Eric Wong

After an over four month escrow, today it finally closed and I finally have my duplex! Eric supported me and did every thing he could to get me this place. He met with layers, stood in long lines at county offices, went to multiple inspections, and dealt with me and my crazy family to ensure I got the right place. I knew he really cared about me and what he was doing. He is very honest and truly wants what is best for his clients. This is a very tough market for a buyer in the East Bay and I could’t recommend Eric more to guide you through it.

My husband and I moved from Chicago to Oakland in August 2012. After getting our son Charlie settled into his new school, making new friends and loving Oakland, we decided to lay down some real roots and buy a home in here.
Even though we own a home in Chicago, we were unprepared for the crazy real estate market of the Bay Area. Eric was able to show us different neighborhoods, and a series of homes. He really took the time to teach us about how the local market functioned, what we could get for our budget, and the strategy to successfully make an offer for the home we wanted.
Eric was very responsive and patient with all our questions and concerns. He worked hard at finding us a home inspector, an electrician and a plumber to investigate the house in a very short time span.
We would recommend Eric to anyone looking for a home in the Bay Area.

If you are in urgent need of a realtor, STOP AND CALL ERIC NOW!
I was working with a realtor who was not returning my phone calls and not helping me in any way. I called Eric because I met him at an open house and he talked about listening and helping first time home buyers. Not only is a great listener, but he is also very knowledgeable in the Berkeley, Albany, El Cerrito area and very well connected. We used all of his suggestions and couldn’t be happier. Best part about Eric? He is professional and funny! Couldn’t ask for a better realtor who genuinely put our interest in front of his and who has a great dynamic between professionalism and comedy.

My partner and I first met Eric at a 2010 Berkeley open house. From meeting many agents in the prior 5 years of open houses, Eric is the most approachable real estate agent and hones in on his client’s housing tastes. From other agents, we hated dealing with disgusting and sleazy sales-​talk, re-​adjusting our glasses to make sure we could recalibrate their inflated ego with their desperation, or simply rolling our eyes at their client pre-​conceptions and judgements. These agents kept sending spammy MLS listings based on price range, bedrooms, bathrooms, parking, and neighborhood criteria. Eric actually sorted through those checklist preferences and further filtered them towards modern aesthetic, recently built, and notable local architect involvement. With many clients to meet and hook, Eric actually noted our non-​checklist preferences that inspired us to work with him exclusively for the East Bay.
This real estate agent-​client relationship went on for 2 years until my partner and I finally bought a place in 2012. I was surprised that Eric kept me on his rolodex for 2 YEARS! Most real estate agents would have abandoned me and most did. During the 2 years, we searched from Berkeley to San Mateo, then to SF, then to Marin, and then back to the East Bay. This guy has zen-​honed patience with fickle clients like us. He was honest and upfront that his expertise was the East Bay and quickly gave us references to other agents in the other areas. Eric knows to keep his laser-​focus on the client by not spreading himself too thin.
So what was the process like? We actually went through with an offer, then backed out. Then we submitted a low-​ball offer on another home during the trough of the recession to gamble our chances, and then got outbid only for us to rebid. Then we watched the seller’s banks drag their feet, and we ripped a direct (translate: mean) email.
So what was Eric like?
When we went sheepish, Eric patiently waited for my partner and I to debate it out, 2 hours in Eric’s office. Eric gave us useful comps on the spot and gave us a few hypothetical scenarios to think about. We submitted the offer. The next morning, we called and rescinded the offer. Eric’s reaction? He had a good feeling that this was going to happen. He pulled the offer and still wanted to help us find our suitable starter home. He did not produce an ounce of anger or lay on any guilt-​trip. He quickly moved on.
When we went aggressive, Eric facilitated our message to the listing agent. When time was of the essence, Eric hustled for us. When we became unpleasant, Eric coached us. Nothing surprises Eric, and he is on his A-​game.
During the offer, inspection, and move-​in, Eric quickly provided references for home inspectors, cleaners, painters, mortgage lenders, locksmith, contractors, etc. For everything we needed, he would send three referrals so we could start our review to vet who we wanted to take our business to. We rarely just lean on the agent that much, but Eric’s recommendations typically turned out to be the best in the area. When I passed on these referrals to friends, they would mention how their extensive research or agent turned up the same top-​notch referrals.
We would normally recommend Redfin for all other areas, but for the East Bay, you have to go with Eric. He was born and raised in SF and spent the last few decades in the East Bay. Since moving from SF to our East Bay home, we have actually run into Eric at several local places like Homeroom Mac+Cheese and Berkeley Bowl West. How often do clients actually see their agents walk the talk in terms of touting how much they love the East Bay? Eric does!
Without a doubt I recommend Eric as your real estate agent for his unparalleled East Bay knowledge, laser-​focus on the client, and ability to tease out how the client emotionally connects to the buyer’s process and home itself. Eric was the one who wanted us to love our starter home and not settle, and he never wants buyer’s remorse. More than a year living here and finally feeling like East Bay is home, we have no buyer’s remorse. Hence fulfilling Eric’s wishes and promises, we felt compelled to finally vouch for him. That and we got a Chinese New Year card and nice red envelope from him. Yup, still on his rolodex after 4 years.

