About Barbara Hendrickson

I've known Barbara since 1990, when she helped me purchase my first home (a condominium). In 2001 she helped me sell my condominium for a ridiculous profit, assisted my husband in selling his North Berkeley childhood home, and helped the two of us purchase our beautiful South Berkeley house in which we currently live. I love Barbara, both professionally and personally. She is incredibly knowledgeable, extremely hard-working, and fun to spend time with. I don't think there is any other realtor who understands the Berkeley/Oakland real estate market better than Barbara. She is an astute negotiator who is familiar with all the nuances of buying and sel...

When we needed to sell our first house, we thought we needed to interview at least three realtors, and we had already seen two that we liked. We liked the friendly Red Oak logo that we saw everywhere in our neighborhood, and so we explored their website and clicked on the list of agents. Barbara Hendrickson's name linked to her own web site 'justsellmyhouse.com'. What a joy! A bright, friendly site that spoke for itself with the right amount of very useful information without the need of any unnecessary hype! Hmm, we thought, that could at least be fun to explore further. I send her an e-mail, and received an answer within 15 minutes, apologizing th...

We're not so young anymore (85) and we needed guidance and some comforting as we set about selling our house. Our son in Colorado actually had Bay Area real estate agents apply for this assignment. Barbara's application was so impressive that it foreshadowed the efficiency and grace Barbara displayed as she subsequently sold our house in Kensington. Barbara did a superb job, in every way. She worked with dispatch-and the team she set up for the task, Nurture Source Designs for the house preparation and staging, and all the other folk who got involved, were quick, efficient, considerate of our budget. Courtney Cohan, who helped with the various contr...

Barbara helped us 13 years ago to get into our house in Albany by providing spot on advice about the local conditions and tactics necessary to have our offer accepted. This past month, she helped us with a super complicated set of transactions that involved selling our Albany house and under tremendous pressure, getting our offer accepted in Berkeley in a super competitive market. She stayed calm and rational throughout while we felt tremendous stress. She is a pro with a lot of experience. She keeps the hours of an obstetrician and has the skills of a psychiatrist.

You might not get the house you love, but I promise you will love the house you buy.' Having surveyed the East Bay housing market on our own, my wife and I wondered whether we could possibly find a home that fit all (or even most) of our needs. So when Barbara assured us early in the process that she would find us a home we would love, I was skeptical. That we were able to find our ideal home less than two months after we began looking is a testament to Barbara's ability to quickly grasp our preferences and translate them into a short list of potential options. Of course, Barbara's help went far beyond simply finding the right house. We were first t...

Many know Barbara Hendrickson (Realtor) as a top producing listing agent, representing sellers. We, on the other hand, had the luxury of working with her on the buying side of our transaction. As clients, we were very peculiar about the specific location and style of the house that we wanted. For 6 months, we worked closely with Barbara and finally purchased the Berkeley house that we absolutely love. Our buying experience was intense and nerve-racking at times. However, Barbara kept us calm and on track though the whole process. This clearly demonstrates that Barbara is not just an amazing realtor; she makes dreams come true. Barbara's immense know...

We should probably just go ahead and adopt Barbara. She has been the real estate agent for our family on so many transactions that we've lost count. She sold our first house and then twenty years later she sold our second house. She sold my mother-law's house, after her death, on behalf of our family. She sold our godparent's house for their estate. Recently she sold two very complicated mixed use commercial properties for us. She sold Virginia's sister's house in Berkeley which she found her ten years earlier. She has always been honest, energetic, and meticulous in her work with us, and she has always gotten us solid sales with qualified buyers fo...

Barbara Hendrickson represented us when we bought our first house, and we were so pleased that we hired her to sell the house as well. As first-time buyers, we benefited from Barbara's extensive knowledge of the local market. Her expertise landed us the first home that we bid for - while our friends were repeatedly bidding on homes and losing out to other buyers. As first-time sellers, we were even more grateful for Barbara's experience, integrity, and professionalism. Despite an increasingly soft housing market, we sold our house after only two weeks, while other houses on our street remained unsold for months. Barbara's judgment was excellent rega...

