Janet Kaplan – Red Oak Realty

I can’t say enough good things about Janet. She is extremely knowledgeable about East Bay real estate, and was calm and collected when necessary, minimizing our stress. She guided us so expertly through the maze, advising us on a bid that did the trick on a very competitive piece of property. In fact, we bought the first house we bid on — something that rarely happens. We love our new home in part because she offered support but never extended too much influence in our decision making. She continues to help us with referrals for handy people, plumbers, electricians, etc. Thank you Janet!

Janet Kaplan was recommended by a good friend of mine, and I’m so grateful for the recommendation and for Janet. My friend said: Janet is wise and grounded. And other realtors have a lot of respect for her. All true!
First of all, she helped us find and get the house of our dreams. We call our house Sweetiewood. We just moved in, and we love our house and the neighborhood. Janet’s calm and experienced guidance in the bidding process made a huge difference. And, her many years of experience and superb reputation among other realtors. I have no doubt that made a big difference. I’m sitting here in our new home, and am so happy.
Janet is not only highly experienced but also a great person — which is important in this process — as it can get quite stressful. Janet is very calm and grounded, and she helped us stay grounded. When we got stressed, she would put things in perspective and give us guidance. She was very available and would call us at night and go through documents with us. And she’s a naturally curious person, and knows all the neighborhoods and comps like the back of her hand.
Other reviews said this too, and its very true: Janet is not pushy. I like that. When we were looking at the house of our dreams, she’d make a point of pointing out the negatives, to make sure we were ok with them. I never felt rushed or pushed. Janet leaves the power of decision completely and utterly in her client’s hands, and provides feedback and guidance.
Now that we’ve moved in, we continue to ask her questions, and Janet always emails back right away with good advice and referrals.
Janet rocks. THANK YOU! I’m very grateful. We hope you come to our housewarming :-)

I have just moved into my new home. I have no doubts it is the absolute right one for me. I worked with Janet over a period of a year as I got clearer and clearer on what I wanted and could finance. There were so many things I liked about working with Janet, including…
She’s available. I could ask her to meet me and she would find time quickly.
She’s easy-​going. Sometimes I took forever, looking at the rooms of a house over and over. I never felt rushed.
She’s curious. She looks at a house with new eyes along with you, wondering about this and that.
She doesn’t BS. I never felt she was selling me on anything. She just helped me see what was there and where there was potential.
She’s personable. Janet is naturally friendly, calm, fun, and easy to talk with.
She’s a pro with years of experience.
I highly recommend her!

Working with Janet was a total dream! She is straightforward, honest, and so knowledgable about the East Bay.
We purchased a duplex with her this spring and could not be happier with our new home and experience as first time home buyers.
Thank you, Janet!

Janet was an exemplary advisor and advocate in our first home buying experience in this insane Bay Area home buying environment. Her patience, straight-​forwardness, availability, resourcefulness and follow through are traits that were particularly advantageous and reassuring. I definitely recommend her to friends.
When you meet her you will know she is the real deal… and an excellent choice for your home buying or selling experience.

Janet is amazing. She helped us navigate first time home buying with grace and ease. She was engaged throughout the entire process from start to finish, never pushy but instead patient and supportive as we looked at houses until we found the right one. I honestly believe we couldn’t have done it without her.
You need more than a great agent when buying a house — (especially in these parts) you need a partner. Janet is that partner. I can’t recommend her enough.

