Stina Charles Harris

Stina was an amazing help to us in our house search. She made it clear up front that the process would take time, probably more time than we were hoping (which turned out to be true). She explained that part of her role in the process would be to get to know us, find out what we liked and did not like, and ultimately not just get us into a house but into a house that was right for us.
On our first open house with her she immediately began educating us about the problems she saw with the place. This continued throughout the duration of our search and we learned an amazing amount from her. When she submitted our offer on the home we ended up buying, she somehow convinced them that we were the right people to sell to in spite of not being the highest offer. I can only assume she is skilled in some form of real estate magic. If you are looking to buy or sell a home in the East Bay do yourself a favor and get Stina on your team.

It is not often that I feel compelled to write someone a positive review and Stina deserves every bit of it. Stina helped me and my family find a home in Oakland and I can’t say enough compliments about the work she’s done for us. Throughout the entire buying process in this intense housing market, she supported us with her professional yet friendly personality and her in-​depth knowledge base in the market place. She was always punctual and provided the best and relevant information as efficient as anyone can imagine. I’d recommend her to anyone with ease. Hands-​down, she’s a five star agent in the bay area.

Stina is absolutely masterful. Our north oakland home needed a great deal of work to ready it for sale and we felt overwhelmed by the scope. Stina supported us every step of the way and made sure we were comfortable and informed. She is well respected, has a complex understanding of this intense market and strong relationships with contractors. So she was able to handle a myriad of unexpected challenges with grace and helped us sell our home for a great price in record time. We can’t recommend her highly enough.

Working with Stina was a truly incredible experience. Stina was our agent for the sale of our home in Emeryville, CA. Here are just a few of the ways that Stina helped sell our home quickly, and for a price that we were thrilled with:
— Stina maintains excellent relationships with the very best contractors in the business, from her stager, to inspectors, to cleaners, to painters, to heating/​furnace installers. People LOVE working with Stina (truly, their faces light up), and the work that gets done in the process of the sale of the home is fast, very competitively priced, and superbly executed. As an example, stagers are very booked up right now. Stina has a fantastic relationship with her stager, and because of this, we were able to get staging set up within a few days of deciding to sell. From what we’ve heard, and from the results of the staging of our home, Stina’s stager is one of the best (if not the best) in the industry.
— Stina worked tirelessly throughout the process. She figured out a listing price that was thoughtful and effective. She set up 2 open houses back to back, and managed to fill the open houses with about 50 potential buyers each weekend (really!) due to her connections and excellent and thorough marketing. Although she never clued us into just how much work went into answering questions from all of the potential buyers, we knew that it was significant when we saw an email from our eventual buyer’s agent thanking Stina warmly for her dedication throughout the process. We asked Stina to sell our home in a very tight timeframe, and from the moment we hired her, she threw all of her energy into selling our home for the best possible price.
— We trusted Stina completely. She takes her fiduciary responsibility to her client very seriously, and this comes through in every interaction. She recommended the minimum amount of work to be done on our home that was needed for the sale of the home — her recommendations were always backed up with great reasoning, and were always spot on. She prepared our disclosure packet for potential buyers and our paperwork throughout the process with obvious care and attention to detail. She walked us through the offers carefully. It was so clear and so comforting that Stina felt so much responsibility for this very big event in our lives.
— Stina is a joy to work with. The home sale process can be nerve wracking. Stina was there every step of the way with consistent updates, and a calm demeanor. Whenever I had questions, Stina was there to talk through them and ask about our goals and intentions. We felt like partners in the process. At the same time, we never felt overwhelmed as Stina took care of the details behind the scenes. Everything just «worked».
We couldn’t recommend Stina highly enough — she is one of the most professional, smart, personable people we’ve ever worked with. We are so lucky and grateful that she was the one selling our home.