It was a real pleasure to have you represent with the selling of my parents' home. It was nice of you to take on the challenge and issues with a probate sale and being so forth right in our endeavor. Your expertise in staging was done in very good taste. Your paintings were bright, cheerful and colorful. This was our learning experience in dealing with real estate sales in this era (of bidding and as is) and it went so smoothly. It was an absolute pleasurable transition for all of us. Thanks for your patience and frequent updating calls. We felt you handled everything in a very professional way. We were very pleased. We would not hesitate to recomme...

More than 25 years ago, Barbara helped my former wife and I acquire our first house in Berkeley. Last year she helped us sell that house in connection with our divorce and helped me buy a house, as well. Barbara is smart, hardworking, patient, and well prepared. The house she helped us buy in 1984 was a great success. Barbara's work in helping us sell it in 2009, in a down market, was even more impressive. Barbara worked very closely with use in getting the house ready for sale. She had multiple expert resources available to perform every needed element of repair, replacement, painting, cleaning and staging. All did an outstanding job at reasonable ...

We love Barbara! To give some context, we had a very negative experience with the agent with whom we worked when we purchased our condo, so we were stalling and procrastinating when it came to selling it. Thankfully, we found Barbara. What a difference! She went above and beyond in getting our unit ready to sell (and in record time). Our condo sold quickly and above asking. It was one of the best decisions we made and and we would absolutely hire her again. The entire process was painless and when we are ready to buy again, we will call Barbara and her associate, Kim, immediately.

Barbara Hendrickson is a very smart, professional realtor. She sold our home on Oak Vale Avenue in the Claremont in a very short time frame at a price well beyond our expectations, $2,550,000. Achieving that price was the result of her carefully crafted marketing strategy and her close attention to detail during every step of the sale.When we told Barbara we wanted to sell the house, she selected the date for the Open House based on factors we had not considered. We met with her and discussed all the information that she had gathered which helped us choose the right listing price.Barbara worked on the sale of our house every day. We really felt supp...

Barbara Hendrickson and Rudy Gonzales just sold our Albany home for the highest price of any home ever sold in Albany! Barbara is a superb, experienced, savvy, highly skilled real estate agent. They are very good listeners who understood our challenges and laughed at our jokes. They are a wonderful team. As Barbara says Two Heads are Better Than One. Over 25 years ago Barbara helped us buy our first house in Albany, which was then a 2-bedroom bungalow. The real estate market at that time was extremely hot, and we faced a very difficult competitive situation for buyers. Facing multiple offers, Barbara helped us come in with the right price, and her n...

We love Barbara! To give some context, we had a very negative experience with the agent with whom we worked when we purchased our condo, so we were stalling and procrastinating when it came to selling it. Thankfully, we found Barbara. What a difference! She went above and beyond in getting our unit ready to sell (and in record time). Our condo sold quickly and above asking. It was one of the best decisions we made and we would absolutely hire her again. The entire process was painless and when we are ready to buy again, we will call Barbara and her associate, Kim, immediately.

Barbara did everything you would want a realtor to do. She found a place that fit our needs. She gave great advice about how to navigate the process. She negotiated a great deal with integrity and skill. She helped us win the bidding war and own a great home. We could not have been happier with Barbara and we recommend her without reservation.

This letter is to thank you for the tremendous effort you put forth to sell my home on Anson Way in Kensington. It was obvious that you are a true professional and are very well connected with people who are valuable when it comes to selling a property. The flow of events from our initial meeting to the final document signings was well orchestrated and easy for the seller. The people you referred for tasks such as handyman services, lawn and garden care, inspections and staging were all very professional and performed their jobs promptly and skillfully. I would recommend you and Red Oak to any person thinking of selling their home. You and your supp...

Barbara Hendrickson is a wonderful realtor and I am writing to sing her praises. In choosing someone to steer you through such an important and complicated transaction as selling one's home, one should ideally rely upon a person of high ethical standards, deep real estate experience, street smarts, fierce work ethic, flexibility, and overall good judgment. It also helps - no, it is essential - that one genuinely likes one's realtor, for there are lows as well as highs in this (as in any) relation, and it is good to have a core of goodwill and friendship at the center of it all. All of these conditions are especially important when one sells one's ho...

