REVIEWS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Lisa R.
Sold a Single Family home in Oakland, CA
Leah did a superb job helping me sell my home. I am so happy that I chose to call her and that she chose me as a client! I interviewed two other realtors and they were less than enthused with my home and wanted to list it for $50k less than our final sale price. Even though my home was far from the ideal listing, Leah was unfazed and saw the potential. She expertly managed and carefully chose improvements; Leah knows which improvements to make to get the best price at sale. She helped me to clean out, clean up and make the house all it could be – saving me quite a bit of money in the process. Leah even made dump runs for me and paid for some fixes out of her own pocket. I was also impressed at how well Leah utilized all of the tools available to her through Century 21 – I felt like there was a team behind me, supporting me and helping make my dream a reality.
Communication was spot on; I always knew what was happening, the process was completely transparent. From the beginning, Leah committed to me, to my son, and to our goal of relocating out of state. In fact, I did move out of state during the sale process but with Leah by my side, everything continued on without stalling. Leah is a true full-service Realtor. Her attitude is always, “we’ll get it done” and she does!

Nicole S.
Bought a Single Family home in Oakland, CA
The process of buying a home in the Bay Area market is particularly harsh for new home buyers, and we would not have been able to accomplish this without Leah. If you want an agent that expertly navigates the process and also is a joy to be around this is your agent!! I will miss looking at homes with her, that says a lot!

Jenny H.
Bought a Single Family home in Albany, CA
Leah was a great real estate agent! We're so glad we went with her! She was always reliable, fast, and we knew she had our best interest. After 8 months she helped us land a home in Albany, a place we didn't think we can afford! I couldn't recommend Leah enough!!

Barbara (Honeybee) H.
Sold a Single Family home in Oakland, CA
All of these skills—all this expertise, just scratch the surface of my experience with Leah Stapleton. She made the whole process feel EASY! She was encouraging, and has a fabulous sense of humor, both are things you as a seller might need during the selling process. She could second-guess my questions, and very calmly explain next steps. I wish I had another house to sell. I would call Leah Stapleton to work with me!

Mary E. and Maria A.
Bought a Single Family home in Oakland, CA
Leah is a friend for life. She met us at the office and explained the process. We signed and agreement to work with her for 6 months and the entire time she always answered our many calls. Purchasing a house is a very big deal. She explained the purchase contract in detail and even called a lawyer friend who gave us support on how not to loose our deposit. She knew the escrow team and they all hugged us and we had late night (around 10 pm) questions on the escrow process and she explained in  detail verbally and then sent us a follow-up email in writing so that we knew our contingency removal dates and times that we could go over when we needed to. She gave us various vendor contacts so that we could pick which vendor we wanted to inspect the properties instead of saying we had to use one or the other (a friend has this happen to her). She has a lot of fun with those contractors and she makes them explain the repairs and why we should make this or that repair and when it should be done and could we do it ourselves. Leah is very handy and enjoys demo work.  LOL! She also gave us a closing cost credit and we were super excited to bring in less money to the closing table (What a surprise). Her and her hubby jumped in and helped us move a few items when the movers flaked on us and left our bed (who does that?). She is the best and we just love her.

Justin R.
Sold a Single Family home in Oakland, CA
Hiring Leah to be our realtor was the best decision we made when we sold our home in Oakland.
We moved to Illinois for my work, and our relocation company required us to interview multiple realtors, all from the Oakland/Berkeley area. Leah was the first agent we interviewed, and while we completed our interviews with the other realtors, we knew right away that Leah was going to be our favorite.
When Leah arrived at our house, she was full of enthusiasm and friendliness. She started off by making very positive comments about our location, the view, and her overall first impressions. Her opinions on how our location compared to different neighborhoods in the area meshed with our thinking exactly. Then she had us walk through the house, where she paid attention to every inch of every floor and walls and fixtures, asking lots of questions and taking notes and photos. After giving her the tour we sat down and Leah told us she thought our house could sell for just over 700K, and showed us the comps and discussed the trends that supported her position. She explained why certain lower comps were not applicable based on her research of those sales, and why buyers who had been in the hunt for a while (it's a seller's market in Oakland) would understand why our home had more value. She explained that she didn't think we needed to do any major repairs or upgrades, as they wouldn't increase the price of our home nearly as much as the investment we would have to put in. We left very impressed and excited (we had purchased the house a few years before for a much lower price and had expected it needed a lot of repairs).
The other realtors we interviewed over the following week didn't show as much interest in our house, paid minimal attention to the details, and suggested that a lot of work was needed if we were going to get over 600k for the house. They used the comps that Leah had discounted, and scoffed at the idea that houses in the next neighborhood over would be comparable to ours.
We agonized over the decision for a while. We liked Leah, we knew she would give 100% to sell our house, but what if it really wasn't worth as much as she thought? We reviewed the sales plans of each realtor, and in the end we came to the conclusion that we trusted Leah over the others, and even if she was wrong on the starting price, she would present out house in the best possible light because she understood it's value. But our fears were unfounded, Leah turned out to be completely right and worked harder than we had hoped to prove our trust was well-placed.
Leah held 5 open houses and a realtor tour in 3 weeks before opening up for offers. She had a handyman make minor touches (fence repair, painting our mailbox) and paid for those repairs herself. She coordinated the cleaning, the carpet washing, the staging (she met with multiple stagers before choosing the one she felt fit our house right). While we focused on our new life in Chicago, she was back in Oakland meeting with 4 appraisers, 2 home inspectors, a termite inspector, a mold inspector, and coming to the house dozens of times to interview contractors for bids for termite work and mold remediation, and to inspect their work for thoroughness afterwards. She advised on us which contractors seemed the most professional, who was overcharging us, and made herself available whenever we scheduled a new one out for a competitive quote. When our buyer tried to get a discount after the first appraisal, she proved herself a shrewd negotiator and was able to work with the buyer's agent to avoid a significant price reduction. When our company-appointed relocation agent was slowing down the process, Leah set her straight so we could keep the deal moving.
We sold our house for $705k. The other agents we had interviewed told us we'd need to do a lot of upgrades to even sell between 600 and 650, but Leah insisted our house was worth at least 700. We believed she was right. And she was right. I know the other agents would not have gotten us such a high price, and would not have showcased our best features like Leah did.
Overall, I would definitely recommend Leah for anyone looking to sell their home. She puts your needs first, and will work tirelessly and enthusiastically to make sure you are happy. We used a relocation company who referred Leah (and the other realtors) to us but Leah made it clear that she worked for us, not for them. When the relocation company dragged out the process, Leah was positive, helpful, and remained enthusiastic, and we knew she had us covered. I really cannot express enough the gratitude my wife and I feel towards Leah, who took care of us so well and gave so much of her time and her own resources so that we would have the best experience and get highest sales price possible.
Hire Leah.