Dreaming of making Alameda your permanent home? Amy is undoubtedly the best possible choice you can make. If you stumbled upon this review hoping to find something that will help you decide what agent to reach out to, let this be the comment that helped you make that decision! Amy is an incredible expert in the Alameda market. Why? 1) She will help you cut through the listing price noise. Her estimates of what things will go for are always accurate... we were really impressed. 2) She will keep you grounded and help you focus on where you are most set up for success. You will truly appreciate that she will save you the emotional rollercoaster of going to see houses that will ultimately go way above your range and you shouldn't even be considering. (I have friends that experienced it, we did not.) 3) She has great relationships with sellers agents in the area which can help make recommendations that will set your offer up for success; run with a pre-emptive offer; or talk about off-market opportunities. We really learned a lot with her support. Above all, she is responsive, friendly, and effective! As for my personal story, me and my spouse got our first offer with Amy. And I think you should, too! :) All in all, we'd definitely partner with her again. Thank you Amy for helping us find our first home! You rock! read more

Amy helped my husband and I buy our first home. Amy is very knowledgeable about all things house (buying, inspection, contract work, etc the list goes on) but also our primary search location, Alameda. We interviewed three agents, who were all great however it was Amy's experience and knowledge of the industry and location that knew she was the perfect agent for us. As first home buyers, we were, as expected, completely inexperienced and needed a bit of hand holding and Amy really helped make a stressful process, easy. I'd highly recommend Amy if you're looking in the Alameda area- 10/10 would work with again! read more

As an experienced and longtime real estate investor, in California and in other states, I can say with confidence that Amy Loughran is an exceptional agent and in the top 1% of any real estate professional I've ever worked with. Yes, she's highly knowledgeable about Alameda - down to every block. Not only has she worked with Buyers to help them find and buy real estate that is exactly the right fit for them in Alameda, but she's also raised her own family there and knows the world of local vendors, services, neighbours and schools inside and out. Since I was a Buyer who is not from Alameda, and wanted to research all aspects of the market before making an offer, I found Amy's generosity with her local market knowledge of terrific value. As these discussions deepened, and we reviewed several (ok, many!) disclosure packages, I found out that Amy also has exceptional knowledge of how buildings are put together. She was able to give me rough estimates of all items that were identified in the disclosures as needing attention. When I went into contract and was able to obtain actual estimates, I found that her estimated costs were almost exactly what the tradesmen quoted me too. In my experience, that level of ability and expertise, and genuine interest, in understanding the language and costs of tradesmen, is extremely rare. Then it was during discussions about costs that I discovered Amy has a background in economics and is a whiz with budgets, numbers and helping a Buyer come up with exactly the right offer number. In this highly competitive market for Buyers, having the ability and expertise to sense what the winning offer number will need to be, and why, is absolute gold dust. I have to admit, I was not the easiest client. I like to think I know something about real estate and so I asked a thousand questions, and then I asked a thousand more. Even so, Amy always responded with grace and with lots of facts and useful perspective. She never made me feel like what I was asking for was too much. With all of this said, the best part of all, for me, is that Amy is a very decent, trustworthy and hard-working human being. I was not surprised to find out she is originally from the Midwest. She is a pleasure to spend time with. Amy is a winner all round and helped me become a winner in the process. If you're a home Buyer or investor looking to understand and buy real estate in Alameda - there is only one person you want as your agent: Amy Loughran. read more

Amy worked with us to find a new home in Alameda, and I can't be effusive enough about how great she is. She's extremely knowledgeable about the market, clearly explained the details of what we were going through, and was extremely flexible and creative when we considered different strategies for different properties. At different times in the process my wife and I considered buying a serious fixer-upper, a multi-unit property, and a duet home. Amy knew everything that we needed to know and who we should talk to about every one of them. Most importantly, we ended up buying a beautiful home that is perfect for our family at below asking price in a super competitive market. Amy was the best possible thing that could have happened to us during this extremely stressful process. Go hire her right now! read more

