About JODI NISHIMURA

If I could give Jodi 10 stars, I would try to give her 11. While Yelp can become bogged down with misinformation or disgruntled customers, I want to wholeheartedly attest that Jodi was everything we needed in an agent before we even truly knew what that was. I'm struggling with how to wax-poetic about her without it coming off as hyperbole. My husband and I grew up in the Bay Area (SF and Marin, respectively) and by the time we were ready to leave our incredible, rent-controlled apartment and get into the housing game, we were mortified by how much it costs to own a home here. So we entertained the idea of moving away. We were in the housing market ...

I spoke and dealt with other agents in buying a home in Berkeley for me and my family, and chose to work with Jodi. I do commercial real estate acquisitions for an investment company and have an MBA in real estate/finance, so have experience doing this. In the past when I have worked with residential brokers I have noticed a lack of financial understanding, which is a limitation that can hurt a buyer of a personal home or an investment property, but not so with Jodi. She gets it, impressively, both from a financial perspective as well as interpersonal, which means that she was smart and excellent in negotiations on my behalf. As we brainstormed nego...

I can't recommend Jodi highly enough. She makes sure she understands your wants, priorities, price point, even personality, then gives you all the information you need to make an informed decision. And when it's gone time, she is on it! In our very first (virtual) meeting, Jodi stood out from all the other agents I interviewed. I provided all the Realtor® I reached out to with our estimated price range and potential neighborhoods in Berkeley and Oakland we were interested in, and Jodi came to our first meeting with an online report, customized for us, that showed recent sales in the neighborhoods and price range I'd sent her. She talked me through w...

Jodi is an exceptional Realtor®, and frankly, one of the most seasoned and knowledgeable pros I have met. My experience working with her was phenomenal, and I wholeheartedly recommend you reach out to her if you are in the market. I contacted Jodi last year for help with buying a home in Oakland or Berkeley. This was roughly a 6-month search, due to some unusual complications on my end and the challenging nature of the market. Jodi was thoughtful and completely engaged throughout the search, using an initial interview to gauge what I was looking for and then throughout the process offering suggestions about neighborhoods and forwarding additional li...

I found Jodi through a Yelp search and decided to contact her as she seemed to have such glowing, whole-hearted reviews. It was the first time selling property to me. A couple of single-family homes I inherited from my dad, one of which had been my childhood home. It soon became apparent that I was in great hands. I had been impressed with the many testimonials by those who had inherited property and entrusted the entire sale process to Jodi without even setting foot in the area. And she was indeed quickly able to take the wheel. Jodi is well-connected and, was, on short notice, able to pull in various people that could be trusted to do great work. ...

Jodi helped my husband and I find our home in the spring of 2017 in the highly competitive Berkeley market and exceeded all of our expectations. Jodi helped us navigate through the many complexities of this market - understanding what homes we had a shot at when many were going $300k+ over asking, understanding which neighborhoods would be the right investment for us at our price point vs. what to avoid (including slide zones!), crafting competitive offers for homes with 10+ coming in, and ultimately using her expertise to help us sneak in to be the first offer on a house unlisted on Redfin, Zillow, etc. to miraculously get it as asking price (unhea...

A review for Jodi has been long overdue now! I'm writing as a client who worked to secure a winning bid with her last year, but also as someone who has stayed in touch with her after the long-drawn buying process and has benefited numerous times from her service much after the actual buying process was completed. She has surprised us every time with her lightning-quick communication speed and has come to our rescue at the wee hours of the day whether it was an appliance malfunction or a contractor woe. Now about the actual buying process. couldn't have asked for a better agent! Here were some of the qualities that make her a great agent: 1) Diligent...

Jodi is savvy, knowledgeable, intelligent, personable, and hardworking. We were out of town over the holidays, when she saw this amazing house that was on the market at the absolute worst time of year, making it a possibility for us, because there would be less competition. She actually did a video walk-through of the property, and we ended up putting an offer on it from out of town, and getting the house. As a result, our new home is head and shoulders above any other house we could have afforded. She's so responsive and hardworking that she was literally texting us on New Year's Eve, as we waited for our counteroffer to be accepted! Jodi is kind a...

