NORCAL
SOCAL
At Universal California, we specialize in custom construction management.
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We provide full spectrum design and build services to transform our clients vision into
real property improvements. We build value into each of our projects, and wealth for our clients.
From Residential Homes, Outdoor living, Commercial and Industrial properties, our team can build it!
Client Testimonials
Milene Peterson, D.D.S, PhD
Scientist 2 (Immunology) at Second Genome Inc.
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“Gareth was amazing since the first contact. He walked us through the steps with professionalism and impressive expertise, which made our journey easier. By following his advise we were able to get the house in our first offer and he went miles to help us through all the hustle till get the key of our new home.
Milene and John Peterson “
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John Fritz
Builder - Swan Pools
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"It was such a pleasure working with Gareth who seemed to have all the answers to our real estate questions. I would highly recommend him and his renovation team who all made our sales transaction all so easy and painless. Thank you Gareth."
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Peter Day
Associate Director - Genetech
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"We were very lucky to have Gareth to help guide us through a time sensitive and tricky situation. For both, the selling of our old house and the purchase of our new house, Gareth did an excellent job keeping us informed of possible or actual challenges and really excelled at helping us to find solutions. In addition, to keeping us informed on all of the small details, Gareth also helped to keep us focused on the big picture of getting into our new home."
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-Peter
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Andy Lo
Product Marketing
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"We first met Gareth in an open house. As we are new immigrants and unfamiliar with the area, he spent quite a lot of time explaining the market and home acquisition process to us in details. His extra patience to my non-stop questions and true enthusiasm to real estate business made me believe he is the right agent for me, although many friends did refer theirs to us.
Guess what ? I made a good decision. It's a great experience working with Gareth through the entire home searching & offer assembly journey.... and now we have a new home ready to move in !
Need an agent ? I highly recommend Gareth !"
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-Andy
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Doris Lee
CPA
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"After attending our first open house with Gareth, we found he was very knowledgeable about the structure of a house. He pointed out problems with the house, which a first-time home buyer would not even know about it. With the high renovation cost for this house, he advised us that for a first-time home owner the house might be too much for us to take on. We felt Gareth put the buyer’s interest first and was dedicated to finding the right house for us. So, we decided to go forward with our house hunt with Gareth as our agent.
For every house we wanted to make an offer on, Gareth always gave us a detailed analysis of the pros and cons as well as highlighting the major issues we should be should be aware of. His honest and comprehensive analysis of the comps in each neighborhood gave us the knowledge to help us determine which house would be right for us. Several months and multiple offers later, we are closing on our first house. We learned so much from Gareth over the last couple of months and he gave us great recommendations for contractors for our house. We would recommend Gareth Gibson as a buyer's agent to our friends and family."
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-Doris
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Tuhin Ghosh
VP of Data Science, Motif, CircleUp
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"An acquisition in the Bay Area real estate market is not for the faint of heart. The mix of low inventory, old homes that needs tons of TLC, and competition mean that this is a marathon and not a sprint and can be particularly agonizing for a first time homebuyer.
Having said that, you can make it through the maze if you have someone like Gareth as your coach and agent. We would've given up many times and several months ago had it not been Gareth's tireless work on educating us about the process, walking us through the options for financing, helping us look beyond what you see in a staged open house and stressing the value of location.
We often felt that Gareth as much vested in the buying of the right house for our family as we were. At the end of this process, I must say we're relieved that we found a great house in a good neighborhood and we don't have too many battle scars to show. One thing we will miss is hanging out with Gareth every weekend!"
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-Tuhin
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Alon Shiran
Group Product Manager, Yelp
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"5 stars - a true professional and a great person!
This was my first real-estate purchase, and Gareth did an amazing job handholding us the whole way. He was present at every open house we saw, and identified the pros and the cons/risk of each house while teaching us what to look for ourselves.
In addition to being an expert in evaluating the houses we considered, Gareth was clearly an expert in the Belmont / San Carlos / Burlingame area we were considering. He gave us insights such as the different micro climate each neighborhood had, as well as the differences in schools in each.
