MyHousingGuide

I’ve worked with Linnette for 10 years +. I can attest to say that she is definitely by far THE BEST! She takes pride in providing the best service to her clients with assurance that they are always taken care of.
She is knowledgeable and keeps a smile on her face, while even in the most difficult situation. As her team has grown over the years I can say that by far Tammy Sarka Marco and Debbie all practice the same work ethic. It goes with out saying that whenever I see her name on a contract I am all smiles knowing that A. the deal will close on time and B. I will be provided with what I need in the interim to do my job as well! :-) I look forward to working with Linnette and her team as they continue to grow!

Update — Linnette and Tammy were the team we chose to sell that very same home for us too. Linnette gave us great advice from months in advance of when we were prepared to pull the trigger, and set us up with a super team to transform our home with perfect, fast, in-​budget finishing touches. We felt so proud of how it looked when it was done. Tammy put together a magnificent website and supplementary materials, and Linnette and her team managed the open houses, offer timing and agent communications to get us a range of really strong offers. We loved that house, it was perfect for us, we had a wonderful time there, and then we sold it for more than we ever dreamed. All because of Linnette and Tammy. Amazing team.

My husband and I moved from Washington DC area to Walnut Creek, CA back in March 2015 a rented a place for 6 months with an idea to possibly buy a house before Christmas. We got serious about buying house in August, went to some open houses and fell in love with one house in Montclair. We immediately started looking for a real estate agent as we were thinking about placing an offer (little did we know at that time:)). I found Linnette on Unilocal along with another agent but my husband and I both decided to try to contact her first. She was on vacation at the time, but she got back to us same day or the following day and we set up a phone call with her the following day. We told her about a house we found and she right away gave us her idea about estimated sale price which was way over our budget. A month later we found that the house was sold as she predicted or even a bit higher. At that first call Linnette cleared our heads so we can have realistic expectations about market and I am very grateful for that. We originally looked at the houses in Oakland and Berkeley area, saw 5 – 10 open houses per weekend and consulted with Linnette on the ones we liked. We then arranged to see some houses with her and actually wanted to place offers on two. Inspections showed major issues with both, so we decided not to proceed and Linnette didn’t push us at all. She gave us her honest opinion, but never pushed to any decision. Eventually we decided to look around Walnut Creek and she was very knowledgeable about that market as well. We picked two houses, the one didn’t work out for us based on Linnette sale price analysis. We weren’t comfortable going with that price (and the house sold at the price range she predicted). We placed an offer on a townhouse following Linnette’s guidelines and we got a house. Woo Hoo! She also suggested a list of local lenders and we picked one based on Unilocal reviews. Our lender was awesome too! The whole process from the first phone call with Linnette to an offer was about a month long. We closed in about 21 days with a little delay due to some HOA issues. Linnette was always responsive (texts, calls, emails), supportive, and tried to accommodate our needs and schedule. Besides being professional, Linnette has a great personality and positive attitude which makes it very enjoyable to work with her. My husband and I are very happy with Linnette and her team. And now we are very much enjoying be the first time homeowner’s :) Thank you very much Linnette!!!

Linnette helped us find our home in Orinda this summer. We got connected with her through a recommendation from another realtor, and couldn’t have been luckier.
We had already narrowed our search to the Lamorinda/​Walnut Creek area. Linnette grew up the area, so she had great knowledge about exactly what neighborhoods we should target to match our budget, tastes, and needs. She frankly advised us on the pros and cons of each neighborhood and house we looked at, which was very helpful, since we weren’t as familiar with the area.
When it can time to make an offer, Linnette gave us great advice on strategy, and did a lot of work behind the scenes with the other realtor to make the process go smoothly. We bid on our first house and it was accepted with only a small price increase in the counteroffer.
Linnette and her team supported us very well during the closing process, keeping us informed and reassured throughout the whole process.
She referred us to a mortgage broker who was top notch, and had lots of solid recommendations for contractors for our new home. She also provided lots of information about services and utilities in the area.
On top of it all, Linnette is just a cool, easygoing person, and fun to work with.
I would highly recommend Linnette for your East Bay house hunting.

