Lawton Associates

Josh and Anne are an outstanding team! They helped us sell our lovely West Oakland home this summer by making it even more lovely (interior and exterior painting, refinishing the hardwood floors, landscaping). Josh made great recommendations about making our house more marketable and managed multiple renovation crews so effectively that the work was accomplished in two weeks. They also arranged for and brought in the crews to thoroughly clean, wash the windows and stage the house prior to sale. And their efforts paid off! Our house glowed when they were finished with it. Anne strategically marketed it and always went above and beyond in responding to us and potential buyers and their representatives. We ended up with a large number of bids in one week for prices far exceeding what we expected. Anne and Josh are creative, incredibly capable, knowledgeable about the current West Oakland real estate market and they’re also sweet friendly people who are a pleasure to work with. We trust their judgment which is what you really want in a Realtor. They are a very impressive team and I’m grateful we had the chance to work with them during this huge process.

We bought our first home in Oakland in July 2015 with the unflagging help and support of Anne & Josh Keller, as well as Ron Kriss. If you are in the Bay Area, you know that these are trying times for buyers. And if you are going to compete you need to be incredibly organized and informed, be ready to move quickly, have realistic expectations, and put together the best offer you possibly can. The team at Lawton Associates will get you there and will do so with honesty, a willingness to answer all your questions (believe me we had alot), and with lots of smiles. And once you get in contract, they will work tirelessly to keep closing on track (we closed a day early despite the 4^th of July holiday and the fact that we were out of town). Finally, they will go above and beyond and help you navigate all of the decisions you will need to make as a homeowner after closing. If you want a team that you can trust, are enjoyable to be around, and will give their all to get you your dream house, then give Anne, Josh, and Ron a call.

Highly highly recommended. We recently worked with Ron, Anne and Josh to buy a house and then rent it out. The first word that comes to mind is «integrity.» The second word is «knowledgeable.» They value doing the right thing over the lucrative thing. The three of them spent the time to give us thoughtful advice and counsel.
With their help, we identified and successfully bid our property in less than two weeks (highly atypical in this market they assured us!). The other side presented a few challenging moments during closing, but working with a collaborative close-​knit team really gave us the tools to close out the transaction successfully. Since we were not ready to move in, and were not in the area, they quickly helped us to fix up minor issues and rent it out it to a great tenant.
One last comment, we really appreciate the way that Ron, Anne and Josh went the extra mile for us on a number of occasions.

Ron Kris is your guy in Rockridge.
He knows the market, and he knows what people are looking for. Even if your house is unusual, which mine is, he understands the value and will get you the highest offer. He is straight forward and kind, incredibly knowledgeable and really knows his stuff. I highly recommend him.

Ron Kriss was an excellent real estate agent/​broker and I will never regret using him to sell our house. He comes with 30+ years of experience and with that provides many services that most brokers can not provide. He has flipped, sold and developed many houses and with that knowledge he will walk into your house and let his imagination run wild with improvements that will significantly increase the sale price of your home. We meet with several agents and they all priced our home between $ 725-​$ 775, with Ron our house sold for $ 850. We had two huge drawbacks, we lived on a busy street and next to an apartment building. All the other realtors said to paint it, stage it and then sell it. However I did my research and I felt we could possibly get significantly more by placing an additional bathroom in the home. The other realtors did not entertain this notion (Either would my husband). However Ron did. Ron walked in and updated our 1920’s kitchen by placing a dishwasher in it. He walked into our falling down garage and visualize a much different space by white washing the inside of the garage and then leveling the floor — making it a cool hang out spot. A 7×11 sleeping porch was turned into a master bathroom and closet. All of these updates including the painting, staging, landscaping cost $ 36,000. Having done a considerable amount of work to our house (foundation, electrical, painting, landscaping, leveling) prior to selling the home we were nothing but completely delighted by working with Ron Kriss’s excellent team. He has a project manager Josh Keller who is absolutely wonderful to work with, Josh managed our entire process with Ron and we had the most competent people show up at our house to do the work that needed to be done. If you would like to make a significant amount a money selling your house, I would hire this dream team! You absolutely can’t go wrong. I am nothing but grateful to Ron and Josh for everything they did for us.

Ron is the man you want to sell your home for you. We don’t hire a doctor for their bedside manner and we don’t hire a broker for his Louis Vuitton belt and designer shoes – we hire him to make the deal happen on OUR terms, and that’s exactly what Ron did. He recommended upgrades that would maximize our sale proceeds and oversaw the contractors who did an incredible job on our home. Then he secured well above ask on our home (negotiations didn’t end until almost 11pm and he was on the top of his game the entire process).
We can’t recommend Ron enough!

