About Luba: Testimonials Aaron & Renee “Luba sold our SoMa condo FAST!” Luba definitely made the selling process smooth and easy for us! We still can't believe she helped us sell our SoMa condo in a market with tons of inventory in less than a month! The staging was beautiful! And the photos of the unit were some of the best we've seen compared to others on the Internet. We'll definitely recommend Luba to friends and family who are looking for an agent who takes care of everything during the selling process and beyond. Thank you! Bella Luba Sold My Run Down Mixed Use Building in 6 Days for $275K Over the Asking Price I wasn't sure about the demand for mixed use properties considering the current state of the mortgage market. However, Luba was convinced that she would be ableto sell my property at Castro and Jersey with ease and at a high price. Luba marketed the property brilliantly, and created a buzz around it that got me a strong preemptive offer the very first day on the market. But Luba recommended that I not take the first offer that came along, and instead, wait a few more days and wait to see if I could get an even better offer. I ended up getting 10 offers on the property, with 3 of them well above $200K over the asking price. Luba helped me to look at the strong points of each offer and guided me so that I chose the offer that was best in BOTH terms and price. I would highly recommend Luba to anyone I know that is either selling OR buying a home. She is competent, has a high standard of ethics, but above all else, she cares about her clients, and it showed in the way she treated me, in the way she took the time to communicate with me an answer all of my questions and in the way she followed up with me after the sale to make sure that I was still happy. If you're looking for a good agent that will take care of you, look no further. Give Luba a call - tell her I sent you! Chris & Kelly “Luba made buying our TIC purchase pain free!” Moving out to the Bay Area from the Midwest presents many challenges for a first time homebuyer and maybe more for their realtor. Bagging the whole thing in favor of renting a place at times felt more manageable than acquainting ourselves with the intricacies of the San Francisco market—and may be the first thing you should discuss. Thankfully, on a sunny Noe Valley Saturday we stumbled into a Zephyr office and found an awesome advocate and advice-giver on our behalf, Luba Muzichenko! Luba made no assumptions, answered our questions, and patiently listened to us from day one to the day we got the keys to our new place. Being a naïve young couple, we had a ton of questions about neighborhoods, budgets, and needs over wants. What the hell is a TIC (and why should I care about the stipulations)? might be a good second question, if you’re completely in the dark like we were about the SF housing market. Or even if you’re familiar, Luba can answer the questions you didn’t even know you should ask. And when she didn’t know, she sought out the answer. Most importantly, Luba responded honestly to us when we asked what she thought, so the process doesn’t have to feel like sales. We never felt pressured, and agreed Luba tells it like it is—whether she thought a property was overpriced, Ellis acted, or had a screaming red-flag for another reason—all the insides and outs we needed to know. Patience and objectiveness come to the top of the mind as qualities best suited for advice. Before investing the time and emotion into a place, you want to get a good idea to get some background, history, or something you wouldn’t otherwise know at first glance. Or second. Or third. With Luba, information exchange occurred around the clock—sending responses to our questions way after ‘office hours’, checking updated crime maps, notifying us about a change in market (often on a daily basis) made us depend on her, and also made us feel like we were a top priority. During our search for the right place, we learned that house hunting is definitely a hot-and-cold process, and once we found the right place, that process sped up about 300%. During the peaks and valleys of searching, Luba was incredibly flexible with our schedules to show us places (which typically involved late nights and weekends) and also do the research behind places so we didn’t waste any of our time viewing places that weren’t for us. Her persistence and time management definitely helped us with ours and when we needed to move forward in securing our place, she made it work on both a timely and comfortable schedule. Willing to make sure we were completely confident during our inspection, she insisted “If you want it, I can get it” including (if we asked for it) a pool inspector for our yard that had no pool. Sounds funny, but this is the kind of realtor you want that will make sure you have no doubts about what you’re getting into, whether it’s a tiny studio or a 5-bedroom mansion. Don & Renee "Luba made a cross-country purchase easy!" We fell in love with San Francisco during our first visit. We had known that we would need to relocate from our home on the East Coast to the West Coast in the coming year, and after spending time in San Francisco we realized the city was perfect for us. We wanted a loft and loved the Haight-Ashbury area, so Theatre Lofts at 560 Haight caught our attention. Thinking our chances of getting one of those lofts were slim, we visited some Victorians in the area to see if one could work for us and happened to meet Luba at an open house. As we chatted, we were impressed by her energy and how quickly she understood our needs. We exchanged contact information and returned to New York the next day. By the time we landed, Luba had already compiled a list of all the available lofts in the city, as well as links to reviews of neighborhoods to be sure we