Rumana Jabeen – Keller Williams

We were very fortunate to have Rumana as our agent. We recently relocated to bay area and were in pressing need to find a home for our entire family. She helped us find a home which we love in San Mateo in under a month.
We informed Rumana of our needs and time constraints early on. Rumana worked really hard to find us a nice place. She took us out to house tours in two consecutive weekends, and even went extra miles to take us to visit houses during evenings on workdays. She is very responsive: always returning calls/​texts promptly. As a result, we were able to find a place we love very quickly. Rumana also worked with us very carefully in preparing the offer, which got accepted even though we were not the highest offer (she certainly has great reputation in the eyes of seller agents). We were very impressed by her attention to details.
We would also like to point out that with Rumana, you are not only getting a great real estate agent, but also many other great services. Rumana recommended us a great lender which gave us a very good rate. She is also very knowledgable in house inspection and gave us very good recommendations. She also has great connections with all sorts of contractors: roofer, electrician, plumber, etc. All of these are really helpful for us as we are new to the area. She really is the complete package and we would recommend her highly!

Rumana worked hard and worked smart to sell my house, a small but lovely log cabin near Alice’s on a steep hillside with no garage and a challenging floor plan. She left pricing to me and took care of her side of the process to my complete satisfaction. Look: the cabin was a hard sell, and she got the buzz out through social media as well as traditional channels to reach the one percent of buyers who would be interested. It took two seasons to get the offer I wanted, and she never complained or tried to get me to make her life easier by reducing the price. When the right offer finally came in, she managed negotiations well too, dug her heels in when the buyer waffled, and helped me with a myriad of details — house and yard cleaning, appliance repair, utility account closures — so I could close the deal while traveling in Europe. I can’t recommend her highly enough.

Look no further! Rumana is the one that gets it done. After wrapping up my 3^rd transaction (Buy, Sell, Buy) with her, she has once again proved why she’s at the top of her game. Rumana’s market knowledge for the mid-​peninsula is quite impressive. I thought I had a good handle on pricing trends and where to put my offer, but Rumana’s instinct and knowledge, once again, helped my wife and I land our new home after only 1 offer on our first option. This is pretty much unheard of in this insane market of overbids. When she represented us as a seller, she went above and beyond with her keen sense of style and practicality. She put us in touch with her trusted vendors and helped coordinate all updates and decisions needed to bring our home to market with max appeal with minimal investment. The sale price exceeded all expectations and resulted in setting the high for our complex for our floor plan. Rumana’s negotiation skills is truly her super power and what sets her apart from a crowded field. My wife and I could not be more happy with her representation. As long as we stay in the area, Rumana will be the only realtor for us.

Rumana is a very smart and hard working agent helped us to find the right home that fits to our budget. We were able to buy a condo in 2 months which is pretty fast when you think how aggressive the market in Peninsula is. The key was to make it clear what your budget is and what you are looking for (which of course takes a few weeks to sync and understand each other). Once this is done, Rumana helped us a lot on not wasting our time for options that won’t work, so, with also some luck we were able to focus our efforts to right offers and finally closed the offer with our current new condo.

This review is long overdue. We have now bought two houses, and sold one, with Rumana. She’s exact, smart and intuitive. We have been blown away by the deals she has negotiated for us! She’s extremely professional and very ethics-​focused. She knows the market, she knows the legal ins and outs of real estate and she knows people. If you want the best, trust her and her guidance!

Rumana worked with us to buy our home in Belmont. She was very flexible scheduling meeting with us. Both my husband and I work during the weekdays. And we are first time home buyers. She was also very patient to explain the property information and paperwork. She was on top of communication with our loan agent and seller agent. We had a painless home shopping experience.
She helped us price our offer properly. We have moved to our new home for a while, and we feel that she helped us get a very good deal in this market. I would recommend Rumana to my friend who are looking to buy a home in peninsula.

Although we ended up relocating to another city, I would highly recommend Rumana if you’re searching for a home in the Peninsula. Over several months she was extremely patient in educating us about each pocket within each city. Rather than rush us into anything she was always honest, upfront, and thorough with her advice. I would highly recommend her if you’re looking for a humble, knowledgeable agent.