Ron Kriss is the man. My wife and I recently interviewed several of the top agents in Rockridge to sell our house. It was a difficult choice as there are several extremely qualified and capable agents who were interested in the listing. We made the right choice. Ron and his network of relationships including Josh Keller enabled us to transform our house in a matter of weeks, list it, and close on an all cash 7 day close offer in six days. The most difficult choice was deciding between which of the five offers we wanted to go with. The offer we accepted was almost 20% above asking price. My wife and I are the happiest of campers.

I am writing this review of Lawton as a past investor. I owned some rental property and was looking to sell a home that I lived in with my family. I heard about this broker named Ron Kriss @ Lawton Assoc. in Rockridge. My house was outside of that district but there was so much buzz about how he transforms a home –making it look great and ready for sale I had to talk to him. I also discovered he worked with a staging company called Scout Staging also in Rockridge at the time. Well, I did so well on the 1^st house my husband and I decided to move and sell a few more places. Ron and his team were awesome to work with each time. Ron was always talking about two things — one was his «PHD in Mistakes» meaning he had fixed up and sold so may homes, I think he said 150 himself and over 400 more as the broker of Lawton Associates, that he won’t make any mistakes on my property. He has already tried and polished his presentation of a home to the market place. He made them look like they were ready for a magazine or catalog photo shoot – amazing. He also said «Clean it, Paint it, Stage it» that’s where the real money is made. We followed their advice to the letter and in each transaction he met and exceeded our expectations. It’s like he thinks these homes are his own and never misses a detail. Things most others would over look or not even see. I know I’m not leaving any money on the table when I work with Ron Kriss.

My husband and I purchased our home in Southwest Berkeley in December 2013 with the great help of Anne and Josh Keller. Despite the fact that we were new to the Bay Area (we moved to SF from Washington, DC in Jan. 2013), and despite the insanely competitive housing market, we were able to find an absolutely wonderful place (within our budget!) in just a few months.
Buying a house is not easy, and there are many issues, small and large, that can put a wrench in your plans. But working with Anne and Josh made it as painless as possible! They are a husband/​wife team that works seamlessly together. We first met Josh at an open house, and we were impressed with his honest, candid insight into the area we were looking (North Oakland/​Berkeley). Likewise, Anne’s straightforward candor is very refreshing. Josh has extensive contracting experience, and he worked with us on a few different houses to get us estimates of renovation costs, what was possible (and what wasn’t worth it), and also provided us with great insight into each microhood. Anne handled a lot of the paperwork and financial aspects, and she patiently walked us through every aspect, from sewer lateral compliance, disclosures, legal jargon, etc. etc.
Both Anne and Josh were always accessible by email, phone, or text. We didn’t feel at any time that we «slipped through the cracks» or that we were the only ones doing any legwork.
They also gave us a lot of advice on the quirks of the local real estate market. We thought that because we had previously bought a house in Arlington, Virginia, we wouldn’t need a realtor. But after working with Anne and Josh we realized that we avoided a TON of headaches and learned sooo much. I really feel like they educated us, as well as kept us boosted so we maintained optimistic but realistic expectations.
After we bought our house, they made sure to help us with warranties, taxes, insurance, etc. — things that would have been overwhelming all at once without them.
All in all, Anne and Josh are a great team!

We had a 5:30 meeting with Ron. Even though we were both really sick, we dragged ourselves across town to meet with him because we didn’t want to cancel on him last minute. Lo and behold, we arrive to find that Ron can’t /​won’t be there because he is sick. No notice, no call, no email, just «sorry».
We can do better than working with people like that.

This is a review specifically pertaining to my great experience working with Claudia Mills. After working with another agent who I never felt entirely comfortable with (I watched house after house pass me by for cash offers, then had a short sale fall to pieces, and I never ever felt properly educated about what was happening) — I got wise and switched to Claudia.
Even though the market was exceptionally tough, and my cash was in short supply, and what I wanted was a bit specific, I finally ended up in a wonderful property and couldn’t be happier. Claudia saw me through the discouragement and stress that came with a months long search for housing and a deal that turned into a difficult waiting game to close. And she has great working relationships with all the local contractors and subs in the area, so having them out to have a look at a property can happen with good speed. Being a first time home buyer in this housing market is tough, and I think I would have given up if I had been working with an agent with less finesse. I know my deal wasn’t her most financially rewarding, but she worked hard for me — her advocacy, education, and attention to negotiation/​strategy was fantastic.
I will never use another agent — she was that good. And the the home warranty? OMG, Claudia, thank you so much!!!