I am so grateful I was introduced to Janet approximately 15 years ago as I embarked on my first home purchase journey in the East Bay. Over the years, she has been a unique and reliable buyer’s ally through several rounds of attempted and completed purchases in a difficult East Bay real estate market.
As I read through the already-​posted Unilocal reviews of Janet, I see that others have already elaborated on their specific experiences working with her. Without going into all the details of my own stories, I want to hone in on the particular qualities I so appreciate about her professional style, based on my various experiences working with her as a buyer’s agent.
Janet Kaplan:
— asks questions and listens deeply to try and understand her clients’ budget, circumstances and underlying goals and interests — and then she keeps her eye on those unique and individual interests (even as they change!) at the core of the professional support she offers each potential buyer.
— is patient and steadfast through what can be a drawn out, try once, try twice, try three times, and then try several more times process before a bid you make is accepted
— also responds and acts quickly when unusual opportunities come up suddenly
— is *not* pushy, manipulative or coercive.
— has a lot of knowledge, familiarity and respect for the communities and neighborhoods in which she works. She builds on decades of living and working *right here*. She has her eye on fluctuations and trends; however, she is not herself a trendy opportunist. She is invested, in a human and community-​based way, in the geographic areas she serves.
— is kind and humorous through what can be a confusing and demoralizing buying process
— offers nuanced and honest feedback, and has long-​term perspective. The reality is that the Bay Area’s buyer’s market can be uncertain and surprising. Janet doesn’t pretend to guarantee or predict-​with-​certainty anything. At times, that can be frustrating, but that’s an honest reflection of this market. Janet offers no canned, cookie-​cutter, or supposedly authoritative platitudes. But where I ask specific questions, she gives me specific answers to the best of her knowledge and experience. On several occasions, her feedback has helped me keep perspective to see behind house staging, assess my own capacity to take on the particular challenges of a specific property, and remember to distinguish and envision the differences between concerns that are core and structural versus concerns that are superficial and easily modified.
— has a solid, great reputation with her colleagues. I could write a whole book on why this matters but trust me, it matters. I very much believe that on at least a few occasions I was taken much more seriously as a potential buyer almost entirely because my agent was Janet.
I haven’t had the opportunity to sell a house in the East Bay yet, but if and when I do, I will not hesitate to contact Janet to support me on that end, too. She’s the real deal, quality real estate professional that anyone trying to transact in this market would be oh-​so-​lucky to have the privilege to work with.
Thank you, Janet!!!

I don’t even know where to start. Aside from being excellent at her job, Janet is also an amazing human being who is going to take the time to know you in order to help you find the right home. My partner and I are first-​time homebuyers and we couldn’t have found a better person to help us out. She is on top of it, personable and always ready.
We chose Janet because she came highly recommended and we weren’t disappointed.

Janet was so helpful in the purchase of our first home!
We were nervous first-​time buyers, so Janet’s calm and patient approach really helped us feel at ease.
We had a lot of newbie questions and she always responded quickly and thoughtfully.
Thank you for all your help, Janet!

I recently bought a home in Oakland with the help of Janet Kaplan through Red Oak Realty. Janet was recommended to me by another agent outside the Bay Area. It was my first home purchase and Janet made the process seamless. She walked me through the many steps looking out for my best interest all along the way. Janet has lived and worked in Berkeley as an agent for many years and knows the neighborhoods like the back of her hand. When I needed to contact other professionals for inspections etc. she provided me their information. My purchase went quickly and I am now in my new home. Thank you Janet… you are the best.

My partner and I decided to move back to the Bay Area and purchase our first home during what night be the most challenging time to buy in recent history. We knew this would be a long-​term hunt for a variety of reasons including the fact that my partner has not fully moved back to the bay area, yet. Janet was recommended to us by friends who described her as patient and supportive — exactly what we were looking for. We looked at half a dozen houses together each time that my partner was in town. We placed two offers in eight months, the second of which is now our new home!
Aside from being a talented realtor with a solid reputation, Janet is one of the kindest people you could hope to meet. By learning about me and my partner as people and a couple, she was able to help us figure out what type of house and location we’d enjoy. (We saw everything from fixers to architect-​designed germs in the hills to lofts to craftsman homes in El Cerrito, Berkeley, and all over Oakland.)
By the time our offer was accepted, we had already purchased tickets to travel out of the country. Working with our fabulous loan advisor, Melissa Milton at LaSalle Financial, Janet expertly ushered us through escrow, closed in 21 days, and did the final inspection and picked up our keys while we were on vacation. Amazing!

