I had a nice transaction with Rachel. She was excellent at communicating and followed the…read moretimeframe of the RPA. Her clients left the house in good condition and she was a pleasure to work with.

We were looking to buy a single family home in the SF Bay Area for our daughter and husband to rent…read morefrom us. We did an internet search and came across Birnbaum Realty in Benicia, CA. Rachel Birnbaum was the Owner/Broker. She had a number of very good reviews so we called her and spoke for quite a while about what we were looking for and our budget. From the first call, she started working to find us just the right house. Quickly, she came up with a number of options. She actually videotaped homes she previewed which made things easier for us to choose which ones we wanted to visit and further evaluate. In all of our dealings with Rachel, she was always on top of things, keeping in touch on a regular basis and updating any new listings. We eventually expanded our search to include other cities in the East Bay Area. Prior to making our first trip up North, she would give us the pros and cons of each house, and the back story of the cities. She is both an excellent Real Estate Professional, and easy person to work with. We found a house in Brentwood, CA, made an offer which was accepted after some back/forth negotiation. She handled the escrow process flawlessly and the sale went through without a hitch. Rachel gets an A+ from us for the help she provided, including her knowledge of real estate and her mild easy manner. A win-win transaction, so happy we had Rachel on our side. Another quick addition, Rachel is married to a General Contractor, Ron Bruno. Ron actually did the renovation work that was necessary with the Brentwood house. His work and the subs he hired were also excellent. The work was completed on time and within budget. They are truly a great pair to work with from start to finish.

Maureen helped us sell our Oakland single family home (she also helped us buy it). Our transaction…read moreended up being complicated due to an issue with the first buyer. Maureen managed a difficult situation like a pro and we ended up selling our home for a great price. She handled all the arrangements, and was great at communicating details.

Maureen was a referral from good friends who purchased their first home with her a few years ago…read more After my first email to her she was very quick to respond with in email and over the phone to setup an initial consultation. At the initial meeting she asked my fiancée and I seeming typical questions to better get an understanding of who we were, our interests, styles, needs, and wants. She then said we were going to go on a driving tour of Oakland which we did not expect to happen that quickly. During the drive she navigated us through various neighborhoods she thought we would be interested in as well as others we would not so we could have the comparison. Her breadth of knowledge of Oakland and the East Bay proved immensely valuable in narrowing down neighborhoods and even reconsidering neighborhoods we would have otherwise not considered. She has a far reaching professional network as well which gained us access to early listings and showings. We ultimately put in an offer on a home we both loved, but quickly realized it was not going to be as traditional of a close and any of us had anticipated. During the 3 month escrow Maureen was constantly in contact with us giving us feedback on where things were in the process. She helped act as a therapist consoling us through moments of what seemed like limbo. We ultimately closed on the home we love and could not even remotely have done it with anyone else. Even after close she has checked in to see how things were which helped reaffirm her commitment to her clients.

Dreaming of making Alameda your permanent home? Amy is undoubtedly the best possible choice you can…read moremake. If you stumbled upon this review hoping to find something that will help you decide what agent to reach out to, let this be the comment that helped you make that decision! Amy is an incredible expert in the Alameda market. Why? 1) She will help you cut through the listing price noise. Her estimates of what things will go for are always accurate... we were really impressed. 2) She will keep you grounded and help you focus on where you are most set up for success. You will truly appreciate that she will save you the emotional rollercoaster of going to see houses that will ultimately go way above your range and you shouldn't even be considering. (I have friends that experienced it, we did not.) 3) She has great relationships with sellers agents in the area which can help make recommendations that will set your offer up for success; run with a pre-emptive offer; or talk about off-market opportunities. We really learned a lot with her support. Above all, she is responsive, friendly, and effective! As for my personal story, me and my spouse got our first offer with Amy. And I think you should, too! :) All in all, we'd definitely partner with her again. Thank you Amy for helping us find our first home! You rock!

Amy helped my husband and I buy our first home. Amy is very knowledgeable about all things house…read more(buying, inspection, contract work, etc the list goes on) but also our primary search location, Alameda. We interviewed three agents, who were all great however it was Amy's experience and knowledge of the industry and location that knew she was the perfect agent for us. As first home buyers, we were, as expected, completely inexperienced and needed a bit of hand holding and Amy really helped make a stressful process, easy. I'd highly recommend Amy if you're looking in the Alameda area- 10/10 would work with again!

I cannot recommend the Lovewell team more highly. I found them online by searching reviews of…read moreagents experienced with estate situations and received a response almost immediately. I met with Margaret and Katie and instantly could tell they were a perfect fit for me and my situation. My mother had just passed and they were sensitive, caring and helped break the process down into easy, manageable steps while I was grieving and determining next steps for my mother's house. In the end, they represented me as the seller and they helped me through several unexpected challenges. They took care of everything so I could focus on grieving. This included lining up and meeting haulers, contractors and inspections, and the myriad other things associated with selling a house. My primary contact was Margaret, who was my guiding light in the process. She quickly understood my need to be informed about all the details of selling a property, and was so patient with explaining everything step-by-step. She kept me sane during a very difficult period of my life. From the beginning all the way to the end with a successful sale, I trusted Margaret and the Lovewell team 100% to represent my best interests. I could not have asked for a better fit. I just think they are the BEST. I would be happy to discuss my experience further with anyone considering working with them.

