Cordula Didier

We have a LOT to say about Cordula Didier, all of it good!
The Short Story:
Cordula is an absolute class act! In a seller’s market where type of house we wanted had been selling for 150K above the list price, Cordula helped us find a house we LOVE at slightly under the asking price. More importantly, she was able to negotiate it in a way that gave us plenty of time to review all the paperwork (seller’s disclosures, financing, contractors bids etc.) so that we could be sure the «fixer» we fell in love with really was right for us and our budget. She even managed to help us accelerate escrow so that we could take possession of the house on December 31^st. What a way to ring in the new year! None of this would have been possible without Cordula’s experience, deep network of contacts, and stellar work ethic. She regularly sacrificed parts of her evenings, weekends, and in our case some holidays, to answer our questions and meet all the necessary deadlines without overly stressing our work and family life. We recommend her highly and would work with her again without hesitation!
The Long Story:
We were looking for a 3 BR, 2 BA house in Berkeley, California in November of 2015. Berkeley tends to remain a «seller’s market» even when the surrounding areas are «buyer’s’ markets». Lately, an influx of tech company managers from San Francisco and the South Bay resulted in comparable properties in our target neighborhoods selling for an average of $ 150K above the asking price, often in cash, and usually within ten days, leaving buyers with very little time to actually consider what should be the most considered purchase of their lives. This is particularly risky in Berkeley where nearly all homes are 40 – 100 years old and many are situated near streams, or earthquake faults.
It should also be noted that we were not «easy» buyers to deal with. We did a lot of research beforehand, asked a lot of questions, and read the fine print on pretty much everything. In addition, we are a double-​income family with two children and busy schedules that allowed very little time for communication during working hours.
Throughout the entire process, Cordula demonstrated professionalism and a tireless work ethic. She supplied us with relevant and useful information about comparable homes in our target areas and helped minimize the impact on our working schedule by responding to our questions well into the evenings, weekends, and even holidays.
Despite her efforts, the search was proving very difficult and we were growing concerned that we would be unable to find a house that met all our criteria before we were priced out of the market. Then Cordula suggested that a listing we had ignored was worth a look inside after all. Indeed it was — it met all of our «must have» criteria AND had twice the charm and character of any property we had seen. In addition, it had a rather large garden, something surprisingly uncommon in Berkeley.
But this charming house was also 107 years old and would need significant repairs. Through shrewd negotiation, Cordula was able to secure us the time we needed to carefully read all of the disclosures (hundreds of pages!) and to obtain binding work offers from competent contractors (including several from her deep network of local contacts) so that we could engage this «fixer upper» with open eyes and no surprises
All the while, Cordula helped us stay on top of deadlines by sending us timely text reminders (so as not to disturb us during meetings or calls) and only calling when necessary to avoid a misstep that would have jeopardized the deal.
In the end, we got the charming house we wanted, in an up-​and-​coming neighborhood at a fair price — slightly below the list price rather than the average 150K over list price for comparable homes in the area. That, in turn, allowed us to book all the upgrades needed to bring the house up to code (above code actually — we are tough customers). And we were able to close escrow 5 days early, taking possession by dinner-​time on December 31^st, 2015. That is what I call a «Happy New Year»!!

As first-​time home owners, we couldn’t have wished for a better agent than Cordula. She’s not only smart, considerate, professional, diligent, proactive and extremely, extremely hardworking, but probably also the kindest person in East Bay real estate. She coached us from start to finish, helped us plan, kept us focused, crafted the best possible offer, quadruple checked every detail in the offer and got us our dream home in NOBE.

Cordula is such an amazing real estate agent — you won’t be in better hands in the East Bay market. She bends over backwards to make sure you find the best home for your needs and will jump through hoops to make your offer the most appealing it can be and follows up on all potential opportunities so nothing falls through the cracks. She’s diligent, honest, realistic, experienced, and truly cares about all of her clients. She’s so tuned into the market that she knows just what it will take to get your foot in the door on a particular property — an invaluable asset for first time home buyers like us! She’s thorough in all of her research so you make sure you know exactly what each house brings and there aren’t any surprises down the line. I’ve recommended many friends to her and they all have come away raving about working with her! And she’s got a great sense of humor to boot!

Cordula has a great pulse on the local East Bay market and really understands the local dynamics. She is extremely pleasant to work with, proactive about finding listings and understanding what we were looking for, and responsive to communication. We feel like she really understood us and what we were looking for, and wasn’t afraid to be honestly realistic with us. With her help, we were able to get a feel for how the market was changing, understand what we could do, and act quickly when the right opportunity came along.
We would definitely work with her again and recommend her to anyone looking to buy a home in the East Bay!

Without Cordula guiding our way through the real estate waters I don’t think that we would have has as good of an experience as we had. As first time home buyers we had no idea even how to get started. She took almost two hours to sit down with us just to educate us on the process of home buying. How to get started, what to expect, what not to expect, and potential pitfalls. She was straightforward and realistic with us and helped us focus our search in a calm and methodical manner. She is detailed in her approach to a property and was always willing to give her advice on the pros and specific cons of a specific property. With this strategy, Cordula was able to help us attain a house that we love and that works perfectly for our family on just our second offer.
She is extremely hard working: we had only seen the home that we ended up purchasing at 6:30pm the night before the offers were due, and Cordula stayed up with us until almost midnight to write the offer.
She was willing to work with our schedule and even watched our kids for us while we signed the escrow papers!
Thank you Cordula!

