Client Success Stories

After 6 weeks, 8 tours, 4 offers, and one anxiety-producing round of negotiations, I got to experience the gratifying moment of handing Kendra and Denisse keys to their first home! But let’s rewind and let me tell you the story of how we got here. Denisse teaches Kindergarten and Kendra works as a film editor on educational courses. They are a newly married couple and  spent the first year of married life getting through a pandemic. When we met, they were eager to find their first home together. I was honored that they put their trust in me to help them make that happen. 

Our first day out I showed Kendra and Denisse four homes in Oakland.  They made a very strong offer but quickly experienced the strength of the market in Oakland right now. Their offer was submitted along with 28 others and ended up selling for 35% over asking. Luckily these two were extremely resilient, which is an essential quality for an East Bay homebuyer. In fact, they made another offer the very next day. Undeterred by yet another rejection, Kendra and Denisse once again regrouped, bounced back, and decided to expand their search to include Richmond. The next weekend we saw four homes. Again, they wrote an offer that didn’t get accepted on Monday. But the next day, they wrote another offer and it was ACCEPTED!

​​​​​​​The excitement of having that offer accepted was quickly met, once again, by the challenges of the market. The lender’s appraisal came in well below their offer price. In this situation, with no appraisal contingency in place (which is how many successful offers are written in the Bay Area these days, despite the inherent risks to the buyer), Kendra and Denisse were being asked to bring $40,000 more to the table to get into the home. A very daunting prospect for the average home buyer. But these two, once again, kept their cool and we were able to negotiate and get the seller to meet us halfway, thereby lowering the cost of the home by $20,000!