As part-time teachers, my husband and I never thought we could own a home in Alameda. Jodi Nishimura was able to prove otherwise, but not until she first pulled off several tremendous feats. We didn't have very much money saved, were very particular about school districts, and were overall extremely tentative. For months, Jodi showed us dozens of places on any given day, and was patient and reassuring the whole time. We put in several offers and she suggested ways to compensate for the lack of the highest bid, but the bids for the most money still prevailed. Finally, she found us a cosmetic fixer in a great neighborhood and school district. When she...

Jodi recently helped me find my house in Oakland after 3 months of searching. While we were looking, she was able to help me evaluate each home as an investment opportunity and educated me on different options to help me get into this extremely difficult market. She has a great sense of the market and was honest and realistic about what offers would work. Whenever I went to an open house, other agents would always comment on how lucky I was to have Jodi as an agent as she is one of the best in the Berkeley and Oakland area and I could not agree more. Jodi knew the ins and outs of these markets. She helped me envision what could be done with some of ...

Jodi was excellent. My wife and I started out the daunting process of purchasing a home by interviewing several agents and Jodi was by far the most organized and professional of them all. She prepared packets of information tailored for us using the information she requested before the meeting. Many other agents asked fewer questions and were far less prepared. She started the process by finding several homes to walk through so she could get a better idea of what we were looking for to help her narrow her search. When we found homes we wanted her to take a look at with us, she was always available by phone. I think we never had to leave a message on...

First-time seller. Jodi and her assistant Eric (and their crew and specialists) didn't just sell my home. They took the process, took over all the infinite details, and nailed the selling price. As a first time seller, I managed to get some free advice from other seasoned brokers, but it was her expertise that got me a ridiculous final offer; and almost more importantly, in the end, managed to protect me from a broker and buyer's who could have used better advice. Jodi had to go up against us interviewing six brokers, but when it came down to the final three Jodi knocked it out of the park. She understood precisely how to answer the questions my tru...

As first-time homebuyers, my partner and I had lots of questions about the process and didn't know what to expect. We found Jodi online after conducting research on potential Realtors® and speaking with some friends who had bought houses in the East Bay. After an initial conversation with Jodi, we knew we would be in good hands. From the get-go, we were drawn to Jodi because of her professionalism, thoughtfulness, and calm demeanor. A week after our first meeting with Jodi in early March, shelter-in-place orders took effect and we decided to put our home search on hold. Jodi was patient and let us take our time in reactivating the process to find ou...

I cannot recommend Jodi and her team highly enough if you are looking to buy a home in Oakland and Berkeley! As first-time home buyers in a very competitive market and a particularly competitive year, we would have been completely lost without Jodi and Jules. They walked us through everything patiently, were always around to answer questions, always responded quickly, and gave us a lot of their time as we mulled over what offer amounts to make. We really valued Jodi's evaluation of a home and she was always extremely realistic with us. She was honest about what she thought the true value of a home is as an investment and her gut was always right abo...

When it came time to sell my house, I knew that I needed a great real estate agent. To that end, I extensively interviewed the three top-ranked agents on Yelp. Jodi emerged as the cream of the crop. She is absolutely phenomenal. I am an incredibly detail-oriented person, and a project manager by profession. I also used to work in real estate myself, so I'm aware of what it takes to sell a house. Jodi took care of every single detail in the sale and was so easy to work with. House selling/buying can be a pretty emotional process, and she went above and beyond to reassure me and take care of any potential stressors. There was a fair amount of work tha...

We're thrilled to be writing this review for Jodi and Jules. We were first-time homebuyers looking to purchase a home we loved in the Berkeley and Albany area and Jodi's whole team made this incredibly stressful process much easier with their personalized hands-on approach. This year was a crazy time to purchase a house but through their guidance and even-keel demeanor, we got clear on location, tradeoffs, and whether or not it was a "good" deal or not. From the beginning, it's been obvious that they've been committed to making sure we found a home we loved without losing sight of its investment potential. We felt seen and heard through this process...

This review is going to sound borderline cult-like, but honestly, if Jodi started a cult, I would join it. She is that good. I work in tech, my husband works for a nonprofit, and our families weren't in a position to help us with our first home purchase. We were only able to afford a 10% down payment and had a very limited budget for a duplex in the East Bay and a near-impossible budget for a single-family. Jodi still took us on as clients and worked some serious magic. The very first home we saw was a single-family in Berkeley for $725k with nothing wrong with it. Even though in hindsight we now know that was an insane deal, Jodi didn't push us. Sh...

