At a glance
- Role: Real estate agent with Compass (Compass California, Inc.), member of The Louie Team, 891 Beach St., San Francisco.
- License: California DRE salesperson #01896556 — verify at the DRE public license lookup. Licensed since April 2011.
- Roots: a native San Franciscan — born in the city, raised in the East Bay, and based in San Francisco since 2012.
- REALTOR® membership: member of the National Association of REALTORS®, bound by its Code of Ethics.
- Residential focus: single-family homes in San Francisco — particularly Bernal Heights — and on the Peninsula, particularly Burlingame.
- Investment background: analyst at Marcus & Millichap, then Director of Real Estate at a local affordable housing nonprofit; closed multifamily sales in San Francisco (listed below).
- Education: University of California, Davis.
Two ways of looking at the same house
Most agents are trained on the residential side or the investment side. Thomas came up through both, and he uses both on every single-family home.
The residential view asks what a family will pay to live somewhere: the layout, the light, the block, the schools, the commute, how the kitchen feels at 7 a.m. The investment view asks harder questions about the same property: what it costs to own and maintain, what the rental market says about its underlying value, what the permit history reveals, and what could go wrong between offer and close.
For buyers, that combination shows up as a comparative market analysis that goes past the comps: deferred maintenance priced in, unpermitted work identified, an honest view of resale. For sellers, it shows up as pricing and preparation decisions grounded in how buyers — and their inspectors and lenders — will actually evaluate the property.
What that background covers
- Residential valuation — comparable-sales analysis adjusted for condition, lot, view, parking, and permitted versus unpermitted square footage.
- Property economics — carrying costs, property-tax reassessment, insurance, and realistic maintenance reserves for older San Francisco and Peninsula housing stock.
- Rental income and multifamily — rent rolls, operating expenses, cap rates, and how local rent and eviction rules affect value.
- Due diligence — disclosure packets, inspection reports, permit records, and title items read with an eye to cost and risk.
- Property operations — Thomas started as a maintenance technician while at UC Davis, so building systems, water intrusion, and deferred repairs are familiar territory.
- Negotiation — structuring terms (contingencies, timing, credits) around what each side actually needs.
Career path
Thomas’s understanding of real estate began with a set of keys and a work order. While earning his degree at UC Davis, he worked as a maintenance technician, learning buildings from the inside out. He went on to Marcus & Millichap as an analyst, where the work centered on how income properties are underwritten, valued, and marketed to investors.
From there, Thomas served as Director of Real Estate at a local affordable housing nonprofit, where the underwriting mindset met the day-to-day realities of owning and operating housing, including HUD and TCAC compliance.
His work has since spanned residential sales, multifamily and investment property, affordable housing, commercial real estate, and HUD and TCAC compliance. He was previously affiliated with Coldwell Banker Realty in San Francisco and joined Compass and The Louie Team in 2026.
A native San Franciscan
Thomas was born in San Francisco and raised in the East Bay, and he returned to the city in 2012 to build his career here. His knowledge of the Bay Area’s neighborhoods is not something he acquired after arriving; it comes from a lifetime in the region, watching how its communities, housing, and markets have changed. He has been licensed as a California real estate salesperson since April 2011.
Transaction record
These closed sales are publicly reported and appear on Thomas’s Compass agent profile. They were completed while he was affiliated with Coldwell Banker Realty; several were co-represented with Coldwell Banker Commercial. They are listed here in plain text so the record is readable without JavaScript.
- 3835 19th St (Somerset Apartments)Dolores Heights · multifamily$4,990,000
- 1391–1393 Vallejo StRussian Hill · multifamily$1,950,000
- 984 Harrison StSoMa · multifamily$1,840,000
- 1385–1387 Vallejo StRussian Hill · multifamily$1,700,000
- 537–541 Dolores StMission Dolores · multifamily$1,633,750
- 601 Van Ness Ave #71Opera Plaza · condominium$589,000
- 451 Queens Ave, Yuba CityCommercial · retail center$3,000,000
Neighborhood and property-type labels match the listing records shown on the homepage. The Somerset Apartments sale involved representing both sides; the Vallejo Street, Dolores Street, and Yuba City sales were co-represented with Coldwell Banker Commercial.
An honest note on focus
Thomas’s publicly reported closings to date are primarily multifamily and investment properties. His current residential practice focuses on single-family homes in Bernal Heights and Burlingame, and this page will be updated as those transactions close. The guides on this site are meant to show how he thinks about those markets in the meantime.
Client reviews
Reviews on this page are published only with the client’s written permission, quoted exactly as written (trimmed only for length, with ellipses), and attributed the way the client chooses. They are never written, edited for keywords, or incentivized by Thomas.
Verified client reviews will appear here.
Professional profiles
- Compass agent profile
- California DRE license lookup (search license #01896556)