Sarah helped me into my home in Oakland. She's attentive, responsive, and has integrity. I would recommend her without hesitation!

Sarah did a wonderful job as sales agent for my home! She oversaw every bit of the process getting the property cleaned up, painted and staged and was completely hands-on throughout. She always kept me updated via texts and emails since I currently live across the Bay. And...the house sold in just a few days with an all-cash offer well over asking price. Well done! read more

Sarah is the perfect person to have on your team. She has a deep wealth of knowledge about homes in the Bay Area. When we walked through homes with her, she was pointing out things that we would have overlooked otherwise, and was able to explain issues like water drainage, efflorescence, etc. in simple terms so we could gauge the impact it would have. Sarah is also honest and trustworthy. She talked us out of putting in an offer on a house after she read through the (150+ page!) disclosure and noticed that the seller had done something that was out of the ordinary for this market. She met with the selling agent and investigated further, and ultimately concluded that the house could have a major foundation problem and that we shouldn't put in an offer. I really appreciated that she didn't want us to buy just anything, she genuinely wanted us to find the right home. She also made magic happen. We were looking to take out a loan in a market where there are a lot of all-cash offers, and we had issues with lenders being Canadian citizens here on a visa, but she found us a local mortgage broker who was fantastic at problem solving and helped us pull it all off. Finally, and most importantly in this crazy market, Sarah is a magician when it comes to predicting how bids will turn out. We had our second offer accepted and are now moved into a home we absolutely love. She understands how to value the property, does the leg work of finding out what the level of interest is and what the right comparable homes are, and does what it takes to make sure the offer has the best chance of success. She even hand delivered our offer and pitched us to the selling agent. After the home purchase, Sarah took us through the closing process and even now after closing she is quick to respond to a text or call about anything that comes up. Work with Sarah if you want a brilliant, hard working, trustworthy friend to help you find (or sell) a home; you'll be glad you did. - S & G read more

I don't even know where to start--Sarah goes above and beyond what anybody would expect their realtor to do. We were new to buying in the Bay Area and Sarah was a godsend. She has so much knowledge about the market, fault zones, foundation work, etc. and is able to bring in her husband and other experts if you need to go deeper. She is also very plugged into with other realtors. We had a very complicated and stressful transaction that would've completely fallen apart if it weren't for Sarah. I would highly recommend her to anyone looking for a realtor on her professional merits alone, but her personality, amazing spirit, kindness, and empathy send her over the top. She is the best of the best, and we're so lucky to have worked with her! read more

I used Sarah for selling my home after using her as a buying agent. She is incredibly responsive and knowledgeable. You will not be disappointed. read more

Sarah really is an all-star. She has immense knowledge and dedication, and deeply cares about her clients. She's straightforward, trustworthy, and totally down to earth; we really appreciated how much heart and soul she put into the whole process. We were casually looking to buy for over a year and she always made herself available to show us a house we had interest in. She would quickly get us disclosures, set up visits, and crawl around underneath houses to check the structure and utilities. She was so patient and accommodating as we expanded our search and honed in on what we were looking for. She connected us with another excellent realtor when she went on vacation and made sure we were well taken care of the whole time. She even provided a thorough summary of the house we ended up getting while she was away, and followed up with referrals after we closed. We are so thankful for Sarah and her expertise. read more

Sarah turned the seemingly insurmountable task of purchasing a home in Berkeley into reality through her zen-like combination of supportive mentoring and coaching through the entire home buying process every step of the way. She was absolutely incredible and that is not an understatement. After hearing about Sarah from a friend, we reached out and had a honest and open conversation about our goals and aspirations for home ownership in the Bay Area. We knew we were coming into a very hot sellers market and she did everything within her power to set us up with realistic expectations. In our initial face to face and subsequent open house visits she really put in the time to get to know us personally, advising us about everything required along the way. Going to an open house with her is an education in itself as its clear she has an extremely wide breath of knowledge to offer on everything from building construction standards, structural integrity, plumbing, electrical work, etc. She accurately predicted the pricing direction for many places we were interested in and that became an incredibly useful tool for approaching each new home buying opportunity. Although we were a little discouraged by the crazy market antics, Sarah never gave up on us insisting that we check out "one more place" or consider a previous house that we liked with all of the caveats. Her ability to find potential matches whilst simultaneously winning over the affection of our 3 year old daughter was nothing short of heroic. Ultimately we ended up with the winning offer on a wonderful home in an extremely ideal location based on our budget and we owed it all to her strategy and insight. She told us when it was wise to go up or down and she never lost sight of the end goal. Couldn't have done it without her support which continues to this day. From garage to ADU conversion to addition or general contractor questions, she brings her A-game everywhere she goes. Definitely recommend anyone interested in home ownership in the Bay Area reach out to her. You will not regret that decision. read more

