Ruth Krishnan – San Francisco Real Estate

After our first meeting with Ruth it was evident that we needed to hire her and her team versus the other 4 real estate agents that we interviewed. In our initial meeting she laid out a concrete plan for getting our condo painted, staged, and on the market to set us up for getting the best price possible. She had solid market data to help us position the condo for maximum exposure in the market. When we were deciding between renting or selling our condo I had a long conversation with Ruth where she walked me through each scenario. I was surprised that she actually advocated the benefits of retaining ownership and renting versus selling. Renting would have meant a significantly less lucrative deal for Ruth but it goes to show that she had our best interests in mind!
Ultimately we decided to sell and Ruth and her team consistently went above and beyond to help us get the condo ready for sale. The thing that stands out most is that when we were filling out the extensive amount of paperwork disclosures Ruth sat with us on a Saturday and walked us through it. Most real estate agents won’t do this. Once the offers came in Ruth expertly helped us navigate them and ultimately helped us get a price over asking which we were very happy with.

Ruth did an amazing job helping us sell our home. She has deep expertise in real estate as well as specific nuances of the San Francisco market that ended up being very helpful as we navigated such an important transaction. If you are looking to buy or sell a home in SF I would highly recommend that you talk to Ruth.

We are very happy we choose Ruth as our real estate agent to sell our home. She provides a service much greater than any other realtor we have worked with in the past. This was the eighth home we have sold and by far the best experience. With our transaction we debated a lot about whether we should; stage, paint, replace lighting, refinish a floor, etc; (expensive stuff). Ruth helped us to see it was a logical approach that would/​should result in more people visiting our home and in turn result in a bigger closing price. She was right and she made the whole process easy. We went on a 3 week trip and when we came back it was all done. Amazing. The result was a sales price that was far more than we ever dreamed of and all I would say to a prospective client is, listen to what she recommends and you will love the result.

OK.
Take 5 seconds and scroll down this Unilocal page. Notice how everyone has Ruth at 5 stars?
Now.
Take another 5 seconds and ask yourself — «…how important is this real estate transaction…».
Lastly…
Take a last 5 seconds to consider how detailed, expensive, litigious and arcane the SF Real Estate world is and consider what sort of person you want representing you in this market.
We’ve known Ruth for 3 years. We threatened to sell and we called her (see my other review of her below). She was calm and cool, keeping our eyes on realistic goals — no hard pitches or pie-​in-​the-​sky fantasy prices were offered. We chose to rent. She offered color choices for free and smiled while she watched her commission go «poof». Her choices of color earned us an extra $ 800/​month in rental fees.
2 years later we threatened to sell again. She was still calm and cool. Her color choices remained and she offered more free advice. We took it.
We paused, we hemmed, we hawed. She stayed calm and cool and kept our eyes on realistic goals. Still no fantasies, just realism and professionalism.
We ranted and raved about the red-​hot market and what «we were damned sure our precious house was worth!!»… She refused to feed our fantasies and frenzy, instead keeping us with feet-​on-​the-​ground and realistic in our expectations.
She stayed calm and cool and offered yet more free advice. It cost some money clearly but way less than I expected and she even got vendors to wait to closing to get paid.
We finally pulled the trigger and followed her advice to the letter.
Guess what?
We got 30% over asking.
We broke the record in Sunnyside for dollars-​per-​sq-​ft transactions.
We closed in 30 days, no contingencies. None.
Beside the no-​pressure approach, the depth of knowledge of the SF market, the vast rolodex of contractors and the even-​keeled pragmatism, Ruth is a joy to work with. Straight to the point, full of execution but caring and protective of her clients with the vigor of Sir Galahad. We trusted our kingdom to her and she over-​delivered.
As usual, I imagine.
There are not enough stars in Unilocal to offer her.
Simply put she’s a golden choice for Real Estate transactions in SF.