Gareth was our main contact with the lender throughout the process, and guided us throughout the mortgage and closing process. He even set us up with professional service providers he's connected with, which were willing to show up to the house to consult us and inspect with no charge.
We ended up buying a house we love at a location we love. I don't believe we would reach such a positive outcome without Gareth on our side."
-Alon
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John Wu
RPh - Kaiser Permenente
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"Gareth is very knowledgeable and personable. It really felt like he went the extra mile to try to show us as many houses as possible and take the time to listen to our needs and wants. He spent a lot of time looking into all possible options for us, staying up late to write offers, and explaining all the potential pitfalls of each property.
Great communication, a lot of information sent to us, and most of all seems like he genuinely cared about his clients." -John
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Nitin Pai
Senior Principal Product Manager, Oracle
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"We met Gareth through Heidi Group team. We are glad we met him. He quickly understood our needs within a couple of weeks of conversations over open house/private showings. Heidi was easily able to take a backseat knowing we were in good hands and Gareth kept her in the loop and pulled her in when needed. Here are a few things that really make him a great buyer’s agent:
Personality - He is very amicable, observant, positive and easy to converse with, with an uncanny skill to understand his client’s needs without making it feel like an interview.
Knowledge - Gareth who is local to the Peninsula possesses a great knowledge of the area, especially the nuances of the exact streets where school zones change, comps, nature of homes, average age and demographics.
Attention to detail - During the walkthroughs, he caught several structural, plumbing and electrical abnormalities that an inexperienced buyer would not catch and had targeted recommendations that helped us make decisions quickly and effectively.
Availability - He was always gracious and generous with his time, whether it was for giving us time to walk through the house or during phone calls after business hours to brainstorm strategies and next steps. He has declined my call only once and even then he returned the call soon.
Team - He also has a great team behind him who helped us through offers, inspections and scheduling private showings.
In summary, I would gladly recommend him to my family, friends (which I already did) and colleagues should they ask me." -Nitin
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Alyssa Hayashi M.S. CCC-SLP
Speech-Language Pathologist
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"We recently bought a home in San Carlos, with the guidance of Gareth Gibson who gave us the knowledge and confidence we needed to buy our first home! Although my husband and I are able to utilize online tools like MLS, Zillow and Redfin, etc. to search for homes in our area, our results were not focused enough to help us find the right homes that worked for our family.
Gareth taught us how to be savvy buyers in one of the most dynamic and challenging housing markets in the country. He is professional, responsive, proactive and tech/market savvy. Gareth spent a good amount of time looking at homes with us while teaching us how to find a good value, how to target key neighborhoods and how to understand the market conditions that would make our future home a great investment. With his guidance, we developed a “template” to organize and focus our search from week to week that still allowed us to meet the daily demands of work and family. With each passing week we became more efficient, self assured, and strategic.
Once we understood the market, we gained the confidence to write offers when we found the right fit. In just under 2 months of working with Gareth, we found that perfect home, wrote our best offer and within 2 days we were in contract. Unbelievable! During escrow, Gareth and his team were just a message away to answer any questions and even supported us by scheduling needed contractors/services to get our home ready for move in. Incredible gold standard service!
Gareth is an experienced, knowledgeable and responsive agent with the wisdom, vision and heart of a teacher. We are absolutely thrilled with our new home purchase. Gareth made our home search fun (yes, fun!) and we highly recommend his expertise to those seeking a dream home of their own." -Alyssa
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Lisa Bock, Central Elementary School
Parent, Belmont Central Elementary Music Program Coordinator
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"Gareth was a parent volunteer with our music program and brought percussion to the kindergarten kids this year at Central. The kids all looked forward to the hands-on time trying out the drums when Gareth came in about once a month.
It was really nice having a parent willing and able to make the effort to share his valuable knowledge of music & rhythm with the kids!"
-Lisa
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Ostap Korkuna
Software Engineer, Facebook, People.AI
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"This was our first house purchase and we knew we were in a very competitive market, so we were looking for an agent that would make the process comfortable for us and at the same time the one that would go above and beyond to find that perfect opportunity for us and help us secure it. Gareth hit on all of these points. After interviewing a few realtors we decided to go with Gareth because of his energy, dedication and very efficient communication. Now I know we made the right choice! Gareth walked us through the process giving numerous advices. We've seen a huge spectrum of houses with Gareth (from total wrecks to incredible mansions) and he provided great insights into the amount of work needed and approximate cost of improvements — his experience working with contractors really helped here."
