Specialties
Senior Real Estate Specialist
Education
Long Beach, California
B.S.N., Nursing, January 1975
Texas Women's University
Houston, Texas
M.S.N., Psychiatrc Nursing, August 1978
Mental Health Commissioner, District 1
Contra Costa County
Member Soroptimist International, El Cerrito since 1988
Geri Stern, a seasoned real estate professional with over 30 years of realtor expertise and a background as a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, excels as a skilled Project Manager. Specializing in Residential, Luxury, Condominium, and Investment properties in the East Bay, Geri ensures her clients' success through a principled and knowledgeable approach.
Originally hailing from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Geri’s life has been a busy one. Her career as a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner lasted 15 years and spanned a few states, including Nevada, Colorado, and Texas. California always beckoned and Geri came back and began her Real Estate career in 1988, (Nursing burn-out!). During all those years, Geri filled her leisure hours with a multitude of sports, including skiing, horseback riding, tennis, swimming, hiking, and golf. Since arriving back in California, Geri has been an active participant in local Community affairs and service groups.
Geri’s keen understanding of people, family/ group dynamics give her an edge in understanding the complexities of what goes into the sale and purchase of Real Estate. Buying a house is an emotional experience and Geri can be supportive and guide clients through the emotional maze that ultimately leads to a purchase or a sale. Sometimes it’s a roller coaster of feelings and Buyers and Sellers need a steady hand to help them stick the landing!
Teaming up with Carla Della Zoppa in 1996, "The Hardest Working Women In Real Estate," Geri offers a comprehensive experience. They've successfully remodeled hundreds of East Bay homes, backed by a skilled team of Designers, Contractors, and stagers with high ethical standards. Geri's expertise extends to renovating previously distressed and neglected homes, showcasing her commitment to transforming properties into stunning residences.
Through her personalized care, attention to detail, her commitment shines through. Geri educates and advises clients, ensuring their needs are met from property selection to closing. Geri's dual professional advantage, coupled with Carla's collaboration, creates a seamless and exceptional real estate journey.
Clients appreciate Geri's personal touches, genuine commitment, and immediate accessibility, making her an invaluable resource. With Geri, each client not only meets but exceeds their real estate goals, enjoying a sophisticated and first-class experience.
My family worked with Geri Stern at Compass Reality to sell my mother's house which was part of her trust. This house was a family homestead for 58 years, we had stake in knowing the next buyer would value the house and our family would reap the benefit of a top dollar sale. We were more than impressed with the outcome. There are many decision points when selling real estate, each one may have a cost. With Geri's 30 years experience we could navigate the best time to place the house on the market, the decision points regarding areas to improve or which to leave. Geri put time and effort into providing a proposed project list of how (which methodology) she would use for successful sale of the house including expected time frames. Once she contracted to work with our trust we had her full attention. She became the project manager of all aspects including coordination of repair, upgrades, and inspections and was on site overseeing the work was completed timely and properly and kept our trust administrator updated with work status.
I can state, once Geri is on the job, her energy is 100% focused, she has a clear vision and experience of what makes a successful outcome, enjoys the process, ensures all areas of action are completed timely and accurately and she follows through to the end.
Our family was thrilled with the job that Geri Stern did in listing and selling our home. She was professional and knowledgeable, flexible and understanding, and above all, she was successful! Our home sold for nearly 12% more than our asking price, and it closed escrow just 35 days after it was first listed. Our home had been the family home for 48 years, and aging parents had necessitated our vacating and selling the property. With all of those years of memories, and all of the actual stuff that had accumulated through the nearly five decades, it was an overwhelming task for our family to go through everything and to get the house ready for market. Geri recommended, and we used, and estate sale expert who not only helped sort through and sell all of the things that we did not want, but she managed to make us money in the process. We had originally thought we might end up having to pay the estate sale person something if our sales didn’t cover her fees; but we ended up clearing quite a bit, largely due to her expertise, as well as to how seamlessly she worked with both Geri and with us as she sorted through everything and prepared for the estate sale. Following the estate sale, Geri expertly guided us through just the right renovations and touches to the home to make it more appealing on today’s market, and she assisted us in getting a line of credit, which was paid back out of escrow. She also met with and supervised all workers on the premises throughout the time that work was being done (which was just over one month, start to finish).
We were so pleased with Geri, with how connected she is to all of the people that help to get a house ready for sale, and with how expertly she handled the open houses and the reading of offers, as well with how deftly she handled all of the last-minute details of getting the escrow closed and recorded.
We highly recommend her to you.
The Schaefer Family
We can enthusiastically recommend Geri Stern as a Real Estate agent.
She just sold our California house and we were really happy with the results. (We live out of the country).
In her agent role, she played many other ones as well:
Project manager, interior decorator, vendor-whisperer, psychologist, and pragmatist.
She talked us down from the ledge a couple of times when situations would arise—dispelling our anxiety with her clear and concrete quick-thinking and stellar problem-solving. Because we do not live in the area, Geri managed the entire project for us and did so beautifully.
We were able very quickly to build a relationship of trust and confidence which made all the other decisions so much easier down the line.
If you want to sell a house in Northern California, you would definitely want Geri by your side!
