Jim Olness – Zephyr Real Estate

I’m not sure why my earlier review disappeared… must be something having to do with not posting reviews all the time (??). Anyway, I’m reposting to make sure my review is seen the first time around. Jim Olness is still a gem!

Where to begin… Buying a home is not a simple task as a first time buyer. There’s so much to think about. I actually met Jim at an open house when I was just trying to educate myself on the market here after being a renter for a really long time.
He told me the very place we were standing in was way overpriced right off the bat. It took me by surprise, not having much experience going into this, I was expecting a hard sell or your typical «sales» personality. I got none of that from Jim, but later did experience it with several other agents whose open houses I attended.
Like I said, I was in the educational phase and also in the process of planning a wedding. We hadn’t much time to devote to this, but we did go through some of the paces, time allowing. When the wedding stuff was closing in, we walked away for a bit and told Jim I’d stay in touch with my questions.
He kept me on his market summary email list, which was very helpful in knowing what recent sales had occurred and the general movements of the market that occurred over the following months.
Fast forward some 6 months to this summer and Jim had us over to his office and took down a bunch of information about what exactly we wanted and where we wanted it. We started going to a tailored list of open homes and, after some persistence, found our very first home.
Jim has a very practical and analytical approach to real estate that is good for you as a buyer. He has a finance background and will chart out a bunch of comparisons in the neighborhood, as well as thinking about what, if anything, really makes one place unique as opposed to another in determining a fair value.
He referenced us to a more than capable mortgage broker, Doug Goelz, which will be covered under a separate review.
Once we found the place that we wanted, we put in our bid and although it was not the highest bid, it was accepted because Jim made sure that our offer was very clean and well lined-​up. He was really there every step of the way. Jim explained the meaning of every paragraph of every page we had to sign.
After a month of living in our new place. I still have contact fairly often with Jim. He has been helping us, where needed, in getting adjusted to some of the questions we have about our new home.

As a real estate investor and contractor, I have worked with a number of real estate agents in the past. I can say without reservation that Jim is the best I have worked with, especially if you are looking for a buyer’s agent. Jim combines a very extensive knowledge of the San Francisco market with an exceptional ability to quickly and thoroughly analyze the pros and cons of a property. Jim will not hesitate to point out issues with a property, even after you’ve already fallen in love with it and have developed an emotional attachment to it. Jim is especially valuable to have at your side during the negotiation and escrow closing phases. He is closely involved with the inspection process, even recommending some of his own. In our case, for example, he suggested a sewer lateral inspection — something that even I had not have thought of. He meticulously checked all our legal documents, especially important when buying a TIC in the City. Jim is the TIC agent to have — he teaches seminars on the subject! In our case, the seller tried to terminate our contract because we procrastinated and missed our inspection deadline. Jim spotted a clause that worked in our favor and forced the seller to continue with the contract. It’s likely we would not have closed if it weren’t for Jim. I can’t recommend Jim highly enough.