Zane MacGregor & Co

Zane MacGregor is a top notch real estate company. When we began looking for property, we went to Steve Pierce. He is incredibly knowledgeable about real estate in the peninsula area. He is ethical, professional, experienced, and devoted to what he does. He knows how to evaluate, advise, and close on a property for the client so that you walk away knowing you have made an informed investment. I highly recommend Steve Pierce and the team at Zane.
Since our purchase, we have greatly enjoyed Zane’s occasional social events reaching out to past and potential clients, where they offer updates on the real estate market in unique venues. It is a great way to keep in touch and meet interesting people.

I can’t say enough about Adam Touni and the team at Zane MacGregor — if you are looking to purchase in the Palo Alto area, this the team you need to work with. This review is long overdue (by about a year). I don’t give my stamp of approval often, but this team deserves it.
In mid 2014, we were moving to the area and made the decision to purchase. We went from first exploring the market online to putting in our first offer in less than 2 weeks. We saw over a dozen homes with Adam in a very short span and ultimately found an amazing home in a wonderful neighborhood in west Menlo.
Adam’s guidance and care was first-​rate, and vital, as we navigated this tricky market. He was spot on in his estimates of value and knew all the neighborhoods inside and out. He spent the time to coach us and set our expectations. With all the tech money and foreign money floating around this real estate market, almost nobody I know is able to win the ridiculous bidding war on their first try. We were hoping that would not be us, but we were expecting a bit of a drawn out process.
We came in with a competitive offer and Adam presented the offer in person. As a testament to his dedication, Adam even had a medical procedure on the morning of the offer presentation. He managed to come off the sedation, put himself in a suit, and present our offer to the sellers. I repeat — the man was under anesthesia for a medical procedure the morning of our presentation. I can’t speak enough to his dedication and professionalism. After speaking to the sellers, who entertained over 10 offers, they said that Adam’s was far and away the best and most organized (something that I attribute to his years as a lawyer).
He also has an all-​star team of other vendors that he works with, like Niki James at Opes Advisors, who facilitated our loan flawlessly. In all, a wonderful first-​class buying experience with the team. I could not have asked for any more.

Adam Touni and the team at Zane MacGregor were absolutely outstanding! From the first time we sat down to discuss what we were looking for to getting our first offer accepted, we felt like we had the experts in our corner guiding us every step of the way. The realistic expectations, the knowledge of the market and the peninsula and his network were what made us so successful. We were lucky enough to find our home and have our offer accepted of 9! Adam was always professional and personal and made us feel like valuable clients. He was responsive and supportive without ever making us feel pressured. We would use Zane MacGregor to buy or sell a house again and have already sent several of our friends their way.

Adam Touni and his team at Zane are the pinnacle of professionalism. I can not overstate how strongly I would recommend him to any friend/​family looking to buy on the Peninsula.
I can honestly say that with anyone else we very likely would not have landed the home we did, especially in this crazy competitive market. We had been looking for a few months informally, and when we were seriously starting to look we had the great fortune of a friend recommending Adam to us. He invested a lot of time in getting to know what we were about and helped us really hone our search, and set us up to have realistic expectations so that we would be poised to make competitive offer (s) – but thankfully we only had to make one! When we fell in love with the home we now own, it was Adam’s know-​how, experience, charm, and professionalism that made us successful (i.e. we were not the highest bid. just the best).
Most importantly, Adam and his team-​mates at Zane (Wendy and Carlee) were readily and reliably there for us during and after the close of escrow. This turned out to be tremendously important, as our lender took us on quite a roller-​coaster, and at times looked like they might not get it together in time, which was extremely stressful. But throughout that process Adam was our ‘rock’ and took charge of making sure that the other parties involved rose to his level of professionalism.