Linnette Edwards is on top of the Bay area real estate market — very informed — and with a clear understanding of what works. She was always thinking ahead and telling us what we will need to work on next or what to expect and that helped the process go smoothly. She listens well and is very responsive. In our initial discussions she mentioned that texting is fastest way to reach her and I found that to be true throughout our experience. We found Linnette on Unilocal as we were planning our move from Washington DC to San Francisco Bay area in March 2015. We communicated via email and phone and got some helpful advice from Linnette on how to approach the local real estate market.
We arrived in San Francisco at the the end of July. We initially decided to rent but the lack of quality rentals had us changing focus to open houses and by the second week in August we were ready to make an offer on a townhouse in Lafayette! We got in touch with Linnette who was on vacation at the time but she matched our enthusiasm and spoke with the listing agent right away. Linnette found out they were expecting three other offers the very next day and we didn’t even have a pre-​approval letter! Linnette introduced us to a local lender whose specialty is closing in 14 days, which she said we needed because of the competitiveness of the market. The lender moved quickly and we submitted the offer. We followed her advice on the offer price and wrote a letter to the seller describing our situation and we got the house!!! The closing happened within 14 days at the end of August. I am very sure we would not be homeowners right now if we did not have Linnette in our corner.

As a first time home buyer, I knew absolutely nothing about the process. I worked with Sarka, who was highly responsive, especially during crunch time when we were trying to close. I asked what were probably a lot of dumb questions, but she gently and expertly guided me toward the perfect place that was within my price range and in a great area (she has terrific knowledge of Oakland and surrounding areas). There were additional hurdles she had to jump through with the lender and selling agent (at no fault of her own), and she did so like a pro! I mention her name to any of my friends or coworkers who mention that they are thinking of buying a home.
I HIGHLY recommend her. Not only was she knowledgeable and professional, but also fun and personable and bent over backwards to help me find my perfect first home.

Linnette was an extraordinary help. We live on the east coast and were looking for property in east bay. Linnette helped us from afar and made us feel comfortable and educated. She told us about neighborhoods and specific properties. She helped us with our application. She answered our emails and voicemails quickly and thoughtfully. We were totally impressed by her knowledge and also by how easy she was to talk with. We were thankful to have met her and that she was the one who helped us with this challenging process.

Linnette is a phenomenal seller’s agent! We had some very big hurdles to jump over before we could place my condo on the market. My place needed a TON of work. Fortunately, Linnette recommended a great crew that transformed my place from a scuzzy bachelor pad with a forthcoming special assessment to a sleek modern abode that got nine offers and sold for 20% over asking! She also gave excellent design recommendations and even helped me pick out some of the materials for the remodel.
We initially met with three different agents to see which one we liked best. By the end of our meeting with Linnette, we were ready to sign the listing agreement right then and there (What a salesperson!). She has excellent communication skills; She is direct but is also a great listener. I never had to wait more than a few hours for her to return my calls. She has a great relationship with other professionals, such as stagers and escrow officers, so you know you will get good service from them as well. She has exceptional attention to detail and her diligence put even a control freak like me at ease. I highly recommend her!!!

Linnette was our realtor and helped us buy our house in the east bay approximately 1 year ago. We had a great experience with her, and I would highly recommend her.
I came across Linnette on Unilocal as a top rated realtor in the area. She promptly got back to me when I messaged her. She carefully explained to us the competitive market and what we needed to bring to the table to get a bid accepted. In the beginning, she spent a lot of time showing us houses just so we could get a feel for what was out there, and later showing us houses we were very interested in (sometimes several times). When she was not available, her partner Sarka filled in (and is also wonderful). We bid on 2 houses that we did not get, though I am confident that Linnette did her best to represent us. She also represented us when we were out of the country, emailed us documents to sign while we were away, and kept us posted via email/​text/​phone. When we bid on the 3^rd house (which we bought), Linnette gave sound advice on what, if any, inspections were needed — this really ended up saving us headaches in the future, and also money. She also helped arrange for contractors to come to the house to give estimates on work that would need to be done (with that said, I recommend doubling what anyone tells you so you know what to expect).
Linnette was there for us even after we moved in. We were away and did not have phone access, and I emailed her to call Ned Clyde (foundation specialists) that our return was delayed and they would not be able to start their work as scheduled. She got back to me right away and called them for me.
Overall, Linnette is a great person and realtor. I would definitely have her represent me again for buying or selling property.

