Marguerite has lived in California, Senegal, Italy, Switzerland and Morocco. She studied linguistics at UCLA and earned a degree in French Literature from UC Berkeley. Prior to becoming a real estate agent she had a long career in management, marketing, merchandising and sales at Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Ann Taylor as well as at her own textile design company, Nothing But Red. Marguerite has lived in our community for nearly twenty-five years. Her husband, Walter Ratcliff, a Berkeley native and grandson of the well-known architect, is the president of his own management consulting firm. Their son, Gabriel, is a senior at The College Preparatory School in Oakland.
Recognizing that buying a home is an emotional process, Marguerite feels that clients can be influenced by subtle and unexpected factors… such as a rose garden that reminds them of Sundays with their grandmother or a view that takes them back to the terrace where their spouse proposed. She gets to the heart of what her clients are looking for in their living environment. Marguerite serves the residential needs of buyers and sellers in Berkeley, Oakland, Piedmont, Alameda and surrounding neighborhoods. In addition to guiding clients through their escrows, Marguerite provides assistance with moving, staging and a personally tested network of home improvement specialists. Her dynamic negotiation skills consistently support her clients’ needs. Marguerite’s international background helps her connect with people relocating from all over the world. Having personally moved eighteen times makes her particularly sensitive to her clients’ transitional needs whether they are moving from neighborhood to neighborhood or from country to country.