AWARDS

• Five Star Real Estate Agent award winner 2014-2018
• Zephyr Top prducer 2011 to date
• Senior sales advisor at GBteamSF
• Courtney Behan - co founder of GB team SF
• Mentor to newer agents starting in the business
• Rising star 2005 @ Lyon Real Estate
• Proud Father

SPECIALTIES

• Areas of Focus: San Francisco, Pacifica, Select parts of the East Bay
• Single family homes, Condo, TIC's and condo conversions
• Experience in Bankruptcy, Probate & Short sales (not that these really exisst today.

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Sellers

"There was a lot of work to do on my house to get it sale ready including delicate relationships with other people in my building - Matthew was an invaluable leader and spearheaded everything with incredible hard work and devotion. I would not have trusted anyone else to help me with this process. Matt was there to answer all of my big and small questions and keep me calm! What could have been a very stressful experience was smooth and easy thanks to Matt! I am so so grateful to him. " Farrell

"Matthew did an amazing job helping us sell our house. He presented us with a clear marketing plan, helped us prepare and stage our house, priced our house well, and had it sold within 10 days on market with 13 offers! Matthew worked his magic, and we got a great price for our house. Thanks Matthew!" - Cori

We found Matthew on a recommendation and so glad we did! Matthew was our agent as we went through the process of not only selling our apartment, but condo conversion in SF, too. Matthew was very communicative, personable, kind, and patient with us during the whole process. He even went over and turned off our smoke detector for us in the middle of the night during open house weekend when no one was there! His team made our apartment look stunning and in the end we sold our home for a lot more than we all expected and love our new buyers, too. He's also just the nicest guy! We'd highly recommend Matthew.  - Clay

"Matthew took care of so many little details getting us ready for the sale it would be impossible to list them all. He made the experience easy and painless. He was great at dealing with difficult neighbors and smoothing ruffled feathers. I always felt like I knew what the next steps were thanks to his timely communication (and if I didn’t I know I could have called him to find out instantly).

Without a doubt I would recommend him to anyone. "  - Heather

 

Buyers

My wife and I started our house hunting process with Matthew and we knew absolutely nothing about buying a house, the process and what to look for prior to meeting him. After our first meeting we were blown away by how knowledgeable Matthew was and how much we learned from him in our first meeting along. There was absolutely no pressure on his end and he answered all our questions with great thought and detail.

We then went to go look at some houses with him. What was great was instead of taking us to a bunch of random houses immediately, we got together and came up with a plan together in his office on which houses to see. We found that super helpful so we weren't looking at houses we knew we would not be interested in. Our tour with him was fantastic, we again learned so much from him. He was able to talk about the construction, the renovations needed, the electrical wiring of the house, etc. Just overall super crafty and he clearly knew real estate. Throughout the entire process again there was absolutely no pressure applied on his end and he was just feeding us tons of knowledge that we soaked up.

Overall, I would highly recommend Matthew and his team! - DG

This review is long overdue. We hired Matt Goulden and Courtney Behan to help us find the perfect home in SF (not an easy feat). My husband and I started working with Matt back in about January after meeting several realtors. He introduced us to his associate, Courtney and we started working with them both. In the end we ended up finding the perfect home, and could not have done it without Matt and Courtney!

While we were impressed by several things in working with Matt and Courntey, three things really stood out about this team: (1) their incredible knowledge of all things real estate, (2) their craftiness as it related to understanding how to add value to a property (value and costs), and (3) their integrity and honesty . To provide some more context, here's what I mean:

(1) Knowledge of real estate: t's truly extraordinary how much knowledge this team has. We could throw a question at Matt about literally anything (i.e., foundation of our property, flooring, base shoe moulding, trim, kitchen cabinets, the list goes on), and he could tell us all about the history of why it was built that way, what changes were made, what to do with it, etc. We hired a structural engineer to check out the property we purchased, and as he did his walkthrough, we were surprised at how Matt was equally (if not, more) knowledgeable. The engineer actually started asking him questions! This was incredibly helpful with our search, especially in a market like SF that is truly unlike many other markets.

(2) Craftiness: While other realtors swayed us in taking that 'move in ready' home, Matt and Courtney were crafty in helping us think through different cost and value levers. We made it clear to them that this was especially important for us. For example, our home required new hardwood floors, a slight kitchen remodel, a bathroom remodel, and some paint. Matt and Courntey suggested these improvements to us, indicated the general cost range, and gave us an indication of the value it would provide. This was INCREDIBLY helpful...they both have extensive experience having done this in their own homes, and even suggested some great contractors for us.

(3) Integrity and honesty: We never felt pressured during the sales process. We always felt that they were fair and giving us their honest opinion. Even despite Matt just having had a baby girl a few weeks before our home closed, he was there at nearly every appointment to make sure we were making the best decision. I could not thank this team enough for that.

So final thoughts...we started our house hunt looking at all those agents with 100s of yelp reviews, and found really quickly, that while those agents are 'good', they didn't have all the impressive traits (listed above) that Matt and Courtney have. We literally could not have asked for a better team.

