Steve Breihan and Carolyn Malecek specialize in helping people buy and sell homes/condos in the St. Louis metro area. They are with Berkshire Hathaway Alliance out of their Clayton/Ladue office located in the Maryland Walk building at 8077 Maryland Avenue in Clayton. They joined Berkshire Hathaway Alliance (formerly Prudential Alliance, Realtors) in 2009 and in 2016 were ranked #2 in the Berkshire Hathaway Alliance Clayton/Ladue Office with a sales volume of over $26 million. Steve and Carolyn are also ranked in the top 1% of all agents in the St. Louis real estate market. They are also members of the prestigious Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chairman's Circle Platinum Club, Berkshire Hathaway's highest ranking, which is only awarded to the top 1% of all Berkshire Hathaway agents nationwide according to sales volume and production.
Steve and Carolyn started their real estate careers with Gundaker Better Homes & Gardens back in 1994 and 1997, respectively. Steve was the 1995 Rookie of the Year Runner-Up for Better Homes & Gardens nationwide and was awarded the Better Homes & Gardens International President's Council Award. The pair have been close friends for the past 30 years and have worked side by side in the same office since 1997, winning every award their company ever offered for production and customer service. After long careers at Gundaker Better Homes & Gardens (which became Coldwell Banker Gundaker in 2002), Steve and Carolyn decided to partner their business. They made the move to Prudential Alliance (now Berkshire Hathaway) and brought over 31+ years, at that time, of combined real estate experience to their clients while being able to offer even better service and even more availability to both buyers and sellers.
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Carolyn Malecek
Agent, Team AdminErik Petersen
Agent, Team AdminSteven Breihan
Agent, Team AdminLizz James
Agent, Team AdminMichael Gianino
Real Estate Agent
MD
Megan Dewey
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Lizz James
Jun 17, 2025
Lizz helped us sell our house off the market prior to an out-of-state move, and we can't say enough good things about her support. She made it as easy as it possibly could've been for us with a toddler and a lot on our plates. She was responsive and anticipated all our needs. We have sent many friends and family in the area to this agent team based on our years of extremely positive experiences.
CG
Carolyn is the professional you want on your side when buying or selling your home! Her knowledge and decades of experience are invaluable, and when paired with her integrity of character - it’s a no brainer - she is THE BEST in the biz. We can’t recommend her enough. She’s honest, she’s kind, and she will move mountains to make sure her clients are taken care of.
JG
Joy Grosser
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Carolyn Malecek
May 12, 2025
Carolyn provided an excellent experience in the selling process. She was an advocate for me and also a great consultant for the entire process. Over the past 20 years I have moved 8 times, and the experience I had with Carolyn's expertise far surpassed any previous agent I have worked with. I would highly recommend Carolyn and her team to any prospective seller without reservation. She is the best I've ever worked with!
KR
Katie Rodriguez
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Lizz James
May 5, 2025
Lizz was amazing helping to guide us through the process of buying our first home. She knows the Webster Groves area very well. She was always easy to get in touch with and communicated quickly. She helped us to make an appealing offer in a competitive environment and has gone above and beyond in helping us find contractors and workers for our renovation. I would highly recommend her to anyone looking to buy or sell in St. Louis!
GS
Gail Schamel
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Carolyn Malecek
Mar 31, 2025
Carolyn is an experienced and knowledgeable agent ! She is easy to work with, honest, organized and professional ! She cares about her clients on a personal level and gets to know them in order to assist them in their real estate experience! She makes herself available to answer questions and offer advice! If she doesn’t have the answer, she has a multitude of professionals as resources to assist her with “out of the ordinary” issues! I would highly recommend Carolyn and her team for any real estate adventure !
LH
Lori Hubbard
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Lizz James
Mar 25, 2025
Lizz is the absolute best. Our home sale went so smooth, and she went above and beyond to take all of the minor hassles off our plate. I can't express how much a relief it was to have her support throughout the process. Plus, she's funny and kind and an overall great human. Thank you, Lizz!
MG
Maggie Gold
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Carolyn Malecek
Mar 11, 2025
I cannot recommend working with Carolyn highly enough! She truly is the best in the biz, and made home-buying an amazing experience for us from start to finish. She was so generous with her time, taking us to multiple showings even before we were ready to buy so we could start to get a lay of the land. At each showing, Carolyn’s insight and expertise were so apparent. She would point out all of the small but important details in a home that we wouldn’t otherwise know to look for. Once the time came we were ready to purchase, we knew exactly what we were looking for and were able to put in an offer with total confidence. As far as putting together the offer itself, I can’t imagine anyone doing a better job than Carolyn did for us! She knew just how to make our offer competitive without sacrificing any important pieces. And it paid off! There were 9 offers on the house and ours was accepted, I can confidently say because of Carolyn’s expert guidance and insight. We are absolutely thrilled with the house we found, and know that it is all thanks to Carolyn. Knowing what good hands we were in made the entire process feel positive, enjoyable, and completely stress-free. We are so grateful to Carolyn and her team and cannot recommend them highly enough!
DD
Deborah Deutch
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Carolyn Malecek
Dec 6, 2024
Carolyn was a pleasure to work with: knowledgeable, listened to my needs, always available and fun! I recommend her without reservation !