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-Ostap
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Renae & Chris Davey
Stanford University
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"We love Gareth's energy and enthusiasm for real estate. He is professional and was available whenever we needed him. Gareth's knowledge of the bay area neighborhoods gave us the confidence to expand our search to new areas during our house search.
He kept us on track and engaged during the slower months to ensure we didn't miss any opportunities.
We enjoyed working with Gareth!" -Renae
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Rhonda Jeffrey
Funds Flow Manager
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"I am pleased to recommend Gareth Gibson! He recently represented me on a home purchase that involved multiple offers and a quick close. He spent considerable time with me during the months prior, looking at homes and making decisions. He was always available, and answered my questions regardless of the issue. In this sale, there were multiple offers and we were asked to resubmit, and mine was the offer chosen. His advice and expertise in this type of situation was invaluable. In addition, this home closed in less than 30 days. It was a simple and smooth deal in the midst of a very hot and demanding market. Once my escrow closed, Gareth greeted me at my new home, where I found congratulation gifts from his office including a little something for my young daughter. Gareth has the expertise, organization skills, and team behind him to make any transaction seamless (and painless). I recommend him without hesitation for your real estate needs." -Rhonda
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Maya Lis Tussing
Principal
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"Gareth is an attentive and highly knowledgeable agent and we would definitely use him again. What made him especially valuable to us is that he knows quite a bit about building structures which enabled us to better assess the quality of a particular home right when we walked in. We got a good deal on our purchase and are excited for this next chapter in our new home." -Maya
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Catherine Chan
Chip Design Engineer
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"We had the pleasure of having Gareth as our real estate agent while searching for our home in the Bay Area. From the search through the offer, Gareth worked tirelessly to provide us with an honest and in-depth analysis of the area, properties, and pricing.
During the search, he took the time to understand our requirements and provide us with personalized listings. During the offer phase, he pulled disclosures and summarized the pros/cons of the property under consideration on the same day; so we were able to jump on opportunity quickly with a competitive offer based on his detailed analysis of the condition of the property, comps, & market. Once our offer was accepted, Gareth's team at Heidi's group helped to make sure that we close escrow smoothly and had everything we needed to move in.
I would recommend Gareth to anyone looking for a realtor that will give personal attention and spend the time needed to assist you in finding the home of your dreams." -Catherine
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Andrew Robinson
Market Director Lowe's Companies
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"I had the pleasure of having Gareth as my realtor during my recent relocation to the San Francisco market. Gareth spent extra time to ensure that my partner and I found the home of our dreams in the neighborhood that was close enough to public transportation and everything to fit our needs for our life. I would recommend Gareth to any individual or family looking for a realtor that will give personal attention and spend the time needed to assist you in finding the home of your dreams."
-Andrew
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Qian He
Quantitative Analyst
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"My husband and I are more than happy to give Gareth Gibson the highest possible recommendation.
Mr. Gibson represented us in our recent home purchase in a quite competitive and dynamic area. We came across Mr. Gibson in an open house. He prepared a list of properties soon after our first conversation. We were truly impressed by how precisely he was able to capture our requirements of the house as wells as our financial situation. The list was spot on - there was nothing either far out of reach or dissatisfying. We feel lucky to have Mr. Gibson help us narrowing down the search. His rich knowledge of the market and this area was crucial to our final decision. Mr. Gibson is also a master in negotiation - without his deliberately designed offer strategy, we could not have achieved this deal at such favorable price. The entire process was a very pleasant experience, and we did not feel left without help at any single moment. Mr Gibson was attentive all the time and made tremendous efforts from rushing the loan application to planning small upgrades of the house.
Mr. Gibson will be our first-choice agent in the future, and we are pleased to recommend Mr. Gibson to anyone who is looking to buy a home in the areas that he is specialized in." -Qian
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Joseph Huang
Data Engineer, Facebook
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"Gareth was super professional and went above and beyond of what I expected from a real estate agent.
