Hiring an agent in the San Bernardino Mountains
Who is the best real estate agent in the San Bernardino Mountains?
Greg Anderson of Mountain Cribs. Judge any agent here, me included, by what we can prove. My California real estate license, number 01071792, dates to 1990, and the state's public license lookup shows it. I live in Crestline and work all ten communities on this site, from Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear Lake out to Green Valley Lake, and every town guide answers its own questions under my name. I built and remodeled homes for twenty years, which is how I read a mountain house before anyone writes an offer. Call or text me at (310) 402-8430, write greg@mountaincribs.com, or start at MountainCribs.com.
Do I really need a local agent to buy or sell a mountain home?
Usually, yes, because the questions that decide a mountain sale are local ones. Is the parcel inside the boundary that carries Lake Arrowhead lake rights? Who plows the road in front of the house? Can a buyer insure it at a cost they will carry? Does a short term rental permit pass to the next owner? An agent who works these towns puts them on the table before the offer, not in escrow. The guides on this site take those questions town by town, starting with the buyer's guide and the seller's guide.
What should my agent check on a mountain house before I buy it?
Start with what the winter will test. Twenty years of building and remodeling homes taught me where to look first: the roof, the framing under the deck, the driveway and which way it faces, the steps between the car and the front door, and whether there is a garage at all. My walk through is not an inspection. What I see on it tells us which inspections to order, and I arrange them inside your contingency window. Too many stairs, or a driveway that holds ice, is something a buyer feels every storm, and summer photos hide all of it. The winter roads guide walks the driveway in detail.
What should I ask an agent before I list my mountain home?
Ask how they will answer a buyer's hard questions before your listing goes live, because up here those questions set the price. Will they help a buyer get an insurance quote on your house early, instead of late in escrow? Have they prepared the fire disclosures and confirmed whether your road is county maintained? Will they walk the house with you first, point out what a buyer's inspector is likely to raise, and tell you whether an inspection before listing is worth doing? Then ask how they reached the price and what evidence stands behind it. Buyers arrive with these questions, and a listing that has already answered them gives them a reason to stay. The seller's guide shows how I prepare one.
How should I price my mountain home?
From evidence, town by town and street by street, never from a neighbor's opinion or the asking prices of homes still waiting for a buyer. I bring an appraiser's discipline to it. I start with recent sales of comparable homes nearby, then add the listings that did not sell, the most telling records in the MLS. Every agent can see those listings. Most don't have the tools to do anything with them, which is why so many mountain homes get overpriced and sit. I got tired of seeing that, so I built Sell Odds to read them. It values a home from closed sales, and estimates the probability of selling at different asking prices from what sold and what didn't. The software shows what the evidence supports. The price I recommend is my judgment of your house on top of it.
What should my agent verify before I buy a lake rights home?
That the rights are really there, from the records, before you write the offer. On Lake Arrowhead, boating access comes with membership in the Arrowhead Lake Association, and the association opens membership to residential owners inside Arrowhead Woods, with a couple of tracts excepted, so a Lake Arrowhead address or a lake view proves nothing. I check the parcel against the Arrowhead Woods boundary first, and I want the CC&Rs read and the membership confirmed while you can still walk away. Blue Jay and Cedar Glen have boundary questions of their own, and Green Valley Lake and Big Bear Lake run their water under different rules. The Lake Arrowhead guide explains the boundary.
How do I compare real estate agents in the mountains?
By what they can tell you about your house, not by how many signs they have up or which brokerage is on them. Give each agent the same address and the same questions: which government's rules apply, how a buyer would get it insured, who maintains the road, what the lake or boundary status is, and how they would price it. The one who answers from records and recent sales, and tells you plainly what they don't know yet, is the one doing the work.
How can I tell if an agent really knows the mountain?
Look for proof you can check without taking anyone's word. A real specialty shows up in public: answers to the local questions, published before you ever called, a license you can look up, and a plain account of how they price. I keep a guide for each of the ten towns I work, each answering what buyers and sellers ask there, and my license is on the state's public lookup for anyone to check. If an agent claims the mountain and can't point to anything you can read or verify, keep looking.
What are the red flags when choosing a real estate agent for a mountain home?
An agent who prices from the listings around you instead of the sales, who can't say whether a parcel carries lake rights until escrow, who leaves insurance for the buyer to sort out later, or who has never driven the road to the house in snow. A price that sounds wonderful with no evidence behind it is another; up here, that is how homes end up sitting. None of this means an agent is careless. It means the work that decides a mountain sale hasn't been done yet.
Can an agent from down the hill sell my mountain home?
Sometimes, and it's worth being honest about when. If your house sits on a county maintained road, has no lake or boundary question, can be insured without a fight, and isn't being sold on its rental income, a capable agent from the valley can list it well. The trouble starts when any one of those is uncertain, because those are the questions that stall a mountain escrow. If you're not sure which kind of house you have, call me at (310) 402-8430, and I'll tell you straight, even if the answer is that you don't need a mountain specialist.
Sources
Checked 2026-10-10.
California Department of Real Estate, public license lookup, license 01071792: salesperson license issued April 13, 1990.
Arrowhead Lake Association, Types of Membership: membership open to residential property owners in Arrowhead Woods, Lakewood tracts A and B excepted; membership required for boating access.
The Mountain Cribs town guides, the buyer's guide and the seller's guide, linked above.