Having surveyed the East Bay housing market on our own, my wife and I wondered whether we could possibly find a home that fit all (or even most) of our needs. So when Barbara assured us early in the process that she would find us a home we would love, I was skeptical. That we were able to find our ideal home less than two months after we began looking is a testament to Barbara's ability to quickly grasp our preferences and translate them into a short list of potential options. Of course, Barbara's help went far beyond simply finding the right house. We were first time buyers with little knowledge of the housing market, but Barbara patiently walked u...

Barbara helped us purchase our first home, which just closed escrow. We were first time homebuyers in a terribly difficult market (Berkeley) and we found Barbara to be an expert in that market. She was always available to us and she clearly had our family's best interests in mind. More than anything else, I appreciated Barbara's frank style and no-nonsense approach. She was quick to tell us if we were pursuing a property that would be out of our range and equally quick to implore us to get away from a crappy flip. When we got to negotiations, she's as good as they come. I recommend Barbara without reservations. She helped us find a great home for ou...

Barbara Hendrickson and Rudy Gonzales are savvy realtors, and excellent communicators. Their special blend of sensitivity, humor, teamwork and professionalism made me feel supported in just the right ways as I went through the painful process of prepping my home for sale. They are grounded, knowledgeable, compassionate and witty. I feel very grateful to have found them. All this...and they got a fantastic price for my house.

We chose Barbara Hendrickson of Red Oak Realty to sell our three unit house in North Oakland recently. She showed up to our first meeting well prepared, with local comps, and lots of ideas of how we should go about marketing our property. I immediately liked her communication style, very straightforward, businesslike, creative, and also fun to talk to! Selling rental property takes more expertise than the regular single family home or condo sale, and I was concerned that we find the right realtor for the job. After interviewing various realtors we had no hesitation in hiring Barbara, as she immediately inspired confidence and made us feel at ease wi...

In the wake of the recent sale of our 3 bedroom family home in North Berkeley, I'd like to share my experience of working with our realtor Barbara Hendrickson. This was the first time that my wife and I attempted to sell a home. Despite our reservations concerning the volatile state of the housing market, we scheduled an initial meeting with Barbara after reviewing her impressive website, <a href='/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fjustsellmyhouse.com&amp;s=7fc045f483b8b05b775e6849f92e20eb81c1fa9d082488c99dd8e6ae3f23bf31' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>justsellmyhouse.com</a>.Once Barbara starting talking with us, it didn't take long before we ...

I enjoyed working with Barbara because she is totally honest. She won't sugar coat things and she won't try to sell you just anything. She is always there for you, even after you make the purchase! She knows the markets and she knows the neighborhoods (and she has an amazing roster of inspectors and contractors at her fingertips.) We were probably the clients from hell for Barbara. We were out of town clients who knew nothing about the local market. We were indecisive, we insisted on working with our own finance team, and we pulled out of several deals. Barbara stuck with us through it all with infinite patience and finally found us the home we love...

...a wonderful real estate agent. Thank you for your professionalism in assisting me with selling my home in Albany. You listened to my concerns and provided efficient and effective service. To my amazement and delight, my home was sold in seven days - WOW! I feel that I have found a professional and dedicated real estate agent. If ever I need your services in the future I will not hesitate to contact you. I highly recommend Barbara to family and friends. Keep up the good work. Thanks again,

My wife and I were looking to buy our first home in the East Bay but we didn't want to go it alone... Barbara's name came up. We were told that in addition to being very experienced she was a tough, no-nonsense business person. Barbara drove us all over the East Bay to view what seemed like dozens of open house showings in our price range. She stayed patient with us and was full of suggestions for selecting the right home. She is so well-connected that we never had to do any searching on our own for inspectors, electricians, plumbers, contractors, etc. As first time buyers, Barbara saved us from making costly mistakes.

