A "Brokers' Tour" gives agents with new or price-reduced listings the opportunity to hold the properties open for viewing by other local agents. Buyers are more than welcome to visit the listings on Brokers' Tour, as well, even when unaccompanied by their agents.

There are two Brokers' Tours each week, one on Thursday, the other on Monday. Which day a property is held open depends on its location. The Thursday Brokers' Tour includes properties in Berkeley, Albany, Kensington, Emeryville, El Cerrito, Richmond, and points further north. It also includes Oakland properties in the Rockridge neighborhood and the neighborhoods east of Highway 13 (the Warren Freeway). Properties in the remaining parts of Oakland, and properties in the city of Piedmont are scheduled on the Monday Brokers' Tour.

There are two separate sources for the Thursday Brokers' Tour listings. Most agents list their tour properties in the online MLS. Other agents, especially Oakland-based agents, use a print publication called the "Ad Review" to list their properties. Many agents will list their properties in both places. If you are going to visit properties on tour, do check both lists to be sure that you see everything that might be of interest. This is made easier than it might be by the fact that the Ad Review sequences properties in descending order of price. I have sequenced the MLS listings the same way.

As far as the hours that homes are held open on the Thursday Brokers' Tour, the general rule is as follows. Properties north of University Avenue in Berkeley are held open from 9:30 to noon. In addition to properties in the north half of Berkeley, this includes properties in Albany, Kensington, El Cerrito, and points north. South of University Avenue is where a bit of variation shows up. Properties listed in the online MLS tour list are generally held open from 11:00 to 1:30. Properties listed in the Ad Review are generally held open from 10:00 to 1:00. There are exceptions to the above, and as mentioned, many agents list their tour properties in both places so be sure to check the specific times for each property you want to see.

For the Monday Brokers' Tour, the situation is a lot simpler. Properties on Brokers' Tour are listed in the Ad Review. Nearly all are held open from 10:00 to 1:00, but do double check the times here as well.

This page has two links to the MLS Thursday Brokers' Tour list, one to the Thursday Ad Review list, and one to the Monday Ad Review list. The Thursday MLS Spreadsheet format that gives you the gist of the features of each property along with the start and end times of the open house. (If you print out this list, you may need to set your printer to landscape orientation, letter size.) The Thursday MLS Gallery format gives you quite a bit more detail on each property. As I mentioned above, both of these lists are sequenced in descending order of price.

I routinely preview on Brokers' Tour all listings that might be of interest to buyers I am working with. If we are working together, you can expect to hear from me sometime in the afternoon after tour about the pros and cons of the properties I saw.

I update the tour links on this page late on the day before, or early on the morning of the Brokers' Tour. Check the date at the top of the Ad Review list to make sure you are seeing the current week's properties.

NOTE:
If you experience a problem with a blank page showing after you click a tour link, do this: position your mouse over the link, right click and select "Save target as..." and then note what the file name will be and where it will be saved. Then exit your browser and open the file in Acrobat. The problem has to do with some versions of Acrobat used in conjuction with certain versions of Windows.