Roberta is brilliant and truly the best realtor we've ever worked with…read more We first met her at an open house she was hosting in Orinda. At the time, we didn't yet have a realtor and were still figuring out where we wanted to land in the East Bay. Shortly afterward we shifted our search toward Walnut Creek, and Roberta immediately became an invaluable partner in the process. Because we were relocating from Los Angeles, we often relied on Roberta to be our eyes and ears on the ground. She toured more than 20 homes on our behalf, walking us through every detail with honesty and sharp insight--clearly explaining what would be a great fit for us and what wouldn't. What made Roberta truly exceptional was how much effort she put into understanding us as people. She took the time to learn how we live, what we care about, and what kind of community would make us happiest. Before we ultimately chose Walnut Creek, she thoughtfully introduced us to several East Bay areas--including Berkeley, El Cerrito, and Pleasanton--to make sure we found the right place, not just a house. When it came time to make offers, Roberta was always three steps ahead. She understood the dynamics of every situation--timelines, competing offers, and how to structure a winning bid without encouraging us to overpay. In the end, we won our home against two competing offers--even though ours was the lowest purchase price. That outcome was no accident; it was the result of Roberta's strategy, preparation, and negotiation skill. What impressed us just as much was what happened after the offer was accepted. During escrow, Roberta proactively connected us with contractors and even helped coordinate quotes so we could plan renovations in advance. Because of that preparation, we were able to start several remodel projects the very day we got the keys. Roberta goes far beyond what you expect from a realtor. We feel incredibly lucky to have worked with her and would recommend her to anyone without hesitation.

We were so fortunate to be represented by Roberta while purchasing our home! Roberta is a fantastic…read moreagent - she instantly understood what we perceive as a perfect home, was expeditious in making arrangements with all parties involved, and proactively took steps to protect our interests at every stage. Roberta is a great communicator and ensured that we were informed and made the right decisions in a timely manner. She looked out for us, investigated issues on our behalf, and made herself available during all hours of the day. Her easy-going and fun personality makes her a pleasure to work with throughout the otherwise stressful experience of purchasing a home. Roberta has an impressive knowledge of the local housing market, and her pricing analysis was spot-on allowing us to offer a competitive price between multiple offers without overpaying. We recommend Roberta wholeheartedly and with great appreciation!

This is a review for Laura as a real estate agent, but also as a solid human being. She helped me…read morepurchase a house that my mother had found a block away from the house I was born in. Although it was 10 years ago, the experience was quite memorable for me, I had worked with another agent before her that didn't even compare. The house was in pretty good shape, but after the inspections, Laura was able to negotiate 10%+ off of the accepted price due to the need for a sewer lateral upgrade and some foundation work. She really had my best interest in mind and I don't take for granted her integrity, and her absolute passion for what she does. Anyone would be lucky to utilize her expertise in the field, and to be blessed by her overall good spirit and energy. If I ever decided to sell, she would be my go to with absolutely no hesitation or reservations. I hope you are well Miss Laura, I send you all the best from Berzerkeley, keep kickin' butt in all your endeavors me lady. *Insert heart emoji here.

Laura is that one in a million agents and people that you always dream of finding. She truly takes…read morecare of every detail and actually finds a way to make the extremely stressful real estate process fun! I can't give enough stars or accolades - you will be blessed to work with her and highly regretful if you choose otherwise.

We cannot recommend Laura highly enough…read more From the very beginning, Laura approached the sale of our property as if it were her own. She was involved in every detail, anticipated issues before they arose, coordinated vendors, managed timelines, followed up relentlessly, and kept the entire process moving forward. In many ways, she was not just our realtor, but the project manager for the entire transaction. One of Laura's greatest strengths is her attention to detail. Nothing escaped her notice. She worried about every little thing, and while there were moments when it seemed like she was thinking about details the rest of us had not even considered, those details are exactly what led to such an extraordinary result. Most importantly, Laura delivered exactly what she said she would. Early on, she laid out her strategy, explained what she believed she could achieve, and then exceeded our expectations by making it happen. We received an all-cash offer, with no contingencies, and an eight-day escrow. The property sold within days. As sellers, we simply could not have asked for a better outcome. Real estate transactions are often stressful, but Laura's professionalism, persistence, market knowledge, and tireless work ethic gave us confidence every step of the way. We always knew she was advocating for our interests and pushing to achieve the best possible result. If you are looking for a realtor who is strategic, exceptionally hardworking, detail-oriented, and completely committed to her clients, you will be hard pressed to find anyone better than Laura. We are incredibly grateful for her work and would recommend her without hesitation.