Sarah Ridge, is the best! I walked into this experience not knowing anything about buying a house, or what to look for if I found one (foundation/roof okay, etc.), but Sarah had a complete game plan from the search, to the offer, to the close! She has so much experience knowing what to look for in a place and the scope of what might need to be repaired. She pointed out tiny details, had suggestions for changes, and was very honest about her opinions in relation to our needs every step of the way. I can't imagine having gone through this process with anyone else. Thank you so much for all of your help and recommendations, and patience! read more

Sarah is the best agent i've worked with. Super pro-active, never made me feel bad about sending me the same documents 10 times because of my ADD. :) Before Sarah, i was working with an agent for months. I was seeing generally lame properties and the onus was on me to find them online and he was then setting up times for me to see the places. Sarah dives deep into knowing who you are and what you want, and then puts her brain power on scouring the areas to find things that meet your criteria. I ended up getting an amazing place in Piedmont for the same price my previous broker was showing me places for in West Oakland! My previous broker kept losing bids too. Sarah knew how to get a yes for me in Piedmont when I was not even the highest bidder. She drove the process hard from beginning to end, pulling in the right brokers who would finance a fixer upper that needed foundation work, the right title company, etc. She drove the whole process hard from beginning to end until there were keys in my hand with a house that I love. I'm eternally grateful. So yes, work with Sarah Ridge, if you can. read more

I have bought and sold a few properties over the past 40 years but recently My husband and I purchase our first and beautiful duplex in Vallejo. This was one of the smoothest experience I've every had. Sarah and Marianne at Thornwall Properties were all smile but definitely all business. They made sure we found exactly what we were looking for, and from beginning to end they were right with us. A 1031 exchange can be a headache with all the rules and timelines so it was refreshing to be able to close in less then 10 days..They were upfront about every detail. We couldn't be happier with our purchase and the dedication Sarah and Marianne showed us. No question were too small and they stayed in contact the entire time. If you want to experience a stress free Real Estate purchase I highly recommend Sarah and Marianne with Thornwall Properties in Berkeley. Joyce and Dennis read more

Sarah was our Realtor and guided us with an astounding amount of knowledge, expertise and patience from start to finish when we sold our little house in the San Pablo Park neighborhood of Berkeley. She was a joy to work with, incredibly responsive to all our questions and requests. I met Sarah at an open house in our neighborhood a couple of years or so before we were ready to sell our home. We chatted briefly at that open house about our plans to sell in a year or two and I pretty much knew from that quick 5-10 minute chat that she was going to be our Realtor. Right from the first time she came into our home she knew exactly what to do to get it ready to sell. We had a fairly limited budget to get the house ready and Sarah always knew the best way to spend those limited funds to get us the best result possible. Her team, including the contractors, inspectors etc. all worked so well together, that selling our home went super smoothly, and everything happened right on schedule. Our initial meeting with Sarah was sometime in the fall of 2018 with a target date to sell the house in the summer of 2019. At that fall 2018 meeting Sarah predicted the house would be ready to go on the market at the end of June and we would have a closing time of around the end of July. She was right on target, our house went on the market on June 18th and we closed on July 23rd! Her expertise and knowledge of the local market is real. Sarah (and the entire team at District homes) is worthy of so much more than a simple 5-star review on Yelp, we can't recommend her highly enough! read more