Eric is simply put an excellent real estate agent! Very helpful & responsive, conducts himself and his business in a professional manner, looks out for his clients interest and gets you truthful answers to your questions or concerns. All round we found him very pleasant to work with.
Eric helped my wife and I buy our first house and guided us through the process all the way, making it very easy for us despite the fiercely competitive market. He went out of his way to make sure we were comfortable and informed us on every detail.
Eric is very well connected and organized all our inspections for us, he recommended an awesome mortgage broker (Alex Alexander of Princeton Capital) who managed the process with Eric beautifully and we closed almost a week ahead of schedule, He set us up with our home owners protection, locksmith, electrician, HVAC specialist etc. etc. weeks after we closed. The follow up service has been as good as the service he provided from the moment we met until close. There are really only four words left to say, we would definitely recommend!

My name is Jesse Stroup and I am the Residential Mortgage Loan Officer for Pacific Funding Group.
I have had the great pleasure of working with Eric Wong of Daniel Winkler and Associates, Inc. Eric has proven himself Time and Time again, with his abilities and dedication to getting the deal done. No task has ever been too big or deal too small for him to handle. I know that when I have Eric working as the Realtor, it will be done correctly.
I recommend his services without hesitation.
Yours Sincerely
Jesse Stroup
Mortgage Professional
Pacific Funding Group
NMLS# 6229
Direct: 510−704−3445

I found Eric on Unilocal a few months ago. I gave him a call and told him that we were looking for a home in Albany. He kept me updated about potential matches for our needs. We were able to buy a home within a couple months. He kept in contact with us throughout the whole process and was easily accessible via email, phone, and text.
I highly recommend him as a realtor — he is familiar with the area and also recommends great service providers (e.g. home inspectors, contractors, etc).

The lucky 7^th review! Eric was recommended to us by Daniel Winkler, the property management company overseeing our rental unit. He was described to us as «laid back», and this turns out to be quite the personality we needed. As first time home buyers learning about how mad crazy the Bay area housing market is, he patiently guided us through our frustration with this cash rich buyer-​sellers market. Being traditional buyers, we were shocked at the short bid dates and the over asking offers. Eric used real life examples of his sales and buys to demo to us what we needed to be comfortable with to find a home in either Alameda, Berkeley, Albany or El Cerrito — the same places EVERYONE seems to hope to live. He realistically predicted how much over asking we should bid, and was honest when homes were out of our reach. We were impressed by his ability to place our needs over his; a few times he advised us to walk away from offers and deals because he could tell we were too upset or could not afford to keep going. This is good — there are a lot of buyers throwing good money out there for location and we often wondered if we were being too conservative. Perhaps best of all, Eric is someone who will listen — really listen — and identify you and your partner’s needs and will provide balanced, non-​judgmental advice when disagreements go down — and they will go down, sometimes embarrassingly in front of your agent. Eric will observe your likes and dislikes and after viewing a few homes, he will pick up your style, watch the market, and send you frequent listings of homes you might like. He will do his best to work around your work schedule and meet you at 8am on weekdays and weekends to do home tours. He will advise you when the decisions are yours to make — so no pressure. When our offer was accepted on a home, we had a very challenging time negotiating with the sellers. Eric was very timely in his communications with the seller’s agent and with us, and gave us the space to make rational decisions even though the sellers pressured us into waiving our contingencies. Eric is also very kind and will put his neck out there to help make your deal go through. He is the reason we are in the right home! We highly recommend Eric. Happy house hunting, Unilocalers!

When I first met Eric Wong I was impressed with how knowledgeable he was of the real estate market in the East Bay. After working with Eric for the past few years I have realized he is the total package. He is an agent that knows the in and outs of the market at all times and he always has the utmost care for his clients. He is an outstanding agent for buyers and for sellers as well. I recommend contacting Eric for all questions real estate related. I am confident you will come away as impressed as I was.