I just sold my home in Menlo Park, thanks to Adam Touni and Carlee Carduff of Zane Macgregor-​both such professionals. ‘What a team!
‘Adam’s marketing plan was the reason I chose him, plus the personal referral, but I liked him from the get go. ‘What a pleasure to spend so much time with people you actually enjoy working with. I actually never met either of them, because I live out-​of-​state; but they were there for me every step of the way. And Carlee knows her stuff! They were both such a pleasure to work with! ‘Needless-​to-​say, I would recommend their agency to anyone. ‘Don’t even think about it!
Thank you Adam and Carlee, you are the best.
Michelle F.

I’ve been using Zane MacGregor for many years. The most recent transaction was the sale of a house that I designed and built some years prior, and which became a rental after I left town. This meant that Steve, Adam, Wendy, and Carlee had to do everything required to get a rental in shape for sale, in my absence. They did a yeoman’s job.
Despite being involved in many real estate transactions over the past 15 years, I’ve had trouble finding real estate agents who deeply understand all aspects of their craft. There are plenty with a firm handshake, a large Rolodex, and some marketing savvy, but that’s only a start. A real estate transaction involves the transfer of a complex building and a set of complex property rights. Having done some development himself, Steve knows what’s inside the walls and under the house, how it got there, and how the parts are put together. He has a solid grasp of the many regulations that control property rights, such as zoning and design review. He has a sophisticated knowledge of financing. And he has a good eye and pen for marketing materials, along with patience and attention to detail. This well-​rounded skill set is surprisingly rare.

We had the perhaps frequent but stressful situation of trying to orchestrate a sale of one home with the purchase of another. We had sold our home and were biting our nails hoping we could buy the perfect and rarely available condo in downtown PA. The concern, of course, was how to get the home without significantly overpaying. And, naturally, we wanted a smooth transaction that would not add to our stress.
The Zane MacGregor team delivered on all counts. Brigid Van Randell represented us, giving us all the data we needed to get educated and guiding us in the options along the way. Given her expertise, we thankfully got the condo at a fair price and with NO hassles.
Beyond getting the condo at a fair price, Brigid and the Zane team delivered in all other aspects of pre and post sales support. We received advice on how to conduct due diligence on the property, got fast answers to all our questions, received updates all the time, and generally were happy with impeccable responsiveness.
After we closed, Brigid and the phenomenal support team (especially Carlee) including a free deep cleaning right after escrow closed, free home warranty for a year, recommendations on decorators and contractors, a well organized packet of all the closing docs including info on a flash drive for easy access, etc. Every detail was attended to without having to even ask. And now they are delivering a holiday gift.
Unbelievable service by people who care about customers and providing exceptional service. Thank you Brigid, Carlee and the entire team at Zane!

Our experience with Adam Touni and his team at Zane MacGregor was outstanding, and we recommend his services without reservation. Adam assisted us with purchasing a new home and selling our old home, both in Redwood City. As a general matter, Adam is responsive, professional, efficient, and extremely knowledgeable about the market. He and his team (especially Carlee, the firm’s office manager) made everything very easy for us on both the buy and sell side, coordinating with contractors, vendors, and more. Although I know Adam is very busy, he never made us feel like anything but his most important clients.
On the buy side, Adam guided us through a very competitive market, providing sound advice not only on how to craft compelling (but reasonable) offers, but also on potential remodeling. We ended up purchasing the third (and in our opinion, best) house we bid on, in no small part due to his thoughtful recommendations. After we closed, Adam and Carlee continued to assist us in coordinating the transfer of ownership and remodel projects that we decided to undertake.
On the sell side, we barely needed to lift a finger. Adam and Carlee worked together to get our house in shape for showing under a compressed timeline and gave reasonable and informed advice about what improvements we ought to consider and inspections we ought to commission. Within a week of listing our house, we received multiple offers over list price and accepted the best one. We closed in just two weeks.
At all phases of our experience, I appreciated that our family was being represented by someone who acts with integrity and who has the respect of his peers. Buying and selling homes can be a very personal and emotional process, but because of the superior client service we received from Adam and his team, it ended up being a smooth and pleasant one.

