Karen and Yoko were wonderful to work with. They had my mom's house sold within weeks and made my life easy since we live long distance. Thank you both so much!! read more

Yoko and her team are INCREDIBLE! It was an absolute pleasure to work with this team. I felt guided and supported throughout the entire home buying process, remodel, and move. They are very responsive, grounded, knowledgeable, and connected. I would highly recommend them to anyone looking to buy or sell real estate in the Bay Area. read more

i've done a lot of real estate transactions in my life and I can say beyond a reasonable doubt Karen was the best! her responsiveness, attention to detail and her energy / attitude around the process made it so much easier. Thank you, Karen! read more

Once again and for the third time Front Porch Realty has helped me to find and purchase the home I was looking for. Yoko Kasai and Dianna Silva went above and beyond to make what could be an stressful experience into a pleasant and enjoyable one. From start to finish Front Porch team guided me and helped me through the process with efficiency, attention to detail and kindness. For all your Real Estate needs Front Porch is without reproach! Thank You Yoko and Dianna Andrew Customer for life! read more

I have known Yoko for years and met originally through common networks. I was finally able to work with her in locating a home to purchase this year and I am more than impressed with the level of service and communication throughout the searching, bidding, and buying process. Even when the listing agent crawled into a hole at the first sign of complications from his own client, Yoko stepped in to make sure the deal persevered and we were kept in the loop the entire time with no effort from us. We could not have asked for a better agent to help in this search and with all the issues from the seller and her agent we encountered along the way, Yoko was just the best. We would recommend her, or any other agent at Front Porch from the sounds of the other reviews we have read. We had read all these reviews prior to actually working with her and were a huge deciding factor to write this review, and work with her in this transaction. Thank you Yoko!! read more

Front Porch Realty - Susie and Miska - Real Estate Services Near Me - San Rafael, California

We recently worked with Yoko on the search for and purchase of a new home in San Rafael. We were very impressed by Yoko's ability to sift through all the details and focus on the things that really matter when purchasing a home. Yoko is very professional and does a great job of communicating and coming up with solutions to issues that arise along the way. Yoko kept us informed of appropriate properties even before they hit the market and kept us on track throughout the process. She never pressured us into making an offer on any property but instead she was determined to help us find and close on a property that that we would be happy with for years to come. In addition, Yoko and her support staff made the closing process as seamless as possible. Needless to say, I highly recommend Yoko if you are looking to purchase a home in Marin County. read more

I have known Yoko for years, she is an amazing agent, professional and very kind! She helped me through a confusing and overwhelming time and made my life a lot easier! She is easy to talk to, communicates quickly and efficiently, and made this scary process manageable. All of the agents who assisted with the sale of my home were amazing, informative, timely and courteous. They streamlined everything and made it easy for me to understand. My house sold for well over asking and the paperwork was smooth and flawless. I would HIGHLY recommend her and Front Porch for your real estate needs. Thank you again Yoko! read more

Working with Janelle at Front Port Realty was an incredible experience. She always kept us well informed, did an amazing job advocating for us when needed, and ultimately made purchasing our first home a wonderful experience. We would HIGHLY recommend Janelle and her entire team at Front Porch, good real estate agents are hard to come by and Front Porch really stands out at the top for us. read more

Having already successfully worked with Karen Robertson-Strain of Front Porch Realty in San Rafael to sell a San Francisco property, I engaged her to help me buy a property in the North Bay. It took this picky first-time buyer two years to find the home of her dreams. I can't imagine taking the long journey with anyone else but the capable hands of Karen. Karen has over 18 years experience in serving the Bay Area as a realtor. As a first-time buyer, I had tons of questions and anxieties. Karen was able to provide professionally quick answers and assurances that made my home buying process transparent and as stress-free as possible. I was impressed with her wealth of knowledge of real estate laws and guidelines and her highest level of compliance. Karen has a natural feel for the Bay Area home market. Her recommendations were on point and accurate. She really went the extra mile, providing disclosures, pointing out potential issues, personally walking me through the many properties I considered. I highly recommend this consummate professional, Karen Robertson-Strain of Front Porch Realty in San Rafael for all your real estate needs. You will get honest, ethical, highest quality care. read more

