The McCarthy Group

After several months of searching in the city for a house, my husband and I set our sights on East Bay and quickly realized we needed a local realtor who understood the intricacies of Oakland. Walk in Brian! Brian made himself readily available (in-person, phone and email) to answer all our questions and his depth of knowledge about the East Bay market greatly contributed to the entire process. He helped us find our dream home, put together an attractive and unique offer, and guided us through every step of the way. In a process that can be complex and stressful, Brian kept us informed and feeling confident. Highly recommend!

Brian McCarthy is everything I wanted in a realtor; knowledgeable, trustworthy, and always available. We got him involved early in the process and he gave us lots of advice on preparing our house for sale and stayed involved every step of the way. He helped us find contractors and then coordinated their work. He understands the market very well and was able to pull in several great offers.

Over the past 2 years, Brian has helped me sell my condo and also buy a new condo in a highly competitive market. His knowledge of the Bay Area market helped us find a place that was within our budget, had the location that we wanted, and he adeptly steered us away from some deals that were too good to be true. He's honest and shared his balanced input, without ever pressuring us. He's a true professional - punctual, communicative, has great attention to detail, and is just a fun, good guy...someone we loved spending time with. As some other reviewers have mentioned, Brian is also very well-connected. He helped us secure a stager within a very tight time window and helped ensure that we worked with one of the best mortgage teams. Looking forward to partnering with Brian again in the future!

Brian recently helped my partner and me buy our first home. We had been tentatively looking for years and had asked many friends during that time whether they'd recommend their realtors, only to routinely be told no or get lukewarm responses. Luckily, we finally talked to a trusted friend who had worked with Brian and gave him a GLOWING recommendation, which made our choice easy. Throughout our search (and afterwards, as we've continued to have occasional questions!), Brian was communicative, reliable, kind, patient, knowledgeable, and supportive. He struck a perfect balance between optimism and confidence that we would find the right house, but also talking to us realistically about the competitiveness of the market. As anxious first-time buyers, his calm and level-headed demeanor was invaluable. I'd happily recommend Brian and work with him again.

Brian is the best agent I have worked with. I just bought my first home in San Francisco and having worked with several other agents, I had lost trust in agents because they were chasing commissions and did not have my interests in mind. Brian changed that. He was like a friend who was looking out for my best interests. Always very responsive and available to answer questions. I would just pick up the phone and call him with the most trivial of home buying related questions and he would very patiently answer all my questions. Without going into exact details, there were some instances where Brian steered me away from homes that upon further research I found were not the right ones and steered me towards homes that I really liked and were amazing. He has that knack for sensing what you're looking for. Many agents would not do that and they would just make you go for the most expensive home so they can make profit, but definitely not Brian. I still call him with my new homeowner question