Melanie was referred to us by a colleague when we were making a move from San Francisco to…read moreLamorinda for bigger square footage, better schools and a more close-knit community. We got in contact with her 6 months before we were actually ready to take the leap; yet she still took the time to show us open houses to "get a feel" of the area during our first meeting. She then checked in regularly to see how we were coming along in our progress. When COVID-19 hit and many lenders became conservative and risk adverse, Melanie was able direct us to banks and lenders she had previously worked with to help make our approval process as smooth as possible during these unpredictable times. After securing financing, when we were finally ready to buy, which coincided with the pandemic, she tried to make the process as seamless as possible. We ran listings by her first so that she can give her yay or nay based on the needs of our family to avoid having us waste time on houses that were not a fit. It also wasn't always easy and quick to travel from San Francisco to tour houses, so Melanie always had enough candidates lined up to make our trips worthwhile without losing sight of urgency if a good match became available. When we did tour open houses, PPE's and social distancing guidelines were always provided. Communication was always efficient, even if we weren't face-to-face. Beyond the professionalism and resourcefulness, what sets Melanie apart for us, as first-time homebuyers and newcomers to the area, was that she provided her "mom" voice. At our initial consultation, we had given her a list of priorities, in order. As we got into the thick of the house-touring process, sometimes a beautifully-staged home or a charming street would elicit such an emotional response that we failed to see that the house might be too small for our growing family or that the location was too remote to everyday commute. She is an agent that WILL say, "this is not your house, let's continue looking." She also doesn't shy away from tough love either, when we were trying to wait for the perfect house, she also made sure we understand the consequence of dragging our feet in a hot market. In the end, by listening to Melanie, we found the near-perfect house for our family's needs.

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!

Vlatka was our realtor when we sold our home and moved out of state in 2023. Much as we loved it,…read morethe house needed updating. Vlatka was a huge help with that, first by providing great design advice, and then by connecting us with excellent painters, etc, who did the work quickly and at a price we could afford. While getting the place ready to sell, we found problems that required complex repairs to pass inspection, and, again, she recommended professionals, people she had worked with before, who met our schedule and did the work within our budget. Finally, she helped us decide how to price the house in a very tricky market, such that it sold quickly and for more than we were expecting. Vlatka is a gem. She's a great communicator and genuinely cares about her clients. We highly recommend her to anyone looking for an excellent realtor.

I can't say enough good things about our experience with Vlatka Bathgate as our seller's agent in…read moreOrinda, CA. From the moment we decided to list our property, Vlatka's dedication and expertise shone through. Vlatka's knowledge of the local market was impressive.Throughout the entire selling process, Vlatka demonstrated professionalism and a keen attention to detail. She guided us through each step, making it all seem so easy. Her negotiation skills truly paid off, ensuring we got the best value for our property. One thing that truly stood out was Vlatka's excellent communication. She was always available to answer our questions, provide updates, and offer advice. This level of responsiveness made us feel valued and taken care of. We can't thank Vlatka Bathgate enough for her exceptional service. She made selling our home a smooth and stress-free experience. If you're looking for a seller's agent in Lamorinda area we highly recommend Vlatka. She's a true professional who gets results. Thank you, Vlatka!

Hard to share just how wonderful of an experience I had with Ben and his team…read more I bought a house with them last summer and they were so professional and organized. There are no words,,, they are just so good!! I am a single working mother and I did not have time to mess around. Can you believe we got the first house I offered on! Its true! Ben knows the market and he has good relationships with the other realotors. He and his team clearly value their integrity and put the needs of thier customers first. The whole office is staffed with excellent communicators and they respond so fast, I thought I was in a time warp. I felt like the stars aligned when I bought my house and it was because the staff at Paymun know what they are doing. They helped me all along the way. I am very blessed to have had them on my side. What a great experience!!!

I did a deal with Ben and the Payum team. I repped the buyer and they repped the seller. Ben and…read morehis team were professional, punctual, and efficient. Their communication was second to none and they were on top of everything. I wish every deal I do has Ben on the other side of it. Highly recommend!

We were expanding into Danville and had no idea where to start with retail leasing. Snow not only…read moreeducated us on the local market but advocated for us at every step of the negotiation. She's sharp, responsive, and deeply connected in the Bay Area commercial real estate scene. Our new location is performing beautifully -- and we owe a lot of that to Snow's expertise in finding the right fit.

Faye: I recently bought a commercial property in Walnut Creek and couldn't be happier with Snow…read moreBentley's help. She took the time to understand my investment goals, quickly brought me several strong options, and then worked her magic at the negotiating table. Snow delivered impressive results: a meaningfully lower purchase price, seller contributions to closing costs and repairs, plus contract terms that gave me excellent protection and future flexibility. Those concessions made a big difference to my bottom line. Her steady guidance kept the entire process straightforward and focused on what mattered most to me. Snow is a true professional--I highly recommend her to anyone buying commercial real estate.