We loved working with Ruth for our home purchase in Mission Terrace. She is a very knowledgeable buyer and seller realtor and well connected in the SF real estate market. We spoke to a few other realtors before deciding with Ruth, when they heard we are picking Ruth, they actually told us that we are in good hands. The industry has a lot of respect for her.
The buying process for our house wasn’t an easy one, Ruth and her team helped us navigate and coordinate every step of the way. The offer was turned in over Christmas holiday, we signed a counter offer while vacationing in Mexico. The seller side was slow to respond and unreliable during the entire process, Ruth handled them for us and anticipated potential problems and remedied them along the way. When we had questions or unsure of what to do, she gave us her direct and honest opinion, never pushy and always supportive of whatever we decide. Some unexpected issues came up during inspections, Ruth helped us negotiated more money even tho it was already a great deal. In the end, we got the house below asking, which is unheard of in this seller market.
You can’t go wrong choosing Ruth as your realtor.

Ruth took the worry and mystery out of our first home sale. We hired her to help us sell our beloved old house in the Mission district. From the first meeting, she was incredibly organized and knowledgeable, and at the same time, refreshingly down-​to-​earth. She has great taste and a lot of experience for what works in San Francisco. Within 12 hours of that meeting, she had emailed a list of specific recommendations for minor home upgrades, with cost estimates, to help the house look its best, and a realistic calendar to make the changes and get the home on the market and sold.
Ruth orchestrated the whole process start to finish (on time!), keeping us updated by email and phone whenever inevitable issues crept up. The house looked beautiful, and sold for a great price. We could not be more pleased! Thank you, Ruth!

Ruth took over as my agent to sell our 4 unit building after another real estate agent had over priced the building and made series of bad marketing blunders. If you think all Realtors are created equal, I can tell you they most certainly are not.
From the get go, the difference in which the two real estate agents worked was night and day and I was simply amazed. I own multiple investment properties and have worked with numerous Realtors, but upon meeting Ruth I felt like a new world was opening up in front of me. Before our first phone conversation she sent me a crisp, bullet-​pointed email that covered items we would discuss that night. By the time we were on the phone she had studied comps, read the disclosures put together by the previous agent and created a long lists of items to clean up and add to it that would protect us from renegotiation and litigation. She had a clear strategy to increase buyer interest on my property. Ruth did so much to market the property in such a short amount of time, it was almost hard to keep up with her pace. She hired someone to draw floor plans so that potential buyers could understand and remember the layouts of all the units and hired a professional photographer to take really cool photos of all the restaurants and shops in the neighborhood. She then used all of these to create a gorgeous professional color brochure printed on very nice thick paper stock, in less than a week.
Ruth also created a google doc task sheet to share with me so that I can follow along with everything she was doing in real time. She clearly had her systems down.
Ruth is a very good listener. I am a rather reserved person, but I could ask her things I might normally hesitate because her answers were always candid and useful, and I always came away glad to have asked. She was eager to hear my suggestions as well, and I felt like a part of a team.
Throughout the process of many open houses, following up with leads and touching base with me every few days Ruth never lost focus or showed fatigue. There were several complicated things to deal with but each time Ruth ALWAYS seemed to have solutions, and was on top of things. As days went by I was more and more intrigued by her professionalism.
After this experience, there is no way I would work with other realtor other than Ruth for anything real estate in San Francisco. I highly recommend Ruth whether buying or selling your home.

I highly recommend Ruth Krishnan as a real estate agent– don’t hesitate at all to give her a call!
When we were getting ready to list our home for sale, I knew Ruth was the realtor I wanted to work with us. Ruth has all the qualities I wanted in a real estate agent: she is completely on top of her game, she knows the San Francisco real estate market incredibly well, she responds quickly to calls/​texts/​emails, she goes out of her way to get the right information to you and to get things done, she has a great group of vendors she works with so that all your needs are met with fantastic results (repairs, painting, staging, photography, media, etc), and she has an eye for design and knows how to market a home to the desired audience (or I would image, on a buyer’s side, would know what could and could not be done in a potential home).
Ruth is also extremely honest and straightforward, traits that were profoundly valuable to us, especially in the field of real estate. We were a bit stressed as the market seemed to cool down right after we listed, so our sale seemed to take longer than we hoped, but Ruth was good about checking in with us and kept her calm, kept giving us good advice about which offers to take seriously and which to let slide, and the house sold at a price that we were happy with.
Ruth will do whatever it takes. We truly could not have asked for a better real estate agent. So go on and give her a call you Unilocalers.