We worked with Jodi to sell our home in the Claremont Hills. We selected her because she is a top agent with intimate knowledge of our neighborhood and the quirks of buying and selling in the hills. She has a keen eye for detail and was able to help us identify a few key upgrades prior to sale to get us the best possible value for our home. She worked within our budget and came up with a sound plan to make upgrades, do partial staging, and deliver a listing strategy to sell our home fast and above the asking price. We have a toddler and I was 7 months pregnant, so we couldn't manage the preparation work and the COVID requirements for listings while ...

Words cannot describe how awesome Jodi and her team are. We first spoke with Jodi in December and a month and a few days later, we have keys to a first home we love. We started with Jodi giving us the high-level tour of the market and educating us on broad topics, and gradually transitioned to working very closely with Jules. Jules is out of this world helpful and knowledgeable. She held our hands and guided us throughout the process. She's also accountable and detail-oriented. She remembers everything and is always reachable. We went to see our home on a Thursday night, and Jules put together the offer package overnight and helped us land the offer...

My husband and I found Jodi through Yelp, and are so grateful. We both had some skepticism toward real estate agents beforehand, but that melted away quickly as we started working with Jodi. We were looking for our first home on a somewhat tight timeline. Due to the pandemic, the housing market was incredibly hot in the East Bay and could have been stressful to navigate if it weren't for Jodi. Jodi never pushed us to put down offers more quickly than we felt comfortable, she patiently answered all of our questions and helped educate us as first-time home buyers and she always kept our interests at the center of our interactions. She is incredibly kn...

Despairing after almost a year of searching for our dream retirement home, we met Jodi at one of her open house events. We were so impressed with her warm professionalism and upbeat presence that we drove back to Sacramento and called her with hopes she would take us on as clients. It's been a Bay Area real estate roller coaster and Jodi has calmly and expertly guided us through thick and thin. One of her greatest strengths is that she listened to what we were looking for and absolutely "got" what we wanted and needed. We were able to sell our condo post haste and we are now settled into the home we thought we'd never find. She is thorough, hard-wor...

We are the proud owners of a house in North Berkeley, and can't thank Jodi enough for helping make it happen. First and foremost, Jodi is very professional. She knows the local market and had excellent suggestions throughout the whole process. She was able to point out the strengths and weaknesses of each property, and perhaps even more importantly, accurately assess the value of the home. Jodi was patient and always available to answer any questions we had. We felt that she went out of her way to make sure all our priorities were met. Jodi represented us well during the bidding process, and was successful in getting our offer accepted even though i...

As first-time home buyers, we needed a lot of hand-holding and guidance. At a friend's recommendation, we contacted Jodi. From the first meeting, her warm, calm, friendly, and knowledgeable manner was exactly what we needed. She guided us through the ups and downs of house hunting in a real estate environment that was rapidly heating up each day. We had a long wish list for our first home, which did not deter her. From the first offer we made to the final one that resulted in our new home, she handled every detail professionally and with care (and patience.) If any issue arose that she felt was not in our favor, she was quick to point it out and adv...

Jodi is a professional, respectful, and knowledgeable agent and just an overall wonderful person. She helped our family get our beautiful little home in Berkeley when we thought we would be stuck renting forever. We had a somewhat limited budget and a specific neighborhood of interest and we really appreciated that Jodi respected our criteria and tried her hardest to meet our needs (and succeeded!). Jodi is so professional in all of her interactions (with her clients, other agents, our lender, etc.) and we always felt confident having her on our side. She brings balance to the whole crazy process! We had a few offers that didn't make it and Jodi alw...

2020 was obviously an unexpected and unprecedented year for a number of reasons. Combine that with trying to sell a house on the West coast while buying a house on the East coast during a pandemic. That said, that's the position I found myself in and Jodi hands down made what could have been a very stressful situation virtually stress-free. I needed an agent who knows the Berkeley area, was quick to respond, understood my bicoastal situation, was open and honest regarding the market, pricing, and the like, and who could sell my home quickly and to an amazing person/family. I didn't know Jodi prior to finding her on Yelp but I now 125% recommend her ...