Louise and Katie were our wonderful listing agents for our home of 27 years in San Leandro. They…read moregave us great advice and moral support to get ready to sell. They connected us with excellent contractors for both big and small projects, from the roof and interior paint, refinished floors, updated landscaping to clean windows and minor repairs. They helped our well loved home shine in a tough market, and they worked hard find us the right buyer. It took a little longer than we had hoped, but they kept at it and kept our spirits up. We sold for over our original asking price and had smooth sailing throughout the closing process. Louise and Kate are kind, thoughtful and great to work with, and they deliver! I recommend them highly.

As first time home buyers and naturally pessimistic we were really nervous about buying a house and…read moredealing with real estate agents. At first we considered doing everything on out own and am I glad we did not. Dianna went above and beyond to explain every aspect of the sale to us. She was almost like a mentor or tutor in the buying process. She handled everything professionally and accurately, answered all of our questions in a timely manner and made herself available at all times. The closing had some minor rough spots but Dianna took a great deal of care to ensure everything went as planned. Dianna is still a point of contact for us whenever we have questions about services or points of interest in the Discovery Bay area. My fiance and I often recommend her to our friends and family, calling her a pit bull in a skirt. Dianna will fight for you tooth and nail to make sure you have the best deal with the least amount of hassle.

We were looking for a house for about a year and most of the agents we came in contact with were…read moreonly in it for the money and some were down right rude I even had one agent tell me that they don't talk to anybody until they show proof of funds and a preapproval letter I was like wow really When we stated working with Dianna she was truly there for us she would travel to where ever we were interested in seeing a house and she would provide us very detailed information about the house and neghiborhood she wanted us to be happy and made us a priority best agent ever she even used her experience to prevent us from overbidding on our house and saved us 15,000 not to mention her loan officer saved us 500 a month on our payments and taxes When we finally got our house we went to get the keys and noticed a city worker turning the water off she talked this guy in to leaving the water on and took my wife down to the main office to get the water turned back on and because she talked the guy in to leaving the water on it saved us $200 She truly went out of her way for us and we made a friend for life

Sold my house using Lynne and not a great experience. When they needed something to move the sale…read morealong I'd get emails and calls from multiple people in her office. However, when it came to keeping me up to date with what is happening forget about it. I'd go weeks without any communication on what was going on, but then all of a sudden they needed me to sign something and it was like the world should stop for them. At one point I was not certain that I would accept the terms of the sale and received very nasty emails from people that worked for her including telling me the other party would sue me if I backed out. It was very evident that they could care less about what was important to me or that it was a good deal for me, they wanted their commission check.

Based upon my experience with Lynne French, I would never, ever use her for a real estate…read moretransaction. When we visited the open house, she answered our questions. We had a particular question about building a pool in the backyard that she said she would get back to us on, but she did not. Not a big deal though. We ended up purchasing the home. When escrow closed and we went to move in, the sellers movers had damaged parts of the floor and other areas, but what was the most shocking was that the bookcases in the office that were advertised as built-ins by Ms. French were gone! When we contacted her about this she said it was a misunderstanding between her and her seller. Ok, those things can happen, but they certainly weren't our fault, so Ms. French or her sellers should have either put the bookcases back in, since the flyers specifically stated the bookcases were built into the office or compensate us for new bookcases. She refused. I even found bookcases that were not as nice at Costco and offered to take those instead, if they didn't want to reinstall the "built-ins." She still refused. Eventually, after much back and forth, Ms. French offered to spilt the cost of them. This is totally unacceptable. This greedy woman made a $36,750 commission on this sale, but was haggling over approximately an $850 issue. We didn't ask for anything else from the seller during escrow except for some extremely minor repairs that cost about $400. This extreme greed really showed me her true character. I will never do business with her again and I make sure any friends in Clayton that are considering using her know about this experience. There are many real estate agents that specialize in Clayton, why settle for someone who is so greedy and short-sighted?

Thoughtful, available, well-connected and professional realtor 10/10 recommend working with her…read more Erin walked us through our first home-buying experience in El Cerrito and patiently answered our many questions. She toured a lot of homes with us and did a great job learning our wants/needs in a home. Erin is well-connected in the industry and we often felt like having her as our partner gave us a competitive advantage. After a short few months working with Erin, we ultimately found ourselves in our dream house on a hill in El Cerrito with a beautiful view of the bay. We feel that we got a good price at a time when inventory was quite low! Thank you Erin!