Barbara is amazing and I cannot recommend her highly enough. After my mom moved to assisted living, I needed help to sell her view home in the Berkeley hills, while minimizing the burden on me to come across the Bay (I live in SF). Barbara project managed the whole thing -- she hired and worked with all the contractors and inspectors to paint and prep the home for sale, coordinated access issues with my estate sellers/haulers, hired a great stager, ran a couple of intense weeks of very well-attended open houses, and in the end helped negotiate a great price from a robust pool of offers. Best of all, I love that Barbara was sensitive and sympathetic ...

My husband and I just sold our North Berkeley home with the very capable help of Barbara Hendrickson.  I don't think I can say enough wonderful things about her or our entire experience with Barbara.  Never before have I ever met anyone so dedicated to her job and so enthusiastic about real estate.   From the moment we sat down with Barbara we could tell that she was fired up and ready to get started. I remember Barbara saying in our first meeting, 'I live and breathe real estate'.  Well, I can certainly vouch for the veracity of that statement!  This is an extremely knowledgeable experienced woman who fully understands the ins and outs of the real ...

I have only the highest praise and affection for Barbara. After my mother passed away last year, I was faced with the overwhelming task of having to sell our Berkeley family home. I hadn't seen Barbara for years (she had been my 5th grade teacher!) and to reconnect with her was a wonderful surprise. I very quickly found myself in very capable hands and was impressed with Barbara's 'vision' of what to do with the house. She had tremendous confidence and so many great ideas, that I felt completely comfortable with her decisions. She walked me through everything that needed to be done, always checking my comfort level for each decision, and I was delig...

I want to thank you and your team at Red Oak Realty for your terrific work on our behalf in selling our home in the Thousand Oaks neighborhood. Your services exceeded our expectations in every respect, and we are always pleased with the final outcome. From the day we retained you as our agent, I could rely on you to be on top of every aspect of our sale effort, from preparing the house for the market to completing all the paperwork, and on through to negotiation the terms of the sale. You willingly dealt with all aspects of this effort - landscaping, window washing, staging, dealing with the city - and made the whole process as easy as it could be. ...

Barbara Hendrickson and Rudy Gonzales just sold our Albany home for the highest price of any home ever sold in Albany!Barbara is a superb, experienced, savvy, highly skilled real estate agent. They are very good listeners who understood our challenges and laughed at our jokes. They are a wonderful team. As Barbara says ' Two Heads are Better Than One'.Over 25 years ago Barbara helped us buy our first house in Albany, which was then a  2-bedroom bungalow.  The real estate market at that time was extremely hot, and we faced a very difficult competitive situation for buyers.  Facing multiple offers, Barbara helped us come in with the right price, and h...

Barbara did an outstanding job. I selected Barbara to represent us as the listing agent on a house that we had owned for just over a year in Berkeley. I was quite concerned that the market would not treat us kindly and that we might have to hold it for an extended period. We did not live in California which made understanding the local market a challenge. Barbara accessed my needs and selling criteria and proposed a sales plan to accomplish the desired results. The plan included upgrading some items in the home, painting, yard work, cleaning, staging, and open houses under an aggressive time schedule. She coordinated the entire project, including th...

We have known Barbara Hendrickson for over seven years, after initially meeting with her to consider selling a previous home. We ended up selling that home through a private sale, so did not use realtor services. However I called upon her several times for consultations during the last seven years and she just so generously and freely gave whatever advice she could, which was always helpful and proved her resourcefulness and expertise.We decided to buy a home in Berkeley toward the beginning of 2012, just as home sales decidedly and permanently completed their shift into a sellers' market, inventory was low, and so were interest rates so many buyers...

I am so happy in my new home! It has been such a wonderful and positive experience to work with you on this project. The idea of selling my special Berkeley home where I have lived for the past 30 years, and buying a smaller replacement property that I would like as well and feel just as comfortable in seemed almost impossible to me when I first called you last summer, but you provided the support and professional expertise every step of the way. Getting my house ready to sell with all the help you provided actually turned out to be a fun project and not the chore I was dreading. It was a quick and profitable sale. I was very pleased to find out tha...

