Linda Yu

★★★★★
"Working with Linda was a pleasure. She is very organized and takes time to understand our needs well. After understanding what we needed, she was able to fine-tune our search. We won the first bid that we put in. Linda was great in negotiating with the sellers even though we weren't the top bid; she was able to negotiate to give us a second chance to make our best offer. We got the house. The closing was also a bit complex given that I needed to go to India on a family emergency. Linda worked very closely with me and my wife to ensure that the closing was taken care of in my absence.

Post closing, she has been still very involved and helping us with contractors to ensure that any renovations and disclosure issues are handled prior to our moving in. All in all, she is very engaged and hands-on with the whole process. She is very knowledgeable of the market in the Oakland/Berkeley area. I highly recommend her as a buyer's agent." - Girish

★★★★★
"Okay where do I start in sharing in what an incredibly professional experience we've had.

First to give some context, before meeting Linda we’d been searching for the right home for over 3 months, with back to back issues with what felt like amateur hour agents up and down the state of California. To be fair we were navigating such uncharted territory at the time, perhaps we were "paying our dues"? Regardless, after 3 agents and one escrow gone wrong we were ready to throw in the towel. Then we met Linda and something just CLICKED!

Before even seeing the first prospective property, she sent over a preliminary list of comps in the neighborhood and instantly calibrated our understanding of the Oakland market. This for us was new (sad right?) and very refreshing, it set the tone as to establish the professionalism we’d come to experience from start to finish.

With the 2021 Bay Area real estate market at a fever pitch, Linda introduced herself at the steps of what felt like a house we'd never imagine obtaining at the time. She presented herself with a sense of poise that made us feel very welcomed (which we learned isn't always the case in a hot market). During our tour Linda took the time to get to know our goals and vision for home ownership along with what she prefaced as some “uncomfortable but honest financial questions” she was probing, yet nothing about what she asked felt uncomfortable, rather for the first time it sounded like someone cared enough to really listen to our story and in return we were given expert advice on how to move forward if we chose to make an offer on the house we were standing in.

Within less than 30min she was able to build a level of trust with us that reversed 3 months of house hunting hell and before we left that property we knew without a doubt we wanted to work with Linda!

We sat down and next thing we knew we were making a competitive offer, and it couldn't have felt more right. From there with a little jousting and countering and a whole lot of guidance from Linda, our offer was excepted!!!

We now own that very house, and we will always know that hands down the reason it was possible was because Linda was there when we stepped foot at that doorstep." - Anthony

★★★★★
"Linda educated us on the process and stayed with us through an incredible number of twists and turns. She was incredibly responsive and remains so now that we're homeowners. We had a really good experience." - Matt

★★★★★
"I wish I could give Linda six stars. From our first meeting to close and after she's been nothing but professional, prompt and always working for us. She guided my wife and I, first time home buyers, through the process step by step. She gave us sound advice in a very challenging market, but always followed our lead. If I ever buy or sell a home in the Bay Area again, I know who I'm going to call."

★★★★★
"We are kind of speechless about how amazing Linda was. My husband and I have pretty different styles, really picky parameters, and limited time to look in-person because we have a two year old at home. We were also SO intimidated by the bay area market, and have a very specific budget window that doesn't totally match our luxurious taste :) Despite all these limitations, Linda got us into our DREAM HOME, after only two full days of looking together (+2 months of email/text back and forth in between). We had our first offer accepted, which is unheard of in the bay area, and the mortgage broker she recommended was phenomenally responsive and fast. We had the complete opposite experience of bay area real estate compared to all of our friends, thanks to Linda, and we feel like we won the lottery at the end of it.

Underneath all those excellent outcomes was what actually makes Linda magic:
- incredibly organized: our tour days were impeccably constructed and extremely efficient, which mattered for us given our babysitter setup. On our first day, we toured 14 houses back to back, and not only were we presented with a beautifully organized folder and impeccable logistical schedule, Linda packed snacks, drinks, and a lunch that she shared out of a cooler in the back of her car! Seeing that Linda was this detail-oriented and impeccably organized in the tours gave us confidence that she would drive a very organized closing (the paperwork is insane!!) and boy did that expectation bear fruit.
- Honest and direct: Linda is a straight shooter. I adored a house that had some foundation issues, and she very warmly and directly barred us from buying it :) she was very right, and we relied on her candor throughout the search.
- a steely work ethic: Linda responded to all emails and texts basically instantaneously, which is important in a fast market like this
- excellent taste in people: every single person she recommended was fast, competent, kind, trustworthy, and expert at what they did,
- a deep knowledge of the market and family needs--often to a much greater extent than we could know our own needs: other real estate agents might not have been able to handle how different our two tastes were and the couples conflict this sometimes caused. Linda was calm, honest, direct, solutions oriented, light-hearted, and very practical about it. She obviously had a systematic approach to help calibrate against both our needs and figure out a type of home we would both like. She then helped us find lots of options that fit that mold, fast. Her creative mediation saved us a lot of marital strife!
- imagination: people don't often cite this as an important quality for real estate agents, but bear with me here: we do not have the type of budget that would get us into our dream home, we have the type of budget that gets one into a home with dream home *potential*. When we toured the house we ended up buying, we both loved the overall feel of the house and the neighborhood, but I was a "no" because of the kitchen and lack of a master bath. Brilliant Linda pointed out a simple, creative fix that would both add a master bath and fix the kitchen. She insisted that it was everything else we were looking for, and a true diamond in the rough as a result, and she was so, so right. We offered very quickly, sent a heartfelt video at her encouragement, and something like six hours later, under her trusted care, the house was ours!
- Committed to the whole process: for most real estate agents, I can imagine their commitment starts and ends at the sale of the house. Not Linda. In between having our offer accepted and closing, we had countless contractors, designers, engineers, etc come look at the house to give us estimates (so that we could do the rennos that would turn it from potential dream house into dream house). Not only was Linda there to host every single walk through, she came with expertise and ideas that we came to rely on. Having a real estate agent that knows houses, foundations, construction, basic engineering...it turned out to be invaluable.
- Sweet and thoughtful: by the time we closed, we felt like Linda had become an official part of our community. She continued to go the extra mile for closing and gave us the most thoughtful gifts to help make the new home even more ours. We celebrated with her on our new roof deck and truly felt like it has been a team win.

We are really exacting people--both hiring managers at work, and type A perfectionists. We talked to in-numerous real estate agents here and in other states during our search, and no one could compete with Linda and the team she assembled around her. If you are serious, kind, competent, responsive, and ready to make things happen--truly you will not find someone better. We hope to stay in this home for many years, but will be evangelical about Linda to friends until its time for us to use her again. Thank you, Linda!! You are truly exceptional at your job." - Elamine