10 weeks ago, I didn’t know Linnette but had just found out I needed to move within 120 days. I didn’t know Oakland and didn’t have any contacts… so I took to Unilocal.After reading all the previous reviews, I called Linnette Edwards. I immediately connected with her. I found her to be personable, thoughtful, with a lot of information. She immediately gave me the highs and lows of what’s going on with the current market and some tips and tricks that would help me land a property. She clearly explained what she could help me. That helped me to know my role in this process.
I’ve come to realize throughout this process that Linnette really knows her stuff. She was able to offer me guidance and suggestions so that I would find the right place and be able come in with an attractive offer to the seller. She has good strategies that help her clients come to the table and meet sellers where they need to be met. She understands how the market is changing and is able to adapt quickly. She was my non-​emotional eyes and ears (so to speak). As you can imagine this was a very emotional process for me. Linnette was my voice of reason. When I liked something that wouldn’t hold resale value she was sure to tell me. When I wanted to throw money at something she held me back so that I came in with the right offer and didn’t overspend. When I didn’t want to write a love-​letter to the seller she explained the pros/​cons of doing it or not and left the decision to me.
All along the process, I felt like Linnette had my best interest at heart. She could have very easily let me get into something that wasn’t right, just to make a commission and get me off her calendar (showing houses take a lot of time). That just wasn’t her style. She had no problem keeping me on her calendar and continued to put forth effort and time with me until the right property came along.
I would recommend Linnette and her team to my best friend and you (reader of this post). Best of luck in your hunt for a home!

Linnette Edwards is the epitome of the perfect agent. In the age of Redfin and Trulia and the glut of information available online, it’s hard to find an agent who really brings a lot of value to the housing search process. We had been using a different agent who didn’t specialize in the Oakland/​Piedmont area, but when we started to focus our search, our friends recommended that we talk to Linnette. The contrast was immediately apparent.
Linnette is extremely knowledgeable — about the area, the schools, the relative value of homes, the different agents in the area, and the strategies in home-​buying. Each time we looked at a home together, she would point out aspects of the house that we hadn’t noticed, and she was able to look past the superficial to assess the house’s real value. She could identify when a house had underlying issues that had been covered up by careful staging («lipstick on a pig») or when a house had hidden potential but didn’t show well (the «ugly duckling»). We came to trust implicitly her opinion.
As an added bonus, Linnette is just a great human being. She is warm and personable. We decided to put in a bid on a house at the last minute, and Linnette (who had left on vacation that morning after we had told her that we weren’t going to bid) ended up putting together our contract in her car on a rush basis. She stayed upbeat and professional the entire time and never gave any indication that we had interrupted her day on the slopes.
We really appreciate Linnette’s honesty and integrity. She gave us great advice on what a home might be worth, as well as our chances of winning at a certain price, but she never gave a hard sell. We never felt pressure to bid more than we were comfortable with bidding or to bid on a house that we didn’t like.
We will recommend Linnette unreservedly to all of our friends and anyone looking for an agent.

My husband and I are so happy that fate brought Sarka into our homebuying lives. She made a stressful process fun and manageable. Sarka is incredibly knowledgeable of the buying process and keeps her finger on the pulse of the current market. She quickly got to know what we wanted, what we needed, and how to meet both of our wishes. After a couple hours of looking, she really got a grasp of our hopes and ran with it. We were never pressured, never judged, and always her priority when we were together. Sarka kept us in reality when our dreams got a little too big and helped keep us open to options. We are so very happy with our house and will happily work with Sarka for our next home-​buying adventure.

