Jedi Master. We found Mark on google, after searching and looking at many websites and highly rated agents. Most of them bloated their websites with information on buying, selling, valuing, market research, etc. It was daunting. When we came across Mark's website, his premise was simple and true. Paraphrasing, "Mark is the expert so let him do the work". There are "less expensive" ways to sell and buy a home. He proved to us that paying "more" for his services would be worth it. This was a relief, and it was accurate. Mark is a consummate professional who has mastered the art of real estate. We initially hired Mark to sell our home in Everett. He provided detailed reports and helped us truly value our property appropriately. For those who don't know, using websites that tell your home's value use the WAG method of valuation. Ask Mark what that means. Mark used filtered data and comparable homes, and then we had a discussion to determine how high or low on his range we wanted to start. He explained the psychology of buying and selling. The listing was perfect. The pricing was accurate (even though he warned us that it was a slow time for the market). I wanted to re-buy our home after seeing the effort and attention they put into the listing. Mark had his team help us set up for living in the home while selling, staging, he even made me paint the corners of walls. He didn't shy away from making us work, yet focused our efforts where they would pay off. We had a slow month where many agents presumably would have had us lower our price. "Stay firm he said, we spoke about this." We decided very quickly that we wanted to have him also help us buy a home (we initially were reluctant to have all of our trust resting on one individual). Mark was diligent in helping us search homes, focused on what we wanted, and guided us through the entire purchase. The negotiations both buying and selling were heavily weighted in our favor, through Mark's understanding of the process and willingness to be firm in what he knew we deserved. An agent selling a home doesn't have monetary incentive to make $300,000 worth $301,000. To the person paying the money, $1000 is a big deal. Through Mark's strategy, we ended up saving/earning somewhere near $20,000 from what we would have "accepted". This worked because Mark knew us, knew the homes, and knew the market. Importantly, Mark has someone to help with everything. He had good people available to help us with cleaning, repairs, window replacement, decoration. The list goes on, and it continued well after our purchase, nearly a year ago. Mark's greatest strengths are knowing what he is good at, and applying that to his task, and filling in gaps with people who are really good at solving real world problems. It is a sense of true community that he brings to the table, and for this reason we consider him a great friend. He has our strongest recommendation to anyone looking for help navigating the market. read more
