Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Realty

Deborah Fagan came highly recommended by a neighbor who used her on the sale of his home a while back. She has a very high profile in Oak Park and the consensus among our neighbors is that her work is impeccable. We agree 100% with that consensus. Even though my husband has a CA broker’s license he felt it was better to have a third party list and sell our home of almost 20 years. We are very glad to have found Deborah to represent us. She was helpful in all aspects of marketing and preparing the home for sale. She hosted a whirlwind blitz of open house events and advised us on the immediate offers. This RE experience was the very best we’ve had in 6 CA property sales between us. Deborah Fagan is extremely knowledgable and you can absolutely trust her judgement on the many issues facing a seller. In particular I appreciated that she really understands that people are buying and selling HOMES and that this event is fraught with emotion, especially fear. She was honest, direct and knowledgable but also patient and kind with our endless questions and concerns. As we move toward closing she gets our highest recommendation.

Kevin Fitzgerald and Brookshire Hathaway is possibly the best agent you could hope to find. I first met Kevin 4 years ago when I bought my first property, he stuck with me through months of looking and with me being overly picky and looking for that diamond in the rough.
When I finally found the property I wanted he helped me negotiate an ideal price that allowed me to make it my own over the next few years. Throughout the entire process Kevin was quick to respond, and kept me in the loop continually throughout the process.
Most recently, I ended up selling that home I bought a few years ago. Kevin was able to help me get the maximum price for the property, and I was able to sell it at my asking price. Once again, he was professional, timely, and was able to get several parties interested in the property. Above all else, my property was listed and sold in less than 45 days.
Couldn’t be happier.

Lynn Gilbert and Martin Penson have represented us on two purchases and one sale. All with excellent service and much happiness that followed. Their advice has been spot on and they never rushed us into inking a deal that wasn’t in our absolute best interest. Highly recommended.

Hmmm. Where do I start? I was in a hurry when I started my house buying process. After a few calls to different agents. Keli Griffin was the only one I was able to reach right away. That gave me confidence in hiring her as my realtor and that was the best decision I made during the whole process. I would describe myself as a fairly impatient person. Keli was very polite and on top of everything. I was always able to reach her right away when I called. Even if she didn’t answer my call right away, I would receive a call back from her shortly after. She personally drove me and my husband around town to look at a few houses at a time. She gave us some honest opinions and very helpful advice. We bought a house within a month of looking. Buying a house can be stressful and emotional. Thanks to Keli’s responsiveness and diligence, our stress was at a minimal level. We were even able to buy the house below the asking price. I truly believe that if it wasn’t for Keli, the whole process would not have been as smooth as it turned out to be. I still haven’t gotten a chance to have a house warming party. Keli. If you are reading this. I promise I will have it soon after the house renovation and you are invited. Haha

Deborah Fagan at Prudential is amazing! She helped me find the perfect house for my mother. My mother is an extremely picky and difficult Type A personality. Deborah’s calm demeanor, patience and extensive knowledge about the area and attentiveness to her needs made the experience an easy and pleasant one, and my mother is very happy with her new home.
I wish there were 10 stars to give Deborah, instead of only 5, as her professionalism, effiency and integrity were truly stellar! I have recommended her to my friends and will continue to do so. She will definitely be assisting me in my search for my own perfect house when the time comes.

My wife and I contacted Debbie Blumenthal as she had been recommended by a co-​worker who had utilized her to buy his first home. Debbie Blumenthal turned out to be an excellent choice. She put up with our very picky (and periodically changing) requirements and understood when we were ready to give up (we didn’t) and managed to help us get our first home. As it was a short sale, it dragged on for a while (5 months), but she kept us informed as the process progressed.
A little over a year later, my job was transferred from southern California to Austin, TX and we had to sell our home. Again, we went to Debbie Blumenthal, who was able to help us price our home appropriately and get it sold within 60 days. My co-​worker was also in the same circumstance and he, too, once again contacted Debbie to sell his house.
I strongly recommend Debbie Blumenthal for any residential real estate transactions (buying or selling).

Beware if you are listing your empty property with an out of area real estate agent, .
This was our experience in hiring a friend of the family, Deborah Fagan, from Prudential California Realty in Thousand Oaks for the listing on our Encino home. We moved 1000 miles away for work and left the property in good hands, so we thought. Deb called us multiple times from May to August 2010, adamant that she could handle listing our home. When we listed with her she insisted on a 6 month listing rather than the three months we wanted. But given she came highly recommended by our best friend, we gave in to her manager’s insistance. We had some misgivings about the distance between her office and her knowledge of the area about half way through, but it was financially and physically impossible to leave a new job and solve her long distance problem for her at tremendous expense and inconvenience to us.
She assured me when she took this listing that she knew the Encino market well and my property would have her personalized attention. Not only did she send us irrelevant comps from Reseda, and enlist local agents to hold open houses against our wishes of using local agents as her proxy for open houses, she had no idea what was going on at our house on several occasions. We had also noticed our utility bills had gone up significantly in October and our neighbors said lights were being left on at odd times and vehicles were coming and going and weird times. Deb said she checked the house and thought perhaps our gardeners had been running the sprinklers?
I called and told her that my neighbors saw the back doors left opened for days several times, and my pool was green with algae when I showed up in September to check on it only a day or so after an open house by a local agent.
After speaking with several of my neighbors, it now appears that a white Tundra truck has been frequently parked in my driveway over night along with a variety of other vehicles since October.
At the end of the 6 month listing we returned to our property to find undesirables squatting a homestead for weeks or months. These people had also been dumping yard waste on our property from odd jobs they’d been doing elsewhere. Meanwhile Deb calls us complaining about a huge pile of palm fronds.
I walked into my dining room and found five people all lit up smoking (not cigarettes — most likely crack or meth) and drinking heavily. The smell was surreal and filthy. They told me they had a lease and had moved in the beginning of January. I told them all that I was not aware of any lease and they needed to clear out right then. These people showed me a multi page lease and keys that matched mine. They had food in my cabinets, food in the refrigerator, clothes in the closets and furniture in the bedrooms.
When I said the word ‘police’ something disturbing spread through all of their eyes. There was feces on my bedroom carpets, urine in closets and bedrooms, vomit on carpet and drug paraphenalia spilled all over the bedroom carpet.
I literally had to repossess my home from intruders and got my house back in an unbelievably poor condition that no home owner should ever receive back from their agent. No agent with any pride or sense of duty would let a home go back to an owner in this condition nor with illegal tenants squatting.
What I think adds insult to the injury is when I called her manager Terry Holland to discuss this problem, the lack of compassion, concern, and humanity was repugnant. Deb was more interested in getting her brochure trays and sign back than coming over to see what had happened to this property. Neither of of them offered to help mitigate this situation in any way nor offered any kind of assistance to make this situation right. They should be ashamed of themselves as human beings. I still have not heard from the broker who runs the office. I’ve been trying to track down the realtor who gave these addicts my keys from the PCR lock box. I’ve turned it over to the LA District Attorney’s office for the lease fraud.
Making a living in this economy is stressful enough. Who has time to pick up after ‘professionals’ and force them to live up to their contracts, let alone hold them to do the right thing? Our home was trashed and defiled.
We sent Prudential California Realty the bill for the emergency locksmith to secure the property and the carpets — total was less than $ 2K because we were able to evict these transients ourselves.
What did they do? — insult us with a nasty letter.
If you want to read the whole story
Judd McIlvain, the trouble shooter, also has has this case as one of his stories for 2÷16÷11 radio show.
I would never recommend this company or this management team to sell a dog house.