Helen Kwong

I don’t usually write review; but I’m so grateful & happy with Helen that I want to get the words out there. I live in the East Coast, and had literally less than a week’s time to find a condo in the East Bay for my niece, who will be attending college there this Fall. Helen understands our needs, and moreover, she understands the market very well. She has stayed on top of everything, and made the whole closing process stress-​free for me. But most of all, I want to thank her for going above & beyond for us after the closing, offering her help in our absence. Her professionalism has earned our trust and respect. I highly recommend Helen to everyone.

My experience with Helen has been fantastic. We were first time home buyers and honestly, we were clueless about the whole process. Helen gave us so much time and dedicated weekends to our house hunting process. She explained the whole deal to us in simple terms and was very patient with us when we had a truckload of questions. She helped me and my husband find our first home. It’s exactly what we were looking for, in the neighborhood we wanted and within our budget! Thank you, Helen!
Helen is an adorable human being too. She strives to deliver the best professionally while building trust and a friendship. It just makes the whole process seem so much less tedious. It’s like house hunting with a friend!
Throughout the process she was very responsive and very efficient. Even today, she stays in touch with us. I highly recommend her to first time home buyers and really anyone looking to buy or sell their property.

When we were ready to sell our property in Oakland, we wanted to find an agent who has done a lot of sales in our area. We found Helen through a referral. She was well above our expectation! She knows the market in our area extremely well. She looked at our property, came up with a listing price and also a higher target price. She proposed a good strategy and was confident about achieving the target price which is above market price. She also has a lot of contacts. She put out words that the property would be available soon. Within a week after our first meeting and before the property was listed, she already secured an offer for the target price. Helen was also very good about ensuring that things go smoothly during the escrow period. She kept us updated regularly and made the whole process very painless for us. She went beyond her responsibility as an agent to make things easy for us. I would recommend her to any seller in Oakland who is looking for a good agent.

When I had to relocate out of California, Helen was referred to me to help sell my townhouse. To my relief, Helen made this remote transaction easy and smooth. She was highly responsive to any inquiries I had, keeping me posted on every step of the selling process. I rarely need to contact her for status. She did much behind the scene work to get results so the process to me was glitch free.
Post sale and post my relocation, Helen even took the time without compensation to keep an eye on my other rental property, which is again a big relief to me being away from California.
Helen is a very professional, caring, ethical realtor with a great personality. She listens well and responds promptly. I would recommend Helen without hesitation to anyone who can respect, appreciate and benefit from her services.

Helen talks a good game in the beginning. She botched my deal many steps along the way:
— She promised to market my loft with international clients. She only brought one person through to my unit and she marketed it as a «condo» leaving out an entire market that was looking for a 1 bedroom, 2000 square foot open space for creative projects.
— She wasn’t on top of the deal. She didn’t drive and process and let many milestones pass. For example, she missed that the buyer submitted an offer with a pre-​approval from one lender and didn’t even start his process until 10 days after the offer. Obviously she never checked about the progress along the way. We had to extend the closing period to 55 days because of this slip.
— When the buyer passed on inspection and she didn’t get the paperwork on that to me until 17 days after that contingency was to be removed.
— When it came time to close she, along with the buyer’s realtor, tried to get me to move out so that the buyer could inspect my home empty. At this point, we were 5 days past our scheduled close date and out of contract. Helen didn’t seem to understand that you don’t move out if the buyer is not allowing the deal to close (especially when you have a leaseback in the contract). How can I take advantage of the leaseback and move out so he can inspect (especially since he waived that right). It was so stupid, that I had to get her broker and the two brokers on my contingent transaction on the phone to explain how real estate transactions are conducted.
–To deal with the issue above, she presents me with a deal to hold back $ 5000 in escrow in case there are damages during my moveout. Great representing me Helen. I told her that she should put up the money because that’s ridiculously high; how can you do $ 5000 worth of damage moving furniture out with movers who are ensured? At this point I was livid and gave hear an earful so she agreed to put $ 2500 from her commission into escrow; it was only when she had skin in the game that she somehow straighten things out to avoid the hole situation.
And don’t expect to be able to communicate with Helen; she starts talking, never stops, and doesn’t listen. If she has bad news to give you, she’ll send you a cryptic text and then not answer your phone calls. If you keep calling her, she’ll send you an email that often only confuses you more because her English is very poor.
Just like Boo, I plan to file a complaint. She cost me thousands. Since the buyer’s money cleared, I never heard a word from her. Not an apology or thanks for the business.
That’s great service. Helen, go back to real estate school, you have a lot to learn.

Helen Kwong’s motto is «I like to build relationships.» I’d like to add that she wants to build a relationship… with your wallet. Even worse than her being a money hungry realtor, she will actually do unethical things to pad her bottom line. She is a slick talker… that should be your first clue in realizing g what a snake she is. Think she’s representing your best interest? Nope, she will gladly tell the other party what your bottom line is to make sure she gets a paycheck. Realize after the transaction that she did something wrong? Don’t expect her to answer your phone calls or emails.
If you’ve been screwed by Helen, please do what I did and file a formal complaint with the State. We need to get unscrupulous realtors like her off the streets.

As a first-​time home buyer Helen was great with helping us through the process of looking at homes throughout the city, understanding all the complex documentation, and gave us great advice. She also has a great personality, is very easy to work with, and is easily accessible. I definitely recommend using Helen as a Realtor.