No. 5: J. Rockcliff
Realtors

Gross sales by Bay Area office(s) in 2012: $2,070,049,206

Gross sales by Bay Area office(s) in 2011: $1,905,265,505

Top Bay Area executive: Jeff Sposito, President

Elizabeth Matsushita
Editorial researcher- San Francisco Business Times

Email

The top five Bay Area residential real estate firms held strong to their positions this year, though there were a few small surprises. What San Ramon-based real estate firm dominated our Bay Area list, but came in third on our East Bay list? Which of the top five was the only one to see a decrease in Bay Area sales compared to 2011?

Click on the image to start a slideshow of the Largest Residential Real Estate Firms in the Bay Area.

The San Francisco Business Times publishes industry rankings in each issue of the paper and reprints them at the end of the year for our annual Book of Lists. These lists are unique and authoritative sources of Bay Area business news.

To see the full Top 25 list, check out this week’s issue. The other list in this week’s issue is the Largest Residential Real Estate Firms in the East Bay.

To see our full Lists, subscribe to the San Francisco Business Times in print.

Elizabeth Matsushita is an editorial researcher at the San Francisco Business Times.

Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2013/03/top-5-residential-real-estate-firms-in.html

What’s the best part about selling real estate in San Francisco? It’s so interesting to see what people have done inside their homes.

Funniest anecdote from life as a broker During busy open house events, as much as I try to keep the home as perfect as it can be, someone always seems to get away with leaving surprises in the bathrooms for the Realtor to clean up.

What’s the most rewarding part? Handing over keys to a buyer and helping sellers cash out of properties. Happy clients.

People in your industry are always so good looking. What are some of your secret grooming tips? Try it all until you find your groove.

Danielle Lazier of SFHotlist and Zephyr Real Estate

Best advice for buyers/renters? I focus on sales so I’ll speak to the home buyers… Don’t try to time the market. In every market, it is both a good time and a bad time to buy a home. It depends on your individual situation. We’re lucky in SF. Demand is high and supply is low. If you have “stable-enough” employment, money for a down payment, and can imagine being here for 3-5+ years, buy the best home you can afford (and will be happy living in) and let the San Francisco market do the rest.

Have you always been in the real estate industry or did you have a different career before entering brokerdom? I spent the first couple of years after college figuring out what I wanted to do so there were jobs, classes and lots of soul-searching but another career, no. Real estate is my calling.

What’s the hardest thing about (what) you do? Being (and staying) a top broker and doing right by your clients is not easy. You have to give it your all and you sometimes sacrifice your personal life to be there for your clients and yet, many people don’t know all of what we do. We must be a real estate agent, counselor, therapist, financial advisor, knowledgeable tour guide and we’re only paid for being an agent.

What’s the most rewarding part? It sounds hokey, but I love to see my clients happy in their home. Experience shows that when you are living in the “right” home, many other things in life begin to fall into place?.love, promotions, babies, life experiences and so forth. It feels really good to know that I helped someone move forward in the direction of their goals and dreams.

Our polls require javascript — if you’re viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your javascript-enabled web browser.

Article source: http://sf.curbed.com/archives/2012/08/20/real_estate_hotties_ken_fox_vs_danielle_lazier.php