Working with Cordula to buy a home in Berkeley was hands down the best experience I’ve had with a real estate agent in nearly a dozen transactions. A challenging seller’s market was further complicated by our desire to find a co-​housing arrangement with another family, but having Cordula as an ally made all the difference. She is extremely professional and hardworking, and is an excellent communicator, effectively coordinating amongst all of us for new listings, visits, broker consultations, etc. But her colors truly shined when it came time to place our first offer. Travels prevented us from even seeing the house until the day offers were due. With her deft, courteous and confident touch she read and managed a delicate situation with all parties, and finely calibrated our offer – which, with some always needed luck, was accepted in the end. We never expected to get our dream house on our first try, and we give Cordula tremendous credit for it.
During the closing process her service and attention truly went above and beyond: helping us identify and assess key issues in the disclosures, doing further research to run them down, connecting us with excellent contractors, and generally making full use her insider’s knowledge of the local market and ordinances. In addition to being a superstar Cordula is simply a wonderful person, and we are pleased to now consider her a friend.

Cordula is truly an amazing realtor! As first time homebuyers, we had no idea of what was entailed in purchasing a home. Cordula guided us through the entire process with market expertise and a sense of calmness that was tremendously reassuring.
Cordula goes above and beyond her 9 – 5 job. She constantly toured places in advance for us, provided us a ton of feedback (what to look for, what to avoid, etc), and put a lot of legwork into every home we were interested in (visited the county department, arranged pre-​inspections, ordered geological survey maps, knocked on neighbors doors, and more!).
Cordula met us on weekends with our small children, toured homes in the evening after work, and was often on the phone with us discussing the market or an offer strategy late at night — always putting our needs first. She quickly became a trusted advisor and friend.
The market was challenging, and Cordula wrote a total of 6 different offers for us, met with us for months, kept encouraging us when we were outbid, and made a tremendous effort to ensure we found a home we loved. And after four months, we found the perfect family home — we’re sure this wouldn’t have been possible without Cordula’s knowledge and expertise.
She’s an absolute star!

I have been recommending Cordula to anyone who is looking to buy in the East Bay in this tough market. She is incredibly knowledgeable and experienced. She got my fiancé and I a fantastic deal on a lovely home in El Cerrito — we keep finding out just how amazing the deal is as other homes in the area come onto the market.
She was very organized and thorough, and listened carefully to what we wanted while still pushing us to make our offers competitive. We really believe that we wouldn’t have been able to get a home like we did without her! She is very professional and easy to trust and to work with in general. We highly recommend her.

Highly recommend Cordula as the only realtor you should work with in the East Bay! She spent years helping me find just the right match as I continually changed my search criteria! We finally found the perfect home for me and my dogs in El Sobrante /​Richmond! Cordula went above and beyond with research, comps, visiting neighbors & the city office with me and making my offer as competitive as I was comfortable with, while securing the home! Cordula also assisted with obtaining several home inspectors, engineers, and more to confirm my offer was appropriate and get the ball rolling on future repairs! She even just visited me recently to see how the home looks and how happy I am, now the I’m all settled in. Forever grateful to have Cordula in my corner during my home buying process and without a doubt will work with her in the future!

If you are looking for a hard-​working, ethical realtor with excellent judgement, you will do well to hire Cordula. We worked with Cordula and her partner, Diane, for the sale of our property in Berkeley. From the first meeting to the last, they were extremely professional and pleasant to work with. We had moved to the peninsula some years ago and wanted to sell our rental property in Berkeley. The place needed some work and Cordula and Diane worked tirelessly through every detail to get the house market-​ready. Because of various commitments we were unable to come to Berkeley often during this process. Cordula and her partner took on all the details of fixing the house and kept us extremely well-​informed of the progress through out. Because of them, the entire process of selling our house went very smoothly and yielded great results for all parties!
We recommend them without any reservations and are happy to provide more information if needed.

Cordula Didier came recommended and was a godsend. My husband and I were new to the area, and first time homebuyers. So, needless to say, we really needed help! She is your personal tour guide and area expert. She will help as much or as little as you need. She is always available, and takes time to answer any question with careful insight and detail. She even bent over backwards to make herself available to us when she was on vacation overseas. She is the definition of professionalism and quality.
One of the things that I really appreciated was her meticulous approach. No stone was left unturned. If she wanted more information, she looked for it until she found it. She helped us assess our interests and evaluate our potential, and possible neighborhoods. We were coming into a very competitive market, and with Cordula, we felt like old pros. Her shrewd style and honesty taught us more about this process and real estate than we could have ever expected. She prepared us to be able to compete in any market in the country. Not to mention, she is also just a lovely person and was so kind with us, and especially with my toddler, who was often there with us as we looked at properties. I cannot begin to say how grateful we are to have found her.

