Lara Blake

Couldn’t be more grateful for Lara and her team, who helped us every step of the way in the purchase of our first home. She was diligent about the pre-​approval process, giving us her undivided attention even though our price point is probably the lowest she’s working with (if I were to guess). We always got the feeling that we were just as important to her as her clients who are spending millions.
Lara is an incredibly hard worker. There were times where we needed a new pre-​approval worksheet in a pinch, and she was able to pull it off last minute. She would email or call us day or night, whatever we needed. The Bay Area housing market is so stressful, so it’s relieving knowing there’s someone like Lara who is able to help keep you calm through it.

My husband and I were in the process of buying our first house, and our real estate agent gave us a list of local lenders. I decided to go with Lara based on great Unilocal reviews. And I was very much satisfied with my choice! Lara was very helpful and patiently answered all our questions (and we had a lot of them :)). She guided us through the whole process and took her time to explain things when we were confused. Lara and her assistant Jennifer did an amazing job. I felt very confident and secure working with them. They were always prepared and on time with documents. I am very grateful to Lara and Jennifer for making the whole process as easy as it could be, and also enjoyable:) Thank you so much!

Lara and her team are fabulous! She and her team helped me re-​finance and they are so good at their job I;m still surprised at how smooth they made the process.
Thank you!

We have worked with Lara for 2 home purchases and a re-​fi. In all situations I’ve been under very tight deadlines and Lara has been able to meet all deadlines and keep us updated throughout the entire process. Lara is very thorough and detailed, I’d recommend Lara to anyone looking for help with a home loan.

Lara was exceptional to work with. She’s always on top of everything and really helped me navigate through some hurdles in my recent home purchase. I didn’t understand the importance of having the right mortgage broker before now. But especially when buying in the Bay Area with all the craziness in the market, it makes a big difference. She closed my loans in lightening speed and her reputation alone was one of the reasons that my offer was accepted. You will not regret working with her.

WOW. I was referred to Lara Blake three years ago when I was struggling to figure out how to refinance my home. She reviewed my case thoroughly and advised me on a long term plan, which we just successfully completed. I had talked with several mortgage brokers before Lara, none of whom helped at all. She took the time to explain things and lay out my options in a clear understandable and actionable way. All I had to do was follow through!
The process with Lara was clearly explained and expertly managed. You just can’t get any better than this. She and her assistant Jenn were completely on top of every detail and incredibly responsive. Lara has a gift of explaining things in great detail – she is so committed to you as a client and is such a pleasure to work with. You will be amazed!

Lara Blake and her team were highly recommended to us and for good reason!
As first time home buyers, my husband and I were naïve, skittish, and not very informed on the loan process. Lara took the time to help us understand what would be needed and how to proceed at every juncture. From the very beginning she was patient and communicative, making us feel supported and comfortable as we embarked on the biggest financial step of our lives.
Lara was always responsive and efficient and this matters so much in the competitive bay area market. I am sure that we can barely even imagine how much her efforts on our behalf smoothed the way for us.
Thank you to Lara and her team. She is a superstar.

Lara and Jenn are the best! They are extremely knowledgeable, responsive and went the extra mile to get my loan approved and my escrow closed on time when the underwriters were backed up and things were not looking like they would progress as scheduled.
Lara is the consummate professional and Jenn is her perfect backup and sidekick. Together, they don’t miss a thing and I don’t think I ever went more than a few minutes before getting an answer: and it didn’t matter whether it was over email, on the phone or otherwise. They were also very accommodating to my security concerns and offered different methods of getting sensitive information to them so I didn’t have to send over email.
Not only did this team do everything they could to help me win the bidding on my house, they also talked me off the ledge when things were looking grim with my offer. I just can’t say enough about how great it was to work with them. It’s very rare to go into a process like this and to come out the other end feeling like I’ve made a new friend. This was not my first real estate transaction but has been the most pleasant by far.
Thanks again Lara and Jenn — you are both just fabulous, and I look forward to working with you again in the future.

We would highly recommend Lara Blake to anyone looking to purchase a home.
Lara and her assistant Jenn were constantly available and on top of everything. We would email questions and receive a response in no time. This was our first time purchasing a home and were dreading the loan phase because of all the paperwork, gathering infomation, etc. But I can say, thanks to Lara and Jenn, it was actually pretty easy.
They sent us a list of what information they need to get the pre-​approval going and a detailed spreadsheet of what your estimated costs would be. We had two offers accepted but the sale did not go through, we also made multiple offers that were rejected and each time Lara and Jenn were always ready and available to create our pre-​approval letter and anything else we needed fast. Lara was also able to agree to a two-​week close if we needed it which made our offer that much more competitive and defintiely was a reason we were able to «win» our home. Thank you Lara and Jenn!

We highly recommend Lara and her colleague, Jenn. Lara has worked in this industry for over two decades, and her expertise is obvious to anyone who speaks with her. She and Jenn are responsive and answered our questions every step of the way. She provides a detailed spreadsheet which helped us plan out our costs. Lara got us a very good rate and financing structure, and she also explained the benefits and costs of other structures. Lara knew we wanted to close by a certain date, and she went above and beyond to make sure we closed. She’s a great resource for first time home buyers especially, and we highly recommend her.

As first-​time homebuyers we really had no idea what we were doing. But Lara did, and she carefully and clearly guided us through every step of the process. Lara makes you feel as though she is working with and for you and you alone. No matter when we called or emailed, no matter our state of panic, Lara was there with a ready, helpful response. We really appreciated the way she made sure we understood everything and gave us time to think before moving to the next step. She is dedicated, passionate about her work, and will help you figure out what works best for you. Her spreadsheets ought to be legendary. We cannot thank her enough, and after we finally finish unpacking, we will invite her over for champagne. Go with Lara, you won’t regret it!