Having bought near the peak of the market and needing to sell in 2012 due to a relocation, I looked upon putting my El Cerrito house on the market with fear and dread. Barbara understood where I was coming from and took the time to explain (patiently) her suggestions for how to maximize the home's potential, balancing my need to sell quickly with my desire to minimize my financial loss as much as possible. Knowing that I had to balance these considerations, Barbara left every decision regarding painting, staging, cleaning and landscaping up to me, even if it meant scrimping on the budget she had to work with to ready the house for sale. Not only was...

We are very pleased with Barbara Hendrickson and the great job she did selling our house in Kensington. She not only negotiated a great price for us, but made the transaction painless....she managed the entire transaction from pre-listing to close while we were living in Colorado. Moreover, the sale had some additional complexity as it was part of a 1031 tax-deferred exchange, and was an old house with some need of repairs. A lot could have gone wrong, but did not, since Barbara was on top of all the details. We also found her to be very responsive, and she always followed up and provided clear explanations. And she was fun to deal with!! If we were...

Barbara is a great asset in buying or selling a home (I've done both). The thing I adore about here is that she's great at finding the best things to entice buyers whether you're selling a starter home or a manse in the Berkeley hills. Her professionalism, expertise and healthy dose of patience during my selling process was super. She had access to people in my price range who could help get the necessary work completed, as well as sage advice in preparing the house was surely a significant factor in why our house sold when others nearby languished. As a first time seller, I could only imagine the challenges that I would have faced, and it was great...

What impressed me the most was your willingness to keep our lines of communication always humming along. Your responsiveness to calls, emails and requests, large and small-even in the midst of your son's wedding(!)- demonstrates to me the sign of a true professional. I look forward to recommending you to anyone I know buying or selling a home.

Barbara is just fabulous! My husband and I found her in 2003 when she helped us buy a house in the very competitive Albany market and Barbara has been our realtor and friend ever since. Two houses later, we can't imagine a real estate transaction without her advice and connections! She is everything you want in a realtor- responsive, knowledgeable, resourceful, hardworking- with deep roots in the East Bay. She's a straight shooter and a wonderful person! We can't recommend her highly enough!

Barbara has been instrumental in finding our dreamhouse in Berkeley. The fact that she knows the market like the back of her hand, that she knows anybody and everybody in real estate and that she knows every tiny corner in Berkeley, have all been big assets to make that happen. After she spent ample time getting to know us and getting a good grip on the type of house and neighborhood that would fit us, Barbara worked tirelessly but patiently to find that perfect place and always made sure we never compromised. She was also a trusted and reassuring guide in the maze of red tape every home buyer is at risk of getting lost in, offering us both sound ad...

Barbara Hendrickson at Red Oak Realty is a great real estate agent. She was recommended to my wife and I by a couple that we hold as the gold standard of business savvy so we had high expectations. We got what we expected. Barbara is energetic, focused, and detail oriented. She is direct to a fault. She is long established in the area and her experience shows in how quickly she can help you find the property and come up with the winning offer. I know for a fact we would not have won our bid if we were submitting it with somebody else. The huge amount of paperwork was efficiently handled by Barbara and her office - no last minute craziness, no funny ...

Almost a year ago, I was reluctantly preparing to take on the duty of executor for our best friend's estate--mainly his house --when a couple of native Berkeleyan friends recommended I call Barbara Hendrickson. She is pro-active and persistent, they said, but also sensitive and kind. I soon had my own words to describe Barbara's style: effective, reliable, thorough and fun! Minutes after my first call, Barbara called back and we went for a first look at the property, an old Victorian beauty with good bones that had missed years of maintenance and TLC. Barbara pointed out both the encouraging and the challenging items and immediately took charge. She...