Amy helped my husband and I purchase our home in Alameda two months ago and we still can't believe how easy the process was! We were looking for a single family home that needed some work, with an admittedly small budget given the current market. When we first spoke to Amy, she told us her buyers usually get the first or second home they bid on. We were skeptical given our budget constraints and thought the process would take months, but we were able to get the second house we bid on within a month of being approved. Amy was very knowledgeable throughout the whole process. She knows everyone in the Alameda market and can estimate with shocking accuracy how much a house will sell for. When we found our home, she wasted no time getting the scoop from the selling agent and sending our offer (within hours of seeing it). I truly believe Amy is the reason we were able to purchase a house in Alameda. The reviews don't lie - she's the best at what she does! read more

We worked with Amy to buy our family home in the extremely hot market of Alameda. She.is.the.best!!!! We can't say it enough. As others have said, she's an expert in this market - she knows every neighborhood, every street, and and basically every neighbor (I can't count the times we ran into people she knew when we were looking at houses together LOL). She also has access to off-market opportunities, which is how we were finally able to find our perfect home and avoid the classic Bay Area bidding wars. If you are looking to buy in Alameda, Amy is hands down your best option for a realtor! read more

A super long overdue review, but glad to be the first one here to sing the praises of Amy. My partner and I first met Amy at a open house showing in Alameda about 8 months ago and right away, we had an amazing connection. Amy is the kind of person you'd want as a agent, helping us navigate the challenging and (still) growing market. As both a past resident of Oakland and a current resident of Alameda, she has great and personal knowledge and insight on specifics of each neighborhood and culture/vibe. And despite Alameda being her specialty, she was very open and helping in expanding our search to both Alameda and Oakland. She went above and beyond the call of duty, working with our ever changing budget and crazy work schedules to find the perfect home (this includes touring homes pretty late into the night-way past the usual 8-5 work day). With each home we went to check out, she was frank about her opinions on the property, condition, its value, and how she thought we would fit with the homes. Although I am sad to say that we still haven't been able to find our dream home, Amy is still checking in with us regularly, sending us potential listings, and keeping us up to date with the market changes. Her dedication and passion she puts into her profession definitely shines through, she in the many agents we've met with prior to her was the one I could definitely put my trust in. I know that when my heart is ready to take on the market again, Amy will definitely be the one to find us our dream home. (: read more

Amy was a wonderful real estate agent even before we hired her! We met at an open house and loved how knowledgeable she was about the area. She then spent over two hours with us on a Saturday answering all of our questions and making sure we felt comfortable and understood the home buying process here in Alameda. After months of looking Amy helped us find our perfect home and guided us through a tricky bidding process. Because of Amy's expertise, we are now the proud owners of our dream home! Would definitely recommend Amy for anyone looking in the Alameda area. You won't be disappointed! read more

Amy helped us buy the perfect house! She is a real pleasure to work with. Highly recommend her to find your dream home in Alameda.

Honestly, Amy is an incredible, fantastic, wonderful, terrific -- literally perfect real estate agent. Forgive the multiple adjectives, but I could not possibly recommend an agent more highly than Amy. She's absolutely excellent, and a wonderful person with whom you too can find your dream home. From our initial meeting, Amy demonstrated exactly the kind of work ethic and approach to communication that I look for in a real estate agent. She walked through the specifics of buying property in Alameda exactly as I needed -- the perfect amount of detail for us to ask questions and optimize our time, without being pushy, suggestive, or anything else. I felt comfortable immediately that Amy had my absolute best interests in mind as her top priority. I've worked with tons of other real estate agents and this was never the case. While we looked for a house, Amy again showed herself to be the absolute perfect agent. She worked around our schedule without us ever having an issue, and our times were tough given that my wife and I both work till very late. While looking at properties, she gave us her honest opinion, which again I had never seen from a real estate agent. She did an absolutely incredible job of making me feel like I had all the information I needed to make an informed and confident decision. After purchasing our house, Amy again proved to be an expert. She helped us find contractors, get through the closing process in record time, and continued to provide impeccable service and personal attention. She's a consummate pro, an excellent agent, and honestly I now consider her a friend. Stop reading this review. Go hire Amy. You'll be so glad you did. read more

