Steve Michaelides-The Grubb Company

Steve helped my husband and I buy our first house a month ago in Montclair. He was incredibly patient, knowledgeable, and communicative. Buying a house is stressful, scary, and frustrating. Steve walked us through the process step by step, celebrating the wins and sympathizing when things were tough. I will recommend him to anyone I know looking to purchase in the East Bay and will definitely use him again in the future if/​when we decide to sell. I couldn’t have asked for a better realtor!

Having spent 8 years as a Realtor in the area where I lived, when it came time to sell our home and purchase a new one I knew a lot of agents who would do an excellent job representing us. That was both a good thing (lots of great choices) and a bad thing (how could I possibly select just one?). I put together a list of the qualities I wanted that person to have. Someone who had been in the business for a long time and would not be having us as their teaching tool, someone who had an excellent reputation within the Realtor world, someone who worked for a company well respected, and someone I knew and personally liked. There still were a lot of individuals who met those criteria but Steve from the start was an early favorite and ultimately my first choice. In hindsight I must say choosing Steve to represent us on both the buying and selling end was one of the best decisions I have ever made.
We were fortunate enough to be able to buy a new place before selling our existing home. Even though where we bought was not in the immediate area where we lived (about 20 miles away) we asked Steve to represent us on the purchase. Fortunately for us he did. Though not the area where he did most of his business, he guided us very wisely throughout and helped to make our 3 week close of escrow very smooth. He lined up all the key people to do inspections, negotiated very effectively on our behalf and always quickly responded to any questions we had. The seller’s agent mentioned to us that in all her time in the business, Steve was one of the most hard working and effective agents she ever had the pleasure to work with.
As excellent a job as he did on our purchase, he outdid himself when it came time to sell our existing home. He counselled us pitch-​perfect about when to sell the house, at what price and everything we needed to do prior to putting it on the market. Having been in the business I know oftentimes sellers do not want to have to spend money on inspections, painting, carpeting, landscaping and staging knowing that unlike the purchase end when they sell they will need to pay both agents their fees. Following Steve’s advice paid off big time. There was an incredible amount of interest and excitement from agents and buyers about our place and just 13 days after going on market we had 12 offers. The house eventually sold for $ 170,000 over the asking price and the terms of the deal were very sweet as well. We closed escrow in less than 3 weeks and the transaction was painless and stress-​free.
Besides having all of the attributes one would want in a Realtor, Steve is an all-​around friendly, amiable, courteous, diligent, hard-​working and sincere person and a genuine joy to work with. On a scale of 1 to 5 Steve is a 10. All I can say is if you are thinking about buying or selling a home in the Oakland/​Berkeley/​Piedmont area, you need look no further than Steve. And follow his advice to the letter. You will not regret it.

We first met Steve at an open house for one of his listings that we absolutely loved — even though we weren’t quite ready to buy and it was a bit out of our range at the time, he treated us very well, showed us around, answered our questions and talked to us about home buying.
A year later, we were closer to buying a place and ran into him again at an open house. I got his card, emailed him that night, and he became our agent for our search in the Piedmont/​Rockridge/​Montclair areas. It’s a good thing we ran into Steve again — he made the searching and buying process effortless for us, and he provided us with very honest and good advice that was in our best interests. We felt Steve fairly represented us and kept our tours and work limited to the places that fit our style and our budget.
Not only was our buying experience good with him, but based on our two experiences seeing him at open houses and the way he explains homes and treats everyone well (and memorably), we won’t hesitate to use Steve as our listing agent someday when we sell a house.
Honest, trustworthy and highly motivated real estate agents can be hard to find — don’t waste any more time looking. Give Steve a call and leave your worries and energy to finding your home, not your agent!

Meets the Chinese Mom Test!
Steve is a dedicated, knowledgeable, clever realtor. He has handled our first home purchase, then our 2^nd home purchase, our 1^st home sale, and also my Dad’s home purchase.
I joke about the Chinese Mom test but it’s true — my very savvy Mom was curious about why we were using Steve to help us on our first home purchase 15+ years ago, but then she flew over and met him, peppered him with questions, then declared that he was good. And yes, he’s that good. My family had to be out of the country during that first home transaction so sent her my Power of Attorney, and my bank wiring, and she and Steve went from there.
If I were an incoming home buyer today — I would want somebody who knows the local scene, can find the opportunities, and provide me wise insight as each purchase/​each bid is different. And be diligent and helpful to take care of the loads of forms and documents to sign as easily as possible for the client.
If I were a forthcoming home seller — I would want somebody who knows how to maximize value, how to help with any fixes, provide a list of people who can help for those, and ease the whole transition and transaction.
Steve meets that criteria and more!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Look no further! This guy is great. We just finished working on a transaction with Steve and he was the epitome of professionalism. He worked very hard to assure his client was well-​represented and got the best deal possible. He was also available day or night to deal with issues that popped up.
I would highly recommend Steve to any Buyers in the Oakland, Berkeley, Piedmont area! Can’t wait to work with him again!