My husband and I knew buying a home in the Bay Area would be difficult! However, after making more than 15 offers with another realtor, we decided to take a different approach and took our friend's suggestion to connect with Sarah. Our friend had described Sarah as incredibly knowledgeable (she also has a construction and landscape design background), honest, and easy to work with. She bought her dream home from her as well! After meeting and working with Sarah, we found the same to be true for us. Sarah spent time getting to know exactly what we were looking for, got under houses to report on the foundation, and thought strategically about how to bid on each home we were interested in. We got the second home we bid on with her in a location everyone else told us to give up on. We couldn't be more grateful to Sarah for helping us find and buy our first home. I recommend her to everyone I know thinking about getting into the market! read more

When you decide to buy a house for the first time, you're forced to confront many, many things that you know you don't know. In that process of confrontation is where a great agent makes all the difference. Doing this in the Bay Area takes not only confronting what you don't know, it takes decisive action and record competition, so for people like us, who, price-wise, were at the bottom of the market looking up, Sarah got us into shape and made us capable of getting our first home. Sarah taught us how to read a house for history and value indicators, taught us the boundaries of the East Bay neighborhoods and helped us understand the unique markets within. She trades notes with her husband, a longtime framing contractor, and comes from a background of multi-generational Bay Area homeownership herself, so she's capable of explaining home value from the literal foundation outward to the speculative behaviors of the greater market. We not only got more than what we were looking for, we also got an education and a vocabulary that will help us work confidently in the market. Our personal hunt was short, only a few weeks, but in that time we looked closely at more than three places with dramatically different locations and concerns, as well as five or six more in her presence, sometimes after dark, often on weekends, sometimes online from different countries because we travel a lot, and she was always totally candid and shared whatever insider information she had picked up. The word "fight" is used often in real estate, which we always thought was marketing lingo...but the kind of effort Sarah puts into supporting her clients' process is indeed of a fighting spirit. It's dogged and doesn't waste a minute of anyone's time. She was always available to us. She did her best to think like us when looking at options but also to educate us when we needed. When Sarah takes on a client she becomes an unconditional ally, teacher, and resource of expertise. We couldn't recommend her more! read more

Sarah and her realty partner at Thornwall, Colleen Larkin, sold our Berkeley home of 17 years last October. We interviewed two other companies before going with Thornwall. We were very impressed with the extra thorough and informative presentation they provided - much more in depth than the other companies. At every step of the process, they took care of all the details, knew just the right person to use for preparing the house for sale, and made an extremely emotional experience for us quite effortless and painless. Our home was staged beautifully, shown to hundreds of prospective buyers, and sold for all cash, with multiple offers, substantially over asking price within 10 days of listing and had a 13 day close of escrow with no contingencies. The experience could not have been more smooth and pleasant. We highly recommend Sarah and Colleen! read more

We were not the easiest people to work with: we were first time home buyers, total wafflers, frequently available only at funny times, and often toting a toddler. Sarah guided us into a home that exceeded our every expectation. She listened to us patiently, answered our questions, and helped us to learn from the sudden reversals in course we made as our search progressed (we kept changing our minds on neighborhoods, school districts, priorities, etc). She was always honest ("I smell mold in that basement, and you will hate parking there, but if you love it let's get it inspected" she told us of a home we liked early on, "this bid is too low, but worth a shot if you want to try" "that bid feels about right, but it's a tough market"). When we finally knew what we needed and made a bid on what seemed like a dream house to us, we lost the bid by a few thousand dollars. Sarah tapped into her network of fellow realtors to find an off-market home a block away (we were super committed to a particular neighborhood at this point). Our new home is in the same price range, better maintained, and gorgeous. We settled in last week and couldn't be happier. The only downside of finding such a perfect home is that we will miss seeing Sarah on a regular basis. She is a remarkable person. Most realtors have seen a lot of homes and various set-ups, so remodeling and decorating advice are likely a given. But Sarah also knows everything about Bay Area architectural history, construction, landscaping, schools, micro-neighborhoods, drainage, botany, and the list goes on. She's also quick to identify things she doesn't know and investigate them. She would get curious and have a string of questions at the ready, long before a single question or concern had occurred to us. We learned so much from her. You will be well served, well educated, and downright lucky, to have Sarah as your realtor. read more