Amy is a fantastic agent, as a mortgage advisor, we've worked together on multiple transactions and I always enjoy it. She's a top buyers' agent in Alameda so is well-respected in the real estate community, which is key when listing agents are evaluating multiple offers. She's very responsive and knowledgeable about the real estate market, offer strategies, and, with her construction background, a great resource for her clients looking at homes of varying ages. All of my clients who have worked with Amy have really appreciated how hard she works on their behalf and have had nothing but great things to say about working with her. Carrie Huie | Mortgage Advisor read more

Amy is, in a word, perfect. We are first time home buyers, and first started working with Amy in April. We knew right from the start that we made the right choice. Amy spent hours walking us through the home-buying process, demystifying disclosure packets, and coordinating tours for us all around Alameda. She was patient, responsive, and clearly an expert in her field. And in the end, through Amy's extensive connections, she found us an unbelievably perfect off-market opportunity. We still can't believe it's ours! We also appreciated Amy's recommendations to local plumbers for the sewer lateral compliance process. I would recommend Amy in a heartbeat to any homebuyer in Alameda. read more

Amy was amazing in helping us find our home, her knowledge of Alameda is unmatched, and was always super responsive and attentive to all of our questions and concerns, could not recommend highly enough! read more

Amy was a dream agent and partner for us. She was incredibly responsive, very knowledgeable, and calm under pressure. Her advice was spot on, including her advice on offer price (which resulted us being able to buy our dream home without overspending!). As others have said, she has an incredible knowledge of the local market which not only helped us figure out where on the island we wanted to be during our very first intro conversation, but she has also been a generous resource as we transitioned to our new home and needed advice on everything from electricians to floor pros. We would work with Amy again in a heartbeat and can't recommend her highly enough (in fact we've already introduced her to several close friends - some of whom also moved into their dream homes in Alameda with Amy's help). You will be in great hands with her! read more

Amy was really fantastic. If you're considering purchasing a home in Alameda, Amy is the only agent to call. She was responsive and very knowledgeable about the market. As first time home buyers, she was patient and answered all of our questions. She provided us with honest feedback throughout the entire process and was able to help us find a home that we love. If we move in the future, we will be repeat customers! read more

Amy was the key to us finding our dream home! As soon as we met her, we knew we were in good hands. She was professional, knowledgeable, approachable, dedicated, and really fun to work with. She walked us through every step of the home buying process and was always generous with her time and effort. She was quick to respond to any question we had and very flexible with house showings. It was wonderful sharing this journey with Amy because she boosted our spirits when inventory was low, encouraged us to stay positive and patient until the right house came along, helped us remain calm as we waited to see if our offer was accepted, and celebrated with us when we landed our forever home. We'll always be grateful for her guidance and support and highly recommend her to anyone searching for a home. read more

We loved buying our first home with Amy! We interviewed multiple agents in Alameda and decided on her since she only acts as a buyer's agent. That made us feel like we had her undivided attention. She patiently educated us on the whole home buying process. When we started seriously looking, she found us an off-market listing that met our exact search criteria. Her expert guidance through the offer and counter-offer process got us to a sale price that was very reasonable. She helped throughout the escrow process and made everything easy. Her communication the entire time was prompt, clear, and concise. We highly recommend you buy a house with Amy! read more

I highly recommend Amy to anyone looking to buy a home in Alameda. She was incredibly accommodating even though we were not able to view the homes in person. She also has an amazing knowledge of Alameda and we appreciated her expertise especially in such a hot market! read more

We'd heard from multiple people that Amy is *the* agent to work with in Alameda and couldn't agree more! From the start, Amy made sure to take the time to understand exactly what sort of house we were interested in and was confident enough in the market we were looking at to be able to tell us how realistic our expectations were. She was readily available, made sure to answer all of our questions (there were a lot!), and always made sure that we were in the best position to find our dream house. We'd work with Amy again without hesitation! read more

