We couldn't recommend Quinn highly enough. We met him at an open house he was showing about two years before we were in any position to buy. While we were just starting to save and research and were in no position to start making offers, he still made us feel like we mattered. When we were finally in position to start getting serious, we immediately knew that this was our guy. Being first time buyers, we really needed a lot of hand-holding, having no idea what we were getting into. He was patient, always available to answer questions (no matter how basic they might have been) and never once did we feel like we were being pressured or 'sold' on anything. He listened to our needs, was up front about the pros and cons of any place we looked at, and was honest with us about risks or upside to places we were checking out. While he's an expert on all things Alameda, he was equally effective in helping us out with properties throughout the east bay. Alameda was always where we wanted to be, and while we knew it would be tough to pull off, considering the prices there, Quinn was a miracle worker and just this week we were handed the keys to our perfect first home. Even though our initial bid wasn't the strongest, Quinn helped us through the counter-offer process and we came out on top. Buying a first home is admittedly a nerve-racking experience, but he had our backs and was there every step of the way to answer questions and keep us calm. If you're looking for an honest, patient, available, and no BS partner in the house hunt, no need to look further! read more

I joined Yelp so I could write this review. We started house hunting spring 2015. I have tried several real estates all didn't work out. We found Quinn's contact information online and decided to try one more time and it turned out that we worked together for the next year and half. The first time we met Quinn was in an evening and he told me that "every time you are interested in a house, I will try to talk you out of it and if I cannot, then that is the house really for you." He did just what he said and that makes him very different from other real estate agents . Quinn is very knowledgeable. He is very familiar with East bay area such as San Leandro, Alameda, Berkeley and Oakland. He also has an exceptional understanding of the market. Each time he showed us a house he studied the condition of the house and the disclosures very carefully and gave us very good advises. I must say I am a very picky person and that is why I have been searching in the market for very long time. Quinn is always patient with me and really know what I want. He is always responsive even late at night or early in the morning. During the buying process, he coordinated all the parties very well and it went very smoothly. Even now, after settling into the new house, Quinn continues to help with recommendations for professional help. He was extremely pleasant to work with and I look forward to working with him in the future. read more

Quinn always answered our questions about all aspects of a home buying process honestly and patiently. For those he couldn't answer, he always had respectable referrals which helped us to make good choices that we felt comfortable with about financing and inspections. He helped us to look at all the possibilities with our limited budget and never pressured us or made us feel uncomfortable about changing our minds, even at times when I'm sure it was frustrating for him. This made it possible for us to be open and honest throughout our search for a home. We had a very limited time frame and because of the last minute jump in the interest rates, we had to write an offer very early on a Saturday morning so that Quinn could propose it in the afternoon of that same day in Castro Valley. Because of Quinn's commitment to help us get into a home, we now live in that same home in a friendly San Leandro neighborhood where our daughter has a nice backyard to play in. Quinn, thank you for being more than professional, for your patience and generosity with your time. We hope to work with you again on our next move. We will recommend you to all our friends who are looking for a real estate agent. Mark & Benedicte R. San Leandro, CA read more

My husband and I had been looking at houses for 2 over years before we met Quinn. We had met countless listing agents. Finally... we talked to Quinn and immediately liked him. Quinn is experienced, really nice and reliable. We trusted his opinion 100% whether it was about the housing market or the overall shape of a house. Quinn had the best advice for us when we made an offer. Thanks to him, we own a house we wouldn't have dreamt of a few years ago. Quinn made the challenging experience of buying a house a very exciting time for us. Thanks Quinn! read more

Quinn helped my family and I purchase our home and we could not recommend him highly enough to a potential buyer or seller. We met him at an open house about 4 years before and started talking and immediately liked him and started working with him. He was always responsive and very knowledgeable about the local market. When it came time to move on our home he made a very stressful process in a competitive environment much easier and navigated us through the process smoothly in a low stress/pressure way. It was also clear that he has a great reputation among his peers which I think matters. I would recommend him to anyone looking to buy or sell a home in the bay area. read more