I can't believe that six months ago, I didn't know Barbara Hendrickson from Amelia Earhart. She was recommended by my attorney, for which I owe that lady a great deal. It took only half those months for Barbara to go from hired agent to professional associate and pleasant acquaintance to valued colleague in a joint venture and finally to a special niche as a newfound friend. And along the way, of course, she sold my house-quickly, professionally, skillfully-guiding me through the tangled rain forest of esoteric requirements and dismally tedious details that seem inevitably to go with the process, and making it seem easy. All of which she did without...

Thank you so much for helping us in the sale of our home in Oakland. We couldn't have chosen a more difficult time to put our home on the market; yet throughout the process your guidance, expertise and experience helped us make the right choices and ultimately enabled us to close on our home during a very difficult economic climate. Your years of experience in the Bay Area real estate market made a significant difference and allowed us to make a number of strategic decisions that certainly paid off for us. If we had more houses to sell we would certainly use Barbara!

We were so lucky to have met Barbara during one of her open houses. We're even more lucky that she has chosen such a great partner in crime ( Kim Markison! ). We were first time home buyers. We reached out to Barbara 2 days before we had to put our first offer in. Keep in mind, we weren't pre-approved or and had not talked to Barbara about representing us at this point. In just 1 day, Barbara connected us to a great loan officer, got us pre-approved  and wrote our offer letter!We could not have done any of this without her continuous support, especially during those late night email exchanges and phone calls. This process has been pretty stress free...

We decided to switch agents mid-search and came across the dream team of Barbara and Kim via Yelp. Barbara is incredibly knowledgeable and has a resource/connection for everything. We bid on two homes with her and won the 2nd in a very competitive bidding scenario! I appreciated Barbara's no-nonsense approach and her ability to tell us exactly what we needed to do to win our house. She made our first home purchase almost painless and we would highly recommend her.

SEE UPDATE 5/2015 BELOW!!!!!!!Barbara Hendrickson made buying a first home fun and easy. In Berkeley, no less, which is a very big deal. When we found Barbara, she immediately directed us to a great mortgage broker for qualification who qualified us quickly and with minimal fuss or attitude (unlike another super-popular brokerage we had first tried to use but that was too busy to return calls or answer questions). She helped educate us about all the factors involved in the purchase of a home. She knows a metric ton about the market, the competitive buyers' landscape in our area, architectural styles, inspections, and the delicate art of presenting t...

Barbara made buying a first home fun and easy. In Berkeley, no less, which is a very big deal. When we found Barbara, she immediately directed us to a great mortgage broker for qualification who qualified us quickly and with minimal fuss or attitude (unlike another super-popular brokerage we had first tried to use but that was too busy to return calls or answer questions). She helped educate us about all the factors involved in the purchase of a home. She knows a metric ton about the market, the competitive buyers' landscape in our area, architectural styles, inspections, and the delicate art of presenting the offer and negotiating the price. She is...

I just sold the house that I grew up in but had not lived in for many years. Being a first-time seller in a crazy market, Barbara was like my own personal Sherpa-guide through the process. She had improvement suggestions and the crew to do it. Staging, marketing, contacts - she had it all. She guided me through all the paperwork and answered all my calls and e-mails. Reassuring me the whole way. My mantra was Don't panic, Barbara's on it. The house sold for more than the asking price and in only one day - amazing!!!

Barbara Hendrickson from Red Oak Realty was our agent for selling my father's house on Peralta Ave in Albany after he passed away. We had interviewed several agents from other firms but chose Barbara because she had a great track record, an extensive understanding of what buyers wanted in the local market, a well-developed network, and was able to communicate to us a clear vision of how best to market the property.Because my co-trustee and I both lived out of town, we had considered the possibility of selling the house as is. Barbara convinced us that some strategic remodeling would be worthwhile. She was masterful in marshalling the necessary conta...

We began seriously looking for a house last winter. Several months of roller-coaster emotions later, we found a wonderful house that Barbara showed to us on a grey, rainy morning ...she made sure that ours became the official back-up offer when the second buyer backed out, and then several weeks later, when we truly got lucky--the accepted offer bailed at the very last minute and our offer finally was accepted--she made sure that we got the house for less than our original offer. Luck and Barbara--that's all you need to buy a house...