Eric’s zen-​like demeanor and knowledge of the real estate market in the Bay Area was invaluable to us in our recent home purchase. We were first timers to the world of real estate and all of its maddening complexities and complications — and he guided us through the process, step by step, and assured us throughout that the right home would be ours. His expertise and insights about comparable homes in the neighborhood helped us get the sweet, little urban home of our dreams — and upon our first offer, in a competitive situation.
Not only does he know real estate, though, he’s also a pastry chef, world traveler, aficionado of food and drink, and an exceptionally nice guy — making him an all-​around fun, interesting person to know and spend time with through what can be a stressful, overwhelming process.

Eric Wong handled our first-​time buying experience expertly and we would happily work with him again. He was always on our side, every step of the way, and we never felt pressured to settle for a house. He was genuinely interested in matching us with the right home, quietly gauging us, and doing tons of research to turn up possibilities. We were surprised by his honesty. If he thought a house was wrong, he said so and why.
Once we selected a property, he worked tirelessly to get it. There were several bids on our house and we think he read the situation well and out maneuvered the other agents to secure it. We honestly believe that if we didn’t have Eric, we would have missed out on our house. After our offer was accepted, we entered the stressful period of home inspection, finalizing our loan, etc., where he was extremely helpful and resourceful. We trusted him fully as well as all the people he recommended.
Eric completely knows what he’s doing and is extremely responsive and efficient. Along with that kind of savvy, he was very sensitive and thoughtful to our needs — never pressing, always patient. But his honesty was his most refreshing and important trait. Because Eric was straight with us, we never doubted his intentions. So when he said jump, we jumped. When he stated a thought or opinion, we took it very seriously. Though we had a client-​agent relationship, we were more like a team, the kind of team that succeeds in finding the right house and buying it. It’s a serious business and we’re very fortunate we found the right agent.

shopping for a house in this economic climate can be frustrating, exhausting, and confusing. that was the experience we had before eric. we originally went with a realtor recommended by a co-​worker and spent most of the time trying to figure everything out by ourselves. after the frustrating experience, we found eric — working with him made such a great difference! we are happy to report, after spending over a year looking for a home in the berkeley area — we found one we love!
we highly recommend eric to anyone looking for a realtor in the berkeley/​oakland/​albany area. eric is patient and thoughtful — both incredibly important in a realtor, especially in this housing climate. from the first meeting, eric was focused on finding out what is important to us. he was honest in helping us understand what he thought we could afford as well as remain positive and supportive of us bidding within our comfort zone despite the comps. eric is very responsive on email and over the phone. he not only sends us house listings but sends us his review on why he recommended it to us. eric’s guidance was imperative to helping us target what is important to us. eric often met with us on off hours since we were working 50+ hours a week. he would also show us some houses that was just about to go to market early…
once we were in escrow, eric remained instrumental to helping us stay sane in the roller coaster ride. he was on top of tracking all the paperwork — making all the calls to our lender as well as to the sellers. he made sure all the questions we had and didn’t think to ask were answered. after we got through all the challenge of getting a home, eric also was able to provide great recommendations for contractors to help our house become ready to move in.
one year and 2 months after we started, we are moved into our new home. eric played a huge part in making it happen and we can’t say enough good things about eric!

Considering how many realtors there are our there, I had a really hard time finding mine. I did a ton a ton of research on Unilocal and got numerous recommendations but no one seemed quite right for us: too smarmy, too slick, too pushy, too, too, too…
Then, I met Eric at an open house he was hosting. I liked him immediately. We struck up a conversation and he really seemed to listen to what my husband and I were looking for in a home and was honest enough to agree that the house we met him in was not the right home for us. His honesty was both unexpected and refreshing, and over the next eight months would prove to be an invaluable component of our home buying process.
That’s right — it took us eight months and four bids and many weekends spent trolling the open house circuit to find and purchase our first home. But we were picky and Berkeley/​North Oakland is a tough market. Towards the end, we started feeling desperate and on a couple of occasions, considered bidding on homes that weren’t quite right for us. Thankfully, Eric, in his quiet, unobtrusive way, intervened. In fact, at every turn, Eric put our interests first. And when we finally finally found the one home that was perfect for us, Eric worked tirelessly on our behalf. And it was a lot of of work: the house we ultimately bought was a foreclosure, with an unresponsive seller, a fixer upper, lots of inspections, a touch and go appraisal period, and a remote title company. He even negotiated a $ 20K price reduction, which in this market is a rare event.
But most importantly, Eric helped us get into the right home for us. We could not be happier with the way everything worked out and so grateful for the wholly positive experience of working with such a stand up guy.