Laura was the agent I needed to help me in both buying a house ,and selling a house (later down the…read moreroad). As a new homebuyer and someone who works in art education (very little to no knowledge in general finance knowledge), I needed an agent who was going to help me through the process and explain every step to me as the process was very daunting and overwhelming to me. Laura was exactly the person with whom I needed to do this. She basically held my hand through the entire buying process, which I have been so grateful for. When buying a home, you need someone who's going to work for you, and that means fill you in on every step and every document that needs to be signed. She's a people person and loves keeping connection so I definitely felt like I was always informed and never left in the dark about anything at all. If you need the kind of person that will be on top of it when buying a home, you can't get any better than Laura! As someone who needed to sell a house, I knew I could count on her to make sure the house was in as best shape possible to show off. I made the necessary repairs and she hooked me up with a wonderful stager who offered me a good discount. We ended up selling much higher than I expected and I have to thank Laura for all of that work! No doubt about it, Laura will work for YOU!

Val just helped us sell our Alameda home. I've known her for over 20 years. I chose Val to be our…read moreagent for more reason than just being a friend. She sold a home across the street from us 6 years ago, which is much like ours, for an amazing amount. Far more than I expected. I knew she was the one to work with if we ever decided to sell. Getting a house ready to sell takes experience, savvy and a pile of help. Val knew all the right people to paint the house, fix the floors, gardening refresh, staging, and all the little things which need updating. We got the house ready to sell in 5 weeks and got an offer, at the money we wanted (much more than Zillow suggested), in just 5 days. Keep in mind that at this time, interest rates have just zoomed up over 6%, more than double what they were just a year ago, and everyone is talking about prices coming down and longer waits on the market. Our house got top dollar and Val is the reason.

This review is about 8 months overdue. My fiancee and I first met Val in November 2019 at an open…read morehouse for a home she was selling. The house was probably out of our price range and we looked like we had no idea what we were doing. Nonetheless, Val greeted us warmly and willingly answered our questions while asking a number of questions that helped us shape what we were looking for. It was that openness and engagement that led us to seek her out as an agent. She set time aside after our work hours to go through the process with us, listened to our concerns and preferences (even when we constantly broke them), and spent hours with us visiting homes in all sorts of areas, styles, and price ranges while we figured out what exactly we were looking for. She was always on the mark for price points. 3 months later, we ended up putting in our second offer on a house that wasn't even within our original parameters. Val rolled with the punches and we soon got the news that our offer had been accepted! Then the first regional shut down hit. Undeterred, we went through with escrow and ended up with our first house! Val is an incredible force and is a wonderful agent to have in your corner. She's knowledgeable, easy to reach, and makes herself available for her clients. It was a joy working with her to get our first house.

Julie is exceptional. We worked with her as first-time homebuyers in Piedmont, and she made us feel…read moreconfident and comfortable through every step of the process. Julie is honest, informative, and patient, and she consistently devoted more time to us than we ever felt we deserved. Though we ultimately love the house we purchased, there were some major question marks during the offer process and escrow. Julie never pressured us into moving forward and leveraged her deep network to bring in an engineer, pest inspector, and general contractor to ensure we were as informed as possible during the decision process. Julie knows everyone--and everything--about real estate in this market and made it clear she was always in our corner. We'd highly recommend Julie and her team without reservation.

Julie is an incredible realtor. She turned the challenging, emotional ordeal of buying (and…read moreselling) a house into a comforting process, guiding us through every step with clarity, compassion and expert experience. She was highly motivated and worked hard for us every day. We owe Julie and her whole team at Compass an enormous debt of gratitude for everything they've done to help us find our dream home. Thank you!