There are those major life events where stress is automatically built into them. Selling a home is definitely on that list. We had a go at that in early 2019, and with no luck we eventually pulled our home off the market. At that time, Yoko Kasai was our agent. She went above and beyond for us but it just wasn't the right time to sell; in retrospect, we believe things happen for a reason. Without getting too personal, it was a true blessing in disguise that we didn't sell our home then. So, 2021 rolls around and BAM! A year through a pandemic and major worry on our part about the market and timing, but this time was different. Our 2019 blessing bloomed into an opportunity elsewhere. So selling was the only option this time around. Without hesitation we contacted Yoko and filled her in on our life "stuff". She immediately took the bull by the horns and before we knew it, we had an offer over asking which we accepted. During the contingency, pending, and escrow phases, and all the way through to close, Yoko's availability and communication was spot on. She also just has this way about her, as if nothing seems to frazzle her. To us, this speaks to the level of Yoko's confidence, knowledge and professionalism in the real estate world. She really knows her stuff and made suggestions when needed and came up with solutions that worked well for both us and the buyers. We thank Yoko for getting the job done...and as stress free as a seller(s) could ever hope for! read more

I highly recommend Karen Strain at Front Porch Realty. This is our 2nd home we sold (in record time) with Karen. She is very thorough, professional, and knew just how to market our property. She was very conscious of not "spending our money on things that were not needed" but did advise us on items that were more likely to improve our chances of a sale at the right price. She was right and we had an offer in less that two weeks in a very competitive market. Karen is also a great communicator and returns calls, texts and emails in a very timely manner. read more

Karen Strain gave us exceptional service! She had a team of people and co facts to take care of everything!

I could not have hoped for a better agent than Yoko Kasai at FPR. Her patience, grace, expertise, and proactiveness got us the home we had been searching for for a very long time. We had very unique requirements and circumstances that caused our search to go very long, over a year, and she never gave up on us and got us to the finished line successfully. And she was a joy to work with every step of the way. I HIGHLY recommend Yoko and her team - thanks! read more

Working with Yoko and her team for our first home purchase was amazing! She was patient and sensitive to our needs and devoted so much time to helping us find the exact fit. We are grateful for her warm and caring approach. We can't wait to work with her again in the future. read more

This is our 2nd home buying with Front Porch Realty! Our 1st home realtor, John Hayet, was amazing but since he moved out of the area, he referred us to Karen Strain, who has been just as exceptional! She is on top of all the tasks needed to review before putting an offer as well as during and after! She is always making sure her clients are happy with the whole process. She communicates very quickly with all parties involved. She also made sure that we understood all the gazillion disclosures that we ended up signing! Couldn't have asked for a better realtor assisting us with our 2nd home purchase! read more

I can't imagine a better person to partner with for buying or selling a home than Yoko Kasai! Over the last 10 years she has helped me to buy and to sell two houses. She's a smart woman, knows how to negotiate, understands the market, and never pressures me to make a hasty decision. I give her my highest recommendation. read more

Yoko helped us purchase both our homes and played a vital role in ironing out the wrinkles in what turned out to be tedious home purchase process. She and Jenny stepped up and helped reduce our stress where Primary Residential Mortgage Company dropped the ball. Will keep coming back to Front Porch for future realty purchases as well. read more

I needed a realtor that was compassionate, patient, kind, and highly skilled. My husband passed away and I needed to sell my home. It was a very difficult time in my life. Janelle Fazackerley, at Front Porch Realty,was referred to me by a friend. Janelle helped her mother find her perfect Place to live. My friend and her mother stated that she had the utmost integrity and was wonderful to work with. This proved to be true for me also! if you are fortunate enough to have Janelle as your realtor, you will feel grateful that you did! read more