My husband and I moved to Berkeley to live in a rental in June 2012. We immediately fell in love with the city. Beginning the following summer we actively searched for a house to buy in the city. We found a nice realtor, but despite a healthy downpayment and active desire to buy, we failed to find great results or rapport with our initial agent. For a short while we were deferred to another local realtor who helped us place a bid on a house, and then disappeared when we were declined by the seller. My husband and I took a step back to search for a realtor that could really HEAR us and understood our position — able to buy, but maybe not within the current wild housing market. We found Janet via Unilocal.We sat down with Janet to express our previous frustrations, acknowledge the housing situation, and within an hour she proved to be very kind, incredibly knowledgeable, and fast acting. We discussed available homes and she identified a home that was at the very top of our price range in a nice area with everything we could ask for that had fallen through the cracks. We immediately visited he house, placed a bid, and 21 days later it was ours! After almost a year of difficult searching and frustrating experiences Janet helped us find a great home with no issues for less than asking price in a crazy market. She walked us through every step of the process and was simply terrific every day. There’s little doubt that without Janet we’d still be scouring Redfin working with other agents that didn’t care to listen to our interests. If you’re a first time buyer, or even an experienced buyer, we highly recommend Janet.

I definitely endorse Janet with a 5 star rating. Janet worked tirelessly with us for 2+ years and in the end did not end up making a commission on a sale with our purchase. We bought our condo privately without using an agent, and much to our disappointment and sadness for Janet, she did not receive any commission from our transaction. Regardless of this, she supported us wholeheartedly and was very pleased for us that the sale worked out in our favor. Throughout the 2+ years she was always willing to meet us at any house we wanted to see outside of the open house, answered endless questions, filled out all the paperwork without complaint and with ease and experience and was a genuine professional with great advice. She always hit the mark on what the house was worth given the market and advised us accordingly. When she was unavailable due to vacations or other commitments, she always provided us with a back-​up and reliable and trust-​worthy agent who was able to field any questions and do her job. The one thing I really liked about Janet was that she was always available but not pushy and aggressive. With Janet’s 25+ experience you will be in great hands. We highly recommend her.

My wife and I worked with Janet this summer to buy an amazing house in Alameda! We were looking in Berkeley, Oakland, and Alameda area and were a little all over the map. Janet was great to work with! She met with us and helped us focus what we were looking for, and gave us invaluable insight into the market! Janet has been in the realty business for quite some time, and was able to help us understand the trends and the prices (as in, the list price has very little to do with the final sale price).
Janet was a great mix of letting us do research and find houses, but then suggesting others to us that we hadnt even thought of — she also is so knowledgeable of the different neighborhoods– throughout Berkeley, Oakland, and Alameda that she could tell us whether or not the houses we found online were worth the effort to go look at.
In the end Janet helped us craft an offer, and negotiate so that we got our first choice house!

I wanted to give a high five to Janet. What? A real estate agent posting a review about another real estate agent? That is right. I recently sold my house and because of limitations within my E&O insurance policy I could not list my own home. The first person that came to mind to help me out was Janet. Janet has extraordinary grace and professionalism that she brings to all elements of her life. Thank you, Janet, for stepping up and helping us. Your calm character combined with unending patience was very appreciated.

We just completed our purchase of a foreclosure property in Berkeley. After becoming fed up with the unreachability of buying a home in SF, we started looking in the East Bay at the beginning of the year — first in O’town working with Arthur White at Red Oak. Once we started moving our search more towards Berkeley, Art transitioned us over into Janet’s capable hands.
Janet was instrumental in helping us get an offer in quickly and dogging the bank’s passive agent. Because of the condition of the property, we needed to get numerous estimates for work to be done and Janet was always available to get us the needed access. She coordinated ordering the inspections, termite and sewer lateral testing. She even showed up for the signing at escrow at 7AM!
This being our first time home buying experience, we weren’t sure what to expect from an agent. From our first meetings with her, we always felt that Janet was on our side, looking out for our interests and wanting this (being the first time), to be a good experience for us.

