testimonials

"If you're looking for your first (or any) home, work with Margaret! She is a trustworthy partner who will help you find what is right and best for you. She not only helped us find the right home for us (and we had pretty specific requirements in this tough market!), but she listened to our needs and was a confidant throughout the whole process. We knew we were looking at the bottom of the market, but we never felt like anything less than Margaret's top priority.

I don't know how many people would describe the home buying process as "fun" and their real estate agent as a friend, but we truly enjoyed exploring houses with Margaret and came out of the process with someone we'll always remember working with. What I appreciated most about Margaret was that she helped us define our needs and our personal comfort zone and limits, and then helped us find the right house.

We never felt pushed to do anything out of our budget or requirements and felt that Margaret truly "got" us - both personally and as homebuyers. Margaret also took the time to explain every part of the process to us in a clear and proactive way, which was invaluable for us as first time home buyers, and she went above and beyond spending time with us to look at homes and strategize. There is no one else we would rather work with for this life event, and we were so lucky to have Margaret guiding us on our journey! We might even say we're a little sad it's over, but incredibly happy with our new home."

Margaret is the best. As an agent and a human being. We were relocating to Oakland from Los Angeles. She educated us on all the possible neighborhoods, analyzed our needs and then narrowed our search to the areas that we could get what we wanted at the price we could pay. When our search was interrupted by Covid closures and we returned to L.A. for a year she continued to educate us on the changing market and our options.

All of this meant that when we sold our L.A. place and returned to the hunt in Oakland we were able to zero in on the property that worked for us in about 2 weeks. She then guided us through the somewhat mysterious pricing and offering process here which was completely unfamiliar to us.

As a result, we got the first house we made an offer on and couldn't be happier with our choice. She's also just great to share the whole experience with and we highly recommend others take the opportunity to work with her.

We worked with Margaret to buy, and some years later, sell our home in Oakland. When we were purchasing, not only did Margaret help us approach our purchase in an objective and thorough manner, she also dug through the piles of disclosures with us to help us find things we otherwise may have missed! Along every step of the way, Margaret went above and beyond to answer some of the more outlandish questions we could come up with. Her guidance and expertise did not conclude after the purchase; she checked in from time to time and assisted us in getting various facets of homeownership squared away. A few years later we had decided to sell and move to better accommodate our new direction in life and once again we called on Margaret to help us with the process. If we thought her help in buying was over-the-top, our expectations were exceeded once again at the skill and effort with which she helped us prepare and list the place for sale. Our house needed some renewals in certain places and Margaret brought in a team that completed the work in an expedient fashion and under budget. In both, the process to buy and sell, Margaret’s expectation management was superb. In a market where the dynamics change rapidly, and in a way that feels like nonsensical sometimes, Margaret’s down to earth approach helped us navigate the processes without any surprises and, in both cases, exceeding expectations! Even in our most recent experience - when we were buying a home in Novato, Margaret went above and beyond and supplied us with information and support in ways that the team we were working with on the purchase was unable to. We are 1000% sure that if we were to decide to return to the east bay, we would seek Margaret’s help in helping us acquire a new home, and eventually to sell it as well!

Margaret is absolutely amazing to work with. I can't recommend her enough. As a first-time home buyer I had a lot of questions and Margaret always answered them in a way that was easy for me to understand.

Margaret is empathetic, sincere, professional and fun to work with. I ended up choosing to work with Margaret because she seemed the most honest to me and was straightforward, she didn't come at me with a hard sell of herself, and to me that made our interactions feel more genuine. Out of any of the other real estate agents I spoke to, I was the most comfortable with Margaret and felt that I could easily share the stresses of home buying with her, she was such a comfort on the hard days.

No question, I will be recommending Margaret to all of my friends and anyone who wants to buy a home in the bay area when they are ready.

My husband and I cannot recommend Margaret enough! We have already sent a few people her way since we closed in mid-December 2020. Margaret is not only a great realtor, but part teacher, mentor, therapist, and friend. I think first time home buyers really underestimate the amount of time they spend with their realtor and feeling comfortable is paramount. The home buying process can be extremely challenging and stressful, especially in the Bay Area (During a worldwide pandemic, no less!), nevertheless Margaret’s positive attitude and push to discard a scarcity mindset were invaluable. As first time home buyers’ we were total novices and had tons of questions and worries, yet Margaret was easy to talk to, knowledgeable and educational throughout the process, and always ready to explain things to us at a moment’s notice.

She is incredibly well informed and experienced with the East Bay and relies on a mix of data, persistence, precision, and an understanding of her buyers’ needs to help them find the right home for them. She also recommended an amazing and well-known East Bay lender to us, which made a huge difference in the offer process for the home we ended up purchasing. We spoke with a few other realtors that tried to give us the hard sell and operated in a very fear and scarcity-based mindset. After talking with them and not finding a good fit, a friend of a friend recommended Margaret to us.

