Hill & Co. Real Estate

Avoid this firm at all cost.
It is rare in San Francisco these days to seek additional disruption of industries given how speculative things have become, but residential real estate needs more shakeups and more transparency and Hill & Company is a terrible firm and great place to start. I can see that we are not alone in the horrendous experience with this utterly unprofessional firm. Particularly try to avoid for manager Jay Costello and the Myers Lemons (mother/​daughter agent team MaryLou and Claire Myers).
The argument for using real estate agents is essentially: experience, local knowledge, good service, convenience and obtaining this best price. Hill & Company failed in all these areas
MaryLou Myers and later Claire Myers were the antithesis of professional management. We had repeated surprises and run around in preparing our property for market. There was no firm written plan as one experiences in most other industries, instead we were pestered constantly while at work with additional and overlapping requests for info that made us feel crazy. When there were fix it problems with the house and on the 3R, we were expected to turnaround in crazy order.
MaryLou and Jay pushed us exceptionally hard to stage our condo at fairly usurious rates in the expectation that it would pay off in additional offers and a higher sales price. We reluctantly agreed to one of the bids for Sayde Deisgns, where co-​owner Steve (the subject of an another upcoming review) was a caustic and procrastinator personality. Multiple small repairs were misunderstood and appear to have resulted in extra charges. MaryLou was spacey and aloof thoughout missing a repeating numerous details for a very confusing and jumbled experience.
While MaryLou had brought in other agents to see our place and made a suggestion to price it, which seemed a bit high, we agreed and had an expectation that the location in NOPA plus the staging and management of the listing would make everything relatively smooth. The listing flyer was designed poorly and late, the online plan was a mess, MaryLou dropped out for an extended vacation and Claire came in for a meek and almost invisible showing schedule. Little did we know that she would be taking over the whole transaction from then on! Poof, we effectively had a new, and significantly less experienced, agent in mid-​contract. We thought perhaps she might have more of a mind for planning and details, but alas that was not the case.
Surprisingly, there were not that many offers. Jay Costello came in to assure us that the San Francisco market was cooling off during Fall 2015 despite much evidence to the contrary and we were urged to accept an offer just a tiny bit over asking or reject it at our peril. We again reluctantly agreed. During the contract process, the buyer had an enormous number of requests for information, with which were encouraged to comply with quickly and repeatedly, culminating in pre-​sale outreach to our neighbors in the building. The deal fell through.
An anxious couple of weeks of relisting and pushing was followed by another offer at asking price offer from a client also represented by… wait for it… Hill & Company! This offer also included a juggernaut of additional info requests in 3 or 4 tranches and arguments with Claire. We were barraged with repeated texts and phone calls that made an emergency out of all details whether they could have been foreseen or not. Finally, we closed on the house, but even there, there Claire did not communicate effectively with the title company. We closed on a Friday but the funds were not transferred till the following week. Luckily for us, the SF real estate market is ridiculously overvalued and we did ok, but in a harder market these screw ups would have not only left $ on the table but could leave sellers in a really terrible position.
At least, we thought, it’s over and we are done with these people… but we were wrong. Two weeks later we get an email from the Dana Tal Klein, the buyer’s agent, introducing the new owners to me with a host of additional questions about our house! We were never contacted ahead of time by Claire, MaryLou or Jay and now we were on the hook for the last part of their job. A new peak in unprofessionalism.
Needless to say, avoid this firm at all costs.

Cathy Devito was our realtor when we moved to the East Bay this year. She was responsive and very knowledgeable. She answered all our questions related to the inspections, the mortgage and anything else we needed to understand. She made sure to get everything in writing as soon as possible from the sellers to ensure that their promises to let us keep certain things in the house (e.g. washer) did not get revoked later. She was always available on short notice despite us calling from the East Coast and the Docusign process she used was really easy to use even when in another country. Even after the sale, she kept in touch to make sure everything was going well with us and when we did have a question, she got back to us right away, including getting us answers directly from our title officer when we had received some information on the easement on our property. Having moved and sold houses numerous times, I don’t hesitate to recommend Cathy as a top realtor, one of the best I have worked with in the last 20 years.

Cathy Devito represented us in the sale of our SoMa condo in August 2014. She came recommended to me, which is the best way to go when you’re choosing an agent. Cathy was so communicative, that at one point, I wondered whether she told us too much information. ;) My husband reassured me that I’d go nuts if I were ever kept in the dark. She never kept us in the dark or kept us waiting, and she made herself readily available, despite an 8 hour time difference (we live London now). She helped negotiate prices and find the best rates for vendors ahead of the sale (cleaning, painting, staging), and then of course guided us during the critical negotiation with buyers. She was so good when it came to so many details, but I’ll try to keep this review short and sweet. If you’re considering Cathy as your agent, though, and want to message me with questions, feel free.

Unhappy w/​experience w/​Sandra Bagnatori. Found her more interested in steering a buyer into a sale even at way more than a reasonable offering price than in providing objectivity or advice as to the sale.