We just purchased a house with Ron Kriss and Anne Keller and highly recommend working with both of them. We sold our house off market and had a short time to purchase something new to avoid having to move twice. Both Ron and Anne were very responsive to all of our needs. They met us at properties whenever we asked them to and always responded to emails promptly, answering every question we had, no matter how minute. Once we found the house we wanted, they were incredibly strategic about exactly what we needed to do in order to be competitive. Whatever advice they gave, they made it clear that the decision was ours and did not pressure us to make choices we would regret. Ron is incredibly knowledgeable about the market, with so many years of experience, he just knows what works. We were able to get the first house we bid on, even though there were 11 offers on it. Anne handled all the details of the deal with great care and attention. We even took a 2 week trip to Europe in the middle of a 30-​day escrow and Anne kept us informed and took care of everything for us while we were gone. All of the contractors we worked with (home inspectors, plumbers, mortgage brokers) that were recommended by Ron were excellent. Again, his years of experience in the area has allowed him to create a team that works together seamlessly. The combination of Ron’s experience and knowledge and Anne’s professionalism and personal attention was perfect for us. I can’t imagine working with any other realtors. As an extra bonus, Ron is a longtime supporter of Oakland public schools — he is truly engaged in the community.

We had a great experience working with these guys — highly recommended!

I’ve completed three real estate transactions in 6 months, so had a chance to compare Ron and the Lawton Associates team versus one of the top 3 agents in the East Bay by volume. I’d recommend Ron to anyone buying or selling between the Caldecot and the Bay. Ron brings an encyclopedic knowledge of the Oakland and Piedmont markets, a very quantitative and analytic approach to marketing your home and, perhaps his greatest asset, his assistant and project manager Anne. We did extensive work (roof, floors, painting, etc.) on our Rockridge home before selling and Anne managed all the contractors, got the work done on time and UNDER budget. She is a great communicator and a joy to work with. When we finally found the Piedmont home of our dreams, Ron was absolutely critical in helping us successfully navigate what turned out to be a 10-​bidder mêlée. There is no way we would have gotten the house without Ron’s intel-​gathering and strategizing. Ron worked diligently through both transactions and is a man of great integrity. He’s the best there is in the East Bay.

Ron Kriss is without a doubt the best realtor I’ve ever used. I’m an investor and I’m very demanding of a realtor. Bottom-​line, if he/​she can’t sell my house in 30 days, I find another agent. Ron completely changed the way I prepare a house for sale. The first time we worked together (Jan, 2010), he insisted I use a stager (I had never used one before, and he had a great one to recommend). By the time we finished the house it looked better than I could have imagined. He marketed the house impeccably through a dedicated website, great pics by his photographer, and a superb brochure. I sold the house $ 100,000 OVER asking with 10 offers in 1 week! I was amazed how many buyers came to the open house (over 100). In speaking with other realtors, I’ve discovered he has a reputation for selling gems, and it attracts lots of buyers and agents. As you can imagine, I’ve used him ever since. In June of 2011, I remodeled a duplex in Berkeley. He sold it for, yes, $ 60,000 OVER asking with 6 offers (he’s a remarkable negotiator and knows how to play buyers off each other). I’ve just signed him up to do my next house and he stopped by yesterday, in the early stages of construction, and came up with about 10 great ideas that I immediately integrated into my plans. I can’t recommend him highly enough.

This review is for Claudia Mills, one of the agents at Lawton as of ²⁄₂₀₁₂. Claudia helped me write an offer on a property, and although my bid was not accepted, Claudia was responsive, professional, thoughtful and a great listener during the process. She and Lawton were open to the flexible compensation model that I needed for this deal, and I appreciate that and the level of service Claudia delivered on very short notice. I wouldn’t hesitate to work with her again.

If you enjoy being treated like a poor step child then Ron Kriss is your guy. I mistakenly listed my home with him in March of last year. I should have known I was in trouble when he started talking about his selling ‘formula”. He consistently missed meetings, never conducted any of the open houses (there were only three in six months) and generally did not communicate. When we did receive offers, he convinced me to go with a low ball all cash deal. The bank was not amused but Ron arrogantly tried, without success, for three months to shove the bad deal down the bank’s throat. His level of hubris is off the charts. Fortunately I wised up and fired his lazy butt. The new realtor marketed the home correctly and I had five offers in ten days and the sale closed in less than a month from the listing date. The result speaks for itself.

A real estate agent that doesn’t return calls or emails, I didn’t know it existed. It does! Right here!

Perry is on a very short list of people who I trust to advise me on real estate sales transactions. He has helped me make 12 purchase and sale transactions of real estate in Oakland in the last eight years. They have ranged from a single family home in Rockridge to apartment houses in the Northgate District, to condos in Glenview. He brings a level of analysis, sophistication, marketing savvy, attention to detail, ethics and calm to every transaction that I have not found in other realtors. He knows more and will do more to make a good transaction happen. He has worked tirelessly for me – far beyond the level of compensation represented by the deal at hand. He works for Lawton Associates Real Estate Brokerage in Rockridge and has deep resources to call upon if you need legal, design, building, engineering, finance, or landscaping help. If you are buying or selling real estate in Oakland, ask him to help you. Perry’s your expert

we were very happy with all the people at lawton associates. They’re really friendly and professional in their work — great communication and very punctual.
If you want to buy or sell real estate in the east bay, ask for help from lawton associates!