Margaret never gave us the hard sell, had a great sense of humor, was super honest and authentic, and very low pressure. We knew after our first one hour consult with her that she was the one for us! She handled our offers quickly and adeptly, as well as a counter offer situation that allowed us to buy the second home we bid on with her. (Which can be very rare in the Bay Area!) We love our new home and feel that Margaret helped us get an amazing deal during a quick lull in the housing market after the 2020 presidential election. We would not hesitate to work with Margaret again when we are ready to possibly move on from our starter home.

We stumbled upon Margaret by chance - as we were casually strolling around our neighborhood, we came across a charming classic California bungalow home with a For Sale sign planted in the lawn, with her name and number on it. We were window shopping for homes at that point, and wanted to better understand the lay of the land. Margaret offered a free, no-strings attached, no pressure, one hour consultation, and she went in depth about the current state of affairs in a very friendly yet professional and insightful way. Needless to say, we really liked her vibe and overall approach. She left the door open to follow-up conversations, and we thanked her. As the months went by, we got more serious with our house hunt and tried a few realtors-- none of them really worked out. We remembered Margaret and decided to call her back. We’re so glad we did!

She recalled our conversation quite clearly and picked up where we last left off. The rest is a whirlwind because, well, the California realty market.

As first time home buyers, Margaret went the extra mile to make us feel safe, heard, and special. Safe because no question was too ignorant, and no gut reaction of ours was received in a negative way. Heard because she took and weighed inputs from every stakeholder on our side equally (including my parents, who she handled with extreme patience and grace!), and special because she worked hard to accommodate our timelines and considerations without complaint, and without other clients’ details bleeding into our situation. Not once did we get our signals crossed. We also became friendly, sharing life updates and joys/grievances. She was in the trenches with us.

When we did find “the one”, Margaret knew in her gut based on our reactions to the place compared to all the other places we have toured (which was many), and she immediately called the listing agent to get the details. Luckily, the timing JUST worked out and we jumped into the opportunity with both feet. Escrow was stressful, but we were so glad Margaret was in our corner for constant consultations, anecdotes for the situation we were currently in, hard data to support what was happening in the market, situation updates, and temperature checks from the selling party. We were able to get some negotiations in, and closed!

Months later, we wake up and still admire the place. Not a shred of buyer’s remorse, and just warm memories of how Margaret helped us land our forever-home. We give Margaret our highest recommendation! We would work with her again in a heartbeat!

As first time home buyers, it's fair to say that we were intimidated to jump into the competitive Bay Area real estate market as novices. While we didn't know much, one thing we did know was that a really good real estate agent makes a huge difference in the overall experience. For this reason, we interviewed 6 different agents to make sure we were making the right choice. Margaret was the last agent we spoke with, and she blew all of the others out of the water.

Right off the bat, we could tell that Margaret's authentic style and sense of humor clicked with us. But more than that, she started educating us on aspects of the home buying process that none of the other agents had.

Just 2 short months went by from when we first met Margaret to when we closed on the perfect home for our young family, which was also our first and only offer. Margaret was an integral part of the entire journey, from sending listings as soon as they were about to hit the market, to helping us find a great mortgage banker, to helping us navigate the offer writing process. Working with Margaret almost felt too easy.

There are so many wonderful things we could say about working with Margaret, but we really did appreciate her genuine, empathetic style and modern communication methods. We've thought of her as the "Millennial First Time Home Buyer Whisperer," but she would undoubtedly make any client happy.

Hire Margaret. Right now. We were green first time homebuyers, and she walked us through every step of the process with patience, humor, and experience. She understands the unique East Bay market, is knowledgeable about home construction (pointing out potential issues in home tours), and is strategic in offers, negotiating, and navigating escrow. But her most valuable quality is her honesty. She was straight with us the entire process (even in a difficult escrow with a challenging lender).

Her positive mindset of abundance rather than fear or scarcity was INVALUABLE to me, particularly in stressful moments. There is not even a hint of salesmanship; working with her feels like consulting a good friend who always has your best interests in mind. I would be thrilled to work with her again, except I won't need to anytime soon because we love our house so much.

Where to begin with our home buying experience with Margaret...

A little background on my house hunting style. I am an opportunist, and my wife is relatively risk averse which makes buying a home a difficult process as we wanted to be well within our budget, a great location and minimal maintenance for our new home. Considering that most of the homes in the bay area were built in the 40's & 50's, this was not an easy process.

Margaret was very patient with all my emails of interest that fizzled out after a week or so when the disclosures came in listing all the structural renovations required at many of the homes in our budget. Margaret made sure to keep us grounded while viewing homes, with the bottom dollar for renovations at the ready during our walk-through's. Any question that we had, Margaret was quick to respond by email or text (whichever platform conveyed the information best). Having Margaret representing us made our search process easy. We even pushed her out of the cities she normally works in and she was able to provide insightful information quickly.

As much as Margaret made the search, offer and closing process seamless, the best part was that we felt as if we were working with a long-time friend. The personal touch with all our interactions made us feel like we were her only clients, and we had complete faith in her throughout the process.

I highly recommend that anyone looking for a real estate professional to represent them reach out to Margaret first!