My husband and I and adult daughter started working with Stina last summer, upon the recommendation of a friend, who is a very experienced house inspector in the Berkeley/​Oakland area. He described Stina as «very smart, ethical, and hard-​working»,
and an excellent realtor. She turned out to be everything he promised, as well as demonstrating all the other positive attributes mentioned in her Unilocal reviews. She met with us first and carefully reviewed the process of buying a home. She kept us informed of houses coming onto the market, and was flexible about accommodating our schedules to show us appropriate homes. She was extremely knowledgeable about home construction, and would point out any potential problems with each property we visited. She was meticulous about keeping track of all the details, disclosures, etc. There was no pressure coming from her, and she gave you the sense that she really wanted to help you find the right home for your needs, no matter how long it took. We did fairly quickly find a home that was particularly suited to our needs. Stina was very strategic and skillful in helping our bid be the one that was accepted, and then was able to expedite the closing date so the move could be over a weekend. After the closing she continued to provide excellent service in providing names of local professionals we might need. She was a pleasure to work with and I can recommend her without hesitation.

Stina is outstanding. She is a professional, courteous, detail-​oriented, knowledgeable, amazing agent and I can’t say enough positive things about her. She just landed us in our first home and I can assure you, this miracle was her doing much more than ours! What I really appreciate is how she took a slow, patient approach with us, introducing us to the confusing world of real estate a little at a time, allowing us to disappear for months at a time and then slowly guiding and nudging us in the right direction as we became more «ready» to be homeowners and start putting offers in on houses. She listened to us, got to know us and then gave opinions and guidance based on our goals, preferences, anxieties, etc. Superb salesmanship, really. She wasn’t afraid to steer us away from bad choices and when the right house crossed our radar, she dialed up the perfect mix of assertiveness, support and a well-​placed kick in the ass. When the bidding process produced an opportunity for us, Stina was right there, outlining our options for adjusting our bid, giving us clear choices, and ultimately guiding us to the finish line. What’s more, she stayed with us all the way through closing and beyond, helping us understand the paperwork, alerting us to all deadlines and helping us line up contractors for the necessary but minor work to be done on the property. Full service awesome is what I have to say about Stina.

Everything nearly everyone else has said is true for us too. (Except Mary S., who appears to be a shill if there ever was one, imho. That review is incomprehensible). I am not a person who reviews a lot here unless I have fantastic things to say because I am a really tough critic, but Stina knocked it out of the park for us. I was sure we’d never find a house in Albany to meet our specifications, in particular our price point (see above re: my cynicism). But she was confident & sure enough, we just bought our first home in a perfect location in Albany, ½ block away from Solano Ave. The house is in excellent condition to boot. Here’s an example of how great she is: When we were inspecting it with our own home inspector, we were following him around & he kept reporting good news about the property’s state. Meanwhile, Stina is there too, getting so excited she’s practically whooping on our behalf & kept telling us over & over, «oh my god, I am so happy for you guys! This is going to be such a great home for you!» She was practically jumping up & down. Now this wasn’t a sales pitch, because we were *already* in contract with the seller. She was genuinely thrilled for us, which tickled me. She has remained in touch since closing & been responsive to all of our questions. Also, she knows EVERYONE in the market in the East Bay, not to mention everything about it. She predicted almost exactly how much this house would sell for, which was neither the list price nor a regular number. It was remarkable. I recommend her to everyone who even considers a move to the East Bay.

Stina is amazing! She’s confident, professional and great at understanding her clients’ needs. My wife and I started working with her after being outbid on nearly a dozen East Bay houses. Within a month, she had helped us buy the home our kids will grow up in. She really knows the local market, and she’ll guide you through every stage of the process to ensure not only that the deal gets done but also that you are happy in your home. She carefully reviewed disclosures with us and made notes so we knew exactly what work would need to be done on the home. She was able to very accurately estimate the costs of various jobs (down to the price per square foot of particular materials), and she has a great Rolodex of local contractors and other professionals. She arranged for a contractor and an engineer to walk through the house with us to look at the foundation, and she was with us when it happened, so she could ensure that the right questions were asked (and answered). Even after we moved in, she continued to provide us with names and number of excellent painters, electricians, etc. We’ve recommended her to many of our friends and will continue to do so.