I have worked with Erin as a seller's agent and am currently working with her as a buyer's agent…read more As a seller's agent, Erin came to our first meeting prepared with a binder of relevant data and comps for my house. She also made sure I understood my rights as a seller in terms of commission. She answered all my questions satisfactorily and advised me on the best time to put my home on the market. Erin was also understanding of my budget for selling-related costs and my selling timeframe restrictions. My house was on the market within a month of first speaking to her, and sold well above asking. I trusted Erin's instinct that there was room to negotiate a higher offer than what we initially received, and her instinct was correct. Overall, it was an extremely efficient and satisfactory selling experience. I appreciate how quick and responsive Erin is, which is part of the reason I am currently working with her as a buyer's agent. In one case, I dropped by an open house on a Sunday at which time the seller's agent mentioned offers are due the next day at 10am. I reached out to Erin promptly asking if it was too late for us to get through the paperwork for an offer. Erin was able to get the disclosures & share them with me, email me a summary of key items from them, and make comp recommendations. We were able to get an offer in by the deadline. I trust her expertise on what a reasonable asking/offer price is, which helps me focus my efforts on the right properties. I highly recommend working with Erin in either capacity.

My wife and I weren't looking for just another house, we were looking for our forever home when I…read morefirst found Rebecca Sayami. I've spent over 15 years as a technical sourcing recruiter. Interviewing people, asking tough questions, and separating polished presentations from genuine expertise is literally what I do for a living. So when it came time to choose our realtor, I approached things the same way. I interviewed more than 35 real estate agents throughout Castro Valley, including several from Rebecca's own brokerage, Keller Williams. Coming from Silicon Valley, already an epicenter of the smartest and richest people in the world, we were moving our family to a quaint, unincorporated town we barely knew, so I wanted someone who didn't just sell homes here; I wanted someone who actually lived here, was involved in the community, and understood what life is really like for a family. Rebecca was the clear choice. What impressed me wasn't just her knowledge of the housing market, it was her current knowledge of Castro Valley. Her son is about the same age as mine, so when we talked about schools, youth activities, and local businesses, everything came from recent, up-to-date firsthand experience. She introduced us to programs like Kids Bowl Free, recommended a local bowling shop that will save us money on rentals, and shared countless little tips that made us feel like we weren't just buying a house, we were becoming part of the community. We met Rebecca about a year in advance of our timeline and really started working together maybe 4 or 5 months before purchase. We toured roughly 15+ homes and while many places had great potential, they just weren't quite a perfect fit, always a quirk or two that ended up being a deal-breaker. But when we did find The One, we were able to win the first house we bid on! One and done!! Rebecca was patient, always responsive to my endless questions and rambling stories, and pointed out things we probably wouldn't have considered on our own. She helped us look beyond the house itself and think about whether each neighborhood would be the right fit for our family. Another thing that really stood out was how Rebecca helped us think through the disclosures and inspection reports. As a first-time homebuyer, it's easy to look at a long inspection report and think every item is a major problem. Rebecca helped us separate normal homeownership from genuine red flags. For example, the HVAC is about 30 years old and still running. My first reaction was, "That's going to need replacing." Rebecca helped us step back and look at the bigger picture. We weren't buying a brand-new construction home, we were buying a well-maintained house built in the 1940s. I compared it to buying a used car and noticing the tires are getting worn. Sure, they'll probably need replacing eventually, but that's already reflected in the price. If everything had been brand new, we likely would have been paying considerably more. That perspective helped us evaluate the house rationally instead of emotionally and gave us the confidence to make an informed offer that ultimately won. She also patiently walked us through the buyer representation agreement, disclosures, inspections, purchase agreement, escrow process, and all the little nuts and bolts of buying a home. I never felt like I was signing documents just because everyone else was; I understood what I was signing and why it mattered. I think what really separates Rebecca is that her relationship with us didn't end after closing. She recommended an excellent steam cleaning company before we moved in and still sends us local recommendations, family activities, and community resources. As someone who works in HR, I joked with my wife that Rebecca didn't just help us buy a house, she's been onboarding our family into Castro Valley! After interviewing more than 35 Realtors for roughly an hour each, I can honestly say choosing her ended up being one of the easiest decisions we made. I still remember smiling and telling her, "Rebecca... we choose you, Pikachu!" If we ever buy or sell another home in Castro Valley, Rebecca will be our first call. Thank you, Rebecca, for helping our family find not only our forever home, but also making us feel right at home in Castro Valley*~

We bought a home with Rebecca in Castro Valley in 2023. The key differentiator about her versus…read moreother real estate agents is her level of involvement in the community. It was the primary reason we chose her to be our agent. She organizes things like annual Easter Egg hunts, cupcakes at Castro Valley restaurant walk, Girl Scout cookies, and a dozen others things I'm sure she does quietly in the background. She also gave us great advice and support during the process that saved us literal tens of thousands of dollars. She'll be our first choice the next time we need any kind of real estate agent.