Working with Quinn was a fantastic experience. This was our first home purchase and we didn't know where to begin. Quinn came at the recommendation of a work friend, and we are so glad that we found him. From the very beginning, Quinn was very patient with us and very knowledgeable as we tried to figure out what neighborhood we wanted to live in the east bay area. He picked up on our interests quite quickly and pointed us to the beautiful neighborhood that we eventually bought - even if it took us a few months to realize we were priced out of where we were initially looking. When we were ready to make our first home offer he helped us read through the entire disclosure package page by page to make sure we understood all of the contents. He was also very upfront about pros and cons and laid out the risks and rewards of certain properties. It was also helpful to hear his first hand experiences as a homeowner and what his major concerns were. Lastly, Quinn was cool and collected when I was stressed the most - the counter-offer process. Quinn knew exactly what we needed to do to win the counter - and a month later we were holding the keys to our new house. We couldn't be happier! Quinn was everything we could have hoped for in a real estate agent and I would recommend him with no contingencies! read more

Quinn helped our family purchase our first home a few years ago and then, when we were ready for something a little bigger, Quinn helped us sell that first home and purchase a new one. Throughout the whole process Quinn was more than willing offer his expertise in a clear, understanding and patient way. Selling a house turned out to be more stressful that I thought it would be, but Quinn guided us through the process and everything worked out. Quinn is always available to answer questions. He is honest and straightforward and was good ally through the entire process. I would highly recommend Quinn to anyone buying or selling a home. read more

Quinn is the antithesis of the high pressure, slick real estate agent. He is down-to-earth, honest, and responsive. He was amazingly patient with us. We were looking in San Leandro and he knew the market very well, as well as knowing a lot about the quirks and potential of the typical SLO house built in the 30s and 40s. Quinn's expertise is clear when you do a walk-through with him; very thorough, he had already flagged for me virtually every issue our home inspector later identified. I always felt he had my best interests at heart; he steered us away from a house that, in retrospect, would have been a major mistake. Highly recommend. read more

Quinn helped me every step of the way in purchasing my first home. He is honest and straightforward and willing to spend the time to explain things in terms that I understand. I highly recommend Quinn! read more

Quinn was my buying agent in winter 2013. He knew what he was doing every step of the way, helping me land a nice property at an attractive price. Highly recommended! read more

We worked with three other agents (and talked w/ MANY more) before working with Quinn. My wife is an attorney, and I am a professional in the real estate and development world, so both of us have high standards and expectations of what an agent should be capable of & of his/her knowledge base. Quinn, sadly, was the only person of his caliber that we encountered. He is extremely detail oriented and organized. He is NOT a sales person, (which is a particularly annoying trait amongst many real estate agents--just parroting what they think you want to hear). Rather he is a true professional, with very high ethical standards. We felt very comfortable trusting him to take care of all the details. But most importantly for us, he is extremely knowledgable about the local real estate market, and insightful about both seller's and buyer's perspectives (which is very helpful in negotiating & determining offer price). He was able to warn us about many lesser-known pitfalls (e.g. local permitting requirements with window replacements, etc.). He was also very patient, even as our search dragged on for 10 months. And especially appreciated is his honesty. There were a few situations where he tactfully, but honestly, told us things which we didn't want to admit to ourselves; and more than being useful, that was greatly appreciated, because it raised our level of trust in his honesty. read more

My husband and I worked with Quinn to buy our first single family home in October 2013. The experience was extremely positive. Early on in the process, we quickly began to value his direct style of communicating and balanced demeanor. The latter brought a much needed sense of calm to the emotionally challenging process of buying a home. Quinn was very responsive to all our requests, which often included early morning and/or late night texts, emails and phone calls. He helped us prioritize what we were looking for in a home, evaluate whether specific homes met those criteria and then to ultimately make an offer. He thoroughly explained every document we signed and was available to answer more in depth questions when needed. He coordinated logistics accurately and was extremely organized with meeting all of the deadlines. We had several out of town trips that created some challenges, but he managed to work around our schedules so the project timeline stayed on track. He has also been able to assist with recommending reputable service providers for everything we need from property insurance to plumbing. He provided realistic expectations for every step of the process and navigated the inevitable surprises with professionalism and deliberation. Quinn is a wonderful realtor and I would highly recommend his services. read more