I’ve never written a Unilocal review for anything before, but happy to do so for Sarka. She helped my husband and I buy our first home in probably the most competitive market in the country. For a few months, Sarka made herself available to show us house after house in all areas of Oakland, always with a huge smile on her face. She even reached out to neighbors on our behalf to get a better feel for the neighborhood and her friendly nature helped us gain favor among selling agents. PLUS, she actually advised us to offer LESS than we thought we’d need to and we still ended up getting the home! Couldn’t recommend her more!

I’m going to start off by saying this: I don’t give five star reviews lightly, let alone reviews this long. Because this is going to be so long, I’ll give a break down here:
Linnette is extremely professional
Linnette is extremely clear and communicative
Linnette is a very hard worker
Linnette is very patient
Linnette is working with your best interest in mind
My wife and I decided to go with Linnette and her team after meeting with a few other agents. Linnette extremely prompt in responding and flexible in meeting. She was professional and put together some really great materials that she showed us and definitely helped us make our decision. She came prepared with examples of promotional materials, and comparable home prices.
We were on a budget for the home sale, and she was very cognizant of that and flexible with us on it. We decided to stage the house ourselves, and she gave us great input along the way. When we had questions or hesitations about anything, she would clearly explain why we should or should not do something, laying out the pros and cons of each decision. She never forced anything on us. We weren’t selling a million dollar house or anything like that, but she treated us with all of the respect and time as though we were.
While we got the house together, she and her team started arranging the inspections, photography, and marketing materials. She pretty much just told us where we should go, when we should be at the house and when we shouldn’t be, and what to do. At that point it was best for us to stay out of the way and let her team take over. During that time she also further researched pricing and we finally nailed down a price we were all happy with.
An open house was arranged for us, and we got out of the way. Linnette fielded all of the questions from the agents and did all of the behind the scenes work. She would update us as necessary, but was also very patient when we were impatient and peppered her with questions.
When the offers did come in, she explained the whole process that we would go through. The entire process did have some hiccups involving the buyers loan, but Linnete kept us up to date on the progress (almost daily) and kept us from getting to stressed out or worried.
Concurrently, we were in the process of purchasing a house in the Santa Cruz area. Through a series of events we asked Linnette if she would be able to represent us as our buying agent despite her not being in the area. She said yes without any hesitation and was excited about the challenge of working in an area she’d never worked in. After we found a place, she came down to Santa Cruz from the Bay Area and did a tour of the house with us. It was great.
When we submitted he offer, Linnette made sure that all of the i’s were dotted and t’s were crossed. The seller’s agent was blown away by the completeness of the package, and said that that helped with the sellers accepting our offer. She also had us include little things that we really think helped. During the purchase, Linnette walked us through the entire process again, and again lined up all of the necessary inspections. She handled all of the negotiations and would consult with us as necessary.
Dealing with a contingent home purchase is not the easiest thing in the world, and for reasons that were outside of our control, the process became more difficult. This didn’t stop Linnette from working through this and managing our expectations and stress. If she was ever stressed she never showed it to us.
When the entire process was over, and we sold our house, and purchased our new home we realized that there was no possible way we could have done this without Linnette. She was with us the entire way and we trusted her every step of the way.
There are probably a million little things I’m forgetting here, but if we had to ever do it again, we would go with Linnette without any hesitation.
Thanks again Linnette, Debbie, and Tammy!

We were lucky to get Linnette to help us purchase our first home in Berkeley. The market was super competitive but she was very helpful and in not just showing homes but giving honest analysis and insight into the different neighborhoods. She very accurate estimates of what it would take to actually to get an offer accepted and the true resale value of the house. We also felt that she had our best interests in mind and wouldn’t let us overpay for a property that just wasn’t worth it.
She was very down to earth and fun to work with. The rest of the team at My Housing guide was great too especially Debbie who made the actual process of getting to closing as painless as possible.

