Heidi and Danielle Abramson

Danielle and Heidi helped me buy a really nice house in Oakland, and then Danielle helped me sell it a few years later for a higher price than I bought it for. I recommend working with Danielle without reservation.
As a buying agent she was incredibly patient and happy to show me and my wife around as many places as we wanted to see. Her advice was well balanced, well informed and we never felt that we were being pressured into making a purchase. More importantly, Danielle is great company and good fun. She has a great sense of humor, loves what she does and we had a great time looking at houses. I certainly felt that we became good friends during the whole process (her and her sister had us round for a Xmas dinner that year).
When I came to sell the house a few years later, I immediately called Danielle. Selling, as I think most would agree, can be pretty stressful, especially during uncertain market conditions. Danielle was a very calming influence. Most important, Danielle stopped me from making some stupid mistakes. For instance, I was thinking of not having the property staged, and just showing it with my furniture. Danielle gently pointed out to me that my taste for strange Scandinavian furniture and minimalism (there was only one big doughnut chair in the entire living room!) was not for everyone. Anyway, the place looked great once staged. Through the selling process, Danielle was always present, had great energy and enthusiasm and clearly knew exactly what she was doing. Again, she never pressured me into either listing at a low price or accepting offers I wasn’t happy with. Her approach to those sorts of issues is simply to lay out the pros and cons of any position, and let you decide. At the end of the day, trusting an agent is pretty important and I trusted her.
As a final point, Danielle really does go beyond what she has to do as an agent. After we moved into our new house, she helped us sort out all types of things, get quotes from builders etc. It was very nice of her and very helpful — she has a lot of good contacts in construction and housing matters in general.
In sum, I now consider Danielle a friend and I would use her as an agent again without hesitation.

From our experience with several different realtors, Danielle is definitively our favorite!
She is extremely knowledgeable and resourceful, but most important is her approach. She is caring and client focused. She took the time to understand our needs and preferences, and made recommendations that were tailored to our personal plans. She listened to our concerns and was able to address and respond to our issues in great detail. This allowed her to be extremely competent as our advocate. She was «in our corner» for every step of the process.
In addition to assisting us in our major purchase, she also provided excellent referrals for vendors and contractors that helped make the house our home. Her presence throughout the inspection process was of particular appreciation on our part, since her expertise helped guide us effectively in understanding our new home; as well as setting the foundation for the planning required to improve our property.
We unconditionally recommend her Realtor services! She can be reached at most anytime on her cell at 510 406 1418.

As a first-​time home buyer I was apprehensive and nervous about the whole process, but Danielle and Heidi made the entire experience run smoothly. They are extremely helpful and knowledgeable about home-​buying, things like:
— which neighborhoods to seek out
— how to bid the right amount
— how to negotiate with the seller
— recommending home improvements
— recognizing potential problems like dry rot and outdated electrical systems
Even after the house was purchased, they were still available to help with things like insurance and taxes. Throughout the process, I always felt like Danielle and Heidi were looking out for our interests. Their advice and expertise saved us lots of time and trouble.

I originally posted a longer, more detailed review, but Unilocal mysteriously removed it without explanation. Perhaps it was too long or threw some flags. Anyway, this is an edited, abridged version of the original review.
Bottom line: It’s impossible to overstate how helpful Heidi and Danielle were in helping my wife and I find, purchase, and do a total remodel of our first home. But I’ll try.
First of all, they invested a lot of time in us from the beginning, when we were «just looking,» despite the fact that I would have considered us long shots. They were always available (often both of them!) to show us properties that we either found ourselves online or they brought to our attention. Also, Heidi and Danielle were very useful in helping us gauge a neighborhood (e.g. new Berkeley bowl opening soon, sales history of nearby houses, which houses are bank owned), the likelihood that we can get the house at such-​and-​such price, and what sorts of things we might be able to do to a house to get it nice and livable, and for how much money. When house hunting, there really is no substitute for a great, knowledgeable realtor. Or two.
When we found a house we wanted, well, it was a fixer. And it was a short-​sale. Heidi and Danielle helped us navigate both of these potential hazards with ease. First, we actually got our offer accepted by the bank in a week or so, thanks to the good strategy and background research done by Heidi and Danielle. We even got a reduction on the price after the offer was accepted to help with some repairs.
And even before we had an offer on the house, Heidi and Danielle were arranging for well regarded contractors and subcontractors to bid work on the house, so we had a good idea on what repairs would cost. They continued helping us find bids through the escrow process, and when we closed, we had what amounted to an almost total remodel/​refurb of the inside of the house ready to go. We locked-​in low bids with subcontractors (the market was particularly weak) and got our project done in time for us to move in. This would not have happened without Heidi and Danielle’s stellar work.
I can’t make an exhaustive list of things they did that impressed me due to space constraints, but I’ve hit the highlights.
My parents and my wife’s parents, who have a fair amount of experience with remodels and buying houses, told us many times how lucky we were to have found Heidi and Danielle. I could not agree more.

I second Ryan O’s review (Disclosure: He is my husband). I wanted to add that we were really impressed with Heidi and Danielle’s efforts on our behalf. In particular, I recall the day before our appraisal inspection, Heidi herself went and patched up some paint in one of the bedrooms and made sure that everything was going correctly. It is that type of personal consideration that is what really puts Heidi and Danielle in a class of their own. They are awesome!

With the help of Heidi and Danielle Ambramson from Northbrae Properties my husband and I bought our first home in Oakland. It took us whole year to find a house we like and at the right price. Throughout the year both Heidi and Danielle were always available for us. They really made an effort to understand us, answered even silliest questions with patience and care. We submitted 14 offers until we got what we wanted. There were moments that we thought that it’s hopeless to buy a house in Bay Area. I am grateful to Heidi and Danielle that they talked us out of buying a house that required a lot of work. Finally, they navigated very professionally through all the procedures buying REO, so that we were able to close in three weeks. They provided necessary contacts of contractors to make the house ready for moving in. I highly recommend working with them.
Rima