TESTIMONIALS

We highly recommend Candace Hyde-Wang for the wonderful job she did selling our Berkeley home. We have worked with a number of agents in the Berkeley area over the years as well as other parts of the country and she has surpassed them all. She was consistently professional and a pleasure to work with. Candace set the highest standard for herself and for the work done on our home in order to obtain the best sales price for us, which she accomplished.

Before selecting Candace, we interviewed many top agents in Berkeley and the East Bay and were consistently told by them that we could expect to see a sales price between $900,000 and $980,000 for our home. We were not satisfied with these numbers. We felt our home was unique and that the other agents were either not seeing the full potential of our home or were setting up a low financial expectation in order to get a quick sale. After working on our home, Candace sold it, before it went on the market, for $1.3 million!

Candace provides a unique service to home sellers in which she draws from her experience in architecture and design to optimize the flow and beauty of a property. As our agent, she made the design/remodel decisions in order to best present our home. We discussed these in advance with her and found she was thinking of doing many of the things that we had wanted to do. Where our ideas differed, hers were much better.

Candace spent countless hours studying our home and making careful decisions concerning what work should be done and what was unnecessary. She also addressed all the maintenance related issues that had occurred over the years. She brought in consistently excellent crews to do the work and all the work was accomplished at a reasonable price. We would recommend letting Candace take care of all the hiring and design decisions as the few people we did hire ourselves didn’t work out. As a real estate agent, we found her to be refreshingly honest and upfront as well as being savvy and highly competent.

The result was stunning! She turned our home into the house we always wanted it to be and realized for us her high estimate in sales price. All this in a declining market! Our only regret now is leaving our perfect home and also that we didn’t contact Candace ten years earlier to do a remodel for us!

~ Sarn Oliver and Mari Smiley

Dear Prospective Client,

We are very happy to provide a strong recommendation for Candace Hyde-Wang. We were lucky enough to meet Candace around 2013, when we were expecting a second child and looking for a larger home. She represented us as a buyer’s agent in purchasing a home in Berkeley, CA, as well as a seller’s agent when we sold it in 2018 to move to the east coast. (We were professors at UC Berkeley, and decided to move to Princeton University at that time.) She represented us again when we later bought a second home / investment property in Albany, CA. As a result we know Candace well, and we can recommend her enthusiastically and without reservations.

There are three things that really set Candace apart as a real estate agent. First, Candace has a deep appreciation for structure and construction. She has worked in architecture and overseen extensive house renovations, and this comes through in her ability to identify potential problems, recommend and interpret inspections and permits, and think through potential repairs. This is especially crucial in the Bay Area, where seismic concerns, slide zones, and other hazards make structural issues so crucial. Working with Candace, we felt confident considering a wider range of properties than we might otherwise have felt equipped to evaluate on our own.

Second, Candace has a deep appreciation for design. She can see past superficial problems (which is terrific when buying with her), but also realize a property’s potential (which is terrific whether buying or selling). This became especially apparent to us in buying and selling our home in Berkeley. The house had amazing “bones” (as they say), but had been the victim of some unfortunate neglect and poor decisions by prior owners. Candace helped us see what we should and shouldn’t be concerned about in buying the home, and helped us transform it prior to sale – within our constraints of time and money. Working with her through this process helped us appreciate her ability for creative problem-solving, her far-ranging knowledge of local contractors and suppliers, and her clear communication. As a result the process was much smoother – and less stressful for us – than it would have been otherwise.

Finally – and perhaps most importantly when it comes to major life and financial decisions – we trust Candace. She loves architecture and homes, but she also cares deeply about people. We trusted (and continue to trust) her to present things as she sees them, and with sensitivity to our best interests, whether or not that aligns with making the quickest or easiest sale from the perspective of an agent. If you choose to work with her we do not think you will regret that decision. If we can provide any further information, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at the email addresses below.

Sincerely,
Tania & Tom

"We worked with Candace a number of years ago, when the market was not very good, on the sale of our Berkeley home.  Candace worked diligently with us to get the best dollar for our  home and she did so!  Not only was she a skilled negotiator, but she put in lots of extra time with us in terms of getting our home ready for sale.  She basically designed a remodel for our bathroom, and gave us a myriad of other suggestions to increase the value of our home.  When she was finished with the re make of our home, it was so beautiful that we almost didn't want to leave!!  But of course we did.  With Candace as your agent, you're getting not only a seasoned realtor who will hold your hand through the process, but you're also getting an excellent designer who will help to get top dollar for your home."

~ Diana G. (Source)

“When we sold our Berkeley home several years ago, we selected Candace Hyde-Wang to represent us because of her years of experience, her expertise in the East Bay market and because she presented a cohesive, manageable and comfortable plan for the sale of our home. Selling your home (as well as  buying one) can be a very challenging time. Candace gently tended to our emotional ups and downs and always guided the myriad of decisions we had to make by listening and offering concrete recommendations and solutions. She has an amazing sense of design and by the time our home was ready for the market, it looked fantastic and sold shortly. We witnessed her excellent communication skills not only with us but as she navigated the contractual aspects of the sale. I would highly recommend Candace. She is a true professional who you can trust to do right by you. “

~ robertateller, Sold a Single Family home in 2010 in Southwest Berkeley, Berkeley, CA. (Zillow review)

“Candace acted as my agent when I wanted to buy a rental apartment in the East Bay, while I was at the same time selling an apartment back East. She warned me about the tax implications and explained to me about how to handle them through the Title company. And she helped to buy an apartment here  with which I am very satisfied. “

~ fraassen, Bought a Single Family home in 2013 in Westbrae, Berkeley, CA. (Zillow review)

“We had an incredible experience with Candace. She is knowledgeable and helped my wife and I navigate the complex home buying landscape in the Bay Area. She has a great eye for design details and what makes a house both liveable and a good investment. “

~ kentpeets, Bought a Single Family home in 2012 in Ashby, Berkeley, CA. (Zillow review)

“I worked with Candace with my first experience buying a home, and she totally knows what she is doing when it comes to real estate. She is very knowledgeable about the structure of homes and buildings and earthquake safety and has a keen eye for redesigning spaces to make them more spacious and  usable, only showing me homes that were structurally sound and in safe neighborhoods. I felt confident in her ability to get the deal in a highly competitive market. Really efficient, able to foresee problems before they occur and works fast when needed. She even helped me to buy furniture”

~ user6301930, Bought a Single Family home in 2013 in Berkeley, CA. (Zillow review)

“We initially sought out Candace Hyde-Wang for her eye for design. A year before we were serious about buying a home, we visited two of her open houses for which she had remodeled the homes. If we were ready to buy then, we would have bought one of her houses in a heartbeat. Her work is incredible.  Fast forward a year and one offer later, and Candace helped us find our dream home. She is well versed in architecture, design and real estate -- which makes her a great package deal when to assist folks looking to buy a home. She was honest and straightforward about the pros and cons of each house we visited. As a young married couple with no children on our radar at the time, but plans for the future, Candace made sure that we prioritized 'schools, seismic and safety'. We appreciated that she was safeguarding our long-term investment. The process from start to finish was as seamless as buying a home can be, even with a few hiccups along that way that were out of her control. I would highly recommend Candace Hyde-Wang to anyone looking to buy a home in Berkeley or neighboring communities! “

~ zuser20140610134237593, Bought a Single Family home in 2012 in Ashby, Berkeley, CA. (Zillow review)