Haylen Group

We first met Helen at one of her open houses. Her staging was so awesome and attracted a lot of people including me. In today’s market, buying is hard. Helen knew the market very well. She guided us make an offer at the right price and taught us how to get our offer accepted. Helen knew how to negotiate and she did a great job for us! Helen is very experienced and she knew all the answers in the buying process. Helen likes to use technologies which makes life easier. Helen works very hard and very responsive 24 hours.
Will definitely use them again and recommend to others. Thank you Helen & December.

We just brought our first house with the help of Susanna and Helen. Normally the whole process of hunting a house is quite painful, but I have to say we had a great experience working with them. Susanna and Helen are very nice, super patient, very knowledgeable and professional. They know exactly what we want from the beginning, tailoring the whole process to our needs. I am so amazed by their fast working pace with extremely high efficiency. Great agent, great people. Thumbs up! Thanks again!
PS: we only made one offer and we got the house. Plus, we beat an all-​cash offer at the same price!

We are currently in the process of buying our third home. We had been through the process of completing the purchase two homes and sale of one home previously. Having gone thru several buying and selling experiences before, we have seen our fair share of realtors. Susanna is definitely a realtor you can trust. She met up with us 6 times to look at homes we were interested in. Each time she came prepared. The best part is, she was honest. We have encountered realtors before who were overly enthusiastic on homes that weren’t worthy of praise. If Susanna didn’t like a home, she would tell you, and why. We appreciated her honesty very much. In addition, there was no pressure to buy. She was patient in showing the homes. She also has renovation knowledge and would point out where a home had the potential to improve. Thank you Susanna for your professionalism and the time that you had spent with us.

I met Helen Chong from attending the NorCal CCIM meetings and have come to know and trust her. Our first project together was a 100-​unit apartment listing in San Jose. Her valuable insights and experience helped us stand out from competitors to win the project. Since then, Helen and I continue to refer trusted clients to each other and have closed multiple deals together. Helen is reliable, honest and quick to respond to client and agent inquiries. She is also one of the best real estate negotiators I know, whether representing buyers, sellers, landlords, or tenants. Helen sets a higher standard among the many agents in the Bay Area and its the reason why she is chosen by her client and peers to be on the cover of «Top Agent Magazine». Its a privilege and honor to work with Helen, and if you’re thinking of hiring one of the best real estate advisor, I would highly recommend giving Helen a try.

Susanna & Helen are so smart, helpful and fun to work with. They are very experienced. I just move to this country and was out of town couple times when working with them. They were so hard working and detailed oriented. I am now to the process and Susanna walked me through the process patiently.
I bought my place with their great help! Helen is so smart in negotiation. I especially like the pricing analysis they do for every bid. Susanna is so smart to understand my exact requirements from the very beginning. Every bid she did a summary of the disclosures. The home inspection they recommend is so great. Susanna accompanied me (and explained to me in simple terms does it mean good or not) for the home inspection from Corey Folsom and Associates. Corey is so polite, professional.
so, thankful to have Haylen. I bought my place within 3 months of moving from outside to US. From understanding the process, narrowing down the areas I want, the type of housing, how to bid the properties, understanding the complicated disclosures documents. What a star team! thanks again!

