Real Estate Agent, East Bay Area

Buying and Selling Across the East Bay

Old Home Specialist

Working Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Piedmont, Lafayette, Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill and surrounding East Bay communities including San Francisco and San Mateo County for buyers, sellers, and people relocating.

  • 106Homes sold
  • $100M+In homes sold
  • 5.0 ★67 reviews, Zillow + Google
  • Top 1.5%RealTrends Verified, 2026
  • MCNEMaster Certified Negotiation Expert
  • 10+ yearsFull-service Realtor®

Why this works

Marketing is the part most agents skip

Listing a home puts it on the MLS and waits for someone else to bring a buyer. That is where most of the business stops. The homes that sell for more are the ones that get shown to the right people, in the right places, before the sign ever goes up.

The East Bay shoreline and hills seen from Treasure Island

How buyers actually find you

Relevancy, recency, proximity

Three things decide whether marketing reaches the person who is actually ready to move. Every page on this site is built to hit all three at once, which is why there is a page for each neighborhood and each situation instead of one page trying to cover everything.

Relevancy
Written for one situation at a time. A first-time buyer and someone settling a parent's estate are not the same person and should not read the same page.
Recency
Kept current. Market conditions from eighteen months ago are not information, they are decoration.
Proximity
Specific to the street, not the county. Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Piedmont and the neighborhoods inside them.

Position. Impact. Conversion.

The E.P.I.C. framework

Four pillars on every home we take. Not a checklist of things agents are supposed to do, an argument for why your home ends up being the obvious choice on the market.

  1. Equity

    Not a CMA. Where you actually stand in the data market, the negotiation market, and the buyer's mind, so you are leading the market instead of reacting to it.

  2. Presentation

    Perception creates value, so we control the narrative. Photography, video and copy engineered before anything goes public, for a buyer deciding with their thumb.

  3. Impact

    We do not just market, we dominate. Targeted campaigns that put your home in front of thousands who were not searching yet, instead of hoping the MLS does the work.

  4. Campaign

    You do not list a home, you launch it. Pre-launch buzz, a timed calendar, and offer sequencing, because the first week is the week you never get back.

Buying instead?

The R.E.A.L. framework

Most agents start by showing you houses. We start by getting you ready to win one, because the buyer who gets the good house is almost never the one who saw it first.

  1. Ready

    Pre-approved and represented before we tour anything, so you can act the day the right one appears instead of scrambling.

  2. Educated

    What your money actually buys here, honestly, before you fall in love with something out of range.

  3. Aligned

    Fewer homes, and better ones. We build the search on your real criteria and give you an honest verdict on each one.

  4. Locked

    Offer strategy, inspections, financing and closing, run so the ending is boring.

Read the whole buying process, step by step

The situation you are actually in

Different circumstances, different plans

The fundamentals do not change. The sequence, the timing and how much coordination it takes change completely. Start where you actually are.

01 / SELLING YOUR HOME

Most agents list your home and hope

Most agents list your home and hope. I market it every minute of the day, and I read your home's real condition before problems become surprises.

02 / DOWNSIZING

For sellers moving to their next phase of life, whether that's less house, closer to family, or simply a new chapter

For sellers moving to their next phase of life, whether that's less house, closer to family, or simply a new chapter.

03 / SELLING A HOME DURING DIVORCE

RCS-D and CREDS certified for divorce and estate sales, a documented, protective advocate through one of the hardest transactions a client will make

RCS-D and CREDS certified for divorce and estate sales, a documented, protective advocate through one of the hardest transactions a client will make.

04 / PROBATE AND TRUST SALES

Real experience selling a family home after a parent's passing, handled with the compassion those situations actually need

Real experience selling a family home after a parent's passing, handled with the compassion those situations actually need.

05 / WHAT YOUR HOME IS WORTH

Real comps and real data for your specific street, not a city-wide average

Real comps and real data for your specific street, not a city-wide average. The way I told one seller we could get more, and her home sold well above asking.

06 / BUYING A HOME

There's no dumb question here

There's no dumb question here. I walk you through every step, and I catch what's really wrong with a house before you fall for a money pit.

07 / LUXURY HOMES

Buying a luxury home in the East Bay: the neighborhoods, the hillside details, and support from first search through closing

Buying a luxury home in the East Bay: the neighborhoods, the hillside details, and support from first search through closing.

08 / FIRST-TIME BUYERS

No question is a dumb question

No question is a dumb question. I walk first-time buyers through every step, judgment-free.

9 areas. 11 situations. One person who has done all of it before.

Where I work

Markets I Specialize In

Oakland

Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay, a place with real geography working in its favor: hills on one side, the water on the other, and a skyline view of San Francisco right across the Bay.

Explore Oakland →

Berkeley

Berkeley sits right against the Bay, climbing from the shoreline up into the hills, with the University of California campus anchoring the city's center.

Explore Berkeley →

Alameda

Alameda is an island city in the middle of the Bay, connected to Oakland by a handful of bridges and tubes, with San Francisco visible right across the water.

Explore Alameda →

Lafayette

Lafayette sits in a valley in the Contra Costa hills, just east of the Caldecott Tunnel, with a small-town downtown surrounded by wooded, hillside neighborhoods.

Explore Lafayette →

Walnut Creek

Walnut Creek sits in the valley below Mount Diablo, where Interstate 680 and Highway 24 meet, which makes it one of the most connected cities in the East Bay.