knew of all the possibilities. She kept us updated on all of our options and helped us understand the unique benefits of living in each of the different areas of the city. We became much better educated buyers and now knew Theatre Lofts were a must-have. And Luba understood. She took the unusual step of contacting everyone in the building to let them know that potential buyers were available. After a few anticipatory days, a listing agent contacted Luba! The seller wanted to close quickly and off market, and after seeing pictures, we did too! But, we knew nothing about buying a property, had no time to learn, and were living on the other side of the country. Luba shifted into high gear - she submitted all the necessary documents and made sure that we met all deadlines, coached us through working with our New York lender, and always kept us updated. She made sure we understood every step of the process, and she quickly and cheerfully responded to all of our first-time home-buyer questions. She guided us through crafting a compelling offer that had everything the sellers wanted and extra touches that we're sure impressed them... and our offer was accepted! We were ecstatic but wholly unprepared for the subsequent mountain of paperwork that buyers must read, understand, sign and submit. Luba guided us through it all - adept at translating the legalese into English, highlighting passages we should note, and scanning everything for important information. Luba, through her organization, knowledge, and contacts, enabled us to tour, have inspected, craft an offer, submit all the documents and remove contingencies within 10 days. But what is perhaps most amazing is that she also arranged everything so that during this entire process we needed to spend less week in San Francisco! After we returned to NY, she kept things moving by electronically sending documents to us to sign and coordinating with our lender, the title company, and the seller's agent. Before we knew it, we had closed on time and the place was ours! Ever after the sale, Luba helped us find a builder and suppliers for remodeling. She knows how to get everything done, from the momentous to the minute, all while being patient and enthusiastic. She's a wonderful communicator and a strong ally, and she made buying our home easy, enjoyable, and thoroughly rewarding! Diana & Polly “We couldn’t have done it without Luba!” We met Luba at an open house she was covering. We knew right after meeting her that we didn't need to find anyone else that could be our realtor. She was knowledgeable, approachable, and treated us like she'd known us all our lives. Within 2 months of developing our relationship, we closed escrow on our new home. During the home-buying process, Luba consistently went out of her way to go above and beyond. She carted us around to so many properties that we lost count. But one weekend, she showed us 21 properties. We’d guess that’s a record! When we finally found our place, our busy work schedule almost kept us from writing an offer on it, but Luba was willing to work around our work demands. Luba came to our home late at night to write the offer, and stayed until well past midnight. She went through each and every (painful) disclosure and made sure we understood it, to avoid surprises and evil purchase story nightmares. She was so familiar with the legal jargon, that she not only interpreted it, but communicated it to us in a way we understood. Luba was also able to identify potential risks and "hazy" areas that could lead to more trouble down the road (bug inspections, not sesimically upgraded, work done w/o permits). With Luba, the process was as painless as it could be, and most importantly, it was successful. Luba's knowledge of the area, the market, and perfection of the purchasing process led to a pleasurable home-buying experience. She made the purchase of our first home efficient, enjoyable, and successful. We couldn't have done it without you! Amir "Highly Recommended!" Luba helped me purchased my first home in San Francisco and she was exceptional in every way. Showed me properties that I was interested in, worked around the clock, gave me input and advice on TIC vs Condo, and hooked me up with an awesome mortgage broker. Highly recommended! Rebecca "Luba provides great support to home buyers" Buying a home can be very stressful. When you add to that moving to a new city and working in a high stress, damanding job, buying a home can be difficult. I lucked out and stumbled on Luba's blog one day and asked her a question related to the blog. Without any commitment on my part, she took the time and several email exchanges to fully answer my question and help me understand the probate sales market. As this impressed me, I decided to ask her to meet me to discuss the San Fran housing market, in general. Luba has proven to be very helpful and to have good advice, but not to be "pushy." As I already work in a stressful environment, I want my purchase of a home to be as stress free as possible and to "feel right." Luba was great about checking in with me to see if I had made a decision without making it mandatory that I do so. I fully admit to being one of those non-trusting people that asks questions just to see how someone will respond and I was pleased that Luba was always focused on what was important to me. Even better, once I closed escrow on my condo, Luba reminded me that I wanted to schedule a handyman to do some repairs and even made sure she was there when I met with him for the first time. My upgrades/repairs are hardly Luba's responsibility, yet she knew it was important to me and made sure I had every opportunity to schedule the appointments on time. Whether a first time home owner or a "jaded" buyer, Luba will do what she can to make the process as easy as possible.