My family and I worked with Linda on our SF house search spanning November 2024 through March 2025,…read morewhen we found the home that was just right for us, and we could not have picked a better agent to work with. First off, Linda is a delight to be around, which made what can be a very stressful process, as easy going and calm as it can be. Additionally, she has tremendous local market knowledge, many years of experience, and expertise navigating the nuanced San Francisco real estate scene, giving us peace of mind in a very competitive environment. She's well connected with other SF agents, and we saw first-hand how her relationships and reputation enabled us to view homes when seller agents weren't available, and how other agents respected and seemed to enjoy working with her. Linda worked to understand our needs and adjusted her search over time, as we gave feedback on homes we toured, and learned more about what we liked and didn't like. She patiently toured multiple homes with us, quickly scheduling appointments when we expressed interest in a property, to ensure we never missed out on a potential opportunity. Linda was available night and day, weekdays and weekends, answering texts usually within minutes, if not immediately, and making herself available for calls to thoroughly discuss disclosures, or any other pertinent information. The one time she wasn't able to join us for a tour, she coordinated with the seller's agent to schedule the appointment and arranged for a team member to meet us at the property. She assured us that someone from her team would always be available for situations like that, if needed. When we found the home that we knew we wanted to put an offer on, Linda expressed our interest to the seller's agent and learned that there was a competing offer in place that expired within an hour. She successfully negotiated an extension to that deadline, giving us a few additional hours to act. She then worked with us to draft a strong offer and coordinate with our lender to ensure the loan documents were ready--all within a few hours on a Sunday afternoon. She called us around 10pm that evening to let us know our offer had been accepted! Linda's customer service is unparalleled, her expertise and professionalism impressive, and we highly recommend working with her!

Linda is the absolute best. During my transaction, Linda constantly communicated clearly and…read moreeffectively. Linda adapted the information that needed to be communicated to my style, informing me the details when needed and handling issues to spare me time. She always had another resource and another strong way to make something happen. She brings calm and composure to what could be a stressful situation. Linda always has a smile - you want to work with her. She is shrewd and effective. Would highly recommend and will refer her to all of my friends and people in my network.

Melanie went stratospherically beyond our expectations from a realtor while selling our home. She's…read moreextremely knowledgeable, patient, and communicative. During the entire selling process, Melanie was on-site most days of the week and handled everything for us. I could not have hoped for a better realtor to work with and I cannot recommend her highly enough!

Melanie helped us to buy our home in Orinda last month. She is truly a local expert on the…read moreneighborhoods of the Lamorinda area. We appreciated the time that she spent with us getting to know our family, and she was great with our daughters who weren't always enthusiastic to join us on house tours. Melanie has a very strong network of realtors in this area, which makes her well positioned to advise buyers on a potential sale price. We trusted her instincts, and had our offer accepted on our dream home - the first offer we made in Orinda! Even after our house closed, she has been extremely helpful and responsive to all of our questions. I can't recommend her enough!

We were extremely impressed with Linda in every way possible that one can be with a Real Estate…read moreprofessional. Although we decided to ultimately buy out of the East Bay, we were impressed with Linda's knowledge of the tiny and diverse neighborhoods and areas from Castro Valley to Oakland to Berkeley to Lafayette and Orinda. Linda demonstrated intimate knowledge with regard to single properties, seller histories and past owner histories of properties near her own listings, but ones which she wasn't even listing personally. As a buyer or seller, you want an agent that is plugged-in to the local markets and intimately aware of the climate not only in real estate, but the overall state of the lending markets and the economy in general. Linda goes above and beyond to be responsive, knowledgeable and an expert on how to get the best deal on the best property. When we ultimately decided to move to Marin, Linda was able to refer us to some very expert, energetic and comparable agents there. On top of all this expertise, ability and knowledge, Linda is down-to-earth, genuine and personable. If you're considering buying property in the East Bay, be sure to contact Linda Van Drent.

Linda is an amazing Realtor - knowledgeable, kind, and experienced. I am a Marin County Realtor…read moreand whenever I have friends, clients, or colleagues interested in the Orinda area, I send them to Linda. I know she will provide the best of guidance to help them achieve their homeownership goals. Thank you Linda for for being a Realtor I can always count on to give 110%! Naomi Thorne Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Marin County, CA.