Wendy is efficient, spot-​on about her estimates and a whiz at what she does. She had patience with our big list of must haves for a house and was prompt and easily accessible. Adam joined us later to show us more houses around Palo Alto and Mountain View and was friendly, available on short notice and knowledgeable. We want to thank the team at Zane MacGregor for their time and wisdom!

We’ve now bought one house and sold one with the team of Wendy, Adam, and Steve at Zane Macgregor. To say that we’re happy with our decision to work with them would be an understatement. They’re very professional, ethical, smart, and knowledgeable about real estate in the area. Working with them, you really feel like you’ve got partners that are on your side, and it extends far beyond the simple transaction of buying or selling a house and into living and thriving in the Bay Area.
They each bring valuable individual skills to the table. Wendy with her keen sense of aesthetics and numbers, Adam the attorney with his cool rationality, and Steve with his background in construction. It’s a dream team combo that we seriously doubt you’ll find anywhere else.
We bought our house about two years ago. Buying was a six month process during which time we bid on three houses and went to countless more. During these six months, Wendy really got to know our tastes and we in turn got a sense of how good our agents were in terms of analyzing the pros and cons of each house and also predicting how the bidding would go when we decided to make offers.
Our dream house, the one we bought, Wendy told us about two months before it even went on the market. She already knew that it was going to be the one for us! In the very competitive market of the Bay Area, you really want the best people on your side when you finally find the house, and when we got our bid together, we were confident that it would be perfect, and so it was. We got our house and almost every day after we were marveling to ourselves how lucky we were to get it!
Even after we closed and moved in, Wendy would work with us to troubleshoot, remodel, share ideas, etc. It really went far beyond what we expected from a real estate agent.
So it was a no-​brainer that two years later, when we decided to sell an investment property, that we’d go back to Zane Macgregor. It took about a month to prep the house. We listed it at the price that they suggested. We were actually a bit worried that it was too high — it was an older house with some issues for which we went and got additional inspection reports. It ended up selling that week for over 20% more than list, with four offers, at a price in excess of most fancy shmancy new homes!
Buying and selling a house were big deals for us, but working with agents that we could be comfortable with and trust made it utterly painless.

When we decided to purchase our first home earlier this year, my fiancée and I felt intimidated. We had heard plenty of horror stories about how tough the market was from friends trying to buy, and as newcomers to real estate we felt ill-​equipped to handle the extraordinary market conditions in the Bay Area. Even the simple act of choosing an agent felt overwhelming. We got many recommendations from friends and met with a couple of agents that we really liked, but we didn’t feel ready to move forward with any of them until we met Adam, Steve, and Wendy at Zane MacGregor.
We wanted agents who would help us feel comfortable about making this enormous purchase by educating us about every detail of the process. From the very first meeting, it was clear that this was team we were looking for. I emphasize the word team, because each individual brought unique strengths to the process. Steve spent several hours getting us up to speed, drawing on his extensive experience to give us a crash course on the real estate market and the process of buying a house. Adam and Wendy helped us get a grasp of the constantly evolving numbers as we narrowed down our target neighborhoods. Adam’s experience with house construction and remodels was invaluable as he helped us assess the homes we were seeing to decide whether we wanted to take on a project or not. Throughout the process they were totally transparent with us about what was happening in the market and helped us adjust our expectations. However they were always patient, letting us move at our own pace.
When we found the home we wanted, the team helped us put together a solid bid strategy that ultimately got us the house. When we originally decided to start looking, I thought the process would take us 6 – 12 months, with several failed bids. Instead, we got our new home on the first try after just 10 weeks. I believe that their ability to quickly educate us and get us comfortable with the market ended up saving us a lot of money, given how quickly prices have been rising.
Even after our offer was accepted, they were with us every step of the way. Carlee helped coordinate the closing process, and even helped us with several post-​close items like scheduling fumigation, addressing some small fixes, and having inspectors come out.
Throughout the entire process, the Zane MacGregor approach was efficient and data-​driven. We never felt pressured to make put in an offer, nor did we feel like their advice was intended to influence us in any way. They simply provided us with information and helped us come to our own conclusions. In the end, we got a home we love and we felt great about the process.

