Testimonials

Re: Grace Bishop, Red Oak Realty

I am one of those rare individuals who believe that buying and selling a home is a relatively easy process. I think this arguably misguided notion is based largely on the fact that Grace helped me buy my condo in the Gourmet Ghetto, and then sell it again three years later.

Unlike most of her clientele, I did not come to Grace through a referral. I picked her off of the Red Oak website because she looked like she would be easy to talk to. I got lucky; because I was right. She was patient in explaining the ins and outs of the purchase process to a newbie to competitive world of Berkeley real estate, and found the perfect place to suite my lifestyle and my budget. When it came time to sell, Grace was very professional in aggressively marketing my condo. She prepared a marketing plan, detailing everything from the best time to put the property on the market to how the property should be staged and the price point given current conditions. Although it never saw the light of day because my property sold so quickly, the virtual tour she put together was beautiful: The lighting, slides, description and music were perfect!

During both transactions, Grace took the laboring oar, leaving me to worry not about inspections and closing dates, but about window coverings and the color of the kitchen walls. I have referred Grace to my neighbors in Berkeley, and would gladly do so again.

Very truly yours,

Dear prospective buyer or seller:

I was referred to Grace Bishop in November of 2004 my friend who said that if I want the best person to help me find a house to buy, to work with, who knows her stuff and the business and who is genuine and a pleasure to work with you must use Grace Bishop. My friend Denise was 100% right.

I was a first time prospective buyer who knew very little about the real estate industry and who was limited in time and flexibility due to my profession. I needed an agent who could direct me to the tasks at hand that I needed to educate myself about, tell me what I needed to spend my time doing and what was up to me to complete. Then I needed that agent to be flexible, patient and live up to what she said she would do from her end. That was Grace. She performed and delivered above and beyond all of my expectations.

Buying a house is very time consuming, overwhelming, scary, exciting, frustrating, and a complex endeavor. Grace has the personality and patience to break it down into digestible bits. Her knowledge of the East Bay real estate market and neighborhoods is invaluable. She gives you assignments to complete, so you get an idea of what you want to purchase and in what price frame. She then makes herself available to see many places with you and gets to know your wants and desires and your dislikes. Since Grace works in the market almost everyday she becomes an extra (if not two or three) set of eyes and ears for you in helping you find that dream home. Grace knows how to bid on homes and will advise you accordingly. She picks you up when you don’t get the house you wanted and later shows you why it was a good thing when you find the house you do get. But Grace’s assistance doesn’t stop there. I got financing, an awesome house inspector, and plenty of other great referrals from her. Plus her knowledge in construction and homes gave me so much insight to a house’s potential and was so helpful in answering the many questions that arise from this process.

Grace was the central hub to my house buying experience and continues to be today, as I need things done to my new house or have questions to ask I start with Grace. Grace Bishop helped me to find my dream starter house and I am forever grateful. It has been almost a year and a half since I moved into my first home and I could not have picked a better house, or a better agent.

Sincerely,

To Whom It May Concern:

I recently worked with Grace Bishop to find a home. A friend recommended Grace to me, and I could see why my friend thought we would work well together when I first met Grace. I liked her immediately. She was friendly, straight -forward, and sincerely interested in what I wanted in terms of house, neighborhood and price range. I took her on a mini-tour to view some of my favorite houses and favorite neighborhoods. Grace told me her honest thoughts about the fact that I may not be able to find exactly what I wanted where I wanted, but assured me that we would keep looking until the right place came up that I would feel good about.

When I was ready to make an offer, she gave me great advice about doing the little extras that would help close the deal, such as writing a letter to the seller, and making sure I was pre-qualified for the loan amount I would need. Grace negotiated with the seller’s agent to make sure I got what I needed, not just in terms of price, but also the extras that always go along with a sale, such as closing deadlines, additional inspections, what equipment might be included such as washer/dryer, curtains, etc., and good recommendations for trades people to obtain bids for work from. She even coordinated with my mortgage broker to make sure all the financials were in order.

I would work with Grace again if the situation presents itself, although I am very happy in my new home and don’t plan on buying or selling for a long time to come! But I gladly recommend her to others, and know she will work hard to get you what you want.

While most people will agree that selling or buying a home causes a great deal of stress, I am happy to say that selling my condo in Berkeley was really quite easy, thanks to the expertise and hard work of my agent, Grace Bishop, and her assistant Carolyn Sherry! I asked Grace to list my one-bedroom condo located in the Gourmet Ghetto area upon the recommendation of a neighbor. Not only was I impressed by her results with the sale of my neighbor’s property, but I felt that Grace was both professional and candid. I knew that I could trust her to guide me through the difficult process of selling my first home – and I was right!