Working with Sarah and the Gals at Thornwall Reality has restored my faith in this profession. I have a number of bad experiences over the years buying and selling houses. Many times I felt that the only thing that mattered to other agents I had previously worked with was getting deals done regardless of the cost. With Sarah it was different. She approached the selling our home from a realistic point of view and was honest about the market and what our home would fetch. It was refreshing to feel as if I had someone looking out for my interest. read more

I cannot say enough wonderful things about Sarah! She represented us as sellers earlier this summer and we are so pleased that she was our realtor. We had interviewed a few realtors before deciding on one and when we met Sarah, we knew she was the one. She is knowledgeable, honest, ethical, strategic, determined, confident, a problem-solver, and quick responder. We moved out of our home prior to putting it on the market and she took care of EVERYTHING! When I say everything, I mean everything. Selling your home can be stressful and overwhelming (especially when you no longer live in the area), but we can honestly say that was not our experience at all. She thoroughly explained and reassured us through each step of the process. When we ran into issues, she was quick to come up with well thought out solutions. She is truly phenomenal! In the end, we received offers well over asking and closed quickly. Sarah was such a pleasure to work with and we really wish she was in Southern California, so she could represent us as buyers here too. We give her our highest recommendation!m read more

I can't speak highly enough about Sarah, and would recommend her to anyone looking to buy in the Bay Area. As first time home buyers with very specific needs, Sarah somehow managed to help us find a place that met all the criteria on our "wish" list. Throughout the process, she was patient, realistic, compassionate, and always responsive. Her relationships with other agents, vendors, and connections to the community made such a difference, and her husband Nick's perspective about structural issues was invaluable. read more

We worked with Sarah for one year to find a home in Berkeley. We were not the easiest clients to appease, but Sarah stood by our side throughout the search. She is incredibly knowledgeable, well-connected, and does not hesitate to get her hands dirty. Sarah made a point to check every foundation and always looked in the crawl spaces to inspect the bones of the houses. She has a great historical knowledge of the area and provided so much guidance to us during our search. Sarah is also an expert on plants! She is super communicative - we could reach her at all times, and she was always able to meet us on short notice. She has handled the COVID restrictions very professionally, and again with a lot of information, support, and guidance. We will really miss seeing Sarah so regularly. Even after purchasing our home, she continues to be a wealth of knowledge and has provided many resources and local contacts. We cannot recommend her enough! read more

Sarah was recommended to us by a friend and we can't say enough good things about our experience with her ! As first-time home buyers in the Bay Area we were pretty nervous when the process started. However Sarah took the time to walk us through the entire process, connected us to a great lender and spent time doing detailed walkthroughs on various properties. When it finally came time to make an offer she provided us data to make us comfortable with our final number and neighborhood. We really enjoyed working with her and highly recommend Sarah and Thornwall for anyone looking to purchase a home in the East Bay ! read more

sarah ridge unfortunately is only one person. if she weren't ( and she thinks she's not ) i would recommend her to all my friends. she stuck with me for just about a year to find my home. went the extra everything and in the end became a friend. highly recommended and addictive. read more