Helen & Susanna are superstars. They helped us to both sell our house in Cupertino and buy a house in Saratoga :) All in the same week!
My husband and I made a sudden decision to move after we saw a house we really liked in Saratoga (quick decision making is key in this market!!! You hesitate… and the house is gone). So in 3 days… we packed up 10 years of memories to sell the existing house so we can upgrade to a much bigger place with a very nice lot. Our house sold in a week :) and we bought the house we wanted in the same week :)
So as a buyer’s agent: Helen & Susan never failed to react quickly when an offer was due. Even though we had limited time to prepare and to present our offers, the ladies never failed to make sure that they presented the best of us (and I do not mean the offer price number alone… I mean all the documentations, letters, background info about us… etc… the whole package… It is important that your realtors represent you well. They are the faces of the buyers). Helen also did her due diligence on finding the right offer price based on the current market situation. Let me tell you now that the offer price may not be what you want to hear… but it is a sellers market… when you have 10 other people competing against you and probably half of them cash offers… its time to bite the bullet and just make an attractive offer — that is if you really want the house. Don’t waste time with unattractive offers… because speaking from someone who’s searched around Silicon Valley — you will never get that lucky… have to make to the top 2 – 3 offers to even have a shot… So, trust your agent on what price to offer and what price makes your offer attractive… Susanna was super detailed oriented… made sure we read every single line of the disclosures before we were to make an offer. We aren’t the best when it comes to reading thick binders :) Helen also requested to present the offer in person, which we think really made a difference too… especially in this kind of seller’s market. Sellers were impressed with her and said she had tons of energy.
As a seller’s agent: They worked super hard even though it is a sellers market and selling homes in Cupertino isn’t the toughest job at the moment… but that didn’t stop them from working as hard as possible for us. The 3D floor plan impressed tons of people, dual language (English & Chinese) home tour videos were also eye catching, photos were also great. All the pre-​marketing drew a lot of attention and therefore we had tons of traffic at our house during the open houses. In fact, we had tons of requests to view the house even before the open house. We received multiple offers and Helen & Susanna reviewed each offer thoroughly and background checked each buyer thoroughly. It is important to do some background checks on the buyers because you never know if what they say is true. You have to constantly call the buyers agents to sense and scope out the details… And for sure you can smell nonsense. Some of the agents were super sloppy in presenting the offers (which made us not want to select them… hence why your agent is important when they represent you to make offers!!! don’t go with a lazy agent!!!). We reviewed each offer, made appropriate counters, and accepted an offer — an offer that was up to our expectations :)
All in all, everything happened so fast that it seemed so unreal… They really worked for us ²⁴⁄₇ and answered all the questions we have around the clock.
The ladies now are looking for investment homes for me and condos for my cousins in the bay area :) Highly recommended if you are looking to purchase a house or to sell your house! They are truly the best.

Helen Chong was an outstanding agent. She provided excellent services and went above and beyond with helpfulness throughout our preparation period before the first open house. She or her excellent assistant December Green coordinated and met inspectors at our house and arranged a strong collection of documents for buyers to see how well maintained our property was. They recommended an excellent landscaper who transformed our front & back yards in a week! They arranged for whole house cleaning, and even showed up 2 hours before to help me move boxes into our garage. They provided good advice, gorgeous flyers and strong support throughout the process. The e-​docs we signed were SO helpful as we were out of town for most of the signings. They made it easy and clear and answered all our questions. We got slightly over asking price and when I did not want to pay the additional $ 8000 in transfer fees she negotiated with the buyers to offer that additional cost to add to the purchase price. Helen left a very nice gift of a photo book with house pics from the flyers, along with two other thoughtful and generous gifts. I would highly recommend them as a team. They are calm, competent and clear about questions and problems that came up and resolved everything professionally. Great to have a team of problem-​solvers and active agents working for us. The day before closing Helen went out and bought paint, then washed scuff marks and repainted the steps scuffed by the stagers. She is amazing with every detail. We had a very positive experience.

Recently Haylen group helped us found our dream house. Thanks so much for the help! We couldn’t have got this house without their help.
Firstly, we missed the open house due to a trip. When we came back, there were only 2 days left before the seller taking offers. But Haylen and Susanna helped to arrange the house tour 1 day before. After our visiting, we liked the house very much, but given the hot market, we don’t think we can afford it. So we decided to pass. But Haylen and Susanna kept encouraging us to try it out. So we put the highest price we can afford but never thought we can have any chance. Then the next day in the late night, Haylen called us to say that seller accepted our offer even we are not the highest one, and it was because they were touched by the cover letter from! It was so amazing! And thanks Haylen for preparing the wonderful presentation for us!
Haylen and her team are always stand by us for any questions, concerns. They are easy to work with, hardworking and just like friends to us.
After our offer was accepted, they provided very detailed step by step guidance for us for the remaining process.
Now we also hired Haylen group to sell our current house and I know everything will go smoothly.
Thank you again for the good experience of this house purchasing! We will definitely recommend you guys to others!

