Soren & Romney O'Connell

Hi, 

We are navigating the same situation and could not be happier with our agent, Romney O'Connell www.romneyoconnell.com. She has not only been patient, but has also offered us extremely valuable advice as we try to find a home that better accommodates our family's needs. Romney is also helping us make thoughtful decisions about how and when to put our current home on the market. Her years of experience supporting both buyers and sellers is really shining through in this process. 

Romney was originally reffered to us by three separate friends who each had great feedback to share about their experiences working with her. Based on those referrals, we passed along Romney's information to my husband's parents, who ultimately selected her as their agent. They were impressed by the support and guidance they received throughout the house-hunting process and noted that it was Romney's patience and thoughtful communication that ultimately helped them find the home that was exactly he right fit for them (I can share the glowing review written by my in-laws if requested).  Now that we are personally working with Romney, our own experience can only confirm that she is deeply committed to always acting in best interest of her clients. We feel luck to have her in our corner! 

I'm including all of Romney's contact information below: 

Romney's contact information - website:  www.romneyoconnell.com 

                                                      email: romney [at] berkhills.com (romney[at]berkhills[dot]com) 

                                                         phone: 510-599-6911

We sold our El Cerrito home in March 2020 and highly recommend Romney O’Connell at Berkeley Hills Realty (510.599.6911 / www.RomneyOConnell.com).  She is incredibly experienced in representing El Cerrito sellers and knows all the players in the local market.  She developed a well thought-out strategy for prioritizing which prep work needed to get done, what work we should just get estimates for, when to market the property, and even which furniture could remain for staging to manage costs.  We trusted that she was always working hard for us behind the scenes: managing her network of contractors, stagers, landscapers, photographers, and (importantly) other agents to bring strong demand come listing day.  During a stressful closing she continued to provide us sound advice (borderline therapy), as strange things were happening heading into the first week of COVID quarantine.  She was professional throughout the entire process, listened thoughtfully, planned well, and was generally a lot of fun to work with.  Ultimately she not only brought in multiple offers but multiple strong offers and a quick close.  We’re very satisfied clients!

Hi there…I’m not in El Cerrito but in Albany—one block from San Pablo towards the hills--and we just had an AMAZING experience with the agent who sold our house, Romney O’Connell with Berkeley Hills Realty.  We needed, desperately, to maximize what we would make on the house since it was our only and biggest investment...and not to mention the home we raised our kids in so there was a huge emotional element to the process.  We were beyond nervous about putting the house on the market during the pandemic.  Additionally, we were worried sick about not being able to stage the house because it was not allowed in Albany by law under the Shelter In Place orders (we ended up “virtually” staging per her suggestion, which turned out to be brilliant and MUCH cheaper!) and we were doubly worried about not being able to have the normal open houses.  Romney held our hands throughout the entire process and expertly strategized all aspects of it for a few months…the last 1.5 of which we had to relocate out of state to be able to safely shelter-in-place!  She was spot-on with what we should or should not put our, LIMITED(!), resources into and she expertly guided us with her knowledge on what people want to see in a home and what they are willing to look past.  She has an entire team of contractors, painters, cleaners who were all very good and super-reasonably priced.  Her knowledge of the market, during a very shaky time, was incredible and she helped plot a course as to when we should put the house on the market and what we needed or did not need for advertising.  Also, she was well informed on all of the new “laws” around Covid-19 and seemed to have really great relationships with a ton of other agents in the area.  I mention that last note because it felt like she was a part of a larger real estate community during the uncertainty and, therefore, had resources to find the (many) answers to the (too-many) questions we had.    If I seem effusive about her it is warranted because we received 11 offers after only being on the market for 1 week (another strategy she employed, expertly I’ll add) and our house sold for almost $450K OVER asking.  Seriously, a miracle in our opinion.  We owe her the hugest debt of gratitude and I cannot recommend her enough.   Feel free to respond back if you have any questions but here is her information:  Romney O’Connell, Berkeley Hills Realty, ph:  510.599.6911 and her website is www.romneyoconnell.com.  All the best of luck and healthy wishes!!

Romney O’Connell with Berkeley Hills Realty is truly amazing both personally and professionally.  Our family recently sold our home in El Cerrito to buy a new home in Richmond. Romney provided a stress-free process that went as smoothly as possible.  It was clear that we had the advantage when selling our previous house and bidding on our new home.  We actually took great joy watching Romney work.  She was always a step ahead.  Romney is a true artist and a master of strategy, meticulously paying attention to every nuanced detail along the way.  She was quick to make personal connections with the agents and was always certain that we maintained a clear understanding of the process.  Again, we seemed to always be one step ahead of the other buyers. The sellers of our new home actually declined a counter offer from another buyer because the offer Romney helped us assemble was so strong.  We couldn’t recommend anyone more that we do Romney.

Phone: 510-599-6911

Email: romney [at] berkhills.com (romney[at]berkhills[dot]com). 

Website:www.romneyoconnell.com.

