** One Liner **
You will definitely get more than your…read moremoney's worth with Stacy; she most definitely more than earned her commission!
** Cliff Note **
If you don't have time to read long-winded reviews, just know that what you read in the opening line above should be enough for you to get a terse but precise idea of her work ethic and skills. She will move mountains and possibly relocate the Hayward and the San Andreas fault to make sure your house gets sold without languishing in the market (very bad for value) for months!
** A little more detailed now **
Still here for more than a one-liner and a cliff-note? Good! Allow me to qualify my prologue.
How many real-estate agents would offer to paint the walls when you display a reluctance to do so (out of sheer laziness)? I was embarrassed enough to decline her offer, and agreed to do it myself; thankfully spot paintings did the job really well (Whew!)
How many would bring their own hose over to hose down and scrub your deck clean? I couldn't recognize the wooden planks after she was done scrubbing them to like-new condition!
How many would rinse down your stairs while you were away at work, so the entryway was more presentable for the prospective buyers? Yup, you guessed it right again!
By now, I suppose you would like to know more about this near mythical real-estate agent. And I will be more than happy to oblige.
Let's dial the clock back a little bit, to a time that was a tad happier than 2020 had been. It was fall. The month of September, in the year of our Lord 2019.
When Stacy came over for an introductory tête-à-tête, K had a feeling that she was definitely the one for us. I have no such people-reading skills so I was lukewarm to the idea until I had met and spoken with the other realtors.
Stacy does not try to unnecessarily wax eloquent about how beautiful and amazing your house is (unless it really is); she was direct but always polite -- lightly sugar coating any bits of bitter pills we were handed to ingest. Which is not to say she was doomsday Sally. Au contraire! She saw the strengths, had a clear idea for our house, and was clear about what paraphernalia needed to go into storage, and what could stay and fit in with the leitmotif.
She does not try to steam-roll over your ideas, suggestions, or practical limitations, seeing that we were still occupying the unit during the sale. She listened, and she unfailingly made insightful suggestions, making it very clear that she was the General Mattis to our Trump --- she will tell it like it is, but the final decision was always up to us.
She made sure to take over the social-media marketing when the agency's marketing folks did not bring our expected number of visitors. The following week after she tweaked it, the number of visitors almost doubled!
(I knew I should have written this sooner as a lot of details now escape me --- did I mention that I am lazy?)
After the staging furniture, paintings, and sundry tchotchkes were brought over, no charge -- courtesy Stacy, and the professional photographs shot and dispersed to the digital world yonder, we finally found our buyer and placed it into pending.
They saying nothing worthwhile goes butter-smooth. And that's true here too. But Stacy more than rose to the task to mitigate that.
The HOA had settled a long pending case with the builder, and started a lot of exterior structural repairs --- our block was in progress when the buyer's bank decided to schedule in an appraiser. She knew that an appraiser reporting scaffoldings back to a Bank is a huge no-no hence she had to work her network to ensure that (a) the contractors made sure to complete the work by a certain day, and (b) the appraiser was persuaded to schedule in a day after the work was completed.
Slippery slope negotiated like a pro!
Stacy made sure to be there at the escrow office as the final papers were being completed for the transfer of title and escrow. She noticed a discrepancy and made sure the entire paperwork was corrected pronto!
After we closed the sale, we negotiated with the buyer to give us a week after close, to move out. Come the final day, no matter how much we hauled, there were still more to be moved -- talk about an unwanted cornucopia! Stacy called to ask how we were doing. Upon hearing us she turned up with a boat load of cardboard boxes, wrapping paper, and the moving ability of two persons. She got us out of there within a couple of hours.
Remember, the sale was closed. She was dealing with other properties. She had no business helping us move. Yet she did anyway.
I would be remiss to not mention that we sold our house in the 4th quarter of the year -- the worst time of the year to sell. But Stacy sold it above the asking price in about half the time of other nearby properties -- we checked online.
I couldn't recommend Stacy enough. I promise you that the next time we were to buy or sell property, hers is the first and only number we plan on calling!