If you are reading this, hire Matt and Courtney! You will not regret it :).  - Rosie

The first, second, third and n-th reason why we call ourselves happy homeowners in June of 2013 in San Francisco after an improbable six-month journey is one man: Matthew Goulden.

It started with a chance inquiry by my wife on the Zephyr web site that was answered through a stroke of luck by Matthew. This was January 2013, and we were at the very beginnings of our inquiry whether real estate for us makes sense and is doable. We were not at all convinced, and obviously needed help.

The first thing I liked about Matthew was that he didn't immediately start dragging us from open house to open house, but he invited us out for a beer in a Mission brew pub, to get to know each other. Classy. Old School. And it worked. It didn't become clear to me until later how much real estate is a relationship business, and how much people skills matter, but Matthew is a natural, and I knew that after the first hour or so of meeting him at the bar.

We went on to write a half-dozen offers with him before the winning bid. Along the way, he taught us the ins and outs of properties. It helped tremendously that he used to buy and fix up homes; he's got a great eye for the issues of any property and he's forever the diplomat to gently bring those up without hurting our feelings.

With Matthew, there were lots of firsts which made the process at least interesting, if not fun. It was the first time I went to the San Francisco Tenants' Union to check up on the rental history of a home we were considering, on his recommendation. It was the first time to look up blue prints at the planning department (which Matthew made sure they had the day before so I wouldn't waste my time), to check if what we saw in the house lined up with the specs, for a no-inspection offer we were making. It was the first time we interviewed neighbors about sellers of a property (that's a genius move, by the way).

When it came to making offers, the process can be quite overwhelming. Not only the sheer volume of it (500+ pages in some cases), but also the anxiety-provoking questions of right or wrong for us, of offer price, of long term viability. After all the warning labels had been signed, we always got his honest opinion in the best ways he could give it. Is a no-contingency offer for this property a reasonable risk? Is this a good offer price? Is this a good value?

Being well networked is part of his trademark, and got us the winning offer. We saw a property before it went on MLS. We made an offer the next day, still not on MLS. We fell out of contract a week later, due to lender concerns with the ownership ratios of this complex. This was a new condo complex, still in majority ownership of the builder. After we fell out of contract, we thought it was a done deal. Not so for Matthew.

This is where is experience shines. It's never a done deal, until somebody says so firmly. He never assumes, he always looks for another angle. It's was great negotiators do, and he's a master. He got the builder to switch the contract to one of the other unsold units that wasn't ready for sale yet, at the same terms. We stayed in contract for 60+ days, until after the remaining units had sold off, all the while prices were rising all around us. It was an amazing feat.

On closing day, he showed up at the title company with jacket and tie, it was a celebratory moment for all of us. We had been anxiously fielding questions and issues with the lender right up until hours before our signing appointment at the title company. Matthew was there with us, every step of the way, often advising us proactively about the next set of problems we might encounter and guiding us through them, be it counter offers and contract changes, be it lender issues, or be it seller issues after close.

Matthew even attended our first HOA meeting, on his request, to make sure the transition from builder to our newly formed HOA was smooth, pointing out the finer points of the CC&R's along the way.

And after a long day of dealing with open houses, offers, contracts, loans or other things, while we were falling into bed exhausted, Matthew's lights stayed on, doing homework on behalf of his clients. He read all hundreds of pages of paperwork, pointing our strange easements or looking up warranty policies on water heaters or replacement costs on kitchen ranges as a matter of routine contingency. Ne never hesitated to go the extra mile. For him this is a matter of principle.

He worked hard for his money and earned it dearly. Matthew is a true professional of high caliber and old school integrity. I'm grateful to the universe that our paths have crossed and I wholeheartedly recommend him to anyone looking to buy or sell real estate in San Francisco - Wolff

Courtney Behan has been nothing short of amazing - she's knowledgeable about neighborhoods, and homes. She helped us pull in experts quickly for inspections and estimates when we needed to. She helped us write strong contracts, she talked us through the consequences of various tradeoffs/decisions. She helped us go through insanely huge disclosures quickly ... there was nothing she wasn't able to make happen so we could make confident decisions. Courtney worked really hard for us - and yet it felt like we were her only clients. I have no idea how she did that. She was helpful, encouraging, she wanted us to make decisions that we would be happy with - we felt supported and not pressured. She's also a lovely human being who we enjoyed being around. I will absolutely & wholeheartedly recommend Courtney to anyone looking to buy a home in in this market. Kate, San Francisco

Courtney is an absolute rockstar. Zephyr is lucky to have someone as great as her. Courtney is incredibly knowledgeable, flexible, and always available to answer questions (even on vacation). She knew many details about neighborhoods, and the right things to ask at each showing. I switched the search criteria on her a couple times and she handled it effortlessly. She walked me through each step of the process, taking the necessary time to explain to me whatever I needed. She was never pushy. She always had a great gut reaction as to whether a place was worth it, what price to offer, and contingencies to place. She would go through disclosures and provide me a rundown of what she thought needed attention. Truly a star. I’ve already started recommending Courtney to my friends. Eytan, San Francisco

I really appreciate all of your patience, attention to detail, and knowledge. You're definitely the one I'd come back to for any of my future real estate needs! - Neeta