My partner and I worked with Jodi to buy our house in Berkeley in 2020. Throughout our buying process, Jodi was wonderful to work with. She listened to our goals (including buying within a short timeframe) and what was on our wish list in terms of what was most important for us in finding a home. Jodi maintains expertise in the current market. She has outstanding insight into the characteristics of different Berkeley neighborhoods. Jodi clearly explained the pros and cons of each of the homes that we looked at. When we found the right home, Jodi efficiently and effectively worked so that our offer was accepted and we were able to close in an amazing...

Jodi and Jules helped my wife and me buy our first home during a challenging time to buy. Believe the 5-star reviews! Jodi is extremely knowledgeable about the market and helped us find a home in the extremely competitive neighborhood we were hoping for, just when we were starting to worry we would not be able to compete with so many cash buyers. We also ended up with a home that has everything we were looking for and didn't need to settle for a less-desirable house to get our ideal location (although it does need some renovations which Jodi is guiding us through as well). Jules prepared our offer and saw the deal through, and was always responsive ...

Jodi is terrific. My wife and I contacted Jodi after seeing some positive reviews. We wanted to buy a house in the east bay, but we also wanted to be financially prudent in what often felt like a crazy market. Jodi was great to work with, she gave us a lot of information that felt objective and useful, never pushy; she was very responsive (even after we took a few months off after getting discouraged); and she was very savvy both about individual houses and about the art of getting an offer accepted in this area. She helped us identify opportunities that were overlooked and therefore not overpriced. We were looking for a house off and on for over a ...

Jodi is simply masterful. I am confident she is the reason I am a first time homeowner. I was clueless about the buying process and the expectations of sellers in the Bay Area. She proved to be very knowledgeable in that regard, and was graceful guiding me through each step along the way. She listened, considered, and acted. Every question I had was thoughtfully answered. Every hesitation or issue I saw with a home, she had a clever solution for. And when it came time to submit offers, she knew the strategies and exercised her professionalism to ensure my bids were taken seriously. I met countless listing agents at open houses whose eyes lit up once...

Due to life changes, I've had to buy and sell twice now, in Oakland and in Berkeley. I feel lucky that Jodi was there to help my family find homes that fit our changing needs. For our most recent move, we had very particular parameters for the home we were looking for and Jodi helped us find a place that met our needs despite the tough market. She's extremely knowledgeable about the unique Bay Area and East Bay market and has really good instincts. We saw firsthand how her years of experience informed the buying and selling process. On the selling side, I'm glad we went with her recommended upgrades as they were smart changes that were instrumental ...

Jodi is phenomenal! She knows the Albany-Berkeley-Kensington-Rockridge areas very well, and she knows the local markets, Realtors®, and brokers. She is super patient with her clients, she will not push you to jump to a house and get the deal done if you are not ready. (We looked for houses for several months, and we did not feel any pressure to buy.) Jodi is very responsive, and she moved fast when we put an offer. Jodi is a great listener, and she had our best interests in mind all the time: she was very involved in the process and she was concerned like if she'd be buying a house for herself. What I loved the most about working with her is that sh...

I live out of the US and was selling my residential/commercial property. Jodi came highly recommended and I completely agree with other reviewers. Excellent service and Trustworthy. She worked with my budget and provided options. It was a big deal to sell my property when I lived so far away, but she made the process go smoothly. She was on top of everything that needed to be done and made sure all the details were taken care of. Three days before the open house the roof leaked and there was water damage. She arranged to have the painter retouch the walls and ceiling and worked with the stylist to replace damaged artwork, all in time for the open ho...

Just another person adding a glowing review for Jodi. The context I can add to this review is that my wife and I have experience with a variety of Realtor® in the Bay Area. Jodi is hands down the best one we dealt with. Why? She's creative which will give you an edge to get into this crazy real estate market. She thinks outside the box. What I mean by that is you may be looking for a certain property type but she'll help you envision different scenarios whether it's multi-unit, fixer-upper, etc. She's good at painting the picture but never pushy. She's got this chill vibe that I enjoyed. On top of that, she's so easy to work with and really dedicate...