My girlfriend and I were referred to Rumana by good friends who moved to the Bay Area before us– one of the best recommendations we have ever received! She worked with us as a buyers agent.
Buying or selling a home is complicated, and time consuming. So this review is not short. You can of course skip to the end for the summary, or just note the five stars I’ve given Rumana.
We have worked with several realtors before, and have had some excellent ones and some not so wonderful ones. After a few times through the process you start to get some idea of what attributes matter, and what signs point to someone at the top of the game.
Rumana is the best either of us have worked with– I don’t think we have a single complaint or concern about the way she handled the transaction. That is quite an accomplishment considering how many details are involved.
Here are a few of the things I would call to your attention in evaluating a realtor, and our experience with Rumana in these areas.
Identifying neighborhoods: If you don’t know exactly where you want to buy a home, a realtor with encyclopedic knowledge of all the neighborhoods on the peninsula is invaluable. Better if they are on top of the quality of schools, public and private in the area, general crime trends and can relate how those communities compare to ones that you are familiar with. This is not something all realtors can do in my experience. Rumana was phenomenally helpful in this regard, quickly learning what characteristics were relevant to us and being able to assist us in narrowing our search area.
Evaluating a home: I’ve had agents that just want to sell you a home. I want an agent that wants my repeat business and my referrals– one that wants her customer to have their eyes completely open to the positives and negatives of any home. Rumana did a fantastic job helping us understand positives and negatives of homes and neighborhoods, how different elements would potentially effect future resale value and time on market, and warning about things that might not occur to us until we were in the home for some time. This is the voice of experience, combined with knowledge. It is why you consult with an expert like Rumana.
Reading disclosures and writing an offer: In California, the disclosures are compendious, and in a fast moving market it can be difficult to quickly absorb the disclosures for a property you may want to write an offer on. Rumana provided great guidance in this area– guidance that would be more valuable to you if you are not likely to try and read as much of the disclosure as possible– you need to know what is important to read.
Rumana was also extraordinarily diligent, patient and knowledgeable about all of the steps in writing an offer and the implications of them. While not a lawyer and being dutiful about disclaiming that, she provided excellent information and answered almost all of my questions without having to research them. That is impressive given that I am… detail oriented.
Negotiating, financing, closing, and ethics. Deciding what to offer is an art and a science. We were able to get the second property we wrote an offer on, which had six other offers. We also know that our offer was a competitive one, not an exorbitant one.
That is, in my mind, a successful negotiation– we didn’t waste time writing pointless offers, and we didn’t overpay. If the market had been slower we might have been willing to try and bargain hunt. For us, we were ready to move and probably would have rented for another year if we didn’t get this home. I believe Rumana read the situation and our objectives perfectly and helped us write the correct offer. Additionally, Rumana’s experience and reputation were more helpful than you might expect in what can be viewed as simply a financial transaction– she steered us well in several decisions that helped us make a successful offer. This is all the more important in a fast market.
Rumana stayed on top of everything through a quick close, and helped work through last minute issues with the mortgage broker. Throughout it all, Rumana was very clear on ethics and drawing our attention to legal issues we should be aware of. We were very comfortable with the aggressive but diligent and scrupulously above-​board way Rumana dealt with the transaction.
In summary: Rumana exceeded our high expectations and requirements. That is very high praise. We encountered and spoke at varying lengths with a number of other agents (30 – 50) while looking around, and were able to get a good sense of the skills of other agents. Some were excellent– including our sellers agent, but I have to say I gradually came to the conclusion that we were working with the best agent we had encountered, likely by a significant margin. We both have continued to have that opinion a year after buying this home and staying in touch with Rumana.
She gets the highest possible recommendation