Helen listed my house and did a fabulous job of marketing & selling it. Along the way she helped with every detail from upgrades to staging & holding my hand and acting as therapist when things were not going as I had planned.
She appeared at the signing & I was amazed as I have never experienced that before. And she continued to be attentive to every tiny detail of the sale even after the house closed. The whole Haylen group was fun to work with, especially December!
I have had some very bad experiences with realtors in the past, but Helen is a «game changer.» Her integrity is above question and I am privileged now to call her a friend.

Thanks to Helen&Susanna (Haylen Group), we recently bought our first home with our first offer… just AMAZING.
Same as many other first time home buyers, we were not sure about which realtor should we pick. There are so many realtors out there and it’s not easy to find the right one whom truly represent and fight for you to get the home you wanted.
Lucky for us, we found Helen and Susanna through a co-​worker of mine whom purchased their first home with Helen&Susanna help.
They were so patience with us and Susanna always make herself available and accompany us whenever we would like to check out a home. They are very nice and kind to us and always provide us with clear information about the property and they responded to any of our requests/​questions very fast. We even sometimes txt/​call them at late hours or early anytime (including weekend), they were always available and responsive. Sometimes we randomly see a house and want quickly a tour, without any hesitation Susanna make herself available pretty quick and accompany us.
As we found the home we wanted, Helen help us by walking with us step by step through the entire process. Helen experience and knowledge is just incredible and her estimation and negotiation skill is just exceptional. Our offer came in just slightly above the second best offer, and this just show how skillful negotiator she is. She knows the market and entire «game» in-​and-​out.
Once we won the offer, Helen and her team provide us step-​by-​step guidance and give us a heads up throughout the entire process and always remind us what need to be done. We are always well informed in advance. Throughout the process, Helen&Susanna have treat us more like a friend than client. The trust level has raised to a close friendship. They have shown and make us feel like we are their highest priority even though we know they are super busy.
Overall, if I could raise them more than 5Stars I would but to be honest the experience we have made with Helen&Susanna, stars rating are not even enough to justify their kind, patience and relentless effort. In no blink, I would recommend them to anyone who is looking to purchase a home.
Thank you for the incredible experience, Helen, Susanna and December! You guys are just AMAZING!

After interviewing three different realtors, we decided to have Helen and Susanna as our agents for a few reasons. And now, after we have successfully bought our dream house at our second offer, we can say for sure that we made a good choice.
I guess most agents would claim that they could accompany you visit different properties, provide you advices and let you know what would be an appropriate price to put on offer. For those, I don’t think most inexperienced home buyers could tell whether their agents have done a good job or not.
However, we still think Helen and Susanna are the best agents we have ever dealt with. (Plus, we have dealt with different agents a few times before). We could tell that from every detail.
First of all, we changed our mind at the last minute a few times. Honestly, if I were in their position, I would for sure be mad at a customer like this. To prepare an offer, it’s not just like filling in a number. They have to do a lot of research of the house to provide us their best help to us. So basically, we had their efforts wasted for nothing many times. We also felt bad about doing this. But we had to do so because the Silicon Valley house market is so crazy and we had to make sure we were making the right decision. Helen and Susanna were always kind to us and didn’t blame us for this.
In addition, both Helen and Susanna responded to any of our requests very fast. I think we were kind of the customers who made a lot of requests and asked a lot of questions. Again, if I was an agent, I felt like sometimes would get impatient with customers like this. But they were always very patient and responsive. Sometimes we had to call them at late nights or early morning, but they were always available there.
To fit my schedule, Susanna had to take me visiting houses during lunch time. I can’t even count how many times she had done that for me. Sometimes, we wanted to see a house randomly, and she could always arrange that within hours.
Helen has excellent negotiation skill and she went through all the details with the sell for our best benefit. She also reminded us what to do or expect next at each stage so that we can also be prepared and close on time. Helen and December also scheduled a lot of things such as inspections for us. She is thoughtful and very organized. On the day we closed, Helen even gave us a thumb drive with all related documents in it so that we can refer to those files easily at anytime.
I believe we are those very picky customs but we are completely satisfied with this home purchasing process. Helen, Susanna and December treat us like their friends and they shared their stories with us. Although they are very busy and have many «bigger» purchases, we always feel that we are their first priority.
All in all, we highly recommend Helen’s group!