It is on rare occasions that you have the opportunity to meet someone like Jodi who is so conscientious, highly competent, principled, and genuinely caring. I am so grateful that we contacted her to represent us in this highly competitive Bay Area real estate market. She was our true champion throughout the search, buying, and closing process. Jodi has an outstanding network of highly competent bankers, mortgage brokers, title and insurance agents. It is the true test of an individual when challenges arise, as they did when we made an offer, and Jodi rose to the challenge quickly finding a backup lender and crafting a winning strategy to circumvent ...

Jodi is an excellent Realtor®. We recently purchased a small multi-unit building. It is really hard to find Realtors® with experience in this market, which is very different from buying a single family home, but Jodi has handled a lot of these sales. Jodi was great, had a lot of knowledge on multi-unit buildings (pricing strategies, typical condition and structural style of these buildings, great knowledge of all similar buildings that have sold in the last year) that we would never have been able to tap into otherwise. She is extremely competent and never pushes you to do anything that you are not comfortable with. Very strategic when making offers...

We recently bought a house in Berkeley and were so lucky to have had Jodi Nishimura as our Realtor®! Jodi is a fantastic resource, the best we could have imagined, especially in this crazy Bay Area market where the prices make one doubt one's sanity. She is experienced, knowledgeable, straightforward, kind, and patient, as well as a joy to work with. She was incredibly quick to understand our needs, wishes, and tastes, and she found houses for us to look at, including the one we bought, that we would have surely missed. She respected our tastes, but also helped us to imagine other possibilities in this very tight market. It's fair to say that we wou...

Jodi is fantastic. She took into account our goals and ideas for the home we hoped to purchase and helped us find one that we love. Along the way, she identified homes that matched some of our goals and showed us the range of homes and prices while providing her honest opinion on what added or detracted from a home's overall value. She communicates where she has certainty and where there isn't an exact science in terms of the pricing and market value of homes in a way that helped us understand the discrepancy between the listing price and the ultimate price of a home. She was always available and had a quick turnaround in communication, even during ...

Jodi guided us through buying a home in Oakland this spring, and we're so happy with the level of experience, professionalism, good judgment, and insight she brought to the process. We met for the first time last fall, and she helped us understand her strategy working with buyers, vs. working with sellers. With buyers, she stresses finding properties that can be of good long-term value. She likes looking for diamonds in the rough, and her own experience with renovations lets her help her clients imagine the possibilities for homes that might be overlooked by the masses. I've worked with a few other agents in the past, and where I think she excels es...

Jodi is beyond amazing. She jumped on board to help us find a home in Berkeley and within 24 hours of our first conversation, she was showing us a newly listed home. She helped us navigate through a few offers and carried us through closing on 'the one' with confidence and ease. Thanks to Jodi we are happy to have found exactly what we were looking for and closed amidst this crazy housing market. She made the whole experience completely manageable and as stress-free as can be. We have such a crush on Jodi, all service professionals should take note of her service. And because our strategy was to focus on fixers, she has helped us way beyond the clos...

Jodi is a great Realtor® and a pleasure to work with. She helped us buy an Oakland home in 2009 and sell that same home in 2017. On both ends, Jodi was thorough, attentive, savvy, and respectful. Beyond negotiating great, fair deals, she has fantastic taste and knows how to find potential in a home during purchase and maximize possibilities during a sale. During our recent sale, we put a lot of trust and responsibility in Jodi to make upgrades to our home before it went to market. In the end, the process was smooth, and we got way more than we expected in the sale, like around $500k more. A hot market certainly helped, but I have no doubt Jodi's wor...

Jodi is an amazing real estate agent and we most definitely would not be in our home today if it weren't for her help. She is a great communicator who listened closely to our needs and is extremely knowledgeable about the local market. She was constantly engaged and was always available to us when we needed her. She kept an eye out for us and helped us uncover an overlooked opportunity that completely fit all of our criteria and then some! Jodi is professional yet friendly and really understands what you're looking for. Her extensive experience in the business allows her to see opportunities and pick up on details that some home buyers would not be ...

If you ever get a chance to work with Jodi, grab it with both hands. She is the complete package and everything you would ever want in a Realtor®, intelligent, patient, understanding, knowledgeable, connected, and available. Not only all this but Jodi is just a genuine and good person. She looks after her clients and cares about her community. She constantly gives back and is always looking to improve the area that she works in. We weren't easy as clients in fact Jodi had the patience to be our partner for around 3 years (our problems, not hers) not many people would stick with us through that. When we did decide on a place for our family Jodi gave ...

