I would recommend Jake Fahnhorst to anyone looking to buy in the Livermore, CA area. In fact, we already recommended him to one set of friends and my wife’s parents who will hopefully be moving near us soon. The odds are really stacked against first time home buyers in the SF Bay Area. We were expecting to be shopping for months but ended up getting our first offer accepted and closing 1 month later! I weighed my options regarding going with internet competitors for realtor and lending services. In the end though I think it made a big difference using a local realtor and local lender, particularly for a first-time home buyer. If you are a first-time home buyer, you will want that more white-glove attention than you could get through internet competition and this will also help manage your stress levels. When you are competing against dozens of offers on the same house, you need every advantage you can get. A local realtor and lender may make your offer that much more attractive when the seller is considering which offers will close with the least problems. Jake is someone we were able to speak candidly and comfortably with, and since he is also a father with young children he understood our priorities and limitations. He’s local to Livermore and was a teacher there before becoming a realtor which I feel gave him excellent insight into the area. Jake suggested a lender after we asked for recommendations that we were very happy with. Between the four of us, we were able to keep in constant communication from offer to closing. Being able to communicate quickly and effectively through a group text chat for quick questions and a zoom call for more complex conversations makes things so much simpler. Issues that came up as a natural part of the home-buying process were solved quickly. Of course, a lot of this relies on the buyer (you and I) also doing our part to answer quickly and provide any supporting documentation needed right away. In summary, I would without hesitation recommend Jake and use him again for our real estate needs. Very accessible, quick responses, and able to communicate and exchange documentation remotely very effectively. Was able to speak candidly and did not pressure us to stretch our offer budget. I felt comfortable trusting his recommendations and information