TLDR; YOKO IS FABULOUS! We would work with her again in a heartbeat! My fiancé and I were looking to buy our first home, and were referred to Yoko by a friend of ours. Being first time home buyers in this crazy market, we really appreciated how she guided us through the whole process. She first took the time to know us and our needs, wants, and limitations, and used that to inform what houses and neighborhoods she showed us. After spending the weekend driving us around to look at 6+ properties each day, I could imagine the process becoming overwhelming, but instead she asked GREAT questions to help us hone in on what we really wanted in our next house. This was so valuable, as it set our expectations, so that we could focus our energy productively! Yoko also went above and beyond in so many ways. We were living in LA while looking for a home in Marin. When we couldn't fly up, Yoko visited the homes we were interested in and did walkthroughs with us over video chat. She told us the pros and cons of it, what she thought of the list price, and more. She'd do due diligence on our behalf, check the disclosures, and give us advice for whatever stage we were in. She knows the market really well and we could trust her honesty and expertise. We really felt that with each offer, we were making a very educated move, and knew we could lean on her whenever we were uncertain! Being the biggest purchase of our lifetime, we especially appreciated how very responsive Yoko was. She gave thoughtful answers to our many many questions over phone, text, or email. If we were placing an offer, she'd keep us in the loop on everything going on, and even let us know if she had to go somewhere without service. From all of our conversations, we knew she had our best interests at heart. We felt fully supported by her; she was truly part of our team! And - the icing on top - she is just an all around cool person. We are so thankful to have met her and worked with her, and if we ever need to buy a house again we definitely would go with Yoko. read more

My husband, Jim, worked with Yoko Kasai and Front Porch Realty when he owned a small business in San Rafael. Yoko was first in mind as we considered selling our home to relocate to the Central Coast. From the moment we spoke with Yoko, Jim and I knew we had made the right choice in a realtor. With her positive outlook in life, Yoko is warm, patient and approachable. She walked us through the process of readying our home for listing, helped us organize, hire contractors for minor work, and stage our home. Throughout the process Yoko was organized and responsive. In Yoko we found a highly reliable and trustworthy professional and a wonderful friend. We are now settled in our beach home and Yoko was indispensable in making our dream come true. Yoko is a gem and we recommend her without hesitation for all your real estate needs! Thank you always, Yoko! read more

Karen was absolutely fantastic to work with, always keeping us updated on the process and working endless hours to help us sell our Dad's condo, thank you Karen and Front Porch Realty! read more

We are still glowing with gratefulness after working with Yoko on our home search this past year. We interviewed many Real Estate agents before we began our home buying journey, and we are so glad we chose Yoko. She is calm, professional, focused, super informative and consistently all of these things. She was also very patient and took the time to always explain the details to us, which as first time home buyers was key to making us feel like we were making educated, empowered decisions. Its a crazy market out there and Yoko went above and beyond to help us land our home! We never once felt pushed or unclear on what steps were next. We would, no doubt- recommend to her to anyone looking to buy or sell their home. Our only complaint is that we won't be seeing more of her now that we have our home! read more

I am so amazed my Yoko's patience for this first time buyer, her knowledge, and her ability to communicate that expertise simply but with emotional intelligence. Yoko took the time to understand my needs in order to help me understand how some factors could work in my favor, how I could work around other factors, or if certain others were plainly not going to work for me. I appreciate her soft skills behind concrete expertise, even with some questions that could have been painfully rudimentary to potentially ridiculous. Personally, I found her to be VERY easy to work with: surprisingly quick to return emails and texts, even flexible/available to show houses with less than ample lead time ... all with a calm that seemed to be contagious. And who doesn't need more of that when you're buying a home? I'm so glad my first experience in the venture was with Yoko! read more