I was able to buy a great property thanks to Helen back in August of this year. Although we ran into some issues through the buying process, Helen was always very responsive and helpful. There were times where I thought that I might not end up getting the house, but we were able to make it through to the end, and I was able to secure the house.
After purchasing the house, Helen proved to be very caring/​helpful. She was able to keep in contact with me, just in-​case I had any questions regarding my house purchase. I’ll definitely consider having Helen as a Realtor in the future if I decide to acquire any other properties in the future.

Definitely 5 stars. She is a very professional agent. If you worked with her, any problem will became nothing. You don’t need to worry about anything, just trust her.
I can’t get my dream house without her. I hope I can introduce her to everybody who want to buy or sell a house.

Excellent work !!
No doubt !
Helen & Susanna they are so great
My perfect experience for my 1^st house purchase. Thank you so much for them…
感謝

We spent weeks interviewing realtors and asking tons of annoying questions. Imagine what we’d do for a Nanny interview… From the beginning Susanna and Helen were, without question, the most responsive and sensitive to our needs. Unlike alot of other realtors we interviewed, they didn’t try to direct us away from our core desires to markets that they had more experience in and were an absolute joy to work with.
We toured tons of properties and Susanna, who was 8 months pregnant and had more energy than humanly possible. She was great, had all of the data (nerds buying homes…) about every property we toured right at her fingertips. Her follow up emails analyzing potential properties were super helpful and above and beyond what normal realtors come up with. They were absolutely focused — as we were — on getting the right property at a fair price.
Helen was our chief negotiator. I do this for a living and I think, actually, she’s way better at it than I am. Our offer, on the place we absolutely loved and are now moved into, was «just slightly better» than the other contender. Read: we didn’t come in *way* over the next best offer. Flawless victory.
The great service didn’t stop after we put an offer in. Next up, the mortgage and Helen had an exceptional contact for that. Her and Kimberly, the mortgage broker, worked together seamlessly even when we hit a few snags in documentation. Helen was *immediately* in touch with a keen understanding of the problem and several possible solutions. We never, for a second, felt in the dark.
The end result to all of this was the transaction going through and my wife and I ending up in our #1 choice. Helen and Susanna made this happen and it was an absolute pleasure to work with two people who are the best at their craft.

If I could give them 10 stars on Unilocal,I definitely would!
(Note: This is the very first Unilocal review I’ve written. Susanna and Helen were the first to convince me to actually take my time and effort to write a review.)
If you want a super responsive, intelligent, analytical, professional yet friendly best negotiators in San Jose/​Santa Clara area, look no further!!! They are absolutely the best. (We interviewed 7 other realtors who were all highly rated on Unilocal,and they were the clear winners.)
It was our first home purchase, which I’m sure many of you know can be daunting and overwhelming, but they were there every step of the way to guide us through it. My husband and I really enjoyed working with them through the entire process from our initial meeting where they had already put together some stats on the area to give us some perspective to stepping in to our very own home for the first time where they had set up a nice gift basket with a «Welcome Home» balloon :)
We were nervous when we heard there was another offer, but Helen made it so that our offer ended up being slightly better than the other. Besides advising us on the price and terms, she suggested we attach a picture of us and a short letter to the sellers. That worked like a charm! The seller’s realtor told us the sellers really loved the personal touch and that helped us win the property.
From the way they work, it’s clear that they love what they do and they’re all about making their clients happy.
Thanks everyone who wrote great reviews about them that allowed us to find Helen and Susanna! I hope this review can help other house hunters :)

Still remember how frustrated 2 yrs ago when we were seeking for a house.
Thanks for Helen, who is really hard working, professional and gracious.
It really turned out to be a nice house buying experience.

