Founding partner · since 2009
Claire Havilon, in her own words.
Seventeen years on this coast, one room to start with, and a rule about twelve houses that has survived every year since.
Nine years at a firm that carried two hundred listings taught me that we knew perhaps thirty of them, and that the rest of the work was forwarding. In 2009 I took one room on Alameda Court, five houses, and a rule I have never had a good reason to break: no more instructions in a year than two people can walk, measure and write themselves.
What that buys a vendor is not attention as a slogan. It is the partner who valued your house standing in the hall at the viewing, hearing the question the buyer asks on the landing, and knowing at the survey what was said in March.
I still write half the particulars. I read every registration that comes in. And I have told four owners this year not to sell yet, which is the part of the job nobody advertises.
Claire HavilonFounding partner · CalDRE 01987452
What she does
Three jobs, and none of them delegated.
Twelve months to August 2026
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7 of 12
She takes seven of the office’s twelve instructions
Valued, written and shown by her. Rafael takes the other five, and neither of them carries a house they have not walked.
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103.1%
Her houses sell at or above the printed guide
Median achieved against the figure she set, in thirty-four days. The guide is defended rather than discounted, which is why it is printed in the first place.
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4
Owners told this year not to sell yet
Two waited for the spring catalogue, one let the house instead, and one sold through another office at a figure we would not have printed.
Sold this season
The whole catalogue →
$5,750,000
$7,300,000
Two of the three sold above the guide she printed; The Orchard sold $150,000 under it, in the week the survey came back.
Directly
She answers her own telephone.
A valuation is an hour in the house and costs nothing. If she thinks you should wait until the spring catalogue, she will say so at the kitchen table rather than in a letter.