If there was another higher rating to give on Unilocal for extraordinary service, caring and knowledge, Linnette Edwards and her team would get it! I returned to Linnette a few months ago when my husband and I decided to separate and sell our home– she was wonderful and made suggestions for us– (a refresher on the interior paint, staging, and landscaping outside to spruce things up a bit) that turned out to bring us not only more money in the end, but made me wish we were new buyers looking at our home for the first time. She is nothing short of awesome!
If you are searching for a realtor that will make the experience as stress free as possible (*notice I said– «as possible»! lol), she knows what to do for the best return and the most positive experience in what could have been very frustrating.
Call her, sit down with her, listen to her– she knows her stuff and will be the decisive, positive, best person to have in your corner if you are buying or selling!

A friend of mine recommended Linnette to me, and I met her the first time while in the Bay Area interviewing for a new job in August. She spent an afternoon introducing me to a few East Bay neighborhoods, and gave me a good overview of the real estate. Once I relocated from New Jersey to Oakland in early September she put her heart and soul into helping me find a Rockridge home.
Linnette is extremely knowledge about the local market, passionate about her career, and very well regarded and respected by her peers. I spent several weekends going to open houses on my own (respecting her time and bringing her back to ones I really liked), and every real estate agent to whom I mentioned that I was working with Linnette commented on what great hands I was in. Sarka on her team also helped open up a couple homes last minute (Thank you, Sarka!).
I’ve bought and sold homes in three different states prior to coming to California, and the real estate market here was by far the toughest in terms of the competitive bid process and the amount of paperwork involved. Linnette navigated the process adeptly and made it seem easy (relatively speaking). And yesterday we closed, in an unbelievable just over 3 weeks.
Linnette is honest, direct, knowledgeable, and an all around wonderful human being. I would recommend her and her team to anyone without the slightest hesitation.

I had a pleasant experience working with Linnette. She knows that I am a busy customer and sometimes I am slow to provide her the information that she needed. I really appreciate for her patience working with me and still know when to push me so I can move forward with the processing of selling my property. I look forward to continuing working with her in the near future.

I can’t say enough good things about Linnette Edwards and her team!
To the new seller:
If you are selling a car, what is the worst you could do in the deal? What would the best be? Well in a house sale you magnify the stakes by a 100. For me the best was keeping $ 90,000.00! That is what Linnette and her team did for me! There is no better.
True story: I was regaling a friend of mine with the story of my home-​sale and she said «you have a guardian angle.» I replied «I do, her name is Linnette Edwards!»

In all honesty, I turned to Linnette because when I saw all of her high ratings, I thought, «someone who’s willing to spend the time manipulating her Unilocal ratings this well must be able to sell my house at a great price.»
It was cynical of me, but pragmatic. Turns out, Linnette is COMPLETELY AWESOME! She’s got an amazingly pleasant personality and yet she’s a force of nature. She’s a really nice person, very intelligent, and very, very, competent. And believe me — that girl gets shit done!
As an IT professional, I appreciated the way she and her partner fully utilized technology for marketing, communicating, and paperwork.
As a nervous homeowner, I appreciated the way she played therapist on occasion. She pushed me when I needed pushing and she coddled me when I needed coddling. She even told me to «suck it up and deal with it» (not in those words…) on occasion and I respect her for that because she was absolutely right.
Linnette started the process by sitting me down and giving me a very thorough presentation on herself, her marketing philosophy and technique, her thoughts on my property, and what I can expect. I was so impressed that I decided to put myself thoroughly in her hands. I got myself out of the house and let it be painted, staged, landscaped, and photographed.
Linnette created a beautiful and professional website, slick printed marketing collateral, and when she was done my house was so beautiful that it was featured in the SF Chronicle. It became the house I would want to buy!
I got a solid sale and the buyers are as happy as I am (which is important to me!). Isn’t that how every sale should go?