Melanie Snow – Coldwell Banker

Melanie is the best in the business. She knows the area very well and really listens to your requirements and budget and then works hard to deliver. This was a first time home purchase so she took the time to carefully explain every step in the process and gave us very professional advice. I felt that she was more of a friend or family member than a buyer’s agent. She is constantly available (mornings, weekends, nights, etc.) and is very responsive. If she doesn’t have an immediate answer to a question she is online trying to get the answer within minutes. I cannot recommend Melanie enough

Melanie couldn’t have made our buying process easier! She was extremely knowledgeable of the areas we looked in and helped guide us through the looking and buying stages without a problem. She’s also got a great local network that she referred us to in order to get some fair and trustworthy estimates on future home improvements. Highly recommended!

Melanie was a professional at every step of the process. She got us into a house that we didn’t think we had a chance on by being persistent, creative and professional.
She feels like a friend and coach now. She’s in a league of her own when it comes to responsiveness, organization, persistence, and professionalism.
I HIGHLY recommend working with Melanie.

Melanie recently helped our son purchase his first home. After more than a year of bleak encounters with other agents who were extremely negative about the feasability of home ownership for a first time buyer, Melanie was extremely positive from the outset that she could find the right property. With Melanie’s help through her professionalism, knowledge and direct approach, the process was extremely positive. Melanie identified excellent options, negotiated well on our son’s behalf, the property closed in 28 days and our son was able to realize his dream of home ownership. Many thanks Melanie!

Melanie Snow helped us purchase our house in Orinda in October 2015. We have worked with several real estate agents at various times. Moving from NYC to San Francisco meant we had limited local knowledge. Melanie’s expertise in the Lamorinda market is impressive and her connections are invaluable; she helped us quickly understand the pros and cons of various neighborhoods.
Melanie was efficient with our time, unbelievably patient and utterly professional. As a couple we had competing preferences, but she helped us find houses that could satisfy both of us. She carefully balanced letting us see enough houses to know what we should focus on without wasting our time on houses that would not work.
She also knows the local market nuances and players; this helped us develop an effective bidding strategy that led to us winning the bid for the first house we wanted.
Once we moved toward closing, Melanie was invaluable in helping us quickly but comprehensively handle all the house inspections and negotiations over items to be addressed before closing. After we closed, she remained accessible and responsive — helping us find painters and handymen and other entrees to our new community.
A family member is also a real estate agent and she said — «Melanie really earned her commission on your house».
In addition to all these objective qualities, Melanie was also easy to work with, honest and good company when driving all around Lamorinda. Our kids liked her so much they are still asking about her a month after we moved in!

Melanie is the absolute best! We met Melanie a couple of years ago while casually looking for our next home and she was holding an open house. We connected with her instantly and knew she was the right person to help us. We have worked with several other agents in the past and had absolutely no idea what we were missing! She helped us find a beautiful property in Lafayette in 2013 and we just sold another one of our homes with her a couple of weeks ago. We thought buying a house with her was great, but selling was even better! She seems to know everyone in the industry (which really helps when buying a house) and she has an extensive list of resources. She knows the best person for everything and stuck to a strict timeline that she set up for us leading up to listing our home. She gave us tips on getting our home ready and then priced it exactly right to get the best possible offers. She takes such great care of her clients and somehow manages to always be available! My husband and I will recommend her again and again!

Melanie is an outstanding agent and I feel so lucky to have gone through this process with her. I spent some months searching for the right home in the Lamorinda area and I was amazed at her level of expertise, diligence, patience and kindness. I felt extremely confident in her ability to secure the right home for us, and I also felt that she truly understood our needs over the course of the entire process. Melanie puts her clients’ best interests first and makes you feel as though you are her top priority. This woman works incredibly hard but you wouldn’t know it because she clearly loves what she does and always seems to be having a great time. Her attitude definitely rubs off– I greatly enjoyed the home search process because Melanie was my agent. Thanks to Melanie, we got exactly what we were looking for. I cannot recommend her highly enough!