I enjoyed working with Helen throughout the entire process of selling my home. She provided me with excellent service and I never felt pressured by Helen in any way at all. She was very informative on each decision we made all the way up to signing the contract. Any agent can sell you a home in this market but with Helen I felt very comfortable with her and to me that was very important. I highly recommend her as an agent and look forward to doing business again in the future.

Helen and Susanna are the dynamic duo! Moving from Chicago we had no idea of how intense the housing market was in the Bay Area. Along with an infant it was a greater challenge for us. Both Helen and Susanna were really hands on with us through the entire process. They would accompany us to homes we found through various postings, as well as taking into consideration of what type of home we were looking for, as well as budget and location. They gave us sound market and home searching advice, and help make sure we didn’t get caught up in the frenzy that can happen with a sought after property in Silicon Valley.
Susanna would take us from property to property never pressuring us, but rather giving us insight into things we may not have taken into consideration, as well as looking for the «potential» in a property. Helen is dedicated, whether or not you want a hand held experience, she is there for you ²⁴⁄₇. There were times we would be on the phone discussing contracts at 11pm, and her replies were instant.
Bottom line, don’t under estimate these ladies, they are great at what they do and after the experience we had, we don’t consider them as just a business relationship, but as friends. With the tight offer timelines, you want someone that knows what they’re doing. In the end we went on one of their suggested homes and we are now proud homeowners. We closed and moved in this past May, and have settled in wonderfully!
Thanks Helen and Susanna!

What can I say about Helen and Sussana. All my previous anxieties and preconceptions I have about house hunting went out the door after working with Helen and her team. With a little luck and their extensive knowledge and hardwork, my husband and I got the house of our dreams. You can really tell the passion they have for this business by how attentive they are to your needs. Susanna did the leg work and helped me put together an agenda to go see homes while Helen took care of the financial backend of things and helped me prepare to look the best in this competitive market.
Would I recommend Haylen Group? In a heart beat! Especially if you’re a novice buyer or seller who needs a lot of hand holding. 2 words I would use to describe this team… patient and efficent They go above and beyond what you would expect professional realtors to do.
If we are lucky enough to buy a second home, you guys will definitely hear from us.
It’s already been 2 months since we’ve settled into our home, but we still can’t forget what an awesome experience we had and the overwhelming feeling I had when I got the call from Helen that our offer was accepted.
Again thank you, Helen and Susanna for the beautiful housewarming gifts! Hopefully we would be able to use the onsie you guys made for us soon.

We just purchased our first home through Helen and Susanna, and it would have been unimaginable without them.
Our coworker, who has known Susanna for a long time and just bought a house through them, highly recommended them. Right away, they took the time to understand our needs and explain every detail of the process. They were very prepared each time we looked at houses, bringing documents and information in ipads. When it was time to make bids, they provided detailed analysis to help us make the right decisions.
During the closing process, Helen gone out of her way several times to help me prepare for actual homeownership and the things to follow up on. If we needed something, we were never afraid to give Helen a call. Even after the purchase, Helen continued to stay in touch to make sure we are ok. We really can’t imagine what more to ask for from our realtor.

Helen and Susanna made my first home purchase really easy and explained everything to me. In addition to chasing down all of the various loose ends involved with the transaction and finding out information on a house, they both appear to work at every hour of every day, which is quite handy if you have a job that requires you to travel around or keeps you otherwise totally occupied. Their use of new software technologies was also very convenient for me.
Along the way, Helen and Susanna offered me their professional advice regarding certain decisions I was making and helped craft unique and personalized offer packages to make my offers stand out from others. I am sure this helped.
I will definitely choose Haylen Group again for my next home transaction.

Professional and hardworking. Detail oriented work. Susanna is very nice, took us to visit houses many times. Helen did an awesome job on analysis and offer presentation. We finally bought our first home by them. That’s an enjoyable experience even though to buy a house in the bay area is really hard and stressful. Thanks Helen and Susanna!