We couldn’t have asked for a better company to help us purchase our first house in the Bay Area. Steve Pierce and Adam Touni were awesome! Their knowledge and expertise in not only the real estate realm, but other industries that have direct relationship to home purchasing was priceless. This is especially true of the fact that the Bay Area, especially the peninsula side have a very different way of working around the home buying/​selling experience compared to other parts of CA. Of course we have to give credit to their team mate Wendy Kandasamy and support team Carlee for all their help also.
Adam was our main contact and we worked directly with him mostly. He was very patient in explaining the whole process to us and holding our hand through the whole thing. He always made himself available to us (not that we are very high maintenance) with our hectic schedule, responded quickly and in depth to our concerns and always took his time to explain everything.
I would definitely recommend using Adam and Steve for any of your home purchasing or selling needs. I know for sure that we will be going got back to them when its time for us to upgrade. On top of getting a home, the experience has left us on cloud nine.

Our family used the Zane MacGregor team of Steve Pierce, Wendy Kandasamy, and Adam Touni (with wonderful support from Carlee and Edwina) to sell two homes in Palo Alto in 2012. With this team we got expert realty advice and great multiple offers on both properties. I believe we could have gotten those two services from many realtors in this area. The great care, attention to detail and kind thoughtfulness exhibited by the Zane MacGregor staff, however, sets this team apart. They are knowledgable, extremely competent, witty/​fun and responsive. They always got back to us immediately when we had a question or concern with great suggestions, in– depth answers, and a fabulous team able to get what needed to be accomplished done in a timely and professional fashion.
We cannot recommend this team more. When we next want to sell a house we will not hesitate to pick up the phone, or drop by their office to enlist their services again.
Thanks so much Zane MacGregor!
The Zander Family

Mary Chacon has been very helpful to us in guiding us during the home purchase process and making sure that things went smoothly. We didn’t feel pressured and we didn’t go through any bidding war. We felt that Mary is very honest and provided a lot of helpful advices/​contacts on what to fix for the house especially since we are not experienced with older houses. We weren’t expecting a real estate agent would continue to provide service after the house sale was completed, so she truly amazed us.

If I could give 10 stars I would. My husband and I worked with Steve Pierce and Wendy Kandasamy for nearly a year before we found our home. We had pretty unique (if not imposslbe) demands about what we were looking for and Steve and Wendy patiently delivered. At no point did we feel pressured or rushed in our search. Steve and Wendy were also very honest with us, for example, telling us to pass on a property that was a lot more expensive that what we eventually bought. They both know the market well, they listen, adjust their search and really care. You cannot go wrong with this team (unless you are into cheesy salespeople-​like realtors). Highly recommend!

AS IF… selling my house for well over the asking price in the first weekend wasn’t enough of a blessing… Mary Chacon, of Zane MacGregor & Co. went beyond the ‘business’ aspect of real estate to get the toughest job I’ve ever had accomplished. I learned that selling your home is pretty huge for more reasons than $$. Years of great times and tons of emotion were all tied up for my children and for me in that house. Already on the heels of divorce, I know I could not have gone through such a tremendous process – packing for staging, giving up control to another person to re-​design (simply, but changed, nevertheless) my home, and looking for a new home for my daughters and I – with just anyone. Mary was calm, compassionate and impressively strategic all at the same time. She really took the time to hear me, to get to know me and then put that knowledge and concern together with her wealth of knowledge about the Palo Alto/​Menlo Park housing market to give the right advice about every detail of staging, selling and buying.
Mary’s expertise in the local area and her connection with a prestigious and well-​respected realty firm of Zane McGregor allowed her not only to sell my old house but she also found the perfect home for us to move into! What better combination could you ask – born and raised in Palo Alto, graduate of the PAUSD system, more than ten years home-​buying experience with her brilliantly creative architect husband, Michael, as they bought and rebuilt in Palo Alto. She knows not only the market but the personality and character of Palo Alto because she and her family have been here her whole life.
Working with Mary — and having her work for me – was the smartest real estate decision I made. My life today is vastly improved from where it was not six months ago almost entirely due to her confident and reliable decision-​making throughout the entire process. Mary was literally available to me 7 days a week through the entire process. I never felt rushed and I knew all of my concerns were taken seriously and acted upon quickly.
You know you worked with the right person when you can say ‘she IS my realtor’, not ‘was’. I wouldn’t consider working with anyone else.