Cordula came highly recommended by friends who’d purchased their home with her. With the market currently being so difficult for buyers, we made sure to have the strongest agent we could find. Cordula was so wonderful to work with and made the buying process remarkably smooth. We were first time home buyers and she took the time to have us in her office multiple times to walk us through the buying process and even had a guide made that explained how to look at disclosure packets and other aspects of the buying process. She knows the bay area so well, down the nuances of specific neighborhoods, schools, even geological strengths and weaknesses. With her help we were able to have our offer accepted on only the second house we bid-​no small feat considering we were coming in as weaker buyers in a hot market. She quickly lined up important inspections during escrow that helped us negotiate for a better price. She was always available for any question or concern, day and late night and even willing to meet on short notice to check out properties. Above all, Cordula is kind, very resourceful, and super smart. It wouldn’t have been possible without her.

I cannot say enough good things about Cordula. She recently helped us buy a house in El Cerrito. We were first-​time home buyers and Cordula really helped us understand the process. She gave us excellent advice about neighborhoods to check out, houses to avoid and how to get the best mortgage. She is incredibly patient and gave us loads of attention. Particularly in the incredibly competitive Bay Area housing market, it is essential to have someone like Cordula to help you make an offer that will be accepted. I couldn’t more highly recommend her!

Cordula is truly fantastic. She recently helped my mother and I buy a property in a very competitive and time-​constrained situation. She was extremely thorough, exceptional in her communications, and very friendly throughout the whole process. I had previously thought that the realtor I used to buy our house ten years ago was great, but Cordula set a whole new standard. And, not only did she do an amazing job in helping us get the property, but she has generously continued to share her wisdom and give us help as new homeowners. She’s the best!

Cordula represented us as buyers and sellers (buying in Berkeley, selling in Oakland). The experience, the level of professionalism, the attentiveness – all outstanding. Through her we were able to find an buy a wonderful house in Berkeley – we were outbid, but the strength of the full package that Cordula put together edged us to the front of the pack. And despite a slight downturn in Oakland, she put in the extra effort and was able to sell above asking.
Other adjective that describe Cordula:
— Thorough: She’s on top of everything = less/​no worries for you
— Honest: No games, she tells it like it is
— Strategic: She always has Plans A, B and C
— Knowledgable: She knows the market, and will extensively research when needed.
So yeah, stop looking – call her up.

I was a first time home buyer and knew very little about the home buying process. Now I am a homeowner and knowledge about the process. Not only did Cordula help me thru this process, I was able to get a great place at a great price. I had no idea where to start or what to do when I wanted to buy a house, and Cordula helped me thru it step by step, making everything extremely clear and understandable. I have heard horror stories from friends and colleagues about other realtors not helping them at all and not wanting to spend extra time with first time buyers especially. Cordula was the extreme opposite of these other realtors. She is knowledge, responsive, hardworking, honest, and willing to spend extra time going over stuff with no hesitation so that one can understand everything going on. I have never met such a hardworking and cordial person. She fought hard for me and made a tough and exhausting process less hectic and manageable.
I can easily say without hesitation that she is the best realtor out there I can only hope she is around in the future to help me with any future properties I may get. I could not have asked for better real estate agent nor person. Job well done and I would give her six stars if I could!

I can only add to what others here are saying about Cordula. She is an oasis of calm, professionalism & friendliness in a stressful housing market. She goes above & beyond her professional mandate at every stage of the process & is on call night & day. She is obviously well respected by her peers & has a huge amount of insight to offer: neighborhoods, schools, seismic issues, comps, etc. I have no doubt that her presentation secured us our house, as we did not have the highest bid. During escrow she lined up a remarkable array of well-​regarded contractors for us (we needed them!). Afterwards our 4 year-​old asked if we could buy another house with Cordula (we promised we would hang out with her).

Cordula is phenomenal. She was our agent for a home we just purchased in Oakland. Throughout the process she was professional, patient, encouraging and discerning. She knows the area extremely well and she gave us excellent advice at every step of the way. She’s well connected with — and highly respected by – other agents, area mortgage lenders, contractors, inspectors and other professionals that you’ll need along the way. She had answers for everything and always took the time to make sure we understood the process. We have the highest respect for and trust in Cordula. She is much more than an agent — she’s a fantastic, intelligent, spirited and caring person.

Cordula represented my partner and me in the house buying process. She was fantastic. She gave 150%, teaching us about the process, getting to know us and what was important to us, and representing us really well. She is truly knowledgeable and is a strong advocate. We would definitely work with her again and recommend her to anyone seeking a real estate agent.

This is an unsolicited review: Cordula was our agent recently. She was amazing at every stage of the process. She got us the place we wanted, in a multiple bid situation, for less than the high bid. She really planned her presentation beforehand. She then brought in a great inspector, engineer, and plumber all within 7 days. She explained absolutely everything to us, worked with our lender well, and knew the East Bay very intimately. She is full of energy, very diligent, ethical, honest, and very smart. I can’t recommend her highly enough.