Agate Bay Realty

I’ve rented several houses over the last 15 years from Agate Bay Realty, both long term and short term vacation rentals. And, I also recently worked with Brett Williams to manage and then sell a property that I owned in Kings Beach. In my opinion Brett is one of the top real estate professionals in the Tahoe area. He is very knowledgeable, easy to work with, and provides fantastic service for both renters and owners. He is a long time resident of the area and routinely saved my ass with fast referrals to local contractors when I’ve had emergencies or needed repairs. He has tons of experience in understanding Tahoe market conditions and pricing. His follow through on getting deals done — either for sale or property management — is terrific. I have never had a single problem or issue. Highly recommended.

Very rude and completely incompetent staff! They like to misquote the price and then try to come back with higher one, interesting tactics. They also tend to overcharge you on everything and you can say goodbye to your deposit. Absolutely no accountability.

In one word … IMPECABLE, or two AMAZING. My husband and I just bought a home in North Lake Tahoe and Brett Williams from Agate Bay Realty helped us find it. He walked us trough the process (we live in Los Angeles, and could not be physically in Tahoe for the purchase), and Brett has gone out of his way to make our experience a super easy one.
He even went to pick up some boxes that were delivered at the wrong time and took care of them because it was snowing and we were not in town. He met us on Sundays and has taken care of many little details with out charging us anything. Even bought a truck full of wood because he knows we’ll need it. He will swing by to take care of the many empty boxes that we left behind etc…
He will definitely be the one that represents our home when we rent it in the future. Decent, nice and super hard working guy.
We had never meet him before this transaction, but we have rented vacation homes from Agate Bay before, and our experience have been perfect!!! Not a single complaint.
Just an INCREDIBLE experience.
Patricia Rodriguez. 11/​10/​2015

Brett–
We followed the instructions for leaving the home as expected, and actually went above and beyond given the state we received it in. I do realize after several interactions with you, and reviewing the snarky responses you’ve given to other feedback, there will be zero accountability on your end for how the house was represented online, and the actual condition of the place. Code or not, any railing held together by wire because of missing bars, is not safe. You’ve made it clear you have no interest in hearing the feedback, or trying to be accommodating in any way– not a problem. Just hope other folks don’t drop a years worth of vacation savings for something that is seriously misleading, not to mention potentially dangerous.
Take care.

Agate had a property on VRBO and I got quoted a price. Then the next day I get an email from Agate saying the price is nearly $ 1000 higher. So best if you contact them directly before you book your trip.

The worst customer service I have ever experienced. Our reservation was cancelled one week prior to vacation, the refund wasn’t given for a week. Staff was unprofessional and just plain Rude. I would definitely not recommend this business.

We used Agate Bay Realty to find the cabin we used for our recent trip to Tahoe and we had nothing be an excellent experience with them. We stayed at Cottonwood and would use them again.

Rented the «Iravani» home in north Lake Tahoe. Spacious bedrooms, spacious bathrooms, great deck for grilling. Only problem was there was a mouse/​mice in our house. Saw it both days. It was evident this mouse/​mice were around for a while. Droppings in both upstairs and downstairs bathrooms. If you don’t mind mice, then this place is great.

We recently rented a house in Tahoe for a week with Agate Bay Realty. Brett and his staff were very helpful in giving us their insight on the what best property would be for us, based on our preferences. We stayed at the Balla house which was in a great location, close to the lake and on a nice quiet street. We had a great time and plan to rent the house again next year. Thanks Agate Bay!

I have had the pleasure of working with Brett Williams since I moved to Tahoe 8 years ago. We first met while I was looking for a ski lease. There were a vast number of properties to choose from and they allowed me into every one within my price range in order to decide. When I finally picked the right house we ended up renting it for three consecutive winters. We had such a great experience that when it came time to buy we didn’t hesitate to call Brett.
Brett helped us figure out what we wanted and was extremely knowledgeable about the area, pros & cons of each house and full of great ideas as to how to tweak it to meet our needs. He never sugar coated anything and always told us his honest opinion (seeing he’s been selling homes for over a decade or so it mattered). Brett is very aware of the Tahoe area and the market. We learned quickly that when you know you like something you have to jump on it or it will be snatched up. It took roughly 2 years for us to find the perfect house and Brett stood by us the whole time.
When it came time to close, everything was laid out for us and we were always kept in the loop. Whenever we had a question regardless of what time it was we could call or email Brett and we always got a response within a short time. He even was so thoughtful he bought us our first housewarming present. I would definitely recommend Brett to anyone looking to either buy, sell or rent a house.

We leased one of the Agate Bay houses for the 2012 – 2013 ski season and despite a couple of mishaps that were largely out of Agate Bay’s control, everything ran extremely smoothly. Brett and other staff members were extremely communicative and quick to answer questions via email. Already planning to set up a ski lease through them again for the 2013 – 2014 season!

