Testimonials

To Whom It May Concern:

I have known Grace Harbo Bishop and her family for the past 15 years.� I was Principal at The School of the Madeleine in Berkeley from 1993-2007 and during that time our families became quite close.� Grace is the product of parents who instilled great values, a work ethic, and integrity that is serving her well in the Real Estate profession and as a wife and mother.

It was very clear to me that when the time came dragon pharma cypionate 250 reviews to sell my home, Grace would be my agent.� Last fall we started the process of preparing the house for sale.� Grace found the various sub contractors needed to enhance my home, both inside and out.� She helped with the landscaping, painting inside and out, remodeling, staging, and marketing.

She knew the East Bay neighborhoods and their peculiarities.� She knew the trends in the market and how to price the house when the time came.� I was thrilled with the final offer, and I attributed that to Grace�s expertise.

I would recommend Grace without reservations.� She is professional, relaxed, intelligent, and makes her clients comfortable and confident in the entire process.� Should anyone wish to speak to me further, I would be very happy to do so.

Sincerely,

Dear Grace:

Working with you on the sale of my home has been an exciting, fun experience that is really hard for me to put into words.

Our journey began months ago when I started remodeling my home in El Cerrito. You were always there helping me with small details, paint choices, referrals, unexpected issues and always available to answer my questions. As they say, “little jobs turn into big jobs”. Mine was not any different. You were there each time to help me find the correct answer.

Who in the World would provide this level of service before any contractual document had been signed?

Grace Bishop provides this level of service and beyond for her customers!

Needless to say, I chose Grace to represent me in the sale of my property and I clearly made the right choice. I felt that Grace had a knock-out Marketing plan and I saw first-hand how Grace works. Her personal service and attention to detail far exceeded my expectations and she always seemed to be a step ahead of me.

“The proof is in the pudding”. Through Grace’s efforts and her hard work, my home sold in 13 days for a significant amount over the asking price.

Thank you Grace,

To Prospective Buyers or Sellers:

After months of searching, negotiating and enduring the rigors of purchasing Real Estate in a time of “mortgage meltdowns” and economic crisis, we recently purchased a condo with the help of Grace Bishop at Red Oak Realty. Without hesitation, we would highly recommend her as a Real Estate Agent. She helped us over a period of several months with all aspects of the purchasing process from beginning to end, which as it turned out, was no small fete.

Grace came to us indirectly from the recommendation of someone we didn’t know, but was trusted by one of our friends. We had interviewed other Real Estate agents prior to meeting her, but none seemed quite right. Grace was willing to come out to our rental condo to meet us in person. She came fully prepared with an organized and impressive array of materials to leave with us after the initial meeting, but the best part of her presentation was actually not what she brought, but who she is.

As we became better acquainted, we discovered her to be not only a great real estate agent with a high level of expertise and professionalism, but a terrific person. She is somebody you can depend on and somebody you can trust. This woman “walks her talk”.

Grace is first and foremost a good listener, taking time to really get a sense of who her clients are as people. She pays attention. She cares. She listened to what we wanted, as opposed to trying to “sell” us on a particular house, location or price etc. She answered every question we had for months, from the beginning to end of the entire process. She is extremely knowledgeable, but if she didn’t know something, she admitted it. Then she would quickly research it by consulting with colleagues, and let us know what she found out. She is really on top of answering your calls or responding to your emails in a timely manner. We never felt like she was too busy to help us or we were not important enough as clients because we weren’t looking for expensive properties.

Grace is bright, articulate, determined, courteous, respectful, well organized, efficient and hard-working. She is also honest. She embodies all those qualities you want in a person representing your interests in business transactions or in professional relationships. She has that rare combination of integrity and good values to go a long with her incredible knowledge base, years of experience and effective communication skills.

As time went on, we found out just how important her personal qualities were in addition to her level of expertise, because we had to make multiple offers, deals fell through, we had to negotiate with a large Real Estate Developer with special circumstances not typical of most sales, and at one point we wanted to learn about the world of “short sales” and foreclosures, which can be very tricky. (Although we did not ultimately go in that direction, the fact that Grace was willing to if need be, spoke volumes about her desire to help us in any way she could.)

In summary, Grace helped us to face all the various obstacles we encountered while trying to buy a home with uncommon persistence and patience, as well as by keeping a positive attitude when we were discouraged and demonstrating a tenacious resiliency in the face of adversity. We can’t thank her enough. If we ever decide to sell our place, we will give her a call again. You could look a long time and never find anyone better.

To Whom It May Concern,

If you have been lucky enough to find Grace Bishop, consider yourself in the hands of a professional. Simply put, Grace was able to do everything I could have hoped for and more, all with the intent of helping me find the home that was right for me.

A few years back, I had purchased my first home in a different area, through a different agent. For my current home, I was looking for an agent who was familiar with the Albany/El Cerrito area. Looking back and comparing my first home buying experience with my second, I can honestly say that I learned more about the details behind the home buying process during my second purchase than the first. All of that was due to Grace’s attention to educating me on the process, and ensuring that I was armed with as much information as possible, before making my own decision.

Should you choose to work with Grace, be prepared to explore, discover, refine and define your goals in finding a home. Through her questionnaire, interviews, and regular follow-up check-ins you will evolve as a homebuyer, from someone who’s just looking for a place to hang their hat, into someone who’s looking to build a life in a new home/neighborhood.

Grace is not just looking for a quick transaction. Her primary goal is meeting your needs. What sets Grace apart from the others, in my opinion, is that she understands that often times, homebuyers don’t truly know their own needs themselves, but need to discover them. Grace takes the time to help you go through that process, and ultimately ensures that when you are ready to buy a home, you won’t be disappointed with your selection.