Emily and Brad
We moved to Berkeley, California from New York City knowing almost nothing about the real estate market except that it was very competitive. Geri knows this landscape like the back of her hand. It was hard for us to assimilate the sky-high prices and she didn't sugarcoat the situation. She guided us toward a very satisfying conclusion. We found a truly lovely home, perfectly situated for our needs. But that was just the beginning. The house needed work and required expert construction and repair people, but we had to return to work on the east coast. Geri found all the right people, scheduled them, oversaw the whole production, and made sure the house was in great shape when we moved in. We have since recommended her to others we know looking to relocate and will continue to do so. If you want a no-nonsense professional who will help you realize your landed dreams, don't hesitate!
Katherine N.
The plan was to put the house on the market on March 18, probably the worst time in the last decade. Two days earlier the governor declared shelter in place. And yet thanks to Geri's calm guidance and almost daily updates on what's allowed and isn't, by April 15 we had 6 interested buyers and 3 solid offers. We closed on May 8! From the very beginning of our work with Geri, I was impressed with her organizational skills and her sensitivity to our needs. She helped us navigate the needed changes to make the house more attractive to buyers, and connected us to her vast networks of professionals, while still encouraging us to make the final decision about where we wanted to spend our money. She was on top of the different professionals making sure that the house was ready on time. Overall, we feel like we had a very good experience and happily recommend Geri to any of our friends who look at buying or selling a house.”
-Dror Matalon and Monica Frame
"Geri Stern has my highest praise and gratitude for helping me at a very sad episode in my life. A dear friend died unexpectedly and as the administrator of her estate, I was tasked with selling her home. Over the years Geri has helped my family with numerous real estate endeavors and she has always worked tirelessly to ensure a wonderful outcome.
She is a splendid mix of professionalism and kindness. I was able to relax in the knowledge that Geri would take of everything, and she did - right down to the smallest of details! My friend’s house sold very quickly and well above the asking price. Geri also helped me with all the complex issues that arise from a probate situation. She works closely with a team of contractors, gardeners, stagers, and cleaners who like her and enjoys the projects.
- Angela M.
"I'd owned a 4-plex for 33 years; it was time to sell, but I didn't know how to begin. I'd gotten many realtor solicitations, but Geri's got my attention and I contacted her. It was the best decision I could have made. She guided me gently but firmly through the prep process, listed the property for the amount I hoped for, and quickly got 21 offers, one of which was $300k over my asking price. Wow! She's extremely knowledgeable, very smart, always pleasant and cheerful, always available and reliable. Post-sale, she guided me through the 1031 exchange process and helped me buy a replacement property. She's continued as a friend. Highest recommendation."
- Peter Fisher
"Geri helped our family through some tough times in Spring 2022 when it was time to sell the family home where our parents had lived for almost 60 years. Since interest rates were increasing very quickly, it was great that she was able to quickly bring in contractors to fix up the house in less than one month, and then have it ready to sell one week later. Given the 2022 housing market, this was a great benefit, as her upgrades, pricing and showing of the property brought in an all-cash offer way above the listing price in less than 2 weeks and the sale closed 10 days after the offer was accepted.
One thing Geri did that both moved the sale forward and gave us a great sale price was that she also managed significant home improvements so that it showed better than expected. Her project improvements included selected new flooring, carpet, hardwood floor refinishing, lighting, appliances and hardware for kitchen and baths, and even a new front door. Geri also oversaw garage door replacement, supervising deck repairs/improvements, and brought in a gardener to improve the garden design. She made sure that the whole house had new paint to really open up the rooms for showing as a much bigger house than ever before. The listings she created for a variety of sites included a Matterport virtual tour, floor plan, and excellent daylight and twilight photos. As we told her, it looked so good, we were almost reluctant to sell the place, but the outcome was great, and we hope the new owners enjoy it. We would use Geri again."
-Jim Dycus
"We highly recommend Geri! She assisted us in selling our home and buying another. She was very professional, knowledgeable, personable, and attentive. We were also impressed with her availability and the timelines of her responses."
-Terry Kotsatos (Buyer+Seller)
Thank you for taking care of us thru this process. You do a spectacular job. We think you are amazing. Thank you for all the kind words. Carl is already more relaxed and feels like he can move forward now.
We have valued your friendship since we first used your services for Trese’s family home in Everett.
Looking forward to our next project in the coming months.
Two years ago when I decided to buy a house, I asked Geri to represent me. Having grown up in this area, I knew exactly which neighborhood appealed to me. Geri understood my growing frustration over a seven month search in a particularly brutal seller's market with limited inventory. With Geri's guidance, I had already lined up my financing so that I could move quickly when the time came and it did. Geri helped me structure an offer that the seller could not refuse and I bought my house. Before I moved into the house, I wanted to remodel the kitchen and family room. Geri recommended an outstanding contractor to do the renovation.
After I settled into my new house, I asked Geri to help me sell my old home. Assuring me that I had left a very light footprint there after 25 years, she arranged for a few cosmetic updates before holding the first open house and then surprised me with a report of having received multiple offers. She agreed with my decision to make a counter offer to the second highest bidder, who had a much shorter close of escrow. The buyer accepted and we closed the sale.
Two home sales and one home purchase later, I can reflect with hindsight on what worked so successfully each time. Geri's extensive experience in the east bay real estate market and her strong work ethic are a winning combination, but what really sets her apart is her enormous heart and her empathy for each client's particular situation and life stage. If life is not a rehearsal, neither is a home sale or purchase. Many of us will only have one opportunity to get it right and Geri makes sure that we do.