I can't say enough wonderful things about Sarah, and recommend her without hesitation! She's knowledgable, caring, and tenacious, and we greatly appreciated how straightforward she was with from start to finish. We'd work with her again in a heartbeat, and recommend her to anyone looking for someone to help them navigate this ridiculous market. We had been working with another agent for without much success, and decided to get in touch with Sarah. We had our eye on a specific property in Berkeley, and Sarah sprung into action to be sure we could get our questions answered in time to make an offer. Within 48 hours of first connecting with us, she'd set up a free walk through with a fantastic contractor to help us get an idea of whether the changes we had in mind were feasible, and what they'd cost us. The house ultimately went for way over asking (almost exactly what Sarah thought it would!), which was above our comfort level. She immediately worked with us to put together a bid on another place that was due the following day. We know without a doubt that her care in presenting our offer and her reputation played a big part in the strength of our offer. Her honest appraisal of what she thought the property would go for was once again spot on, and this time our offer was accepted. As first-time buyers, we weren't sure what to expect in the following days and weeks, but Sarah was in near-constant communication with everyone involved to be sure everything went smoothly. In addition to supporting us through a smooth 25-day close, she also helped us get started planning renovations that will be completed before we move in. She was amazing about getting us recommendations, and met us at the house multiple times to meet with potential contractors. Once, she even brought along her husband, who is a framing contractor, to get his perspective on some work that needed to be done. So far, we've loved everyone she has recommended to us, and are well positioned to get the work done on our accelerated timeline. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Sarah was wonderful in helping us navigate the difficult (and ever-changing!) emotions that come with home buying. She was always supportive, kind, and a great listener--it felt like we were working with a real friend, not just a good realtor! read more

Before meeting Sarah, we had spent six months looking to buy a home in the east bay with no success. Dejected, we gave up our search. Enter Sarah, who was recommended by a colleague at work. She changed everything. Sarah has deep, extensive knowledge of the east bay, the real estate market, and construction (her husband is a contractor). She is out there pounding the pavement, going to see properties and vetting them for her clients. Instead of us having to comb through listings online, Sarah would send us properties she had already seen and knew would be interesting to us. She worked around our schedules, visited us at our house when it was more convenient for us, and was always available to show us properties when it worked for us. She also seemingly knows everyone! We relied on her advice at every turn, and she didn't let us down. Ultimately, she helped us find our home in a crazy market and also at a crazy time in our lives, and it's a home that is perfect for our family right now. Thank you Sarah! read more

My husband and I recently purchased a condo in Oakland while living in New England and Sarah shepherded us through the process with remarkable patience, grace, and skill, taking the challenges of working with clients from a distance of 3000 miles in stride. She took us to see enough properties when we were in town so that we--and she--could figure out what appealed to us and let us know whenever a plausible candidate came on the market. When we identified a listing that we thought sounded appealing, she didn't hesitate to go and check it out in person, sending us photos, videos, and her invaluable commentary. Sarah let us know if she thought the place was too cramped or shoddily built or not as attractive as the photos on line suggested. When it was (finally) time to make an offer, she handled the seller and the seller's agent tactfully and effectively. And Sarah wasn't done with us as soon as she received her commission: she supplied referrals to electricians, painters, a handyman, whoever and whatever we needed to get our place in shape. Sarah knows the market, the community, buildings, and how to deal with people. When it comes time to sell our condo, which I hope won't happen for a good long time, I know to whom I will turn! read more

We are first time home buyers and have been Sarah's clients for over a year at this point. Not enough can be said about the amazing value Sarah brings to the house hunt process. We are one of those clients who are not rushed by circumstances and want to take our own sweet time feeling out the market and buying a house that's really right for us, and Sarah has been amazingly patient, very resourceful and a dependable advisor for us over the last year or so. She not only has a tremendous amount of knowledge about construction, neighborhoods, realtors in east bay etc, she also has a sense of intuition that is almost gifted. There have been many occasions where we were lured by shiny superficial elements of a property when Sarah's gut feeling says otherwise. On each of those occasions, her intuition is corroborated by the house inspection. Despite us being her clients for over a year, she doesn't hesitate to tell us when a property is not right for us! She is a cut above any other agent we have come across in the last year and half. I would HIGHLY recommend her! read more