I just happened to see that Janet is here on Unilocal and figured I’d share my experience too.
My partner and I were looking for a house in the spring of 2003. We met Janet in Feb or March when she was representing a house that we loved. It had multiple bids and sold for $ 100,000 over asking, so we had to let it go, but we liked her and decided to work with her.
We bid on several properties, pulled out of one when a seismic expert said that a subfault was running directly under the house, and just kept looking and looking. Obsessively. Weeknights and all day on the weekends. For months.
Janet was unflaggingly patient with us in a seller’s market, let us bid low even when she figured we wouldn’t succeed, and finally in July we got lucky. We found our dream house, bid everything we had (which was still $ 20K under the asking price), and due to her negotiating skills plus whatever circumstances motivated the sellers, were accepted.
When the time comes to sell our place, I hope Janet will be available to represent us. I can’t imagine anyone better at selling property than her — both ethical and shrewd, with a good heart.
My only criticism of her is that in her promotions she tends to use candid photos of herself that I don’t think do her justice. But I guess this is better than the airbrushed hair-​salon-​ad images that other folks use sometimes. :-)

Janet is the best. We bought our house a little over ten years ago and when we explored on our own the kinds of houses that were in our price range were on a busy street, had a 13 foot chain link fence, were under a freeway overpass, had Big Daddy’s Car wash next door, had a collection of rusted appliances in the yards and were missing an entire set of back stairs.
Janet was laid up with a bad back but spent her prone time searching for potential places for us. We had no idea what we were doing and were giddy at the prospect of being able to buy a house. Janet told us what to look for and showed up some sample houses and was always easy to be around. I think we saw 4 or five houses before she took us to the house we bought and are delighted with.
Janet was an absolute pleasure to work with and I wholeheartedly recommend her.

After 25 years of buying and selling homes and working with a few different agents, I have to say that Janet Kaplan is the best. I have just bought a home that absolutely met my requirements at a time that I assumed would be nearly impossible to get a deal done. I talked to Janet in January about what I wanted to buy in a year or two. In less than six months, I have just what I wanted and she got a deal done under the worst of conditions. This was a bank-​owned property and she managed the process with the bank’s agent and escrow company both of which were overwhelmed by the volume of work they have to do in this market. At one point, I assumed there was no deal and in less than 72 hours, Janet called to say that I had the house.
She has guided me through one sale and two purchases with patience, good humor and a depth of knowledge that can’t be beat. She manages the process to ensure everything happens on time and when a last minute issue arises, she takes care of that, too. I have probably bucked a few trends in my home selections but Janet has stuck with me and made sure that my unconventional choices are executed at the best terms possible. Her recommendations for professionals to do repairs have been great and I have yet to ask for a referral that she cannot provide. Her experience in the East Bay real estate market makes her a great resource for either the first time buyer or an experienced buyer that needs help finding just the right home.

This is my 50^th review on Unilocal!!!
I was waiting for a special occasion, and this one makes perfect sense. We just bought our first house… right in the middle of the infamous «credit crunch.» Needless to say, it was a bumpy ride. We talked to a LOT of agents, and some of them we even liked :-) When we told some of them where we were looking to buy and how much we wanted to pay a lot of agents just shook their heads and started showing us other neighborhoods.
Janet Kaplan came highly recommended. A couple of people that we know had worked with her and said lots of good things. She also has around 20 years of experience in the Berkeley real estate market. We finally decided to work with Janet to find a house in the North Berkeley area.
Best. Decision. Ever.
Like I said, the credit situation and the competitive North Berkeley market made the process really tough. Whenever you go through something like that, especially for the first time, it helps to have someone act as the Voice of Reason. That was Janet. Cool, calm, collected. She guided us through several bids, kept us sane, and educated us a lot about the whole deal. When weird stuff happened that necessitated getting an extension on our contingencies, Janet handled it with ease.
We worked with a lot of different professionals during our purchase. We always felt we could trust Janet to keep our best interests in mind.
That’s it, my 50^th review on Unilocal.Written from the deck of my new home. Thanks Janet!