I would highly recommend Grace Bishop as your realtor. I would not hesitate myself to work with Grace again in the future.

Sincerely,

To Whom It May Concern,

In May of this year I found myself in a position where I had to sell my mother’s house in Kensington. I live about an hour away and was in desperate need of a local agent in which to accomplish this, particularly as her house was not in the best of condition. I called a broker in my area that I had worked with several times before, and found to very trustworthy, and asked her for a recommendation of someone in the East Bay that I could rely on. She recommended Grace Bishop.

From the moment I first sat down with Grace and began the process of selling the house she proved to have been the perfect choice. She accurately assessed the value of my mother’s house as well as the value of its location. She put together all the resources we would need to make the best possible sale, particularly given the condition of the house. She assembled a team of experts who gave us all the disclosers we needed to give an accurate picture of the condition of the property while showing the house for the gem it is. She was also instrumental in finding the right people to help me get the property in shape for selling.

When it came time to put the house on the market, Grace put together a plan that not only sold the house within hours of being open for bids, but sold for well over our asking price. Once the house went into escrow, Grace was there for me whenever I had a question and immediately took care of any issues that came up during the process.

From beginning to end Grace has been a true professional and a joy to work with. She made a difficult time for me much easier and her performance far exceeded my expectations. I would not only recommend Grace Bishop, but I would strongly urge anyone to choose Grace as their Real Estate professional.

Sincerely,

Dear Real Estate Customer,

We purchased our first home in El Cerrito in June 2007 and Grace was our real estate broker. We loved working with Grace! Our real estate search started slowly. Since we had not purchased a home before, we didn’t have a clear idea what our priorities were and what we were looking for in a home. We had a lot to learn about the East Bay market. Grace is a very patient person!

Grace was also an excellent resource for us. She showed us a variety of homes in our price range to help us refine our criteria. She explained the ins-and-outs of neighborhoods, the pros and cons of particular houses, and the real estate purchasing process. More importantly, she listened to our needs and responded to them.

In the end, we got a great deal on a fantastic home because of Grace’s work. One Thursday morning, she saw a home on the broker’s tour that the owners were anxious to sell: they were willing to consider offers as soon as they were submitted. How unusual- no bidding wars! She called us about it and suggested we see it that day. By that afternoon, we had both seen the home and had decided to make an offer. Grace guided us through the process and helped us make an offer below the asking price- and our offer was accepted! Before closing on the house, Grace helped us negotiate for an additional credit that reduced the price by another few thousand dollars. Grace’s diligence and recognition of an uncommon “deal” were the only reasons that we were able to purchase the fantastic place we call home today. We highly recommend her as a real estate agent!

Sincerely,

Dear Grace,

Thank you for being such a great help to Bill and I in selling our family home of thirty six years. Although we wanted to downsize and had already moved to a condo, the task of selling was quite intimidating to us. You were a good listener and a great resource for the variety of services we needed. I especially liked the floor refinisher and the landscaper you recommended. We also greatly appreciated the information and assistance you provided in order for us to receive the City of Berkeley rebate for our previous seismic retrofit. We got a check from the city for almost $5,000.

Getting the house ready to sell and moving out a basement full of accumulated “stuff” was the hard part. The actual selling of the house went very smoothly due to your expertise. We felt that your marketing skills and attention to details were excellent and consequently our home was viewed by a huge number of brokers and potential buyers. We had a full price offer in two and a half weeks in a rather slow market period and the rest of the selling process went smoothly and quickly. Bill and I feel that you are very adept in understanding the needs of seniors parting with their long time home. We will certainly recommend you to any of our friends who are in the down-sizing process.

Sincerely,

To Whom It May Concern:

As first time home buyers, we were nervous about diving into the real estate market and had a lot of questions about the process, but thank goodness we had the help of Grace Bishop. She has been an invaluable source of guidance, local knowledge and support.

We were under quite a time crunch trying to purchase a home and move before the arrival of our first baby, and Grace truly went out of her way to work with our schedules and expedite the process as much as possible. She answered our many questions with patience and clarity. She helped us better define our priorities as we searched for a home, encouraging us to identify the positives and negatives about each property we visited, and learn from each experience.

We especially appreciated the natural way that Grace offered her thoughts and advice with absolute respect for our own viewpoints and ultimate decisions.

It has been a pleasure getting to know Grace, and sharing this milestone in our lives with her. She is a top-notch person and agent, and we recommend her highly to anyone considering a home purchase in the East Bay!

Sincerely,

To all it may concern,

Grace Bishop was my agent for the sale of my house at 63 Arlington Ct., in Kensington. It was listed in September 2006, a time when the market was considered weak, and getting weaker.

Bottom line is, the house was sold in 2 weeks, with multiple offers, for significantly more than asking price! I believe Grace’s marketing strategy had a lot to do with this; there were hundreds of buyers and agents that came through on the open house dates.

The sheer amount of exposure that she generated was way above average.

In all ways, she was more than competent and efficient. She made the paper work and inspections a snap. The flyers she made were absolutely beautiful. She helped me with scheduling the various dates and deadlines for completing re-modeling, staging, etc.

Whenever I had a question, she was there with an answer, or advice, or a suggestion. Her suggestion that I compose a statement about why I loved living here was a very good one; the buyers who submitted offers referred positively to it.

All in all, I am VERY pleased I used Grace as my agent, and I really can’t imagine how someone else could’ve done a better job.

Feel free to contact me if you need more information.