We can highly recommend Romney O'Connell from Berkeley Hills Realty. She is has been in the business a long time and specializes in Berkeley Hills and El Cerrito properties. She was our realtor for the sale of our parents estate. She is an expert at suggesting what to do, or not to do, to get a house ready for sale, and has a keen sense for pricing the property.

Her contact info is 510-566-6911 and romney [at] berkhills.com 

I have got the perfect person for you: Romney O'Connell at Berkeley Hills Realty - we've had very positive and recent experiences with her. In fact, whenever anybody asks my wife or I for a Realtor recommendation, we tell them to contact Romney. Over the course of the last 6 years, we have worked with Romney in four different transactions. The first time was our first home purchase ever (in Berkeley), then we both sold our first house and bought a bigger one in North Oakland with Romney in anticipation of the arrival of our twins. The fourth transaction involved my wife's architecture business. I can honestly say that I don't think we would have been able to purchase either home or done so well on our sale without her. In the first case, it was her relationships with local realtors and mortgage brokers that made my offer stronger than the competition's. The second time around, she thought of us for a diamond in the rough opportunity that was more than we could have ever asked for. One of my best friends also worked with her twice (2008 & 2013) - repeat business says it all! 

Romney began as our Realtor, but today she is a family friend who lives just a few blocks away with her kids and husband. She truly gets to know you, looks out for you, and wants the best for you (and your kids!). She is incredibly helpful, caring, patient, and relentless in the boom market that we are in. You will be treated like family working with her. 

In summary, Romney O'Connell is a top-of-the-line, veteran Realtor with deep knowledge of the East Bay real estate market and the home selling process. With both her more than a decade of experience and week-to-week pulse of the market, she will help you understand the selling process, help prepare you for sale, and set a strategy for your sale that meets your objectives. I credit Romney for how well we did on the sale of our first home -- and this is the only thing that allowed us to afford a bigger home for our growing family. She also knows the historical homes in the East Bay very well - Romney has a great aesthetic sense (M.F.A. from Columbia and won a local historical society award), so you're in good hands in marketing your home or if you are thinking about renovation or sprucing before your sale - she's done it herself. We have, and will continue to, recommend Romney to all our friends looking to buy or sell in the East Bay. Her contact info: romney [at] berkhills.com (romney[at]berkhills[dot]com)
510.599.6911
www.romneyoconnell.com

I have a wonderful recommendation for a realtor -- Romney O'Connell of Berkeley Hills Realty 

Romney helped us get our first home in Oakland. She is not only the best realtor we ever worked with, she is one of the best people we ever worked with. Here are some of the highlights:

1. Intimate knowledge of the market and the area. She knows the schools, the little things in a neighborhood, all of the realtors selling and how that might influence the process, and all of the local laws that might influence upgrades to the house.

2. Renovation ideas: Many of the homes we looked at needed renovations. She not only had ideas on how to improve things, but would bring in others to give us estimates of how much the fixes/upgrades would cost.

3. Practical skills in negotiating: She knows how to place a really good offer. This includes getting a good loan letter, pricing, and other small things that make you an attractive buyer.

4. Support: The Bay Area's market is tough. It takes many offers before you find a place. Through the whole process, Romney was supportive when things didn't go our way. When it came time for offers and counteroffers, she provided a guiding hand, yet didn't pressure us into anything. She made it clear what her advice was, but that final decisions were up to us.

5. Closing Process: This was super easy. She handled almost everything. We had one slight problem around closing (not anything of her fault) and she handled it.

6. Ongoing support: Even after we closed, she is still a partner in our new home. She wanted to know how things went, and can always find us a handy person/contractor to take care of something at the house.

We are convinced that Romney is the best real estate agent in the Bay Area, if not the country. She is extremely knowledgeable, patient, available, and honest. My husband and I recommend her very highly!

We were in a pretty similar situation and are closing on our new house today. It took 4 offers, but the last one made it. Our agent was great and is connected to many contractors and I also feel like she gave us very grounded advice on renovations. She also helped us get contractors out pre-bid to make estimates when we felt like we needed that.

Romney O'Connell romney [at] berkhills.com

I cannot recommend Romney O'Connell at Berkeley Hills Real Estate more highly (http://berkhills.com/agents/romney-oconnell/). We reached out to her back in May to discuss our hopes to sell our starter home in Elmwood and move into a larger home in the Berkeley Hills prior to the arrival of our third child this winter and she was incredible. We were able to buy our new home with her guidance this September (we got a bridge that we just refinanced into a traditional mortgage), worked with contractors and an engineer she recommended (she knows everyone), and then sell our home in Elmwood in October with almost no overlap between the two.

She was always available for our questions and concerns and we don't have any buyer's remorse involved, which I think is rare in such a crazy housing market. Did I mention that her college-aged daughter babysat for us in a pinch when our regular afternoon babysitter fell through? We anticipate that we are now in our forever home and won't have to move again in the foreseeable future but if we do we would call Romney again in a heartbeat. Feel free to contact me offline if you have any additional questions; home buying and selling is never fun but my family couldn't be happier with our outcome.