Recently we needed to sell a large rental property that we have owned for 15 years. The house is very nice but needed quite a bit of work to get it to a point where we could ask top dollar. Jim Maloney of Front Porch, worked with us to fix up the property. He had the multiple contractors we needed that were well known to him and not an uncertain company we did not know. After significant rehab we worked through the process of listing and staging the property. Together we set the price and Jim had a great analysis of the market so we were coming to the market with the "right" price. We sold the house in 5 days for cash. Jim provides great personal service. I felt we received better service with Front Porch than with larger real estate firms I have used in the past. Not only did we have Jim's expertise, but he could call on the other folks in the company for their expertise as well. He was also able to help us set up the 1031 exchange which can be challenging. Jim has a great sense of humor so even dealing with the craziness of rehabbing and selling a house we had fun and laughs doing it. I highly recommend Jim and Front Porch. In fact, we just asked Jim to help us sell another property. read more

We had the great pleasure of working with Karen Strain this past year to find our new home. We could not have imagined a better experience with a realtor--Karen treated us like family, working tirelessly to help us locate a property that fit our specific and unique needs, and then to navigate a challenging negotiation. Karen went above and beyond to help us close the deal. We are so happy with our new home! We have already recommended her to friends and look forward to working with her in the future. In the meantime, we miss our frequent conversations with her. read more

We found a home that we loved and needed to sell our condo quickly. Karen was amazing! From our very first meeting, she put us at ease, explained the process and reassured us that she would sell our condo quickly and she did! Karen handled everything, from coordinating the appraisal, working with our HOA, setting up cleaning to weekly check ins. We had to do nothing! She is thoughtful and truly cares about her clients and their needs. Thank you Karen for everything you did for us, we are so appreciative. read more

Karen did an amazing job guiding us to our first home in Marin! She even worked on the close on her vacation. She is the best! So sweet and looks out for you. read more

I cannot say enough good things about Jim Maloney and Front Porch. This was our first home purchase and Jim held our hands from start to finish. He was available at all hours of the day to answer our questions as we navigated this process. There were quite a few late night calls from us to him and he always answered our questions with patience and detail. This intensely competitive market can be daunting, but Jim found a way to get us a home that exceeded our dreams AND we managed to avoid a bidding war (which is a rare thing these days!). Thank you Jim!!! read more

Jim Maloney at Front Porch Realty recently sold our condo for us, and we would definitely recommend his services to all our friends who want to list and sell their properties. Not only was Jim knowledgeable, personable and professional, but also he was always available to respond to our questions. Prior to listing our condo, Jim gave us information regarding comparable properties in the area, advised us in what we could do to make the unit more appealing and helped us choose a reasonable price. Our condo sold above the asking price within two weeks! Then Jim went above and beyond the routine realtor. He provided us with a memory stick that had all the details of the sale, invited us to Front Porch's open house (at which we were given a whole pie to take home), sent us a box of gourmet candy at Christmas, and provided us with the final sales document for use at tax time! In the past, we have sold two properties out of the area and were never given the outstanding service that Jim and Front Porch Realty gave us. To be sure, we will return to Jim Maloney and Front Porch Realty when we put our current house up for sale. Gary and Bonnie Freeman read more

Front Porch Realty Group is the best of Best! True professionals, especially my Realtor, Jannelle Fazackerly. She is a native to Marin and knows the area and the market. She made my whole selling experience enjoyable! Yes Enjoyable ! , even when there were bumps in the road, beyond our control. Janelle and her team are very responsive and don't miss a beat. Please consider her and team if you are in the Market to buy or sell. Oh and I was not in Marin and all transactions were done through phone and email, I was living in Arizona and Miami! Thank you ! Pamela Meichel read more

Step aside '92 Men's Basketball Olympic Team, Jim Maloney and the rest of Front Porch Realty are the real dream team! This was our first experience with purchasing a home and Jim's guidance and expertise were nothing short of exceptional. Jim took the time to clearly understand our needs with our first home. I truly felt like he knew what we wanted just as much as we did and that was instrumental in helping us find the right one. With there being far fewer open houses these days, Jim was incredibly patient and always willing to show us properties by appointment throughout town. In such a fast moving market, Jim was always responsive and eager to strategize when a new opportunity presented itself. From our very first meeting, to when he handed me the keys, Jim was simply amazing to work with. His personality and expertise made this experience more enjoyable than I could have ever imagined. If you're thinking of buying or selling a home, do yourself a favor and reach out to Front Porch Realty! read more

