Nicholas French

I agree with every single word reading Mihir’s review (the first one below), even though I do not know him in person. To us, Nick is not only our realtor, but is also a home remodel coordinator, legal consultant, and most importantly, our dear friend.
Nick is recommended by a previous college classmate of mine who bought and rebuilt her home from Nick. Her reason of recommendation is that «Nick respects clients’ financial privacy and is extremely good at bargaining, saving them tons of money». Our experience echos her words in retrospect. Nick helped us find a good home in about four months in Mountain View after several bids. This is considered to be fast, considering how crazy the bay area housing market was in 2015 and how my husband’s preferences are far from those of mine.
We did not work with other agents closely, yet we have been talking to friends who bought their homes recently regarding their experience with other realtors. Through these comparisons, we find some more specialty of Nick:
1) Nick is patient and willing to spend time with his clients. Except for one or two weekends because of other conflicting activities from our end, Nick showed us homes throughout the peninsular area one weekend after another. The way usually goes is that he sent out a list of interesting candidates for us, we ruled out some and then let him know which we would like to visit. Then we drove together to visit these properties one by one (usually on Saturday or Sunday morning). That takes about three hours per visit per weekend.
2) Nick is very conservative in pricing strategy, which means that he helps make sure you are not overpaying in this crazy market. Many realtors advise their clients to bid significantly higher than the ask price to secure the victory but Nick never did that. In contrast, he always warned us what might be the bank valuation could be and suggested us think twice of going over the market comparable. An example of this would be that we placed almost ten bids before getting our home. But every time the winning bid is within his max bid prediction but outside his recommended bid range (for market com parables).
3) Nick is good at pricing negotiation indeed! After some attempts we decided to change our strategy and look for homes that have been sit on the market for a while and enter negotiation. Nick helped us knocked off nearly $ 80k in total with a one-​week contingency period which allows us to thoroughly inspect the home with our own inspectors, getting the bank valuation appraisal to make sure we are. All our friends are amazed by how much we could save in an soaring market like this. They all tell us how much they bid over the asking price because of the competition.
4) After Nick helping us get our home, we thought our conversations end here but it turns out just the beginning of a new phase! Our home was still occupied when we Nick volunteered to help us with the remodeling, including garden landscaping, wall painting, floor/​carpet, window replacement etc. We planned a two-​week new-​year vacation abroad but Nick helped coordinate all the contractors’ work during the time so that we could immediately move in when return. Isn’t it amazing? No other realtor my friends hired ever did that for their homes. And I don’t think it is possible without a strong network and commitment to his career.
5) Nick believes in long-​term customer relationships — one thing that he did on regular time basis is to invite everyone to his parties or other fun activities. This helps us make local friends and share stories with each others as well. During one of his annual party in October, we met more than half hundred couples from all ages, skin colors and occupations, all claimed to buy their homes from Nick. Again, this is something never heard of via my friends.
In summary, we strongly recommend Nick to anyone who would love to buy their homes in the bay area (especially along the peninsula).

This review is for my realtor, Nicholas French from Sereno.
I was referred to Nick by a friend of mine who recently bought a condo through him. I was in the market for a townhouse, and was undecided on the area/​neighborhood (Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Mountain View, Fremont, or Evergreen).
After my initial visit where I talked about my preferences, Nick prepared a list of properties to visit over a weekend tour. He patiently listened to what we liked and dis-​liked about each property, and towards the end of the day he could tell us before looking at the property what we would like/​dis-​like about each. I was very impressed at how quickly he learnt our taste.
My wife and I had somewhat conflicting priorities, and were unsure on the neighborhood. For the next few weeks, Nick showed us properties in each of the neighborhoods, including Evergreen and Fremont. After visiting each property, he would tell us the pros and cons of each property. We ruled out Evergreen right away, but kept Fremont as an option while still looking at South bay.
After a few weeks, Nick sent us a list of properties to visit for a weekend. I looked at it, and asked him to remove one of the townhouses that had fewer bathrooms than we needed. Nick insisted that we could easily fix that later, and it would cost us a lot less even after including the remodeling cost. The property satisfied the top requirements for both me and my wife otherwise, so we decided to look at the property. After seeing a the property, we liked it and decided to bid on it if we could indeed remodel the bathrooms to our needs. Nick called up the HOA and the Sunnyvale City Hall to inquire if there will be any issues with permits/​etc. After confirming everything, he called me back with a rough estimate on how much it would cost us to remodel the place to our liking if we were to hire a licensed contractor and get the proper city permits (his estimate was fairly accurate. We got several estimates later from different contractors that were all in the same ballpark range). Nick also told us how much he thinks the TH would eventually sell for if we were to bid for it. We decided to bid about 3% less than Nick’s estimate; and after a bit of bidding war we got the TH for the EXACT same amount that Nick originally estimated!!! This is experience, and it was tremendously useful for us. Nick worked very closely with the sellers agent, which gave us a fighting chance to get the property despite our low initial bid.
Nick did not rush through the process at all during the entire search; and patiently showed us properties across south bay and east bay. He even advised us to NOT bid for a property we really liked because after studying the disclosures, he learnt that there were some rental restrictions on the property which would make it difficult to re-​sell it in future.
After completing the sale, Nick worked very closely with my mortgage lender (also recommended by Nick) to ensure a timely close. He got me in touch with several contractors and helped me come up with floor plan for our remodel too! An architect would have charged us a lot more for similar service that Nick provided for free, even when technically, his job of selling the house was done! He even communicated with the contractor regularly to ensure that our work is on schedule! It has been about 1 month since we bough the house, and Nick regularly calls me to check if everything is alright.
Bay Area alone has over 30,000 realtors. There are several realtors who will provide you a rebate from their commission; but you really get what you pay for. Nick believes in long term relationship, and does not see a real estate transaction as just a means for a pay check. He truly earned our business, and I will be sure to recommend him to my friends and colleague looking for a house. If I had to do everything all over again, I would still chose Nick in a heartbeat.
In summary, the things I really liked about Nick are:
* Patient, learns your taste quickly, and does not rush you into a transaction
* Can provide some out-​of-​box thinking that will save your a lot of money — much more than a rebate check from cheaper realtors will save!
* Has a very detail-​oriented eye, and can tell the pros/​cons of the property within minutes of looking at it.
* Can provide you an estimate on remodeling cost for each property, so you can factor that into your bid price
* Has the experience to predict how much to bid for a property you like
* Will work very closely with the sellers agent to ensure that you have a fighting chance in this hot real estate market where multiple bids are a norm!
* Your relationship with Nick will not end once the sale is complete. He will help you with putting you in touch with contractors, ideas for remodeling, and follow-​up with you often.
Once our remodeling project completes, we will be sure to invite Nick for dinner. He has become a family member for us in several ways. I highly recommend Nick.