I have decided to give Ruth the title of ‘Master Agent’. She is an absolute pro at her job and in this very tough market she got my family into a fantastic home — it was our second offer but the first home we’d seen over several months that we really, really wanted. I was getting ready to walk away from the SF market because I just didn’t think we could find what we wanted in a home at a price we could pay. Ruth helped us get it. I feel fairly confident we’d still be frustrated and searching if not for her expertise.
I met Ruth through 2 friends who’d successfully purchased homes with her. I knew in this market we needed an agent who was consummately professional, driven to win, ethical, strategically-​minded, an expert about the SF market, and fun to work with. Ruth exceeded my expectations at every turn.
She was supportive of our process — getting to know the market, taking a break from house-​hunting when life got hectic with our jobs and two kids, and re-​assessing our purchase price and goals for a home after we’d had a chance to really understand what we needed and wanted.
When it came time to make that offer, Ruth was coaching us as soon as she understood our level of interest in the house. Her strategies played out as she anticipated. They required some work on our part and I’m so glad we followed her advice. On the day offers came in she kept us apprised every step of the way. We weren’t surprised or upset when we had to up our offer a small amount and I’m quite sure her advice to increase it when we did kept us out of an expensive bidding war.
As we went through escrow Ruth continued to show that she pays attention to the details, anticipates clients’ needs and lenders’ requirements, and makes sure everyone understands what’s going on. We wish everyone we worked with in this home-​buying process could be as proficient as Ruth.
Ruth goes above and beyond at every turn. As we’ve just closed on the house this week, she sent us a list of web links to the utilities we should set up, USPS address change, and made practical suggestions like changing the locks immediately. She also had referrals for all the minor projects — from must-​do to frivolous — that we’ll do before we move in.
Bottom-​line: she is damn good at her job and she’s the agent you want in San Francisco.

Ruth is a treasure in a cluttered sea of average. Possessing a genuine care for her clients, she aggressively pursues the deal and is not afraid to «crack the whip» when needed on whoever needs it. We have worked with Ruth on several transactions for both personal and investment properties in the last 6 months. She has never let us down and always commits serious time and energy to a deal.
On the sell side, Ruth is hyper organized and utilizes top notch marketing materials and vendors. She is also very helpful in contributing her ideas on renovation and staging. One thing she is especially good at is prying info from potential buyers and agents that can be used to influence a deal. She is also very tough on pushing to keep timelines and not caving to the short-​term fear most agents have of losing a commission. That’s another reason to work with a successful agent. You don’t have to worry that their next mortgage payment hinges on your deal.
On the buy side, she is quite crafty. She is able to extract information for agents and get us the winning bid while not overbidding too much. But before we even put an offer in, she gives us detailed, tactical information to work with to avoid purchasing the wrong property. She is insightful and provides valuable opinions on remodeling as it pertains to budget and future value.
In addition to all of her professional skills, she’s really quite the superwoman, juggling a full home life and her very busy business. I’m always amazed how she is literally on top of all aspects of a transaction and has yet to make any blunders. Between my wife and I, we’ve worked with probably 10 other agents prior and Ruth by far exceeds any of our past experiences. For selfish reasons, I’ve hesitated to write another 5 star review as we don’t want her to get too busy! If you’re reading this, feel free to PM and ask me questions.

We are first time homebuyers and Ruth made the experience as painless as possible. She’s a rare person who combines bulldog like tenacity when working FOR her clients and honesty, openness and kindness when working WITH them. The other reviews are all right on — Ruth makes every client feel like they’re her only client and her number one priority. We looked at new condo construction around SF, but ended up deciding that we love the condo building we were renting a unit in and wanted to try and buy there. Using her creativity she initiated a letter writing campaign to the owners in the building and it worked! We bought the unit we wanted off market. Ruth is charming, warm, smart, efficient, effective, and just plain knows her stuff. Stop your realtor search now and just hire Ruth. You won’t regret it.