Jodi is the best Realtor® we have ever worked with. She helped us sell our home in Oakland and purchase our new home in Piedmont. She took significant time to understand our needs, and then went out of her way to find places that might fit the bill. From the initial offer through closing, she excelled at anticipating both issues that might arise, and questions we might have. Jodi communicated very clearly our options and accepted our preferences without trying to talk us into anything. She also provided access to an amazing amount of resources that she could activate with minimal lead time. With all those hard factors, she is also very personable an...

When we first met Jodi, she explained that her job is more service than sales. She proved that time and again with her thorough knowledge of the tricks of house hunting and the local market. Jodi also led us through multiple rounds of negotiation to get to a price we were comfortable with. The best part about working with Jodi was she was always more focused on answering our questions, giving us good advice, and being very thorough about inspection and finding homes that met our needs than she was on closing a deal. I now consider Jodi a friend and would highly recommend her to anyone that is searching for a new home. Thanks again to Jodi for being ...

My partner and I found Jodi through Yelp, and we couldn't have been happier! We were first-time homebuyers in the Bay Area and had little experience with this competitive market. Jodi made the whole process seamless and pain-free. She listened to our needs and answered all of our questions. Jodi was professional, persistent, available, and understanding. With her help and experience, we felt we had a competitive advantage and were able to purchase our first home after one month of searching. She was there with us every step of the way, rain or shine. Even after closing on our home, she remained extremely helpful. She guided us through our remodel an...

Jodi is an amazing Realtor®! She helped me and my husband to sell our condo and buy a house in East Bay. About selling our place, it was pretty quick we got a great offer after we put our condo on a market. Because she is knowledgeable and working so hard. She always meets our needs, also has great friendships with other service professionals. Thanks to her, our condo was sold at a great price more than we expected! About buying, it was a very competitive market to buy property but we bought our ideal home with a great deal. We were so lucky and happy to have her in our both processes sell and buy! Without her, we couldn't have owned our lovely home...

If you choose Jodi as your agent be ready to have some amazing things fall into place. It's not just that she can make things happen. She brings out the best intentions of people and absolutely helped guide us gently to our dream. Our story of buying a home with Jodi is not about how fast she worked, or even how well she can navigate offers in the current market. Our story is about Jodi being Jodi. She is a charm of sorts, in all the right places at the right time, knowing the best people, and having the capability of seeing through our eyes. There are countless stories similar to ours. Jodi leaves behind her a trail of warm people living in homes t...

Jodi is a magnificent real estate agent. She helped me find an amazing deal on a house when I was looking to buy during a peak-price season in Berkeley. She was incredibly patient, realistic, fun, strategic, down-to-earth, and hard-working. She spent a lot of time with me, and It was really fun looking at homes with her. What could have been a stressful process was instead totally fabulous. She found a fixer property and had a vision that was not immediately obvious to me. Jodi held my hand through the process, and I was able to buy the perfect home in the perfect neighborhood for the perfect price. I have nothing but good things to say about Jodi!

The market here was I ever wrong. First of all, had " Sticker Shock" big time. Jodi patiently brought me along to realize that not only would lower that asking price not work but would need to offer way over the asking price in order to have any chance of being a successful bidder. The whole process was a learning experience and it ended successfully. My wife and I are very happy with the home that Jodi found for us and her service after the sale has been fantastic. Jodi will be a friend and agent for us forever should we need her expertise. Do not hesitate to have Jodi as your agent should you wish to contact me please do at [email protected].

I have sold two homes with Jodi. In both cases, I felt like I was being guided by a sure-handed veteran with a deep knowledge of the Albany-Berkeley-Oakland area. Moving out of a home and preparing it for sale is a hectic and stressful process. Jodi made sure everything moved along quickly and smoothly. She was accessible, offered good advice and she works with a talented team (contractors, painters, gardeners, and stagers). So when my homes were ready to show, I knew they would attract top dollar. I also appreciated Jodi's strategic and insightful thinking and her cool and calm negotiating style. I wouldn't hesitate to use her again.