JA
Jane and John Han
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Carolyn Malecek
Nov 19, 2024
Carolyn was wonderful! She was very knowledgeable, and could always answer our questions. Carolyn’s experience, professionalism, efficiency and energy guided us through the home buying process, which can be a little daunting, and helped us find the house we now call home. We really appreciate her quick response to any and all questions we had along the way! We highly recommend Carolyn Malecek!
CA
Liz was on top of everything. I appreciated her quick responses and going the extra mile. We were to lease it in within 30 days.
SL
Carolyn was a pleasure to work with. She was incredibly professional and always extremely responsive. Our home sold in a week. Carolyn was most helpful with all the small details and she guided us through the process with ease. We would recommend Carolyn to anyone.
TA
Terry and Kristie Slezak
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Carolyn Malecek
Oct 4, 2024
What an amazing experience we've had with Carolyn as our realtor! She was on top of things the moment we contacted her, but without being "over the top". She allowed us to get a feel for what was on the market and to change our minds as we checked out different areas and multiple homes. Her patience and understanding of our needs has been limitless and her response time was prompt every time we contacted her about a question or another property. Carolyn's knowledge and experience of what to look for in a home was helpful as well, whether they were "red flags" or "perks". She has guided us through the home buying process seamlessly! Most of all, we have appreciated the friendship that has developed as we searched together for our new home. We wouldn't buy another home without her!
JW
jing wang
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Carolyn Malecek
Sep 30, 2024
Carolyn worked tirelessly, even while on vacation, to help us find a lovely home in a very competitive market. She was great at accommodating our crazy (out of town) schedule and was consistently able to get us into a showing. Her and her team were very efficient at helping us through the inspection/closing process and everything went through without an issue. I recommend her without any reservations.
CT
Carolyn Terschluse
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Carolyn Malecek
Aug 12, 2024
Carolyn is a phenomenal realtor! She was incredibly supportive throughout my husband’s and my purchase of our first home, providing us with advice and answering all our questions each step of the way. We would recommend Carolyn to anyone, regardless of whether you are a first-time buyer or purchasing your fifth home!
KB
Kelley Barney
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Carolyn Malecek
Jul 19, 2024
Carolyn was so amazing! I was looking for houses while living out of town and she made the process so easy. She walked through houses with me on FaceTime and she was so knowledgeable about what problems and concerns to watch out for. She definitely made a challenging situation seamless!
MK
Mary-Kate Malecek
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Carolyn Malecek
Jul 11, 2024
She is the best realtor in St. Louis- treated us like family!
CR
Christopher Rueve
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Carolyn Malecek
May 28, 2024
Carolyn went above and beyond when house searching for my fiancé and me. She went out of her way to show us elements of houses we were looking that I would have never thought of. It was extremely helpful to paint a bigger picture, and it ultimately led to my fiancé and I closing on a house! I highly recommend working with Carolyn as your agent!!
SB
Shirley Bynum Smith
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Lizz James
May 13, 2024
Lizz James is simply the best. She's calm, forthright, experienced and knowledgeable, only a text or phone call away but not hovering, helpful, friendly, and a super human being. In short, Lizz knows her stuff and is a person you can trust.
JH
Jon Hume
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Lizz James
May 9, 2024
Lizz did a great job selling our parent's home. She was thorough, diligent, and communicated with us at every step. This property posed some challenges (flood history, needed updates) but Lizz was able to secure a full price offer and our closing went off without a hitch. I would recommend her and her company, Breihan, Malecek, Petersen & James.
AS
Adam Suhy
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Lizz James
Apr 26, 2024
Lizz did a great job listing and selling our house! She coordinated with a great staging company who really made the house look awesome. Her marketing must have been spot on because we closed almost exactly 2 weeks after listing. She was a great help all along the way.
JB
Jim Breihan
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Lizz James
Apr 22, 2024
Lizz was super responsive throughout the whole process and gave me great advice! Especially when it was time to make an offer, and with her help, I got my first offer accepted.
BL
Becky Luttbeg
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Carolyn Malecek
Mar 4, 2024
Carolyn was amazing from start to finish. She guided me through the process effectively and provided me with the appropriate expectations. I appreciate her years of experience and her knowledge of the neighborhood and surrounding areas which helped the buyer feel comfortable and confident in their decision making process. I highly recommend Carolyn. She was always very communicative and stayed on top of any items that were outstanding during the sale of my home. Thanks so much Carolyn for your help and expertise selling my house!
DW
Dan Wojciechowski
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Carolyn Malecek
Feb 22, 2024
Carolyn, Erik, and Ashlyn were great to work with and helped take much of the stress of selling a house off myself. I had never sold a property before and from the moment Carolyn and Erik first came to my house for a first look to the closing date, they were always available to answer any questions at any time I had with the sale. Carolyn and her team were a pleasure to work with and would recommend to anyone who is in the market.
T
tjf
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Carolyn Malecek
Feb 10, 2024
what a wonderful job Carolyn did for us. She listened to what we wanted, did the research, picked out a few houses to view, and walked us through all the properties. With her guidance we selected an historic house, in a stable community, with a lot of local amenities to enjoy, and obviously within our price range. She never missed responding to either a call or text. Surely could not have done it without her.
GR
Greg Rebman
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Carolyn Malecek
Nov 3, 2023
Carolyn was the best. See made the process of selling our parents house very easy. Anytime anything needed to be done she took care of it immediately. We highly recommend Carolyn.