely advocate for your best interest and help you buy a quality home! We are so thankful for all that she has done on our behalf. She had a clear assessment/​understanding of our needs in a home– and worked really hard to make it happen! Thank you Ms. Lilian Phan and team! Highly recommend!

Lilian is awesome to work with and her professionalism is outstanding.
Most of all, she understood that it was important family event for us.
She cared for my family needs and got them involved in buying our new home.
As an USC Alumni…
I highly recommend this UCLA graduate for all your Real Estate needs! ^_^

LILLIAN WOULD BE A DELIGHT FOR ANY FIRST TIME HOME BUYER.
The home buying process can be the most frustrating and painful fiscal experience of ones life or the best. I introduced myself to Lillian by letting her know everything that was wrong with my last RE agent and why she was fired/​is not a part of the new home search. She seems genuinely concerned about my previous experience and explained not only how she works to prevent any surprises but what she and Joan go out of their way to do: Make it as simple, straight forward and painless as it possibly can be for their clients to commit fiscally to one of the biggest decisions of our lives.
Lillian handled all my requests and paperwork promptly, she knew the answers to anything that came up (and if she didn’t, she knew where to get the answers immediately). She worked with my lenders and made sure that nothing fell though the cracks and that everything was proceeding without hangups or any problems. After having to hound my previous RE agent to do her job, it was a breath of fresh air having a steady stream of emails and texts keeping me aware of what my part in the process is, what we need to do next, and what Lillian was doing for me.
Lillian as continued to provide support after the purchase and move in with home warranty issues, supplying a long list of contractors she has came to trust, Lillian is like an Angie’s list for her clients. My second home purchase was easy. Be prepared to see a couple of houses so that you can narrow down your search to what you really want and you might be surprised how quickly you find a home. I made offers on several shortly after Lillian and I started our search together.
My first home purchase was a nightmare, my second was a celebration. If you are not in a hurry to buy, you should be in a hurry to start looking so call Lillian today!

I met Lilian recently and worked with her on a baby shower committee and she was very responsible. I saw the professionalism in her when I overheard her speaking to her several clients. I have no idea what goes on in the real estate world, but she was breaking things down for me to understand and appreciate.
I highly recommend this UCLA graduate for all your Real Estate needs!

It has been a joy working with Lilian. I was looking to buy my first home and she helped me find it with in 4 months. Lilian is very accommodating and is easily reachable almost any time of the day and she responds very quickly to emails, phone calls, and texts which is huge to me.
In addition to her awesome work ethic and professionalism she is just great person to be around, the type of person I would hang out with even if we weren’t doing business together. I would highly recommend Lilian to any one looking to buy or sell real estate.

Don’t even bother going to other Agent.
Because Lilian is the best!
She respond super fast and guide you through the entire process.
I met two other agents before I decided to work with them.
The two other agents I met before, both tried to talk me to purchase a place I was not even sure if I wanted.
I was not very comfortable with them.
But Lilian and Joan are different! (Lilian and Joan work together)
They will show you the places that you want to see.
They will make time for you! (I work full time, but they were able to show me tons of places after my work and during weekend!)
They listen to you and treat you like they are your friend.
They never rush you when you are checking the house.
I got my place after searching with them for 5 months!
I saw tons of places and made numerous offer with them.
At the end, Lilian showed me this place that was not even on my list, but I loved it and I was able to get the place!!!
Without her I was not able to do it.
They are the people you want to keep in your life, cuz they are amazing!