Declan Spring – Red Oak Realty

Declan was great to work with. He’s very knowledgeable and calm. These are great qualities to have in an Agent assisting you with what is often a stressful process.

Happy to add our great experience with Declan to those of the other Unilocal reviewers. We were referred to Declan by another professional who is quite familiar with the Berkley/​Albany/​Marina Bay market, and who recommended him enthusiastically. And, after working with Declan, we are grateful that we received that recommendation. He’s remarkable: professional, knowledgeable, clever-​funny, affable, and tireless. We found him to be always available to give clear advice and address any uncertainties that we had. Our offer and purchase proceeded at a rapid pace and without a hitch. He was a pleasure, and a great partner to deal with, throughout.

Declan is a fantastic realtor. My husband and I just bought a house with him and I can’t say enough good things. He was unfailingly kind, polite, savvy, down-​to-​earth, hardworking — everything we could have asked for in a realtor. He really knew the market, helped us stay focused, got things done quickly, and explained everything very clearly. So professional. I always felt like he really had our best interests in mind. I would recommend him without hesitation to anyone looking to buy a house in the East Bay.

I have the utmost respect for Declan and cannot recommend him highly enough. I met Declan many years ago when I was looking for a home in the East Bay. I looked for a home on and off for several years in the Bay Area, but eventually decided to purchase a home in the place I hope to retire to. During the time I was searching in the Bay Area, Declan always made himself available to me, and spent many hours showing me homes and advising me about the market here, which was a challenging market for me, a teacher, to break into. He is highly professional and personable, full of integrity and knowledge about this market, and will work very hard for you.

With the exception of the house that came out of it, Declan was the best part of the entire home buying process! As a first time buyer, I was anxious and full of questions and doubts, which Declan dealt with very patiently and often with a great sense of humor. With each step of the process, as we looked at more houses and wrote offers, he gave great advice and really challenged me to think about what I wanted in a home. He was always available and responsive, which was the one reliable thing in the uncertainty that comes with trying to buy in this Bay Area market!
Once we got in contract, Declan really fought for me when it came to dealing with less than professional listing agents and managed to get the deal done while also assuring a very worried and increasingly frustrated buyer (me).
More than anything, though, Declan understood how much this investment meant to me and my partner, and his actions and tireless efforts made me feel like it was important to him as well. It was really a pleasure to have him as my agent and I can’t wait to recommend him to others.

I recently worked with Declan on selling my property in Albany and it was a pleasure working with a calm, collected and professional realtor. Declan went the extra mile to make things easier for me while I was traveling out of the country by facilitating and communicating on the progress of work being done to get the property ready for sale.
I recommend him highly and would use his services in a heartbeat if another occasion arises.

Declan is truly amazing. We came to Declan recently with a huge challenge. We had a terrible issue with our landlord, and needed to get into a house quickly. Adding to the challenge was we needed to work with an FHA loan. Declan talked to us about what we really wanted in a house, and within a day came up with a winning strategy, and identified the perfect house for us in a few days. Declan helped us get pre-​qualified for a loan, showed us a house which was much more than we had hoped for, knew exactly how much to bid, and helped us navigate the loan process, all in record time. We went through the entire process of pre-​approval to getting our keys in less than two months. Incredible!
Declan really listened to what we wanted, was on top of every step of the process, and most importantly, I knew I could really trust Declan through the entire process. I have already referred a few friends to Declan, and will continue to do so whenever I know someone looking for a house in the East Bay. Declan really cares, was absolutely thrilled to help us get exactly what we wanted, and has even checked on us to see how we settled in — doing little things like sending us lists of all local utilities, etc.
I don’t refer friends or colleagues unless I really believe they will be well taken care of, and I have and will refer them to Declan. I give Declan an 11 out of 10, and three thumbs up! Thank you Declan!

Can’t recommend Declan enough. We worked with Declan this past year to sell our property in Berkeley and to purchase another one in El Sobrante. Throughout the entire process Declan was dedicated and thorough. I really doubt there are many agents who work as hard as he does. Selling our property in Berkeley was a breeze in this current market but Declan made sure the house was superbly marketed, priced correctly and really kept us focussed on timelines. He also gave us great direction on where to spend our time and money getting the property ready to sell. It was pretty much a two open house listing and then immediate sale but he helped us for several months prior to listing and made sure the closing went smoothly without any problems. Had great recommendations for inspectors, stagers, plumbers you name it.
The purchasing side (no surprise) was quite a bit more difficult in this current sellers market. We actually ended up winning a bid on a great property right off the bat but unfortunately had to pull the plug on the deal when serious structural issues were discovered during the inspection process. This is where I think the difference between an average agent and a great agent really shows. Many agents would have just tried to get the deal done and downplay the seriousness of the issue but Declan knew this was something that had to be addressed for safety reasons. Unfortunately the buyers weren’t willing to do much to fix the structural problem and Declan sensing our concerns didn’t hesitate to cancel the transaction. It’s a sellers market but a bad deal is still a bad deal. After that Declan worked just as hard as day one to make sure we ended up in a great house. He went to countless houses with us all over the east bay, giving great insight, steering us away from lemons, noting positive qualities along with negative qualities and never got tired of our numerous questions. He also knew our price point and the types of properties we’d have realistic shots at. He set us up with a good local lender and made sure our offer was presented in the best light which is hugely important when you may be going up against all cash bidders (which we were).
Aside from being a great agent he’s a very cool guy and I think that’s really important when your going to be spending so much time with someone. We’ll definitely be keeping in touch as friends.
I’m sure there are a lot of great agents out there and I imagine a few are as good as Declan but I seriously doubt you’ll find any that are better.

