MARGARET THOMAS

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 neighbourhoods, 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.

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.

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.