Derek Suring

When we first visited California without definite plans to move, Derek took the time to show us homes in our price range even though he know that we were not ready to buy. He is personable, very patient and answered all of our questions. We wanted to use him as an agent, but we ended up searching for homes out of his area. He was good enough to refer us to another wonderful agent who helped us purchase the perfect home. Derek is the best!

Derek found an investment property for us almost 2 years ago. It took us about 6 months to find our property and Derek was patient and very knowledgable through the whole process. He actually talked us out of a property he felt was not a good deal. We had our property appraised recently and it was appraised well over what we paid.

Derek has been a pleasure to work with.
He was very responsive and was also incredibly patient with us as we asked many questions. He is very knowledgeable and it was great getting to know him and his family during the year we spent looking.
As first-​time homebuyers, we were very inexperienced and were so lucky to have met Derek. He is so friendly and great to work with. He was able to give us insight and educate us about the process.
After a year of searching and making offers, we were finally successful in finding a home. We owe a lot to Derek’s kindness and generosity.
We cannot say enough about Derek and are incredibly grateful for his help!

I found Derek by chance online (without reading reviews or knowing much about him), and am so grateful that I did. I feel like I got very lucky.
This was my first time buying a home. He was so patient (as other reviewers mentioned), knowledgeable and helpful. He advised me against buying a few places that ultimately wouldn’t have been a good fit for me and helped me (over the course of a year!) to find a spot I really like. He was consistently easy to communicate with, would respond to emails quickly or always let me know when he’d be away for a few days.
He’s also just a very pleasant and easygoing person, which is important when you’ll be spending a significant amount of time with your real estate agent. I instinctively trusted him, both his opinions and expertise. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend him!

Saying I recommend Derek would be the understatement of the year.
We closed yesterday, and if I was buying another home tomorrow, I would insist on using Derek, and would be gutted if he were not available.
The service we received from Derek was outstanding. He is generous with his time, knowledge and experience. This was not just a home buying experience, but a complete education into the pitfalls and the way the broader market affects your goals.
Without Derek’s guidance I can count many mistakes we could, and would, have made along the way. With such a big purchase, mistakes can be financially devastating, yet without an agent of Derek’s caliber, buyers, like us, who were unfamiliar with the market, could easily make them.
From the moment that we reached out to Derek, to beyond closing, he always had useful guidance and insight to pass on, and ultimately this has wound up with us getting a perfect property for our needs, and one that makes financial sense.
He has never pressured us into making a purchase, and not lost patience with us, though it took us at least 6 months to find a property that fit our needs.
He has taken time to evaluate every property, and understand our needs as we refined them based on viewings he set up to help us understand the market.
When it came time to offer, he evaluated the competition carefully before recommending how we should act. It turns out he read it perfectly, and we were able to get the property, by a slim margin, at a price that made sense to us.
Derek is always responsive to emails and calls, throughout the day. Be it a panic during escrow, questions on repairs of a property, or anything in between, Derek is there smiling and offering sound advice. He also has a great network of people in the industry that are happy to work closely with him and his clients to get deals done — contractors, lenders, escrow. That in itself is a testament to how he is valued among his industry peers, and this value is something his clients benefit from.
To summarize Derek is an outstanding, intelligent, real estate professional, and his customer service is impeccable. I shall honestly miss working with him so closely now that we have secured a property.

Derek is a fantastic real estate agent, and I should know I’m one too. I work in the City, so while I am knowledgeable about the real estate practice I didn’t know about the area, Oakland. Allow me to give you some unsolicited advice… real estate is truly a local business, get a local agent!
Having the right agent can literally make or break a deal. Derek was the right agent for us. He located a a fantastic property that was priced right but came with a few issues and then got us the best deal possible. He kept the deal on track when it looked like it was about to fall apart. Derek has a keen insight into the local market and brought those insights to bear when we negotiated a sizable reduction in sales price. He was really easy to work with. He is technologically savvy, but understand the «old school» side of the business, too.
Derek really is a consummate professional. Quite literally, a real estate agent’s real estate agent.

Derek is fantastic. He is hugely helpful and informative. Especially for a first time home buyer like myself.

I don’t think I have ever wished Unilocal had more than 5 stars to review someone/​something, but Derek needs more stars!
I am a first time home buyer, and a difficult to please person in general (seriously, look at my other reviews), but Derek has been the most patient, accommodating, funny, experienced, calm (and did I say patient?) agent I could imagine.
I met him in August 2012, and he has been working tirelessly since to find me a home. Now, March 2013, two months after getting into contract on a very odd, complicated, and legally tangled REO-​tenant-​occupied property, we are in the homestretch! He knew exactly what I needed during different stages of the process (encouragement, reassurance, sympathy, straight talk, jokes, etc.) and kept this deal alive through at least four near deaths.
I plan to use Derek on all my future sales/​purchases (there is no way his commission on this deal is enough to compensate him for the work he did) and recommend him to anyone who will listen!