We recently worked with Declan to purchase our first home, and we feel very lucky to have found such a knowledgable and caring realtor to work with. Declan advised us throughout the entire process, offering his honest opinion at every junction.
Without Declan’s help, I don’t think we ever would have closed on the home that we ended up purchasing; Declan knew exactly how to handle every situation that arose, from an irresponsible listing agent, to difficult tenant arrangements and uncommunicative loan processors.
We can’t recommend him highly enough, and will be calling him up in a few years when we move out of our starter home.

My wife and i had a great experience working with Declan to buy our first house last year. During these crazy times of the real estate market in the bay area, it seems quite difficult to find such responsible, honest and responsive real estate agent like Declan. He also was a great tutor for both of us, helped us understand the trends of the market, when is the best time to buy and while in bidding, what does the word «realistic“means in real estate terms. Now, that we got the house that we we still go back to him for recommendations about contractors, engineers or handy men.
This guy deserves every penny that he earns. Can’t recommend him highly enough

I see mostly reviews from people Declan helped purchase homes. But he helped us sell our’s. His expertise and knowledge of the current real estate climate really turned out to be true, as was his advice about what to do to the condo to ensure a quick sale. He was right about it all! I sold my condo in Albany after 2 open houses. The condo was priced properly to bring in 3 over-​asking bids. He gave good advice about which to accept, whether to counter, etc. The condo was listed and closed within 6 weeks. I couldn’t be happier. When we are ready to buy another place, he will the first one I will call.

We worked with Declan to buy our first home last year, and we cannot recommend him highly enough. We came to him feeling dispirited about our search because of the crazy Bay Area market, and we felt like he really helped us understand what a realistic bid would look like and thus what asking prices we ought to be looking at in order to end up with a house where we’d stand a realistic chance. When we sent him to check out a house for us, he gave us not only his opinion of how the interior looked but also checked out the furnace, the crawlspace and lots of other things that we had no specific knowledge about (to reassure these nervous newbies).
When our second offer was accepted, he scheduled a home inspection for us literally within minutes of getting the call from the other realtor, so that we’d have the maximum amount of time to evaluate the property. We always felt like he was honest and upfront with us about our options, and when there wasn’t a lot of time to make decisions Declan would let us know that and lay things out as completely as possible so we could make the best possible choice.
We’d heartily recommend his services to anyone looking to buy in West Contra Costa.

When we started looking into selling our house for a possible relocation, I consulted with Declan as I’d worked with him before on several community volunteer projects. Our initial meeting convinced us that he was knowledgeable about our local market and neighborhood, but when he produced an extremely detailed and professional marketing document which walked us step by step through the sales process, we knew that he was the realtor for us. We ran into some issues, as can happen with these complicated transactions, but Declan was calm and focused on finding solutions, and communicated with us frequently keeping us up to date. We trusted his advice on what to do to prepare the house for the market, pricing, and open houses, and we ended up with a great sale. Thank you Declan! We leave the Bay Area thinking fondly of our friends and our great agent who made the move happen.

Despite what you may think, caring customer service is not, in fact, dead in America, it’s simply imported from Ireland.
Declan’s patience and knowledge are really superb, he took such good care of us and despite this being our first home (translation: MILLIONS of questions and NO solid idea of what we wanted or could afford), Declan left us feeling confident and satisfied after each meeting we had. We knew when to sit back and when to push full steam ahead. We got a lot of great candid information from him as well. All-​in-​all, a really great experience. He works hard for his clients, and you’ll leave feeling like you’ve got a friend in the business — because you do. He has great follow up and really seems to care about his clients.
Thank you, truly Declan for being great, I’ll recommend you as often as I can! We love our new home. :)

Declan is a super agent! He is very hard working, honest, diligent, professional, patient and knowledgeable. I work in a financial field and am used to double checking, verifying, questioning everything I sign or agree to. After several years of working with Declan, I sign any documents he sends or listen to advice he gives with my eyes closed (almost). In other words, I can completely trust him.
He is working with us on our second property now and he has become like a family to us! We love Declan!

Declan has helped us to buy two rental properties now. Before we bought our first property, he spent months to educate me what to look for and where to get quality information. After that, we went to see at least 20 houses, and even though, not all of them were qualifying leads, he wanted us to get educated about the market and neighborhood we was looking at. In the process of working with him, I learned so much about customer service, being in the service industry myself. He is very quick with response, very knowledgeable and systematic. So, there was the long awaited opportunity and he jumped on it. Thanks to his negotiating skills, we were able to purchase the house well below market price and closed the deal in no time. His service did not stop there. He went to follow up with us multiple times and provided tons of great info and resources for landlords.
Then, we were on the market for our second property. This one was not much different than the first. He jumped on it, beat the competition by making our offer very attractive to the seller and it did the work.
I have recommended him to a fellow investor and few of my clients. The feedback from them has been 5 out 5.
Always pleasure to work with him.

Declan has everything it takes to be an excellent realtor. He worked with us on the sale of our house. He is not only a very pleasant gentleman to work with, he is very conscientious, methodical and smart throughout the process from the first meeting with us, to the close of the transaction and beyond. In a very difficult real estate market, we sold our house in a very timely fashion and for the best possible price thanks to Declan’s diligence and excellent advise. We will continue recommending Declan to our friends and colleagues.

«We had an excellent experience working with Declan. While other realtors had urged us to avoid short sales and REOs, Declan understood that many of the most desirable properties in our price range were short sales. He navigated the entire process smootly and knowledgably, and he provided a quick solution to every obstacle that arose. We are thrilled with our new home, and we can’t speak highly enough of Declan’s services! We continue to recommend his service to our friends and associates to this day! –Cari Cohorn and Kevin Pacotti»