Stina helped my wife and I buy a house in Berkeley in early 2012. She was incredibly patient and professional as she took us to nearly two dozen properties. She is exceptionally knowledgeable about real estate in Berkeley and Oakland. I can’t thank her enough.

Wow! Can I just say ‘ditto’ to all the reviewers who had the pleasure of working with Stina and their praises? She really is that wonderful. My fear was that to get a top-​notch relator working on my behalf I’d have to endure an overbearing, ‘eat nails for breakfast’ type personality, and this couldn’t have been farther from the truth. Stina was/​is a Stealth Nordic SuperGoddess: calmly powerful, effective, professional and a blast to work with. Yes — the best realtor in Berkeley. As an added bonus one can save on MFT sessions. Stina deftly negotiated my husband and my differing tastes/​priorities/​concerns and found us the perfect home for our family (even in a crazy tight market). We couldn’t be happier. Thank you Stina!

Stina, did a great job selling my condo project, she worked very hard, had great attention to detail, pleasant to work with, showed fairness and a high ethical and moral standard. I could not ask for more.

We are huge fans of Stina! Although my husband has owned before, as a first-​time homebuyer, I had a ton of questions about the process. She was happy to meet with us before we were even really ready to buy and then took great care to hold our hands throughout the entire experience. Since she knows the East Bay so well, she also gave us so many insider tips on how to find a home that was right for us in a highly competitive market.
Stina is also very detail-​oriented and helped us think through all the pros and cons of each home we considered. She was never ruffled by all of our questions and never appeared frustrated by us in the occasional instance where she wrote up an offer and then we decided not to pull the trigger.
Not only did we gain a great realtor but also a friend. Can’t get better than that!

I cannot say enough fantastic things about Stina. !She helped us buy a beautiful home in Berkeley and made the whole experience joyful and educational.
We’ve referred several of our friends to herand they’ve all had a fantastic experience. In fact one of our friends overheard another realtor say, «You see her over there? That’s Stina, she’s the BEST realtor in Berkeley.»
It’s absolutely true. As first time home buyers, she helped us navigate complex waters, and never pushed us towards anything. She understands the Berkeley market intimately and is very well respected by other realtors. When the time comes to negotiating, she’ll fight for you as she did for us, making sure we didn’t miss any of the details and getting us the best price possible. After we bought our home the seller even said, «Wow, you’ve got a great realtor. She really went all out for you…»
Thank you Stina!

I sold a single family house last year and was represented by Stina. It had been a rental for many years and Stina was helpful finding a stager and making suggestions with details that would not be costly and would show the house at its best. I often felt that she was a partner in the effort rather than just my agent.
Stina’s passion for her work showed at every phase, from the listing process to the difficult decisions surrounding multiple offers.
I would recommend her without hesitation and have given Stina’s contact information to friends considering purchasing a property.

Stina helped us sell our place in So. Berkeley last summer, and I cannot recommend her enough. Ours was a sticky situation with a tenant-​occupied property that needed the usual improvements and repairs before it was market-​ready. Stina worked closely with our tenants to schedule a large amount work (paint, furnace install, sewer lateral, landscaping, floor repair, staging, photography, inspections, and more) while still ensuring we met a tight June listing deadline. She takes personal responsibility for all of her contractors’ work, has a great sense for what will help sell a home, and has close relationships with some of the most reputable inspectors in the Bay Area. She was always on-​time, always reachable, and great at calming frayed nerves with her humor and grace. She seems to genuinely enjoy the stress and energy of these high-​pressure transactions, which is baffling to me. The marketing of the place was flawless and the listing perfectly timed, and in the end we had more than 25 offers — selling in little over a week. You won’t find a more competent and professional agent in the East Bay.