I’d like to recommend Rumana Jabeen, a realtor that I used to both sell my home in Foster City and buy my new home in Belmont. Rumana is one of the most well prepared and skilled professionals I have met. And she clearly loves what she does. I would unequivocally recommend Rumana to my closest friends who are looking to buy or sell a home on the peninsula.
I decided to move forward with Rumana after interviewing five agents in person. I originally chose to work with Rumana for a number of reasons, but most importantly, because she answered my questions directly, with opinions backed by confidence and experience. Almost every other agent I spoke with provided vague non-​answers, likely to avoid saying something that I didn’t want to hear. Rumana provided very specific answers to my questions and was not afraid to put a stake in the ground when I asked for her opinion.
Throughout the sales process, Rumana provided me with very thoughtful guidance. She gave strong recommendations for repairs to do on the home which would likely provide a strong return for the cost. Rumana also gave direct guidance on how to price my home, given the competitive landscape. She had an unbelievable understanding of the market and knew exactly when competing homes were expected to hit the market. Timing was critical when we sold our home since there weren’t many direct competitors at the time. We priced the home at a level where we both felt confident we would reach my target sales price. We received multiple offers and I was extremely pleased that we sold the home at a price higher than what I was expecting! I credit both Rumana’s negotiating skills (I was quite amazed watching her talk to the various agents) as well as her thoughtful and comprehensive marketing plans.
Rumana impressed my wife and I so much with the process of selling our home that we decided to also use her to buy our next home. After a fairly short search, we found a home that we loved. And Rumana again provided extremely insightful guidance. Most importantly, I felt throughout the process very confident that Rumana would ensure that we made the right decisions that would make us happy. The purchase of our new home ended up being a bit complicated. And Rumana gracefully walked us and the other party through the process. In fact, in both the sale of our home and purchase of our new home, I watched as Rumana provided guidance to both realtors on the other side who appeared to be less experienced and less familiar with doing transactions in these markets.
Before these transactions, I was always a bit skeptical about using real estate agents as I had heard of others who tried to buy or sell their homes independently. Based on my experience with Rumana, I am confident that securing her services was the best decision we could have made.

Rumana Jabeen is the best real estate agent my husband and I have ever had the privilege to work with. She was diligent, checked in with us often, and made sure we found the house we really wanted. Her experience in the real estate market is what allowed us to buy the house that we wanted. She even came to the Escrow paper signing, which I thought was above and beyond her duties as a real estate agent. I am so impressed with her professionalism, her connections, and her incredible knowledge of the area and the housing market. If ever there were any hiccups along the way, she immediately took care of them and quickly made them go away. All we ever had to do was ask, and Rumana would immediately answer our questions or get answers to our questions. She is an amazing person, and she really cares about her clients.

Was referred by a relative to Rumana and I am so glad that I got to work with her. Rumana worked with me late into the afternoon on short notice after I found a nice condo. As I was new to the buying process, Rumana went through the monstrous stack of documents with me making sure I knew everything that I was signing and getting myself into.
Thanks to her expertise, I was to win over the other potential buyers/​bidders of the house. Afterward, she worked with my Escrow agent and Mortgage agent in a very professional way to get everything done by closing date. I am now a very proud owner of beautiful condo and this couldn’t be possible without Rumana!

We’re very satisfied with the results Rumana delivered on the sale of our home in San Mateo! The time to sell and selling price exceeded our expectations. Rumana’s professionalism throughout the whole process was impressive. She really sets herself apart from real estate agents we have worked with in the past. It’s easy to understand people who stress the importance of not cutting corners when selecting an agent after having worked with Rumana. We look forward to working with Rumana again on future real estate needs.

After 5 months of grueling engagement in repairing and remodeling our rental property, having Rumana to represent us as our selling agent was a much needed respite and a breath of fresh air. I don’t know when the last time I had such a pleasure working with the finest professional. Everything that she did, from start to finish, in all aspects of the transaction, such as pricing, marketing, arranging inspections, staging, and negotiating, were masterfully executed. It’s wonderful to see her in action. You really have to be there to appreciate it.
In a buyer’s market such as this time, my husband and I were not expecting to sell the house, but had decided to try for 2 months before we opt to rent it out again. To our amazement, Rumana not only sold it in less than a week’s time, she more over brought us a few dozens of offers to top it all, in a Buyer’s Market! Consequently, the property was sold at a way, way much higher price than it was listed. We are ecstatic about this and feel very indebted to her
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Viewing her website, I see how so many luxurious, expensive houses she has represented over the years. Our house is painfully modest in comparison. Even so, she not only graciously accepted to represent us, and as I have witnessed this myself, she gave our house no less attention and best effort as she has given her other clients’ upscale houses. This, to me, is what makes me commend her all the more.
It goes without saying, I highly recommend her to anyone. And if you chance to work with her, prepare yourself to be impressed.