This rating is only based on a phone call. I haven’t rented with them…
I found a house we wanted to rent and the online calendar said it was available the dates I needed. I called and the woman on the phone (who was very friendly) said that during busy months they only rent in multiples of 7 days with a check-​in on Saturday or Sunday only. We wanted to stay 10 days checking in on a Monday but she still said she couldn’t do it. I was pretty bummed because I had my heart set on the rental. The woman said the rule wasn’t flexible. I was literally standing there with my credit card in my hand ready to book the house. At first I thought it was a sales ploy but she hung up with me without taking my phone number so… I booked with Tahoe Luxury Properties instead and the process was smooth sailing.

Agate Bay Realty helped me find the right accommodations for my friends and our 4 legged kids. They were very helpful. The home we stayed in was very well equipped. It’s like we were visiting a «family» members house. We had a chef’s kitchen and many other features. I will definitely work with Agate Bay Realty again for booking a vacation getaway. Thank you Agate Bay.

I stayed at 705 Agate and the house was beautiful. But there was something that wasn’t beautiful… the service that Agate Bay Realty provided me during and after my stay.
The house says it holds 13 people. We had 12. They accused us of having 14 people. First off… how do you come up with an exact number like that for an accusation?
Apparently they also dont want you to cook at the house. We cooked all our meals and ordered in twice (which for 12 people accumulates a lot of trash). We bagged the trash, filled up the trash cans outside and stored the rest in the garage so that bears wouldn’t ransack our leftovers. Agate Bay Realty didn’t like that. They would have rather have us place the trash outside — good idea!
Charging us for ridiculous damages including a dog chewing up a doorway (I was super hungry one night during this trip… but not hungry enough to chew up a doorway)…WE DIDNT EVEN HAVE A DOG! But they continued to believe that there was a dog. WTF!!!
Hahaha.this whole thing is such a joke, just like Agate Bay Realty Management.
See yah!

Stayed in a home that Agate Bay realty manages over the Thanksgiving weekend. Had a wonderful time, the house was clean and professionally managed. The company worked with me over email & phone to find the exact property that I wanted HotTub, close to the lake, etc) and all for a great price. I expect I will use them again next year.

I almost want to keep this place a secret, but feel obligated to share my amazing experience with others. A group of us from advertising portfolio school decided to take a school trip to Tahoe, and looked all over online to find a cabin.
We found a great rate on the Pezzola house, and decided to split the fee, that was a lot less money compared to other places in the area. The house was perfect! It had an amazing hot tub, grill to cook steaks, large deck, bedrooms that all had HD TV’s, large kitchen, WiFi, speakers and all the other amenities of the 21^st century with a woodsy rustic feel. Everyone in our group can not say enough about how amazing this place was, thank you Agate Bay Realty, we will be back!
Tony

I rented the Oliver in North Lake Tahoe thru Agate Bay Realty. It was a dog friendly rental. Overall an aesthetic house, in a great location. (Not so much for comfort and usability.)
ABR was easy to deal with. We checked in late on Thursday and they had the keys available for pick up despite being beyond business hours.
Their rental rules were not unreasonable. All of them were pretty basic, with reminders to be courteous. The only one we had difficulty with was the one about washing the towels prior to check out. The washer and dryer in the house (which had nothing to do with ABR) was extremely slow and in the end, we just ended up locking up the house with the load in the dryer running so as to check out on time.
Upon check out, I easily walked through the door and dropped off the keys. The lady at the front desk was friendly and welcoming. She asked how our stay was and encouraged us to come back.
I’d probably reuse ABR for future rentals, but I’m not sure about renting the Oliver again.

Have been renting the Balla house for so many years I can not remember. I have never had a bad experience with the house, staff or cleanliness of the property. THANK YOU AGATE BAY

UNPROFESSIONAL, RUDE AND ILLEGAL
I booked a property with them and my transaction was finalized. About an hour later I receive an e-​mail stating that there was a «problem in their system» and they needed to charge me more money. No apology, just that I can pay more money or cancel the reservation.
I wrote back to say that we had a legal contract and maybe they could give me some kind of a token discount for the inconvenience? The e-​mail back had major tone that no discount would be considered — still no apology about their error. I reiterated that we had a legal binding contract. The next e-​mail back from them they unilaterally canceled my contract.
I actually spoke to a lawyer about this who told me that yes, I could take them to small claims court but did I want the hassle? I decided that life is too short.
I get that mistakes are made and I would have been open to perhaps finding a different property if they had just apologized for the hassle and the inconvenience — ALL due to their mistake on their website. They also could have picked up the phone at any time to call me as they had my number.
It seems from another review here that they are somehow unable to say «We’re sorry!» WOW! It doesn’t even cost them anything.
Interesting approach to customer service in a time where a lot of their properties are not rented. While they do have nice properties so do a lot of other people without the rude, unhelpful attitude.

They are a decent agency to work with. The homes they have are very beautiful and nice