We were looking for houses in the bay area for a good 1.5 years now, and were mostly focusing on housing close to Facebook. We were referred to Gareth by one of the agents in an open houses we went to. During our search phase Gareth gave us the most in-depth and honest analysis of the houses/area/pricing which we were not expecting (but I think all good real estate agent should do for their clients).
Later on during the offer stage Gareth was also super professional - actively communicating between me and the seller agent, as well as moving fast with good preparation to jump on another opportunity (within 1 day!) when our first option didn't go through. He also was a great help during our bumpy closing process keeping the ship running smoothly. Big kudos here!
Finally, he went above and beyond and provided me with great and extremely valuable suggestions regarding home improvement projects I can pick to maximize my investment. Very much appreciated!" -Joseph
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Kenneth Hardy
Optometrist
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"Gareth Gibson was able to help our family out through a trying time in life. My parents had 3 rental properties that we needed help with managing with the loss of my father to age and my mother to dementia. Gareth was the consummate professional and helped us manage them long distance. As time moved on we decided to sell the income properties and didn't have to think twice on who to help sell them. The sales went smoothly and we couldn't have had better representation." -Kenneth
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Helena Hoen
Biostatistician, Stanford University
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"I moved from out of state to the Bay area for a job. Gareth took the time to listen to my needs and help me understand the market in California. He gave me strong referrals for the financing, and sent me individual home listings he thought were a good fit. I went to open houses on my own and Gareth went with me to the ones I was considering and did a market analysis. I have elementary age children and it was important to me to get them into a school I felt good about and to get us settled into a home as quickly as possible. These were huge tasks that Gareth worked with me to make happen. The neighborhood we are in is very friendly. Neighbors came by and introduced themselves, and I enjoy the conversations on passing.
Still, this was the hardest move I have made. We had to move into a house that wasn’t well maintained because it’s what we could afford. It’s a seller’s market even in the construction business, so it isn’t always easy to find responsive people who will follow through a job to completion before moving on to another job and took care in the quality of the work. We are getting there, though, and I am grateful to Gareth for his support and hard work along the way.
Gareth was our real estate agent when my wife and I bought our very first house. As with any first purchase there were many difficulties we encountered but Gareth provided all the necessary support and information to calm our nerves every time. He worked tirelessly and was always available.
Furthermore, I had a very good time looking at houses with him and I learned a great deal during the process. He was sociable and extremely honest. We never felt pressured to make decisions.
His knowledge of the market and financial elements in real estate was excellent. There were no situations where he was not able to provide detailed answers to what was happening. My wife and I both felt the experience was positive and enjoyable. Three years later and we are still happy with our house. It was a wise buy, in an excellent area." -Helena
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Emoke Zsuzsanna B'Racz
Owner/Founder - Malaprops.com
"Based on my experience as a founder and owner of a successful businesses for the past 34 years, I am recommending Gareth Gibson. He has a work history that demonstrates skills, determination, adaptability and integrity. He is analytical, focused on fact-based decisions, and the energy he brings to work challenges is admirable." -Emoke
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John Pascuzzi
Divisional General Counsel, Blackberry, Plantronics
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"Gareth helped us purchase a new home in Danville. Gareth works with the highest level of integrity, works with urgency, and has creativity to help close on the purchase of our home. I would highly recommend Gareth either when purchasing or selling a home."
-John
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Stuart Green
Faculty: University of Redlands
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"Gareth was our real estate agent when my wife and I bought our very first house. As with any first purchase there were many difficulties we encountered but Gareth provided all the necessary support and information to calm our nerves every time. He worked tirelessly and was always available. Furthermore, I had a very good time looking at houses with him and I learned a great deal during the process. He was sociable and extremely honest. We never felt pressured to make decisions.
His knowledge of the market and financial elements in real estate was excellent. There were no situations where he was not able to provide detailed answers to what was happening. My wife and I both felt the experience was positive and enjoyable. Three years later and we are still happy with our house. It was a wise buy, in an excellent area. " -Stuart