From the start, Grace and Carolyn provided excellent advice, strategy and service. As a first-time seller, I was not familiar with the contracts and paperwork, but Grace went through each document and answered every question. She advised me on general matters such as the market trends and the most favorable times of the year to sell. Because she has worked for many years in the Berkeley area, Grace recommended guidelines for listing my condo which were tailored to the unique market of this region, such as an appropriate asking price or acceptable terms and contingencies for the offers I received. She also suggested resources and contractors to spiffy up my condo before putting it on the market.

The most critical step to selling anything is to formulate a strong marketing strategy, and Grace and Carolyn did just that. First, Grace helped me to artfully stage my condo without much expense, then Carolyn photographed it, capturing its most charming characteristics in a realistic fashion. They created a pièce de résistance of marketing genius – a beautiful “virtual tour” much like a power point presentation, showing photos and key selling points, all set to an acoustic musical score. Grace emailed the virtual tour to an extensive network of agents in this area and also featured it on the Red Oak website. In addition, Grace and Carolyn created a well-designed color flyer, listed my property in most of the local papers, and held two agent tours and two open houses. Their marketing efforts were highly effective!

At all times, I felt that Carolyn and Grace offered great support and service to help me navigate through what would have otherwise been a long, confusing process. They replied to my calls and emails promptly and thoroughly, and never dropped the ball. In fact, Carolyn was particularly adept at minimizing my role in completing the red tape, which made my “to do” list a lot easier.

I cannot recommend Grace Bishop and her assistant, Carolyn Sherry, more highly. Together they form a professional and competent team, enriched by Grace’s deep experience in Berkeley-area real estate and Carolyn’s knowledge of real estate financing. They’re awesome!

Sincerely,

I am writing to recommend the expertise of Grace Bishop as Realtor. Our experience with her in selling my mother’s home in Albany was completely positive.

My mother had lived on Neilson Street in Albany for more than 60 years; during the last 30 years she had performed only mechanical system maintenance. When we decided to sell the home, our family was undecided on what to do to market the property to best advantage.

We selected two local area realtors to interview; the first has had decades of experience selling in the East Bay. However, we were more impressed with the special knowledge of the city of Albany that Grace had since she grew up here. We also appreciated her sound advice on what repairs were recommended as well as her relevant experience.

At her recommendation we let the inspection reports speak for themselves and replaced only the furnace. Grace arranged for cleaning, painting, landscaping, and staging with trusted providers, all of whom performed their tasks on time and well. During the one month of preparation, she coordinated the sub-contractors, thus relieving us of the complicated timing issues. Because we wanted to complete the sale before the winter holidays, this was a crucially important service she provided.

In addition to the preparation for sale, Grace’s creative and aggressive marketing put the home on view to over 100 agents, 200 potential buyers, and unnumbered browsers on the Internet. After receiving several valid offers, Grace guided us through the negotiation and counter offer phase.

The result was a sale at significantly above the asking price and only 77 days passed from our first consultation to closing of sale. During the entire time, Grace was always professional, making us feel as if we were her only and most important clients.

We commend Grace’s knowledge of the area, her experience in marketing, her qualified service contacts, her imperturbable demeanor, and her genuine enthusiasm for providing her clients with her best service.

If more detail or explanation is desired, I would be happy to speak with you

Sincerely,

To Whom It May Concern,

Without Grace Bishop, the Siciliano family would not have found our home. Without Grace, we wouldn’t have gotten our home had we found it on our own (which we wouldn’t have). Grace is amazing. That’s all you really need to know. As for the rest ……

Our story. My wife and I rented various apartments and flats in San Francisco for years and years. In 2000, we moved to Sausalito and rented a small house with a view. We thought the house was charming and romantic, until our daughter Stella arrived in 2003, when it suddenly became cramped and damp. It was time to buy our first home. In 2004, we hooked-up with a real estate agent who specialized in southern Marin. We got preapproved for a loan. We wanted three bedrooms, two baths, a cute backyard, a large garage, The Works. My wife and I were raised in the mid-west; The Works is what we grew up with. We soon found, however, that couldn’t afford The Works in southern Marin. In fact, we could afford a shack in southern Marin, or a shed, or a little plot of grass. Whatever with southern Marin!

