Realtor that knows all of East Bay (Oakland, El Cerrito, Lamorina, Walnut Creek)?
Hi,
My family is ready to start looking to buy our first house with a budget cap of $1m. We have small kids and are looking for a good elementary school with safe neighborhood. We're open to anywhere from El Cerrito down to Piedmont, Montclair area, Lamorinda all the way to Walnut Creek. So far, all the realtor recommendations on here only mention one or two geographic areas, but since we're open to so many cities, we're looking for someone who knows all the areas really well.
If that person doesn't exist, would people recommend we work with a couple different realtors that specialize in their respective areas?
Thanks for any advice and recommendations!
Nov 5, 2018
Parent Replies
Linnette Edwards of Abio Properties (https://abioproperties.com) is awesome (we used her to buy and to sell and she delivered for us top-notch service and amazing results both times) and covers the full range of east bay locations that you describe. She's not only highly professional but also really pleasant to work with. You can see her 5-star Yelp reviews (124 reviewers) under the "MyHousingGuide" banner here: https://www.yelp.com/biz/myhousingguide-oakland-4
We did this two years ago. We tried to use one broker to cover just Berkeley and Oakland and that didn't work. I think we noticed two things:
1. The brokers who really know the areas and are going to have insights like "oh this house is about to come up for sale" are going to be hyper-local. Outside of that they'll be surfing MLS slower than you will surf Zillow/Redfin.
2. It will be hard for you to find the time to work with multiple brokers because they might try to take you on visits at the same time or claim they showed you the same house... so be up front about how you work with multiple brokers and do well-defined boundaries ("just Berkeley", "just Piedmont", etc.) to ensure that nothing goes wrong with commission discussions.
Realtors are not that useful in finding a house you like. They don't look at houses the same way you do. Hop on Redfin or Trulia or the website of your choice and find houses that suit you and your budget. Go to open houses. When you find one that you want to make an offer on, get a realtor who works in that area.
Hi there,
I highly recommend Deidre Joyner with Red Oak Realty. She grew up in the Bay Area and knows it inside and out. She was amazing in helping our family find the perfect home. Hope this is helpful.
Deidre Joyner deidre [at] redoakrealty.com>
Pattie Holm covered all of these areas with us in a similar budget range. She is amazing.