My brother in law needed to sell his condo in North Beach, and turned to me for guidance. He doesn’t know a lot about real estate, and is a foreign national, so he needed a lot of expert advise.
I found Ruth on Unilocal,along with several other agents in the S.F. area. After speaking with each of them, Ruth stood out as the most knowledgeable and engaged agent.
I visited her web site and was even more impressed. She approached the transaction in a very structured and specific manner. She explained every step of the process, set expectation of what each step would involve, and guided the process all the way through.
I am a 30 year veteran of the Real Estate industry in another state, so I knew what to expect, and Ruth exceeded those expectations at every turn.
Do your own research, but you would be remiss if you didn’t seriously consider her as your agent.

Ruth was simply amazing! My wife and I started our journey of looking for homes in San Francisco in June of 2013. In a heated seller’s market we had the pleasure to work with Ruth and she made the whole experience as enjoyable as can be. She is a great listener and truly got to know what we wanted. In the beginning of the process my wife and I were all over the board in terms of areas and type of properties. Between numerous meetings and convesations Ruth knew which properties/​areas we would be happy with and didn’t waste our time with properties that didn’t fit our profile. She found us our dream home in July and we couldn’t be happier.
I work in the Real Estate Industry on the Investment side and meet a lot of Residential Realtors. Ruth is definitely an elite Realtor as she flat out delivers and works her tail off to make sure you are an extremely happy client. I would 100% recommend her whether you are buying or listing your property.
Scott and Farah

I am absolutely convinced no one else would have sold my unit, but Ruth and the SFTeam at Paragon made a seemingly impossible situation happen!
I was introduced to Ruth a couple of years ago when I was trying to decide what to do about feeling trapped in a TIC post 2008 bubble burst. Twice over those last few years I have gone to Ruth for real estate advice, and after spending over an hour with me each time, gave me advice that ultimately she would not earn one penny from.
Flash forward to the present. I knew I wanted to work with Ruth because of her past professionalism, but my selling partner was looking for someone with extensive experience selling TICs. Ruth brought in the SFTeam and the personalization we would get from them was immediately apparent and night and day different than the other Real Estate company specializing in TICs would have been able to provide.
Ruth’s team worked what seemed like 24 hours/​day getting the house prepped, staged, and marketed. They helped in in ways that we didn’t even know we needed help! It seemed like they anticipated every possible obstacle that could come along they way. They were lightning-​fast with their responses whenever we had any questions. They even did a custom website for us when the standard website didn’t allow for video uploads.
They were always VERY objective when presenting us with information needed to make any decisions and reminded us that ultimately the decision was ours. They set very realistic expectations all throughout the selling process and we never felt pressured in any way when making decisions. I always felt like I was as informed as possible at these junctions along the way.
They helped out with references to moving companies, painters, stagers, contractors, storage facilities, etc.
And when it came to a difficult TIC situation at the end (completely unforseen), when I thought all hope was lost of ever selling our unit due to stipulations by the lender, they fought hard for us with the bank to reach a compromise and somehow magically made it all fall into place.
I’m not sure how she had time for any of her other clients while selling our TIC because it seemed like 100% of her focus and attention was on us. Ruth is great! The SF team is great! I would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone looking to sell a home in San Francisco.

I absolutely recommend Ruth Krishnan, especially in the current market in SF. We just bought a great house with a back yard across from a playground (we have two young boys) and there were 6 offers. She did so much to help us get he house of our dreams. One of the top offers had 40% cash down with a 30 day close. Due to Ruth’s connections at the bank she was able to get us a 14 day close with only 20% down (good credit helps too). At the end of the day, if the seller can get all the money in 14 days vs 30 days, the amount down is a wash.
She was also able to work closely with the appraiser (creating a spreadsheet with favorable comps for him), to ensure our house appraised for more than the amount we offered (important for the loan approval).
I highly recommend you interview her, you will not be sorry!
Good luck, it is a tough market but with the right agent, you can find your dream SF home. :)