We recently worked with Kristi and Lisa to sell our home in Moraga, and the experience was truly…read moreincredible. From start to finish, they were professional, knowledgeable, and super pleasant to work with. They provided excellent guidance on pricing, home preparation, and staging. We trusted their advice completely, and it paid off--we ended up getting more for our home than we anticipated. It is clear that their expertise in strategy and prep made all the difference. Beyond the results, they were just great to handle the process with. They are responsive, proactive, and always do exactly what they say they will. If you are looking for agents who really know what they are doing, I advise you to trust Kristi and Lisa. We couldn't be happier!

Lisa and Kristi are a wonderful team. We bought and sold a house with them over the past (3)…read moremonths and we couldn't have done it without them. For the purchase of our new home... 1) Lisa and Kristi have an amazing network. We needed to put in an offer in a single day and they mobilized their network to get us pre-approved for a loan, insurance secured, and a few last minute visits to the house for 'mini-inspections'. 2) Lisa and Kristi have access to tons of 'pocket listings'. They are part of Compass, which runs most of the listings in our area, but they are well-connected w/ the broader real estate community to understand what's coming, what are the details, and what is a fair price. 3) Lisa and Kristi have great knowledge of what to look out for. There were more than a couple things that they caught, which saved us time, money, and headaches. For the sale of our existing home... 1) They keep a pulse on the market, which shifted in the (2) months between when we bought and when we sold. The level of pricing insight was essential to have a successful outcome, and much better than any ChatGPT analysis :) 2) They know what buyers are looking for, which then drives how they prep and stage the houes. They were very communicative, open to ideas / suggestions, and timely. 3) They understand how home selling works, and paced us to ensure that we set offer dates, reviewed bids, and asked for more when it made sense. All in all, they are a great team that complements each other well. We went from home viewing to offer accepted in 5 days for our purchase, and we went from listing to accepted bid in 5 days on our sale.

Excellent, Competent Service!!…read more When we reached out to Atty. McNeill she spoke to us with candor, grounded in her wealth of knowledge and experience. If you need an expert by your side while navigating your legal matter, no matter how small or complex your situation may be reach out to Mary. In the end, you will be glad you did! We highly recommend Atty. McNeill.

We had an awesome experience working with Mary and her team to complete an off-market condo…read moretransaction in San Francisco. She helped us connect with lenders, run the transaction smoothly, see around corners, manage risks, and close on time with low stress.

We starting working with Jim Ellis in February 2020. He was recommended by a friend who especially…read moreappreciated Jim's listening skills, patience, and years of experience as a real estate agent. We wanted to find a larger house in the Oakland/Alameda area to share with an elderly parent and sell the Oakland house we had lived in for 33 years. Due to all the uncertainties caused by COVID-19, we decided to sit out 2020 and early 2021 and started up house hunting again in April 2021. The Bay Area real estate market has never been crazier and Jim helped us negotiate all of it with a steady hand and wise counsel. His advice about improvements and repairs to make to our Oakland home was realistic and sound. His network of tradespeople, from flooring to painting, was invaluable. It is not an exaggeration to say that without exception, everyone we worked with had nothing but good things to say about Jim Ellis. He kept us on track with a firm hand and the result was a house that showed beautifully and sold well above asking. Did I mention that Jim is an extremely patient person? Early on he stressed that house buying is a process. We looked at many, many houses over the course of the year and never once did we feel any pressure to buy. He always emphasized that he wanted us to feel completely comfortable about our decision. Though we were priced out of Alameda and Oakland, we ended up in a truly beautiful mid-century modern house in the San Leandro hills that ticked most of the boxes we had established at the beginning of the search. Both the buying and selling process went very smoothly, we believe largely due to Jim's skills and years of experience in the field. He was always on top of what needed to be done and lines of communication were always open. I'll close with an example that demonstrates Jim's keen listening skills and illustrates perfectly who Jim is as a person. The new house we bought has an electric induction cooktop. I mentioned in passing to Jim that probably some of our pots and pans wouldn't work with induction technology. In less than a week after our conversation, Jim presented us with a beautiful set of cookware all compatible with an induction cooktop. Typical Jim Ellis thoughtfulness. It was a pleasure working with him.