Explore Walnut Creek →

Pleasant Hill

Pleasant Hill sits in the middle of Contra Costa County, between Walnut Creek, Concord, Martinez, and Lafayette, with Interstate 680 on its east side and Highway 24 a few minutes south.

Explore Pleasant Hill →

San Francisco

San Francisco sits just across the Bay, a compact 7-by-7-mile city surrounded by water on three sides, its hills giving almost every neighborhood its own microclimate and its own view.

Explore San Francisco →

Piedmont

Piedmont is a small, independent city completely surrounded by Oakland, just over 1.5 square miles of hillside streets a few minutes from downtown.

Explore Piedmont →

San Leandro

San Leandro sits just south of Oakland along the Bay, one of the East Bay's oldest towns, with a historic downtown, a long shoreline, and hills rising toward Lake Chabot.

Explore San Leandro →

Who We Are

Tanja Odzak brings more than a decade of real estate experience, sophisticated marketing, and skilled negotiation to clients throughout the East Bay. She has sold 106 homes, more than $100 million in all, and was named a RealTrends Verified Top 1.5% Realtor® nationwide in 2026 and an eXp Realty Top 100 California Producer in 2025.

Raised in a family of real estate investors, Tanja developed an early understanding of homeownership, renovations, and rental properties. She later earned a Bachelor of Science from UC Berkeley and a Master of Science from UC Davis. That scientific training informs her work today: she studies the data, recognizes patterns, and gives clients clear guidance for consequential decisions.

As a Master Digital Marketer, Tanja pairs targeted advertising and market analysis with nearly seven years of consistent real estate video marketing. For sellers, she creates thoughtful campaigns designed to reach the right buyers. For buyers, she uses her knowledge of the East Bay to identify opportunities and negotiate with purpose. She is also a Master Certified Negotiation Expert, a designation earned by fewer than 0.1% of real estate professionals.

Tanja is particularly sought after for her knowledge of older homes and complex transactions. She guides clients through purchases and sales, 1031 exchanges, divorce-related sales, inherited properties, trust and probate sales, and other major life transitions. Whatever the circumstances, she brings discretion, energy, and close attention to the people behind each decision.

Her guiding principle is simple: Putting People Before Profit.

Tanja Odzak

Let's talk about your next move.

No pressure, just real answers.

Sell My Home

Or call/text (415) 722-0472

Areas We Serve

I work across nine communities in the East Bay and the wider San Francisco Bay Area: Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco, Alameda, Piedmont, San Leandro, Lafayette, Walnut Creek, and Pleasant Hill.

Each one gets its own page because the East Bay is not one market, it is nine different housing stocks, nine different commutes, and nine different reasons someone chooses to live there. I specialize in the region's older housing stock, a lot of it 75 to 100-plus years old, which shows up differently in a hillside home in Oakland than it does in a mid-century home in Lafayette. Wherever you are looking, I can tell you what is actually true about that specific street, not just the county average.

How We Market Homes

Most agents list a home and hope the MLS finds a buyer. I have spent almost seven years building something most agents do not have: a real, weekly presence on Facebook and Instagram covering East Bay real estate, listing or not. By the time your home goes live, an audience of roughly 120,000 people has already seen my face talking about this market, which means your listing is not starting from zero the day it posts.

I pair that reach with something no marketing budget can buy: I walk every home myself and read its real condition by eye, especially in the East Bay's older housing stock, so nothing surprising turns up mid-escrow. Then I price it as a position, not a guess, using real comps for your specific street, and negotiate it with an MCNE-level skill set built to protect your price and your terms. See the whole method, step by step, on how I sell a home.

Proof: Results You Can Point To

I have told a seller we could get more for her home than she believed possible. She did not think I was right. Her home sold well above asking. Five separate clients have named my 1031 exchange work in their reviews, unprompted, including one exchange with a 45-day window that I closed in under 30 days despite a complicated solar panel contract attached to the home.

I hold the RCS-D and CREDS certifications for divorce and estate sales, and a client selling a family home after a loss called me "a fiercely passionate and committed partner from the first meeting." I am rated 5.0 on both Zillow and Google, across 67 reviews. Read more about my background on my About page.

Start Here, Buyer or Seller

Whether you are buying or selling, the first step is the same: a real conversation about what you are actually trying to do. Sell my home. Find me a home. Or call (415) 722-0472 and skip the form entirely, I answer my own phone. Tell me where you are in the process and I will tell you honestly what happens next. No pressure, no script.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you decide on a listing price?

Real comps and real data for your specific street, not a city-wide average. I'll tell you the number straight, including when I think we can get more than you'd expect, the way I told one seller we could get more and her home sold well above asking.

What's actually wrong with this house that isn't in the listing photos?

Photos hide plenty, especially in the East Bay's older homes. I walk properties looking for the same things I've learned to spot across 106 home sales, foundation issues, drainage problems, deferred maintenance, and I tell you what I see in plain language before you fall for a home that costs more than it looks like.

What happens if my situation is complicated, divorce, estate, or a 1031 exchange?

That's specifically where I do my best work. I hold the RCS-D and CREDS certifications for divorce and estate sales, and five separate clients have named my 1031 exchange work in their reviews, unprompted, including a 45-day exchange closed in under 30 days with a solar contract complication attached.

How fast can I realistically close?

It depends on financing and the seller's timeline, but I've helped buyers close in under a month more than once. I'll give you a real timeline for your specific situation, not a generic estimate.

Tanja Odzak

Work with Tanja

Call, text, or send a message. I answer my own phone.