We recently sold a home we had lived in for more than 20 years, looking to downsize a bit and cut the daily work commute. We were referred to Melanie by a former client, and she helped us find our dream home! Her knowledge of the market, relationships with other agents, relentless approach, and patience with us were invaluable. What struck us the most, though, was her thoroughness and follow-​through. The blizzard of paperwork (especially in California) and deadlines can be intimidating. But she held our hand throughout the process and stayed on top of every detail. She left nothing to chance. If you are looking for a great Realtor in Lamorinda, you’ve found her!
Nancy & Morgan, Lafayette

Melanie is not only a fantastic agent but an incredible resource in transitioning from life in San Francisco to the Lamorinda area. As an agent, she helped us secure an amazing home with our first bid! That’s unheard of in this market, but with the savvy strategy she developed we were able to pull it off. With her extensive knowledge of the area, we feel like we know all the great secrets that our new neighborhood has to offer — restaurants, shopping, preschools, etc. You can’t go wrong with Melanie as your agent. She’s amazing.

We instantly felt connected to Melanie when we met her. We knew she was going to be the right person to help us find our forever home in Lamorinda. Coming from San Francisco we really didn’t know much about the area. Having lived and worked in Lamorinda for many years Melanie’s knowledge of the area is extensive. She seems to know everything & everyone! Our first weekends house hunting with her were also tours of the area where she shared with us indispensable information about properties, neighborhoods, pricing, school, community, etc. She also really listened to our needs and quickly understood exactly what we were looking for. Admittedly we were picky buyers and even after being in many homes we never felt pressured to buy any home that was not the right fit. Melanie really stuck with us to find a special home. The home buying journey is filled with ups and downs and Melanie weathered them all with as. She is hands on through the entire process-​from the first home tour, to every inspection, to signing your closing documents she is there when you need her. She has the highest level of integrity, she is extremely responsive and she always maintains a positive attitude.
We highly recommend her whether you are buying or selling!

Melanie is extraordinary! My wife and I started looking for our first home over a year ago and we were close to losing hope until we met Melanie. She was extremely knowledgeable about Lamorinda/​Walnut Creek area and knew where and when to look before my daily Redfin/​Zillow/​Trulia search.
There is no doubt we’ll be working with Melanie again and can only say great things from home search process all the way to close!

A talented and successful agent like Melanie has many clients, but we always felt we were her top priority. She was a joy to work with and was incredibly responsive by phone, email and text. Her reliability, tireless work, efficiency, determined outlook, and unfailing smile led us to a home we could never have dreamed we would own.
Melanie really listened to our needs and concerns. She was as good at eliminating unsuitable properties as she was at identifying the best prospects. She never pushed us, and home visits were always time well spent.
When she identified the home she knew we would love, she got us in to see it before other agents were even able to view it, allowing us to make a quick and effective offer. Then she drew upon her amazing network of local contacts, quickly lining up just the right professionals to give us complete confidence that the home was right for us.
If you want an agent who really can find you your dream home, Melanie is the one.

I rarely write reviews, but had to say something this time. Melanie Snow exceeded my expectations as a realtor in every way. She helped me purchase my dream home in a difficult local market with a timing deadline looming. She was professional, prepared, patient, knowledgeable about current prices and neighborhoods, and handled my purchase with a competing offer going on. I couldn’t have been in better hands. I am thrilled with my new home!

Almost three years later after Melanie helped us find our home in Orinda, she continues to be an invaluable resource to me. She know the Lamorinda community from top to bottom, and she’s the first person I go to for advice and recommendations regarding the community. She clearly is interested in her clients well-​being far beyond making a sale. She is the best!
* Be sure to see all her 5 star reviews in the «not recommended reviews» link. it seems first time reviewers often get screened out.

Melanie did a great job bringing in top dollar for our house. She was with us all the way and managed the big picture as well as many details from start to finish. She has a little black book of excellent people who helped us show our home at its best.