Jim has been fantastic assisting my husband and me to sell our house in Walnut Creek (we had used…read morehim to buy the house originally as he was recommended as part of a company move to the Bay Area). We made the decision to sell quite quickly while we also had various travel commitments coming up. Jim not only worked with our time line but also assisted us with getting the house cleaned out, have various contractors come to fix things and just overall getting everything ready. By the time we were back in town, only a few things were left to do before we were able to put the house on the market. After less than 5 business days we had various offers and were able to sell above the asking price. We definitely recommend Jim for any future real estate needs!

I appreciate Elena for getting back and responding to my email to let me know that she doesn't…read moreservice the area we are seeking to move to. With so many real estate agents out there with quick tongues just trying to make a buck, it seems many don't like to respond to email and especially if they can't make money off of you. Her quick responsiveness indicates a certain level of character to me that I felt compelled to come and give her a positive review.

Elena helped us sell our home well above asking price in just 4 days! We could not have asked for a…read morebetter realtor. She was professional, friendly, and strategic during the whole process. She was also honest and very detail oriented, suggesting and helping us implement repairs and changes that made the sale of the house seamless. She has a full network of contractors / painters / landscapers / etc so the whole process was easy. Anya was also so great to work with too; helping us with inspections, staging, and making aesthetic updates to the house. They truly go above and beyond on what's expected from a realtor, and we are grateful for everything they did for us!

A close family friend recommended Lori Legler to me. After meeting in person and having a lovely…read morechat, I realized that I didn't need to interview any other agent. Lori really helped us identify what we needed to do in order to prepare our home for a spring listing. We spent the winter preparing and then our work schedules got crazy with tons of business travel. Lori made it easy for me and told me to focus on work and she showed our home on occasion and next thing I know, we had an offer BEFORE we even went to market! I was on a business trip in India when we received the offer and went into escrow before I even got home! Lori is awesome and hands down is the best in the business! I recommend her wholeheartedly; she really knows the market!

We are first-time homebuyers in our thirties, family of 3 and brand new to the real estate market…read more We are those clients who needed guidance, patience, and expertise. Think of us as those people who had no idea how to get started. Lori was highly recommended to us by a family friend who has worked with her through multiple real estate transactions. In a nutshell, we couldn't have bought our first home in Lafayette without the expertise from Lori Legler. On our first meeting, Lori took time to understand our needs, goals, and aspirations. It was not rushed, we didn't feel like a financial transaction. Lori invested time to know and educate us on the market and basic principles. On our second meeting, she drove us around neighborhoods, took the time to understand our preferences and truly made sure we felt supported throughout the whole process. For us, it was important to work with someone who knows really well the neighborhoods, school districts and the closest BART stations since I commute to SF every day. We met several realtors and decided to work with Lori because she reassured us on the biggest purchase of our lives in a very competitive real estate market. We didn't feel like we were just a number to her (there were other realtors who made us feel like that!). Lori guided us through properties, what to look for, what to consider, helped us read disclosures, understood our goals, didn't judge, met us where we were and educated/challenged us when needed. This whole buying process is based on trust. And we fully trust her and it worked! If you want someone who can truly partner with you, who you can text and chat with you at any time, is very responsive, brings many years of expertise in East Bay real estate, is friendly, fun and brings the best energy, Lori is your realtor.

Sold a Condo in Orinda…read more Review for Meredith Petersen Lucky for me, Meredith Petersen was my real estate agent. Meredith is VERY knowledgeable about the process of buying a new home and her years of experience show in the way she does her work. In addition, she has a combination of wonderful qualities that definitely help all the people involved in the process. When I think of Meredith, I remember and still value her warm and friendly personality and, even more important, her GREAT sense of humor. Given that her customers are in the nervewracking process of selling their former home and some are involved in a major move to a completely new area, those qualities are helpful and supportative to both the buyer and the seller alike. At the very end, my daughter and I were of course very happy that we sold my condo and that we were able to do it much earlier than we had anticipated. However, for both of us, that meant that we would no longer be seeing and talking to Meredith on a regular basis and, as strange as that may sound, we literally felt sad when it came time to say goodbye! Judy White

We felt very fortunate to meet Meredith as we were beginning our search for a home in Lamorinda. As…read morea resident of Orinda, she is extremely knowledgeable about the area, the schools, and is well-known and respected by all of the agents we came across on the sell-side as we were looking for a home. She worked hard to understand what we were looking for for our growing family and we felt like she just "got it." Ultimately Meredith not only helped educate us about the area and delineate between different neighborhoods, but also guided us through the process of selling our condo in San Francisco, which led to our contingent offer being accepted on our dream home in Orinda. During the closing process, she went above and beyond for us, connecting us with contractors to take care of some necessary repairs in the home, and even meeting with them at the house to walk them through the project when we weren't able to be there. Meredith is supportive, strategic and hard-working and we are so grateful to her for helping us make the move to our new home!