Amy was an incredible real estate agent to help us navigate the process as 1st time home buyers in what is a very hot but also confusing and unusual real estate market. After ~3 months of searching for a house with another agent, we were frustrated that our agent wasn't honoring our filters for houses, causing us to have to consider and evaluate things that weren't where or what we wanted. After one failed offer process where we didn't really understand what or how we should be bidding based on local comps, we knew we needed a new partner who would make us a top priority but also would be able to anticipate every part of the process. We met Amy at an Open House and after 2-3 phone conversations (I was vetting a number of local agents), it was clear that Amy really knew this market, knew how to help us navigate listings with pages upon pages of disclosures and most importantly, could help us understand every step of the process from offer timeline to closing in laymen's terms. She is a true professional but also, her passion for specifically helping buyers isn't something you see a lot in this market as most teams outside of Kate's team seemed to have more junior and inexperienced agents to work with buyers. It was refreshing to meet an expert with so many years of experience but who genuinely enjoyed using that experience to help buyers! Amy expertise specifically helped us go through the disclosures on a house that we loved, but were uncertain of because of the disclosures. She went through the packet line by line which really helped us have confidence in the fact that it was a great house! We probably would have passed on the house had we not been thorough about reviewing them, because we thought the sheer number of disclosures was very high. She took time on the weekend to set up 3-way calls with the inspector so we could ask questions directly to the inspector and connected us with people who could provide quotes and recommendations throughout the process to help us determine that we wanted to make an offer and how much we would need to budget for some repairs to give us more confidence in our offer price. Secondly, Amy recommended many local providers to help get us settled, even taking the time to meet with them on our behalf since we did not live on the island in between when we closed and when we moved in. She went to the house multiple times when we were still under contract to take measurements for us so we could begin planning. She was very patient - answering all of our many newbie questions - and provided really detailed guidance on the local area and how to think about our offer price by providing very relevant market comps. I felt like I could trust Amy implicitly in her recommendations and we really felt like we were in good hands the whole time. Amy was so thoughtful and respectful of what we wanted and I would absolutely call Amy again if we were looking to buy in this area. If you're like us - first time homebuyers - you couldn't be in better hands! read more

I would echo the other reviews here -- we thoroughly enjoyed working with Amy and would highly recommend her to anyone wanting to make Alameda their home. She is easygoing, yet on the ball and totally professional -- a wonderful combination! We always felt comfortable asking questions and putting our views on the table, and we were always confident that Amy would give us her honest take on things -- not always the case with real estate agents, and it helped us to feel much more confident in our decisions throughout what was a very challenging process from search to close! We had been looking loosely in Alameda for a few years before we connected with Amy and see clearly now that we are in our dream home largely because of her. She knows the area inside and out, and she is well-connected with other agents, which is a real plus in this competitive market -- getting the house you want can sometimes come down to relationships between agents, particularly in multiple offer situations with several at about the same number. Amy also went out of her way during the process to bring in a contractor connection to help us assess a property that was a complete wreck, making it difficult to know if it was worth an offer, and, if so, what that offer might be. We decided to pass, but felt sure about our final call, rather than looking back and second-guessing. And, once you get that dream house, no doubt you'll need some help pulling things together with local resources for plumbing, electric, etc. Amy is a great resource here, too -- she has good referrals to just about any type of service you may need, which is not the case when you work with an agent who isn't hyper-local to your target market. If you really want to be in Alameda, you need to work with an agent who specializes here, and Amy is at the very top of the list in our opinion! This market is on fire right now, and pricing strategies are tricky -- expect to pay waaaaaaay over ask if you really want a house, but count on Amy to help you make sure it's not waaaaaaay over what you need to pay to get the place! And, again, recognize that you'll do better with an agent like Amy who has established relationships with other agents in the area who like doing business with her. We couldn't have found a better agent to help us make the transition to becoming full-fledged Alamedans, and, as another reviewer commented, we also now consider Amy a friend -- it doesn't get better than that! read more

