"We strongly recommend the services of Carrie McAlister of Red Oak Realty.  Her core professional capacities for negotiation, diligence, objectivity, and clear communication--combined with an excellent general business sense--clearly distinguish her from most agents.  Indeed, those very qualities supported Carrie’s performance as she helped us to identify a real value opportunity in our target area (North Oakland and South Berkeley) and to close on our first home with an escrow credit.

Once we located our target property, Carrie helped us to craft a solid winning bid, and had already sketched out a negotiating strategy that addressed the most important issues that we would likely face going forward to the close.  Moreover, her excellent professional relationship (we continue to ask her for contractor referrals, etc.) with a home inspector gave us a favorable bargaining position.  When we finally got into escrow, and the stakes were higher, the atmosphere tenser, we extensively relied on Carrie’s level-headed judgment and insight in deciding when to ask for more concessions from the seller.  Carrie’s skills were instrumental in helping us to really optimize our position.

Finally, beyond her professional capacities, there are the “plus factors:” Carrie is quite remarkable for her upbeat and confident personal style, social grace, and thoughtful human interactions.  In short, she’s just good people.  She built a strong rapport with our two-year-old son, which made things that much easier for two working parents. Without reservation, we give Carrie our wholehearted endorsement."

Marciana J. Burke & Stephen T. Watkins, Oakland

 "Real Estate Agent Extraordinaire.  I give my full endorsement to Carrie McAlister, my real estate agent who helped me find the house of my dreams. As a first-time homebuyer Carrie patiently walked me through the home-buying process. During the search I was most impressed with how well Carrie listened to my needs -- location, size, amenities, etc. Carrie was professional and thorough and a pleasure to work with."

Scott Friese, Berkeley

"Carrie really took the time to understand what I was looking for, even when that wasn't the most obvious choice.  She looked out for my interests and never let the desire to make a sale prevent her from pointing out any flaws or problems she saw, and my home inspector thought she had a good eye. I'm so happy and satisfied with the result -- my own garden condo!"

Ellen Bradburn, Oakland

"When we finalized the pre-approval process we first had our official meeting with Carrie. I was a little apprehensive at this point – as Carrie had shared some of her most recent closings, most well over our maximum budget.  I was nervous that we wouldn’t be worth her effort, working with the size budget that was our reality.   This couldn’t have been further from the truth.   From our first meeting to the time we closed, Carrie made us feel as if we were her only clients – and clients that might have been looking for homes in the $1,000,000+ range.  She never made us feel like what we had to spend would make it impossible to find our dream home.  And more importantly she never had us look at homes beyond our means – something we’d had experience with in Marin. 

In our first meeting, it was if we’d known her forever – she gave us incredibly personalized views on why certain neighborhoods would or would not fit our lifestyle… Close to BART for my commute to the city?  How long would it take Patrick to ride his bike to work?   Would I feel safe walking down the street at night and perhaps most importantly, what would be the proximity to all of the great restaurants and gourmet markets in the area?  

Following this meeting, we were in constant communication. At times, it even seemed as if we spoke several times a day, sometimes with updates on homes she’d seen that she felt would “fit” our lifestyle and list of wants.  Each time I sent her a listing we were interested in, she went to the location herself before sending me her point of view.  It was clear that all of her reports were well thought out and personalized to the kind of home we were looking for.  She never for once, suggest that we “settle” for anything less than what felt 100% right, 100% less than what we felt comfortable with in terms of neighborhood, etc.

When it was time to write our first offer – (incredibly the first home we saw), she walked us through the process explaining in great detail what the steps were.  And when our offer wasn’t accepted, she was incredibly supportive, assuring us that our home was out there and to try not to get frustrated.  So we continued to look and about 3 weeks after we wrote our first offer – we found what we believe is going to be the perfect home for us!   We couldn’t have done it without Carrie, well, maybe we could have done it but it wouldn’t have been half us much fun – we felt her excitement was as great as ours.  She seemed to take such pride in her work and a real sense that she was part of this incredibly emotional process with us. 

We have already shared Carrie’s name with a number of friends who we hope will make the move to the East Bay with us… and when and if there comes a time that we feel it time to find our next perfect home, we will certainly call on Carrie to help us through that process as well."

Patrick & Debbie Kelly, Oakland