Cathy Devito helped me find the home of my dreams. I had lived in San Francisco for several years and called her to say I was beginning to dream of a home in Sausalito — 9 days later I had an offer accepted on a mid century post and beam gem that I am absolutely in love with. She goes to the wall for you and really knows her stuff. Not only did she get me a home that increased in value by 30% over the next two years she had great recommendations for subcontractors that helped me polish up the place.

I worked with Cathy Devito when purchasing my first home in San Francisco a few years ago. She was amazing to work with the first time around and so I naturally called on her again when I began my search for an investment property. In the search and purchase of a second property, Cathy went above and beyond! As any buyer is aware, the SF market is very competitive. She ensured my offer was clean and appealing to the buyer, guiding me through the process every step of the way. Once the offer was accepted, she acted in my stead covering the inspection and appraisal while I was tied up with ongoing business travel. She made what could have been a very stressful process as easy as possible to accommodate my schedule and I’m thrilled to have gotten the rental condo. She is knowledgeable, trustworthy and makes every effort to ensure her clients are beyond satisfied!

Do not use this outfit! Or Sandra Bagnatori.
She/​they are highly unethical, with no scruples and no regard for relationships, personal or professional. They kept a building off the MLS, selling it in-​house (for larger commission) and giving no opportunity to outside agents/​purchasers.
Be warned — as a buyer, only certain agents (those with Hill and Co as in-​house agents) are done business with.
I personally submitted a very competitive offer. Two of the other competitive offers were countered, but not mine as I was working with a non Hill and Co agent!
PS Interesting to read another review on Hill & Co, that pocket listings are considered! …coincidence wanting to keep all commision in-​house??? Beware!

JAMES WHITE [Broker Associate] with Hill and Co Real Estate is an outstanding realtor who has attention to detail, the ability to act quickly and understanding to know what my needs were as a SF home buyer. I appreciated his consistent communication, knowledge of the current market conditions and his expertise in negotiating the deal. James is an outstanding honest individual and as a busy professional, I have high expectations for service which he met on all levels. Thanks again James and I will certainly refer anybody looking to purchase or market their San Francisco home to you.
Peter M. Javier
St Mary’s Park — San Francisco

We worked with James White, who stuck with us when we were looking for our first house and couldn’t afford ANYTHING. We eventually got a great place and it was all because of his efforts. When we outgrew it, he helped us sell and was an invaluable source of good information. We are now living in our dream house, which he also helped us with. He really goes above and beyond what is required, even after the deal is done, and he is a nice person too!

Our first real estate agent in SF was Cathy Devito and turned out to be a very bad choice.
She doesn’t have much technical knowledge regarding real estate, so she won’t be able to tell you if a place is sound or has trouble beside what’s written in the disclosure.
She also has very poor ethics where she won’t hesitate to represent both the buyer and the seller on a deal. Then if as a buyer you try to bring a different agent to represent you she will do everything she can to prevent you of doing this. Or she will push for someone from her company (Hill and Co).
We finally dumped her when we realized she was trying to get us buy a building with major structural problems that she was trying to hide from us. And once we discovered them she tried to make them look like nothing to worry about.
She is probably good enough if you need someone to go over the paperwork but even on this I wouldn’t trust her.

Hill and company can not be trusted. I agree with the other poster that they have no scruples.
When listing a house, they dramatically under list the price of a house even if they know the seller wants a lot more for a home and that no offers will ever be accepted at the asking price… ever. This is fraudulent advertising to get a lot of buyers to come look at a mediocre home that buyers wouldn’t visit if the listed price was closer to what the owner was holding out for. This wastes everyone’s time putting together offers for asking price or even much more than asking, when the seller will reject all of them because the price is not close by a long shot to what he would even start to consider. We are not talking about just $ 20,000 here but way off like over $ 50,000+ under what the seller will even start to look at even though the list agent knows this.
They have agents like Donald Gable who practice this tactic. I would never buy a house from him period. He is the worst — smooth talker — no ethics and doesn’t care that he is wasting everyone’s time by falsely listing a property.
As stated in other reviews — I’ve met Eddie O’Sullivan — he is a nice man and he would probably be a good person no matter what company he worked for. But the rest of that Hill & Co. — watch out.

We just purchased our first home in San Francisco. We worked with Eddie O’Sullivan, who was absolutely amazing. He went way above and beyond, he worked incredibly hard. We had somewhat of a complicated escrow process, plus it was our first home, but he made sure that we were in the loop on everything, he called us every night to check in and made sure we got the best deal possible. We really felt that he worked for us and had our best interest in mind. We would highly highly recommend him to anyone who wants to buy a place.

My husband and I worked with Eddie O’Sullivan — he was awesome! He was very laid-​back, and yet very professional and on-​top of everything that was going on. He was very easy to work with and worked very, very hard to get the job done — especially since my husband and I were very busy with our jobs and other things going on. He kept us calm and assured through the entire process — I would highly recommend Eddie — he knows what he is doing.

Don’t go to Hill & Co. if you want knowledge, experience, or scruples. Jay Costello, President, doesn’t even bother to respond to correspondence from his CUSTOMERS. Never, ever again.
Jennifer Smith is nice, but inexperienced. Hopefully she’ll find a good mentor somewhere else.