Buying a home is the biggest purchase most of us will ever make and having a great agent to help you do it makes a massive difference, especially in a seller's market. Amy is THE BEST, hands down. We would not be in escrow if it weren't for her. We were new to Alameda, and Amy told us all about the different neighborhoods and schools. Amy knows the island very well and since she has two kids she also knows the ins and outs of the school system. Since she is married to a contractor, she is very knowledgeable about construction and was able to advise us on possibilities and ballpark costs if a home needed work. She was also very helpful in walking us through disclosures. She was able to explain to us what certain things meant and how much it would cost to fix. Most importantly, Amy is very resourceful and connected. She knew about homes before they hit the market and alerted us to a pocket listing the day before it became available. Because of her quick thinking and dedication, we were able to make an offer on that listing and are now in escrow. Amy found us our dream house! Lastly, Amy is a lovely person to work. Always available, positive and a true voice of reason when we were a little frazzled. Are you looking to buy or sell in Alameda? Call Amy! read more

We were SO fortunate to have Amy as our real estate agent! We worked with Amy to buy a home in Alameda over one in-person weekend visit in March. Amy is truly exceptional for the following reason based on our personal experience working with her: 1. Amy has a GREAT gut feel on what homes will actually sell for. - This was more important what we realized. My wife and I live in LA and noticed that Alameda homes have recently gone $100-300K over list price depending on neighborhood. Amy was very up front in telling us what she thought the homes would eventually go for. She was right almost every time! This is so helpful when you compete against multiple offers (20+ in some scenarios) and want to ensure that you submit a competitive offer without paying too much. 2. Amy KNOWS Alameda (i.e. schools, neighborhood reputation, contractors, etc.) - We knew that we wanted to live in Alameda. Amy specializes in this city. We did not want to work with an out of area agent since Alameda homes are very particular when submitting an offer. With kids of her own, Amy shared her personal experiences of Alameda schools which helped us better focus on where to look for a home. Amy had great knowledge of each neighborhood (and even specific streets) and was able to find the answer to specific questions that we had. Amy also provided us with great recommendations on contractors and people who we could use for house projects prior to moving in. 3. Amy spends time up front getting to KNOW her clients. - We had an initial phone call prior to our in-person and we also met at her office. At our first meeting, Amy took out the map of Alameda and talked us through the neighborhoods based on what we had initially shared with her. Amy had a way of figuring out the type of home that best met our family needs. We loved working with Amy and would not have chosen anyone else! read more

If you are buying a house in Alameda, Amy is a perfect agent to work with. Here's our story. We saw a house we loved but were not ready to buy (had not started looking into a mortgage) and had never been through the home buying process before . A week later we met Amy. Five days after meeting her, she had helped us get prequalified for a loan and put an offer in. Three days later our offer had been accepted. A bit over a month after meeting her we had moved in. In short, we got the house we wanted for a reasonable price, in a crazy competitive market (all in a bit over a month).. I don't know of another agent who could have made this all happen. Most agents try to get you to buy more than you want/need, don't really know how to structure a competitive offer without overpaying, and then do relatively little after an initial offer is accepted. Amy has a different set of skills and approach. Her background is unique -- She knows economics (almost got her Phd in economics) and the Alameda market, which allows her to be very smart about structuring offers and navigating a competitive bidding process. She also has a background in contracting and can tell you what various repairs and upgrades will cost as you look at homes and think about your offer. She's experienced and well networked in Alameda, which proved extremely helpful (e.g., knowing what's available, what houses will sell for, and working with great people for inspections, escrow, etc.) Amy is also very involved from beginning to end. After our offer was accepted, she proactively managed the closing process to ensure the deal closed quickly. She was also super helpful in educating and guiding us through each step.. Finally, when it came time to do a bit of work on the house, Amy provided us with great referrals to local electricians, plumbers, roofers, etc. So, this a long-winded way of saying, you would be hard pressed to find a better agent than Amy for Alameda. Looking back on the buying process we feel lucky to have worked with her and couldn't be happier. Thanks Amy! read more

Amy is one of the most knowledgable, honest and efficient buyer's agent in the area. She has been able to educate us, and, ensure we penetrated this very complex and inflated market with best case scenario. Amazingly, she was able to secure us a home that met our expectations, AND price range. After reviewing comps, our purchase was considered one of the better price-to-value transactions we've seen in the last few years in this market. She was patient, well connected, and goes above and beyond. read more