Five stars are not enough to begin to describe the whirlwind of energy and professionalism that is Ruth Krishnan. I am currently petitioning Unilocal to allow for a more appropriate level of bonus starring — nothing too ostentatious — just 5 – 15 more stars.
I have managed salespeople for almost 15 years, and I can honestly say that I’ve never met one with a more perfect blend of faithful commitment to her clients’ stated priorities, relevant knowledge, instinctive grasp of exactly how far a boundary can be pushed, and tireless limitless dedication to her craft and process. I’m not embarrassed to say that I learned more about my own profession by watching Ruth in action.
Details you say? From the first night that Ruth entered our condo for an interview, she blew us away. Research, the right questions, visual aids, and best of all — her patient, graceful listening to our needs, logical and silly. It was what is called a one-​call close in my business — we immediately cancelled plans to meet with other realtors and never looked back. The search she carried out was ruthlessly efficient, and she followed our instructions to the letter. When we found the house of our dreams, the purchase process flew by (faster than many of the participants had ever seen before — including some of the pros), and Ruth maximized our positioning in every interaction.
That would have been impressive enough on its own — but then it came time to sell our old condo. Here Ruth reached new heights — assembling an army of professionals to paint, landscape, clean, and stage our place with a week. When her yard calculator under-​estimated the amount of mulch for the landscapers — Ruth bought, hauled, and spread 10 new bags of mulch herself in order to hit our deadlines. Then she somehow got our property listed as a featured property in the business section of the Chronicle.
Through it all, Ruth stayed unerringly on budget, and updated us multiple times a day on every development. We have no idea how she has time for any clients but us — given how focused her attention to our process has been.
For as long as we buy and sell real estate in San Francisco, we will unreservedly recommend Ruth to our friends, family and strangers on the street who will give us a second to hear how amazing she was.

Ruth is an amazing agent! Her knowledge of the market, current and past properties, and neighborhoods is absolutely incredible. As first time sellers, she had the patience of a saint, and we are forever grateful for the time she took in walking us through the process and keeping us on track. She created spreadsheets to help us plan and organize before the sale, and her industry contacts for the preparation work were helpful, responsive, and most importantly, priced competitively. When it came time for the negotiation and contracts, I was especially impressed by how well she navigated the loads of paperwork for us, while always keeping us informed. Ruth is the one you want to take care of those fine details for you, so you don’t have to during such a big transition! Thanks Ruth!

You NEED Ruth Krishnan on your team!
Ruth just helped us sell our home in Noe Valley. Her professionalism and commitment to getting our home sold as quickly as possible and for the best price made the whole experience a success. Her network of agents, inspectors, appraisers, contractors and the like, streamlined the process.
She helped us navigate the whole selling process and presented invaluable options and recommendations that allowed us to make timely and informed decisions. Her knowledge and in-​depth analysis of the local SF market was critical to us maximizing our return. She is hands-​on and will roll up her sleeves to make sure things get done. She is a pleasure to work with and we look forward to working with her again on our next purchase. Thanks Ruth!

Ruth is the best! In the last 10 years we’ve purchased a condo, a 3-​unit building, a 4-​unit building, and a 2-​unit building. We’ve sold 8 individual units. So we’ve done a few real estate deals.
We’ve worked with a few different agents over that time, always searching for someone who would listen to us and provide actual insight for the significant commission we’re paying. But we’re done looking because Ruth is the one. If you’re listing with her, she does real market analysis that helps you price your place correctly to get maximum exposure. If you’re buying, she’ll help you find the right place for you and will fight for the best deal. Stop looking. Hire Ruth.

If you’re buying a house in San Francisco, you couldn’t have anyone better on your team.
This was our first time buying a house, and our first time working with a real-​estate agent, but Ruth made everything very easy. We gave her some pretty tough criteria to work with, since we wanted to stay within a very specific part of our neighborhood — and could only afford houses at the lower end of the price range for that neighborhood. When we were lucky enough to find something that met our criteria within a few months, Ruth came up with a strategy that helped us beat out the other offers and convince the seller that we were the right buyers for his house. She also had a Plan B in place in case the offer fell through. Fortunately, we didn’t need it!
Throughout the home-​buying process, she explained everything until it made sense, stuck with us and what WE wanted to buy, and really helped make it happen. She was warm, available, friendly, smart, and aggressive in all the right ways. She also has a team of people she works with for title, mortgage, and other aspects of the home-​buying process that made the whole adventure seamless. She also threw in a few nice, thoughtful touches to help make moving in easier.