Testimonials

Melissa and I cannot recommend Soraya highly enough! Her unique combination of experience, accessibility, patience, warmth, and candor set her apart and helped us achieve what every buyer wants, getting the house of your dreams with your first bid, without overpaying. We went into our house-hunting process about a year before we had any intention of buying, with little sense of what we wanted, other than a bigger house, bigger yard, great schools, and close to public transit but on a budget. We wanted everything and didn’t want to pay for it. While many agents would have gotten frustrated with us, Soraya was always not only willing but happy to take us around, helping us get to know the walnut creek area so that we could better refine our search parameters. With her help, by the time we got serious about buying, we knew exactly what we were looking for. Once she knew what we were looking…

Melissa and I cannot recommend Soraya highly enough! Her unique combination of experience, accessibility, patience, warmth, and candor set her apart and helped us achieve what every buyer wants, getting the house of your dreams with your first bid, without overpaying. We went into our house-hunting process about a year before we had any intention of buying, with little sense of what we wanted, other than a bigger house, bigger yard, great schools, and close to public transit but on a budget. We wanted everything and didn’t want to pay for it. While many agents would have gotten frustrated with us, Soraya was always not only willing but happy to take us around, helping us get to know the walnut creek area so that we could better refine our search parameters. With her help, by the time we got serious about buying, we knew exactly what we were looking for. Once she knew what we were looking for, Soraya quickly found it for us. It checked every box on our list and was still a relative value. In preparing our bid, Soraya gave us the space we needed to make our own decisions, but also the push we needed to be honest about what it would take to get the place in a market that is seeing homes start to go comfortably over the asking price. Soraya helped us to frame our offer to be most appealing to the sellers, including sharing a bit about ourselves. That night, she called and told us that the sellers had accepted our offer over an identical financial offer largely based on the personal touches that Soraya had recommended. During escrow, Soraya helped to iron out the handful of minor issues that arose, achieving fair resolutions for us, while not turning any of them into major issues that threatened the overall transaction. Any time we reached out, she responded almost instantly, even late at night, always as happy to talk as the first time we met her. We closed on time, without a hitch. As our kids ran around their new yard for the first time, Melissa and I looked up from unpacking our boxes and agreed that we had to make a point to thank Soraya for making it all possible. We didn’t have to wait long. Soraya visited that afternoon to make sure all was well and bring a delicious dinner for everyone. If we had any intention of ever moving again, we would absolutely use Soraya on both ends of the transaction. If you are buying or selling in the Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill, or Lamorinda areas, you should too!

We were incredibly lucky to find Soraya. When we met Soraya, my husband and I had been house hunting in San Francisco and we thought we had a pretty good idea of what we were looking for when we decided to move our search to the East Bay. Soraya thoroughly educated us on the LaMorinda area and spent a significant amount of time and energy helping us find our home. We had had negative experiences with past Realtors®, so we initially paid close attention to her suggestions and predictions. To our pleasant surprise, she was always spot on with her estimates and advice, and she earned our trust/respect. After spending the majority of our weekends with her for nearly a year, making multiple offers, and successfully purchasing our first home, we have witnessed Soraya’s talent firsthand. She has a keen eye for value, knows the market well, is a skilled negotiator, and has great relationships wi…

We were incredibly lucky to find Soraya. When we met Soraya, my husband and I had been house hunting in San Francisco and we thought we had a pretty good idea of what we were looking for when we decided to move our search to the East Bay. Soraya thoroughly educated us on the LaMorinda area and spent a significant amount of time and energy helping us find our home. We had had negative experiences with past Realtors®, so we initially paid close attention to her suggestions and predictions. To our pleasant surprise, she was always spot on with her estimates and advice, and she earned our trust/respect. After spending the majority of our weekends with her for nearly a year, making multiple offers, and successfully purchasing our first home, we have witnessed Soraya’s talent firsthand. She has a keen eye for value, knows the market well, is a skilled negotiator, and has great relationships with other Realtors®, mortgage brokers, insurance brokers, and inspectors. She walked us through the entire home buying process: listening, advising, consoling, and helping us to navigate an extremely competitive market. It is also notable that our budget was in the lower range for the area and she still spent an enormous amount of time ensuring that we never missed a house with potential. We ended up with our perfect home and it was nothing like the home that we initially thought we wanted, which speaks to her true genius! After working with Soraya, we now know what it is like to be in the hands of a truly excellent Realtor®. I must also add that Soraya is a lovely person and her clients often become her good friends. This is the person you want by your side when you are buying a home.

I can't go into all the details of our home buying experience, but I'll give you the highlights. We found our dream house after searching for 2+ years at every property in the search grid and price range we could afford. We won a bidding war with 10+ bids in a pretty hot market. It would not have been possible without Soraya, period. Both my wife and I commented that it would never have been possible had we not started working with Soraya. She's got strong competencies in the buying process which certainly help in negotiation and closing a deal. She's got really good instincts in the areas where she's covering. So you know that this is an honest review and not something hokie, some constructive criticism: you have to push her to pin her down to what a fair price is and what something is worth. I know her strategy is that a home is emotional and it's ultimately worth what you 'think' it's…

I can't go into all the details of our home buying experience, but I'll give you the highlights. We found our dream house after searching for 2+ years at every property in the search grid and price range we could afford. We won a bidding war with 10+ bids in a pretty hot market. It would not have been possible without Soraya, period. Both my wife and I commented that it would never have been possible had we not started working with Soraya. She's got strong competencies in the buying process which certainly help in negotiation and closing a deal. She's got really good instincts in the areas where she's covering. So you know that this is an honest review and not something hokie, some constructive criticism: you have to push her to pin her down to what a fair price is and what something is worth. I know her strategy is that a home is emotional and it's ultimately worth what you 'think' it's worth, but I was looking for more concrete answers sometimes. As long as we are within 100 miles of Orinda, Soraya will be our agent. Her service doesn't stop with closing escrow, we lean on her for all kinds of things post-sale.

Soraya was amazing in both her knowledge of the market and her ability to get us through all of the details that take place before a sale. I had no idea how much work it takes to get a house to market, and she guided us through the process with professionalism and patience of gold. There were so many details to take care of, from whole house painting to fixing all those little things we ignored for so many years. Her suggestions of what at a minimum we needed to upgrade were spot on, and her ability to provide a team of people to get these upgrades and improvements done was extremely helpful. Her staging team (Barbara Winters) was incredibly talented and easy to work with. Soraya is a gem that I would recommend to anyone thinking of selling their home in our area. It is hard to pack up 20 years of memories and to go through the process of cleaning, fixing, and decluttering, and it is cri…

Soraya was amazing in both her knowledge of the market and her ability to get us through all of the details that take place before a sale. I had no idea how much work it takes to get a house to market, and she guided us through the process with professionalism and patience of gold. There were so many details to take care of, from whole house painting to fixing all those little things we ignored for so many years. Her suggestions of what at a minimum we needed to upgrade were spot on, and her ability to provide a team of people to get these upgrades and improvements done was extremely helpful. Her staging team (Barbara Winters) was incredibly talented and easy to work with. Soraya is a gem that I would recommend to anyone thinking of selling their home in our area. It is hard to pack up 20 years of memories and to go through the process of cleaning, fixing, and decluttering, and it is critical to have an agent who understands this and is compassionate yet able to move things forward and help you stay on schedule for the best market timing. Soraya is this agent.