Here I go again on another journey but this time to help my parents buy a home.
Lara Blake is phenomenal in what she does, Its difficult to describe the commitment and passion Lara shows when she takes you on as her customer.
Working with Lara a second time was just as wonderful as the first. To make a long story short, Lara made sure my parents and I understood each step before hand and allowed us to answer any questions or concerns before gong forward.
There were times during the process when my parents felt overwhelmed and did not feel comfortable doing everything online. Lara was very accommodating and meet with them in her office to answer any questions and when they left they gained confidence knowing they can trust her.
Due to my parents being novice with technology I was there to hold their had every step of the way with ensuring their documents were sent to Lara and her team in a timely matter.
What I love most about her service is her knowledge and expediting abilities to make things happen. I’ve already recommended her services to people in my family and colleagues at work because I believe she can turn any situation into a happy ending.
Way to go Lara! Thank You again for your awesomeness My parents and I truly appreciate you and making our dreams come true.

Long story short: Lara Blake did an exceptional job, allowed us to make an offer with a two week close, and got our family into a house on which we would have otherwise been outbid.
More detail: this having been our first time buying a house, Lara and her assistants walked us through every step of the process, giving us clear and concise lists of what we had to do, and never overburdening us with explanations before they became relevant. They were fast and responsive to our questions, and gave us time to gather information and make decisions. When we decided to rescind our first accepted offer due to tenant issues, the process was simple and all the appropriate fees were refunded.
And when we finally found the house we wanted badly, she made our offer very competitive by agreeing to a two-​week close, which absolutely contributed to its success. It was a whirlwind close full of urgent emails and Docusigns, inspections and appraisals, all of which came together in the nick of time, and we had keys to our new house exactly two weeks after we made our offer.
Incredible!!!
I will recommend Lara Blake to all my friends and family. Exceptional work!

Working with Lara and her team was an excellent experience! My husband and I were looking for our first home, and Lara made sure we were well-​informed and knew what to expect every step of the way. At one point, we were faced with a time constraint that would possibly push our closing date back and increase our rate. Lara and her team worked diligently and efficiently to ensure they completed everything they needed to on time so that we could make our deadline! It was an absolute pleasure working with her and I would definitely do it again the future.

Lara and her team are so amazing, I cannot recommend her enough! My husband and I were caught in such a unique situation — joint inheritance of a home. We had never purchased a home before, so we were completely lost in the whole process, not to mention getting the runaround from the Title Agency for over 6 months. Lara always had her situation under control, even if the title agency caused all of us to lose some hair.
Not only did Lara walk us through the entire process, she held our hand the whole time, and was so very encouraging and supportive. Going through such a stressful process that drew out to almost a year, we could not have asked for a better person on our team.
She is so professional, knowledgeable, and full of very helpful advice and guidance. If it weren’t for her and her patience, we would not be sitting in our beautiful home right now. Thank you Lara!

Lara Blake is amazing! We went to her to buy a second home. Lara and Jillian were highly responsive and on top of everything.
In a deal where the seller kept creating problems (so much so that we wound up getting a lawyer), Lara never blinked. When a 25 day escrow turned into a 4 month ordeal that went through probate (the seller had misrepresented the property), Lara continually updated our package. Each time things got postponed, Lara was quick to «hurry up and wait» with us. Lara made sure that when the seller was ready, so were we. Once the probate court approved the sale, Lara closed the loan for us in a week and a half.
Lara’s genuine nature and accessibility made her so wonderful to work with. We will definitely go to her the next time we want to purchase or refinance.

My wife and I made the decision to purchase a home during a very competitive market, where time was of the essence. We entered the process knowing next to nothing about it, and were truly learning everything as we went. Three months later, we had our offer on a beautiful home accepted.
None of this would have been possible without Lara’s guidance, timeliness, and expertise. When we needed a pre approval letter within a day, she got it done. When our seller countered our offer, she updated the financials so we could respond quickly. She also did an excellent job *over*-estimating our costs, so that we could make sure we were prepared for a worst-​case scenario, and yet relieved when the closing costs were several thousand dollars less than expected.
She is also great to work with, very helpful to newbies like us, and truly a partner in the team effort of buying a home. Thanks, Lara!

Working with Lara was easy and straightforward. As first-​time home buyers, we didn’t really know what was expected, especially during closing. Lara was constantly in communication with our realtor (see review for Julie Cuellas) and our escrow company to ensure that we closed in time. She was so efficient that we actually closed a week early on our home, which was GREAT.
Lara was quick to reply to our emails, worked with us to put together multiple spreadsheets documenting our monthly payments, and answering any questions that we had. We’ll definitely work with her again!

Lara and Jillian are definitely an A+ team! As first time home buyers, my fiancé and I were both pretty clueless on the whole process of buying a home. Lara went out her way to detail every nook and cranny of the loan process and was always very prompt in answering emails and returning phone calls.
As far as closing goes, Lara and Jillian are definitely speedsters! Because my fiancé was going to be out of town during the scheduled time we were supposed to sign, Lara and Jillian rushed all of our paperwork in order for us to complete and sign everything before he left. We were basically signing all our documents at the title company within 10 business days of getting our offer accepted! They kept us updated throughout the whole process and I can’t recommend them enough!

We had a complicated, many layered mortgage situation that required some tricky financial maneuvering. Lara and Jillian were diligent, easy to work with, detail oriented and very fast. We made several offers and they were able to put packages together within days, sometimes hours. She wrote personal letters, made phone calls to the other agents on our behalf and worked through the night to make our offers of the highest quality. She stayed with us until the papers were signed to make sure the deal went through without a hitch.
Lara, we will recommend you to every one of our friends, family members and even complete strangers on BART.