Quinn was the perfect Realtor for us. We were first time home buyers and did not want someone who pushed us to make an offer before we were ready. Quinn was low pressure and very easy to talk to. He answered all of our questions and was patient with us. His ability to effectively use technology was also something we really appreciated. He has an email list that sends out listings that are new, have had a price change, or have sold, which we loved getting. We felt like we knew all of our options in the area and in our price range because of the emails. Quinn was also very accommodating to our schedule and we never felt like he was irritated or annoyed by our numerous requests. Like others have noted, he talked us out of houses that he knew we wouldn't be happy with (and we are so thankful for that!). Plus, he was great at entertaining our son while we were talking about the properties and while we were signing the papers at closing. read more

My wife and I entered an utter whirlwind of a home buying experience. We went to an open house in Alameda with completely no intentions of buying, and low and behold, we both fell in love with the home. It didn't help that the deadline for offers were the next day and we weren't pre-approved yet. Through a recommendation, we got into contact with Quinn Stone. It was Quinn who hooked us up with a good mortgage broker who got us approved within a day. Meanwhile, Quinn worked feverishly privately showing the place to us (at night), while preparing an offer (which eventually got accepted). He patiently educated us through inspections (where multiple issues were uncovered), watched out for our interests, and made himself available to us late at night as well as on weekends. Without Quinn, I don't think we would have gotten our new place. He's a nice, hard-working guy who is genuinely pleasant to work with. read more

With the help of Quinn Stone, my husband and I recently bought our first house in this nutty Bay Area housing market. As renters here for 15 years, we had been real estate "lurkers" for a long time, getting increasingly depressed about the prospects of successfully buying a house that we would actually want (i.e., not a total dump). When we finally decided to take the plunge and get serious about buying, we called Quinn after hearing about him from a friend and then meeting him at an open house in our old neighborhood. From the start, Quinn just seemed like a nice, down-to-earth guy with a lot more knowledge than us about how to buy a house -- instead of that common "I-will-make-a-fat-commission-when-you-buy-a-house-so-hurry-up-and-buy-a-house-any-house" feel that one gets from some realtors. Quinn was a calm, thoughtful presence in all our discussions about the kind of home we wanted, the kind of home we didn't want, and what we could realistically get for our money. He was honest and matter-of-fact (but gentle!) when advising us that a house we were interested was going to go way over asking price and therefore out of our stated range (and damn it, he was always right). While he is a popular agent with lots of clients, he returned e-mails promptly and managed to get us in to see every house we wanted to see in a timely way. He advised us on the steps we could take to be competitive in a multiple offer situation (or if someone else was offering cash) -- basically to do as much upfront, and quickly, as we could for a house we were really interested in (do our own inspection in advance of making an offer, get underwritten in advance from the bank, etc.). He helped us get a variety of tradespeople in before the offer date on a house we really loved and were seriously interested in, to give us estimates on improvements we knew it needed, to help us make a financially realistic offer. With all this support, we actually managed to buy that house we loved -- the first house we made an offer on -- even though it was a multiple offer / counteroffer situation. We feel really thankful that we had Quinn on our team -- he is knowledgeable, frank, responsive, and really seems to understand what a stressful and mind-boggling process home-buying is in the Bay Area, especially for first-timers, and dissipates your own crazy with his calm attitude. read more

Quinn Stone helped us sell our home in Alameda, CA and we couldn't have been happier with his knowledge and expertise. We relocated across the country and couldn't be there while the home was being fixed up for the sale. Quinn took care of everything! He scheduled home inspectors, contractors, oversaw the work, and took the time and effort to inspect the home thoroughly to see what we needed to do to make the home more appealing. He had alot of good ideas and advice, down to changing the switchplates, landscaping, and color we should paint the front walk. He was very thorough and organized and definitely put in alot of time and effort. Quinn is a very approachable and friendly person as well, very easy to get along with and talk to. It took alot of stress out of the whole process for us and we had an offer on the house one week after it went on the market. We would highly recommend him if you are looking to buy or sell in Alameda, CA. read more