We briefly considered northern Marin, Novato and the like, but they’re just so far from San Francisco. Might as well move to Wisconsin, you know? Anyway, we decided to look at the East Bay. We have many friends in the East Bay. One of those friends told us about the island of Alameda. Lots of kids. Lots of families. Affordable. Good schools on the good side of the island. So, we hooked-up with an Alameda real estate agent. We got pre-approved for a loan through that agent’s preferred mortgage broker. We soon found, however, that we weren’t going to be able to find The Works in the very specific neighborhood on Alameda that we liked. Ugh. Whatever with Alameda!

Another friend told us about Solano Street in Berkeley. We went and checked it out. Wow! Hey, Berkeley is all right! We did some searching on the Internet, and found a bunch of houses to look at in our price range. But then we did a little investigating and discovered that the houses weren’t in our price range after all, because they were all being over-bid by $100-$150k.

We were lost. Our Alameda agent was nice enough, but he wasn’t helping. We needed someone to step in and take over. We needed someone to show us the light. We visited an open house on Neilson Street, off Solano, one Saturday afternoon just so depressed about what we were seeing and how much it cost and how long our search had taken (one year at this point) and how fruitless it’d been. Grace Bishop was the agent showing that house on Neilson Street. She saw the looks on our faces and asked us to meet her in the kitchen before we left. We did. She said that she knew. She knew what we were going through. We looked done. She gave us her card, and we added it to the stack.

But later that night, back in our little house in Sausalito, we talked about Grace Bishop. There was something different about her. And we decided to give her a shot. One last Bay Area shot, and if it didn’t work out, we really were moving to Wisconsin. In fact, we decided to start putting out the feelers for jobs in other parts of the country, and began looking into real estate elsewhere.

I met with Grace at Red Oak during my lunch hour. Right away, I could tell there really was something different about her. I wasn’t sure what it was, but at this point, I didn’t care. I was ready for anything that was different. So we let our Alameda agent go. We let our Alameda agent’s mortgage broker go, and got pre-approved with a third broker, a friend of ours. And then we began to search. Again.

But this time searching was different. Because Grace was on it. It wasn’t that she was sending us links to places in Berkeley that we couldn’t find ourselves, at this point we were signed up with Open Homes Alameda and the like, we knew about listings in Berkeley as soon as they came on the market. Instead, what was amazing was what she wasn’t sending us. She was cutting out the places she knew we wouldn’t be interested in. And, at first, I wondered why. So, I was going and checking those places out anyway. But, time and time and time again, she was right. She was going to the broker’s tours every week. She was constantly asking us questions, “What do you think about that kitchen? What do you think about that neighborhood? Why don’t you like that house’s layout? Do you consider this a nice house, even though you find it too small?” She zeroed-in on what really mattered to us. She dug in. She actually cared about what we were looking for in a house. So, unlike other agents, she wasn’t just flooding us with everything to make a quick sale.

Gently, every so gently, Grace started to guide us even more. “Have you though about El Cerrito?” She started including houses in areas in and around Berkeley that we didn’t know about. And then, suddenly, just like that, we found a house in central Berkeley we liked a lot. It was right on the edge of our price range, so we decided that before we made an offer, I’d ask my mortgage broker (and friend) to break down the exact costs of the house considering city taxes, transfer taxes, all of that. That’s when we discovered that my friend’s mortgage business was awful. Horrible. They couldn’t find my paperwork. They wouldn’t get back to me in any reasonable amount of time. Even if we found a house to put an offer down on, we weren’t going to get it working with this broker. Oh no. Grace? Help!

Just like that, Grace hooked us up with a guy at Berkeley Funding Group. Easy. Done. Buttoned-up. We were pre-approved, for the fourth time. However, after discussing the numbers, we decided that we needed to lower what we could afford. After all of our searching, to now discover that we weren’t even in the right ballpark was beyond depressing. Grace, however, was not deflated. In fact, she saw it as an opportunity. She began showing us homes in areas we hadn’t even thought about considering. And that’s when she sent us a link to a house in Richmond View. It had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a cute little backyard, a large garage, The Works, including a view. It was also near Arlington, which is a great street for walks. It was on a safe street. Best of all, it was in our price range.

It was the first house we made an offer on with Grace. There were 11 bids on the house. We got it.

Grace showed us a house we never would have seen. We got a house we never would have landed without her. Why? She really cares about people and she works her tail off. After we bought our house, Grace was there for us. She’s been there ever since. Every person we’ve had work on the house has been a referral from Grace–from the company we hired to refinish our hardwood floors to the roofer we used to touch up the top. Grace is there, and she cares about how we’re doing. How about that?

If you’re considering Grace Bishop as your agent, consider yourself extremely lucky. You’re most of the way there now. If you’re motivated and you’ve got Grace Bishop on your side, well, you’d better start packing!