Yoko Kasai is the best realtor and a pleasure to work with. She is experienced, thoughtful, honest, and tough when needed. She is a great communicator and investigates potential properties/opportunities thoroughly. She has a great network she works with which makes the buying/selling smooth. We give her our highest recommendations. read more

I had the pleasure of working with Yoko on my home purchase process. With her help I was able to find a beautiful property in West Oakland that fit my budget and other home requirements. Yoko is extremely knowledge about the Oakland housing market and through her knowledge she was able to guide me through the process. I enjoyed working with her and I give her my highest recommendation. If you're looking to buy, definitely contact Yoko and her team! You will be a happy customer! read more

We can't say enough good things about Yoko and Front Porch Realty Group! We just bought our first home, and Yoko made it so easy - and fun!!! Yoko was always available when we had questions, and her experience helped us navigate around potential pit falls along the way and made it possible to find - and win - our new home! As a first time home buyer, we didn't know what to expect - and we were glad to have Yoko's expertise, advice and support every step of the way. Yoko's work ethic, professionalism and thoroughness are exemplary. We couldn't have asked for a better home-buying experience. And now, we can't believe we're already in our new home! read more

We had a wonderful time working with Yoko Kasai during 2020. We were impressed with Yoko's professionalism. She helped us above and beyond what we expected especially after our offer was accepted. It was a very challenging market this past year and we made over 10 offers in the Marin market. Yoko was always patient and helpful throughout the process. She always told us, "You will get the house you are meant to get" and we believe her now. We can see why Yoko won 2020 Realtor of the Year. We have already referred her to several of our friends. read more

We highly recommend Jim and Front Porch. With his extensive experience he was able to expertly guide us through selling our house. He made a challenging experience much easier. read more

We recently worked with Yoko Kasai to purchase our first home. Berkeley is a very competitive market, but Yoko's guidance through the process helped us to successfully bid and close on the first house we put an offer on! As first-time homeowners, we really appreciated that Yoko was highly responsive to our questions (at all hours), and very actively coordinated with our lender and other parties. The entire Front Porch team was supportive and available every step of the way. read more

Front Porch Realty Group is an incredible, cohesive team whose focus was on minimizing the stress & adding an individualized personal experience when looking for a place to settle in. As a young first-time home buyer, I would highly recommend using this A+ team, 10/10 would use them again. I specifically worked with Karen Robertson Strain, an experienced realtor, who was highly knowledgable and provided expertise. In addition to her well-rounded personality, she had good energy and excellent communication skills. Looking for about 6 months, my partner and I found our absolute dream home! We felt our questions, concerns, & input were all acknowledged throughout the entire experience. Working with Karen & the team (specifically Liz, Janelle, Jim, & Yoko), made all of this possible~ 4 months into our new place, and we couldn't be more grateful to have worked with Front Porch, Thank you! read more

In October my wife and I worked with Janelle to sell our home in western Sonoma County. It was a home we built together and loved, but felt it was time to let go of. Janelle great care in every stage of the process. She guided us through the setting of the price, preparing the space and making the decision about the offer in a way that made us feel very comfortable. Janelle communicated well throughout the sale process and when there was a setback due to the Kincade Fire in Sonoma County, she made sure that we were informed and assured. I would highly recommend Janelle and her colleagues at Front Porch. read more

Look no further than Front Porch. Yoko is extremely patient and worked with us through the entire process of buying and selling our homes. She is well connected, extremely responsive and is an excellent problem solver. While she was away, her partner Jim stepped in and we didn't miss a beat on the purchase of our new house. We had some unexpected hurdles selling our old house and we cleared them all. read more