I REALLY hope my review doesn’t get filtered! I know I only write five-​star reviews, but that’s only because I only feel compelled to write reviews when I have execllent experiences! When they’re bad experiences, I don’t really want to re-​live them by writing a review… So, please please please let this review actually stay up! Because Melanie really is awesome and this review should be read by anyone looking for a great real estate agent!
My husband and I (and often times our 2 year old daughter) joined forces with Melanie to find our family a home in the Lamorinda area after selling ours in San Francisco. We certainly were not the easiest to please clients, but Melanie has more patience than anyone I’ve ever met. Just like most other homebuyers, we wanted everything, but our budget limited us. There was very little on the market when we were looking (April/​May 2013). I think I kind of doubted we would find a house that would meet our needs and maybe get a couple things on our wish list, but Melanie knew it would happen. These things can take some time. For us, it took about 4 weekends of looking, as well as a few mid-​week trips out to see houses that would probably go quickly. Melanie was always available to us and made her schedule match ours. She was extremely responsive – if she didn’t answer a call, I knew she would call me back quickly. Two things I think you need in a realtor are responsiveness and reliability. Melanie excells in those areas. I completely trusted her. On top of that, she was great with our daughter. In fact, our daughter still asks if we are going to go see Melanie! Oh – one other plus is that Melanie knows everyone. This comes in handy during negotiating and after a purchase when you need things done immediately. We found our home in the middle of May 2013, put in one of I think ten offers, and it was accepted. It was the only offer we put in and Melanie made is seamless.
Now, I thought selling a home was stressful, but buying a home can be just as tough. When we sold our home, it seemed like there was hold up after hold up. I wasn’t sure where things kept failing (the buyer’s real estate agent, the mortgage broker, the bank, the title company… or maybe our buyers?), but something seemed to always be going wrong. While we were in contract in the sale of our last home, we blamed all the holdups on the bank because that’s really the easy thing to do. BUT we ended up getting our loan for this new home using the same bank! And we did it SO fast! The post-​contract period is where Melanie’s strengths really came through for us. She worked non-​stop. The sellers of our new home gave us probably the shortest contingency period ever. They had an all cash backup offer that they could easily take if we didn’t meet that short contingency period. Seriously, I think it was an unheard of short period. But, Melanie and our amazing mortgage broker (Patty Souza – you MUST get in touch with her if you are buying a home – she is absolutely incredible) made it happen. Our loan was approved in eight days! Melanie, with all of her hard work and connections, had I think seven inspections completed in five days! I swear, Melanie and Patty are unstoppable. The title company person, Angi Mostettler, was also awesome. So, I guess it took a team of three to make this happen. Angi really did come through for us, too. And it didn’t stop there – once we bought the house, Melanie met us there to meet with general contractors, gave us referrals for just about everything (from general contractors to interior designers and subcontractors to «tree guys»).
I really believe anyone who works with Melanie is lucky. She is a great person, and that is really evident when the going gets tough. She surrounds herself with reliable people who are trustworthy and can get the job done. She seems to do what she does because she enjoys finding people homes in the Lamorinda area that she truly loves. She is someone you can have fun with and someone who will work harder than you can imagine (I never thought someone I only knew for one month would work so hard for us!). Someday, we will probably have to sell this home, and I can only hope Melanie is still in the business. I would refer anyone to her without a second thought.

My husband and I met Melanie at an open house and quickly knew she was the realtor we wanted working for us. Even with our limiting narrow focus Melanie found the perfect house for us and skillfully negotiated a fair price reduction! Great communication skills… keeping us well informed and educated from our first meeting at the open house to closing day! Her enthusiasm, energy, professionalism, competency and knowledge of the Lamorinda community are all reasons we highly recommend Melanie Snow.

Melanie was a great help in the purchase of our Lafayette home this spring. She is very knowledgeable about Lamorinda neighborhoods and school district lines which definitely help us focus our search to target neighborhoods based on our price range and house wish list.
She is also a skilled negotiator and helped us navigate a competitive bidding situation, negotiate price reductions for issues with the house during the escrow process and ultimately close the deal on our first home at a purchase price we are very happy with.
If your looking for a buyer’s agent, don’t look any further, and based on what I experienced buying a house with Melanie, I have no doubt she would be great as a sellers agent as well!