I was lucky enough to be referred to Sarah through a friend last year, and after working closely with Sarah for several months, we successfully closed on a dream house this summer. My husband and I are so very grateful that we worked with Sarah. Finding the right real estate agent is so important because it shapes the neighborhoods you look in and the type of house you think will fit your needs, and if you don't have a great personal connection with your agent, it can make everything else in the process that much more stressful. Sarah was a dream to work with and I'm saying that as an extremely picky person. What I specifically appreciated about her approach is that she authentically knows East Bay as someone who has lived there her whole life; she has the history of the neighborhoods, even the streets. I remember we visited one house in Oakland and when we came to a specific street, she described in detail why it was given that name, what type of neighborhood it was situated in, and what type of future development and growth we could expect in that area. One of the most important features, however, is her in-depth and near expert knowledge of the foundations and internal structures of homes. I think I appreciated that the most. My husband and I are not local to California, I have no idea how earthquake prevention maintenance works, and if you're buying out in East Bay, it really does need to be top of mind. We saw one house that I really liked, and I couldn't understand why it was such a good "deal". Sarah started investigating the foundations of the house- because really, that's what matters, everything else is furniture decor - and she called out that it was made of a foundation that, if not treated, would be dangerous in earthquakes. It was those moments that my husband and I were so grateful that we were with the right agent, who was not interested in pushing us to any particular house but really wanted us in the best, safest option for our needs. We ended up getting a house a bit farther out of East Bay, and even though it wasn't in Sarah's typical area of coverage we asked her to be our agent because we enjoyed working with her so much. I can recommend her without hesitation. read more

I almost don't know where to start. When my fiancee Lisa and I decided to start looking at houses for our first ever purchase, we assumed it would be a very long search, so we made the mistake of starting before finding a Realtor. And of course we found the perfect home at one of the first open houses we attended! We felt like there was no way we could get things together in time to get in an offer, but we decided it was time to find a Realtor anyway. After a little online research, Lisa connected with Sarah. Sarah offered to come meet us at our place to get to know us and what we're looking for. It was immediately apparent that she really cared about what is best for us and that we felt as comfortable as possible with our first home purchasing process. Long story short, Sarah got us the house, and we weren't even the highest bid! Throughout the entire process, she constantly checked in to make sure that the rushed purchase was what we wanted and let us know that it would be absolutely okay to instead take our time to find the perfect house with her. We ultimately decided that we would likely later regret not putting in an offer on this house, so we decided to go for it. Sarah connected us with a really great mortgage broker and home inspector who were able to accommodate the tight timeline for the purchase, and she worked seamlessly with our mortgage broker, title company, and negotiations with the seller's agent. Sarah also displayed a great amount of knowledge and experience with many types of contractors, which was really helpful when it came time to think over the implications of things that came up in the inspection, and she even found us a bid on mandatory sewer lateral work that will save us $5,000! Most importantly, Sarah continued to check in with us throughout every step, never pushing forward until she felt that we understood everything and felt comfortable. She was always supportive and very good at sensing how we were feeling without us even needing to say anything! Sarah had really clear answers to all of our questions, and on the rare occasion she didn't have an answer she knew exactly who to call and would have an answer almost immediately. This is something that I value so much, because there often seems to be pressure to know absolutely everything in your field (which is completely unrealistic), and this can result in misinformation when someone feels they need to give a confident answer even if they aren't 100% sure. Because I am a very cautious and careful person, I definitely wouldn't say that this rushed first home purchase was stress-free, but I can't imagine anyone doing a better job than Sarah did at guiding us through the process and making this happen for us! We were so lucky to find her, and I can't recommend her highly enough!! read more

We felt thrilled and terrified entering the East Bay housing market after renting and raising a family in Albany for 12 years. Sarah was the perfect guide: she genuinely likes people and their unique stories; she helped us keep the big picture in mind, while also preparing us step by step. In Sarah, we had a friend by our side. She returns texts and calls same day, so we'd be able to see houses at those odd times when my husband was also available. When we found the right house, we felt well-prepared, and confident in writing a winning offer on our first try. And now we love our home! Sarah offered an unbelievably high level of customer service, and we always felt we knew what was coming before it happened, and understood what was going on and why. She also connected us with other excellent colleagues to help along the way: after doing our own comparison shopping, we ended up using the loan broker, and home inspector that she recommended. We felt we had a terrific (and very fun) team captain in Sarah. In addition to her trustworthiness and integrity, she's competitive in a positive way: she genuinely wanted to help us be successful--and she did! We hope to keep her in our lives! read more