Deciding to Buy: Get Pre-Approved and Know the Numbers
Financing options, applications and processing, shopping for a loan, and funding — what to line up before you tour your first home.
Hayward · Castro Valley · San Leandro · Oakland
BSR Realty, Inc. has served the Hayward community since 1948 — buying, selling, leasing and managing residential and commercial property throughout the greater Bay Area. Same family, same office on Foothill Boulevard, same straightforward approach.
About BSR Realty
We are excited to welcome you and happy to help you with all of your real estate needs. Our team of local real estate experts is ready and available to help you with a wide range of real estate services. We specialize in working with first time home buyers, current home owners, property owners, and both the leasing and sale of commercial property in the greater Bay Area.
Our commitment to serving our community began in 1948, and our dedication to our clients has always been our first priority. In today's ever changing market place we pride ourselves on consistency. We are consistently honest, straight forward and fair. It is these characteristics that have allowed us to serve our community for such a long time, and we look forward to continuing this tradition into the future.
That longevity shows up in practical ways. We are an owner-operated brokerage, so the broker who signs your listing agreement is the same person involved in the day to day running of the business. Alongside sales, BSR Realty is one of the largest property management firms in Hayward, currently managing over 700 residential units as well as over 500,000 square feet of commercial space — which means we see this rental and investment market from the inside every single day, not just at listing time.
“In today's ever changing market place we pride ourselves on consistency. We are consistently honest, straight forward and fair.”
What We Do
Most Bay Area offices pick a lane. We have run sales, investment and management side by side for decades, and each one makes the other two sharper.
From a first home in Hayward to a move up in Castro Valley, the process is the same: understand the numbers before you fall for the house.
Owner-occupied homes, small apartment buildings, and estate, probate and trust sales handled with the same care.
We lease and sell commercial property across the greater Bay Area, and manage over half a million square feet of it.
The Process
Whether you are buying your first house or selling a twelve-unit building, the arc is the same and you will always know which stage you are in.
Buyers get pre-approved and learn what their budget actually reaches in each city. Sellers get an honest read on what the property is likely to bring and what it will take to get there.
Pricing comes from recent closings on comparable streets and comparable buildings, not from an automated estimate. For income property, from actual rent rolls we can see in our own portfolio.
Repairs, cleaning and photography for sellers. Disclosure review and a shortlist of target properties for buyers. This unglamorous stage decides most of the outcome.
The listing goes live and showings begin, or we start touring and writing offers. You hear from us on a schedule we agree in advance, not only when there is news.
Price is one term among many. Contingencies, timelines, credits and possession are where deals are quietly won or lost, and where an experienced broker earns the fee.
Escrow coordination through to keys. Afterward we are still the office you call about a contractor, a tenant question, or what the building next door just sold for.
Property Management
Over 700 residential units and more than 500,000 square feet of commercial space, managed out of one office on Foothill Boulevard. Owners get direct access to the people doing the work, and tenants get a real phone number that is answered.
Vacancies are marketed on Craigslist, Zillow, HotPads and our own website, with newsprint on request. Units are shown weekdays and weekends. Every lease is legally reviewed, every applicant is screened, and every vendor we send out is licensed and insured.
Featured Communities
Southern Alameda County is not one market. A Hayward hills view lot, a San Leandro bungalow and a twelve-unit building on a Castro Valley arterial each behave differently. Here is how we read them.
Our office has been on Foothill Boulevard for decades, a few blocks from the downtown B Street corridor. Hayward runs from flatland bungalows and post-war tracts up to hillside homes with bay views, and it carries one of the deepest small-apartment inventories in the county. Cal State East Bay and the BART line keep rental demand steady year round.
Quieter, greener and more suburban than its neighbors, with mid-century ranch homes on generous lots and a strong pull for families. Being unincorporated changes which county departments you deal with on permits and inspections — a detail that surprises out-of-area buyers and their agents more often than it should.
Tight blocks of well-kept bungalows and Spanish revival homes, an industrial and warehouse spine along the freeway, and two BART stations. Buyers priced out of Oakland routinely land here, and the commercial corridors are where a good share of our leasing work happens.
The largest and most varied market we work in, and the one where block-by-block knowledge matters most. Craftsman and Victorian stock in the flats, hillside homes with slope and access questions, and rent-regulated multi-unit buildings that need to be underwritten carefully before you sign anything.
Our broker has spent most of his career with small investors buying and selling 1 to 65 units in this exact submarket. Duplexes, fourplexes and garden apartment buildings, valued on real rent rolls and real turnover costs rather than a cap rate borrowed from a different county.
Retail storefronts, office suites and the tilt-up light industrial buildings that fill the corridors between Hayward and San Leandro. We lease and sell them, and we manage more than 500,000 square feet of the same product, so lease comps are not a guess.
Owners & Sellers
A house, a duplex or a commercial suite — ask us for a real opinion of value based on what has closed and leased nearby, plus an honest view of what is worth doing before you go to market. No obligation, and no pressure on the other side of it.
Our Team
Small office, long tenure. You will speak to the same three people from the first phone call through closing.
Licensed in April of 1976, Dwight has over 45 years of experience as a Broker. He has focused most of his career on working with small investors looking to sell or purchase 1–65 units in southern Alameda County, and is an expert in estate, probate and trust sales, working closely with several local attorneys. As an owner operator, he is actively involved in the day to day operations of the business.
Dustin works across both sides of the business, listing and selling homes and income property while managing the day to day of the rental portfolio — leasing, turnovers, inspections and owner reporting. If you own a building with us, he is usually the person on the other end of the line.
Alba keeps the office running: rent collection and deposits, owner distributions, monthly statements, vendor payments and the year end tax package. She is the first voice most clients and tenants hear, and the reason paperwork does not sit.
Common Questions
Our office is at 22320 Foothill Blvd. Suite 100 in Hayward, and we work throughout southern Alameda County and the greater Bay Area. Our featured communities are Hayward, Castro Valley, San Leandro and Oakland.
Yes. We specialize in working with first time home buyers, current home owners, property owners, and both the leasing and sale of commercial property in the greater Bay Area. First time buyers get the most out of an office that explains financing, disclosures and inspections rather than rushing past them.
Collection of rents and deposits, monthly distributions by check or direct deposit, marketing and leasing, applicant screening, legally reviewed lease agreements, weekday and weekend showings of vacant units, maintenance coordination with licensed and insured contractors, monthly exterior and quarterly interior inspections, bookkeeping with monthly financial statements, a year end tax package including vendor 1099s, and a 24-hour emergency hotline for tenants.
BSR Realty currently manages over 700 residential units as well as over 500,000 square feet of commercial space, which makes us one of the largest property management firms in Hayward.
Yes. Broker Dwight Roberts is an expert in the field of estate planning when it comes to estate, probate and trust sales, and works closely with several local attorneys to find the best solution for their clients when dealing with their estates.
That is a large part of what we do. Dwight has focused most of his career on working with small investors looking to sell or purchase 1 to 65 units in southern Alameda County, and because we manage hundreds of units in the same submarket, our read on rents, turnover costs and operating expenses comes from current numbers.
Guides & Resources
The short guides we walk clients through most often, on both sides of the transaction and on the rental side too.
Financing options, applications and processing, shopping for a loan, and funding — what to line up before you tour your first home.
Deciding to sell, preparing the property, accepting an offer, escrow inspections and appraisals, and close of escrow.
What we screen for, what to bring to an application, and how showings on our vacant units are scheduled during the week and at weekends.
Get In Touch With Us
Or simply call the office. Someone here answers the phone, and if we are not the right fit for what you need we will tell you that too.