Mariya Ruchka

We worked with Mariya to buy our first house (in the East Bay) and later to refinance it.
We really enjoyed our experience with Mariya. She is very easy to work with and is quick to respond to questions and concerns. She went with us to many, many open houses, and was responsive when we had to schedule house viewings during off-​hours. She diligently followed up on every property we were interested in, and was persistent during bidding. In as highly contentious real estate market as the Bay Area, Mariya is definitely a good broker to have.
When the time came to refinance, Mariya gave us a call and let us know that interest rates were now more favorable than when we originally purchased the house, so it was a smart idea to refinance. The process was smooth and uneventful — exactly what you want when dealing with big transactions.
In general, we liked working with Mariya and hope to use her services in the future.

Mariya helped my family buy our first property out in SF, while we’re living in NYC. Overall it was a smooth purchase; Mariya genuinely cared for each step in the process and helped us close the deal fast.
She gave us explanation if we had any questions and was easily reached by text/​call/​email. As a Russian speaker, Mariya was helpful in that aspect as well. She was able to translate and clear any points of confusion. We look forward to working with Mariya in the near future again!

Mariya was referred to me by my real estate agent as a mortgage broker to refinance our townhouse. I must say this was my first refinance experience, anyone with prior knowledge of the process would’ve walked away. Here are her «best» practices:
— promised a «no closing cost» loan and kept reassuring the numbers on the GFE were just an estimate, until a couple of days before the closing where she said it would be 700. It ended up being over 2000 at signing.
— would disappear for weeks and then call back with «I need this signed and sent back to me in the next 15 minutes»
— would push you to sign documents immediately, leaving you no time to think.
— would promise to walk me through the papers I need to sign at closing, but the first time I saw the papers was at signing.
The list could go on and on…
To sum it all up, if you are a person experienced in refinancing that knows the process inside out, likes bargaining and is not in a hurry, go for it. Otherwise, stay away.