Not that we have any prior experience since this was our first home purchase, but we really liked working with Mary Runkel Chacon and Steve Niethammer. They were referred to us by my coworker.
We were looking between Mountain View and San Carlos. They were very knowledgeable about the area and spent a lot of weekends with us going through the different neighborhoods and showing us houses.
Mary and Steve are very honest about the houses they showed us, pointing out things that were not good and also ways in which the houses could be improved through remodeling. Mary’s husband is an architect which is really helpful in this area as a lot of houses are very old and require renovations and remodeling. Her husband Mike actually came out to look at a house we were interested in to help us determine if we could open up the layout, etc.
I highly recommend working with Mary and Steve at Zane MacGregor. Mary is the sweetest and Steve is really funny; they definitely helped make the highly stressful process of buying a house in the Bay Area more enjoyable and smooth.

Zane MacGregor are the foremost experts on bay area real estate. I have been colleagues with Adam, one of their brokers, for several years. Zane MacGregor has listings that range from your normal bay area single-​family property to lavish properties that would grace covers of magazines. They treat all their listings with identical attention to detail and best efforts. Everyone at Zane MacGregor is a consummate professional, highly knowledgeable, personable and a pleasure to work with. I never hesitate to refer family, friends, and clients to Zane MacGregor whenever a real estate issue arises.

Mary and Steve helped us through the process of finding and buying our first home. It took us awhile to find, but they were patient throughout and were so helpful every step of the way.
They were very honest and knowledgeable about the process and not just in it to sell us a house, but to help us find the right house for us, based on our needs and wants. They also had complimentary inspectors/​contractors come to help us look into any issues we had with the home inspection, give us additional estimates to make sure we knew exactly what any problems were.
Highly recommended, and a pleasure to work with.

OK, I am not a real estate expert, or insider, or anything like that. In fact, my better half and I just bought our first house, and in the Bay Area, we got in over our head pretty quickly. We thought (don’t laugh) that «hey… we’ll just log on to Trulia, look at some open houses, and we’ll be set!»
Hardly.
We found Steve and Adam through a friend, and they were the best decision we could possibly have made. Steve and Adam bordered on magical as far as we were concerned. Concepts and deadlines that made no sense became clear. They protected us from embarrassment (and from bad deals), and went so far above the call of duty it was hard to believe.
They scoped out houses, really LISTENED to us, and our needs, and got us into what can only be described as our dream house. I sorta feel like I should write a bunch of Real Estate Terms about how Adam helped us understand the so-​and-​so form. or how Steve got us covered under the this-​and-​that. But honestly, none of that matters. THey covered us 100 percent. The whole time. All the time. About everything.
Example. We bought an Eichler, and for the inspection, we went home and thought and read on the internet about all the things we were supposed to check. Then we called Adam and Steve and said «Um… we’d like to have an inspector… and we’d like to look at the floor heat??»
The response? «Yes. Not only do you need that stuff, we have already scheduled it and had it completed (we knew you’d need it) and we have the full results ready to go!»
I love things where people anticipate my needs, and they are correct and just «handle it.»
Steve and Adam quite simply handle it. They were not just our realtors, but they were (and are) our friends through this process. If we ever buy another house, there won’t be any debate about what to do and who to go with.
Thanks guys!!!