In September or October 2008, I told Rumana Jabeen that I wanted her to list my Hillsborough home for sale. I didn’t ask her about possibly listing it; I told her to sell it. The reasons were complex and had it not been for a serious medical situation involving my daughter that dragged on some nine months (longer than expected), I would have listed the home for sale sooner.
By the time the medical situation was resolved, the real estate market was heading down, and in September/​October 2008, the stock market crashed and indeed, the entire economy was in turmoil. This was definitely not the time to sell real estate if it could possibly be avoided, but I simply could not wait any longer. So into the absolutely treacherous market we ventured.
Rumana had sold my previous Hillsborough home (in a much different market) and I knew exactly what to expect from her. Together we very carefully priced it aggressively; we assessed what needed to be painted or repaired; we did the inspections; we determined how it should be staged and marketed. Inevitably, unforeseen problems (having to do with the swimming pool, drainage on the lot, rodent and possible mold infestation) had to be researched, evaluated and solved, both before the house went on the market and after the necessary disclosures to the prospective purchasers.
This transaction made very clear to me that an agent’s job has many facets — appraising, marketing and negotiating, to name a few — and that Rumana excels at all of them. She does them with exquisite attention to detail, honesty and total commitment to what is best for her client.
The first open house was November 2, 2008. Escrow closed December 12, 2008. People are simply incredulous that we pulled it off. I can’t imagine having done this with another agent and never even considered trying to use anyone but Rumana.
If you absolutely must sell your home, no matter the market or economic climate, you will need to use the very best talent in the industry and, without question, that includes Rumana Jabeen.
Naomi W.

My family and I were in a difficult situation in 2009, a very soft real estate market, and needed to sell our beautiful home in Foster City. We were terrified that we would take a big hit in the sale. I was impressed by Rumana’s marketing activities in the Foster City area and met with her to discuss the possibility of working with her.
After a single meeting, she put together a proposal for a marketing plan and recommended a sale price that was much higher than we had thought we could get. We decided to work with her and it was the best decision I’ve ever made. She worked with us to make the home as beautiful as it could be to present, marketed it aggressively and expertly (we couldn’t believe the quality of the print and online marketing materials), was in constant contact with us about her activities in getting us our asking price, and, ultimately, raised the original asking price and got us an even higher final price than first planned.
She held our hand through the entire offer-​counter offer process and, when blips arised, her expertise in real estate law and contracts and tough negotiation skills got us through a hard time dealing with a much less-​experienced realtor on the other side. We are planning on buying a house in the next year or two and refuse to work with anyone but Rumana. Here in the Silicon Valley, we expect to work with the smartest people around. Rumana is, without a doubt, the smartest realtor in Northern California. Just meet with her once and you’ll see what I mean.

We worked with Rumana to both facilitate the sale of our old home, as well as to help with the purchase of our new home. Our old house in Foster City sold for more than we were asking, and we got our new house in San Carlos for less than the listed price.
Rumana worked hard to make sure we met all deadlines, did our due diligence, and walked away from every deal satisfied. She warned us about potential pitfalls, critical inspections, and had great recommendations for help along the way, whether for cleaning services, inspectors, or contractors for renovation. I was glad to work with her, and would do so again.

I generally don’t like to give five-​star ratings as it appears too effusive, as if it should be followed by «LOL!!!» (It’s the same reason I rarely use exclamation points). Still, we’d be hard-​pressed to find any category in which Rumana is less than stellar as a real estate agent. She busted her hump to find us a home in the Peninsula at a price far below market. She’s smart, tough, proactive, meticulous, and (far too) available to her clients. So regrettably, I must give her a grudging «Woohoo,» because she’s great.

We just bought a place with Rumana’s help and we couldn’t be happier with her as our real estate agent. She is very diligent and responsive. She also makes sure that everyone else involved in the process does their job well. She makes herself available whenever her clients need her. She’s overall a great agent, I would recmend her highly.