Nancy is a top notch, full service realtor. We recently purchased a home in Los Altos, and we found her expertise invaluable. She is very knowledgeable, honest, straight forward, reliable, and not in the least bit pushy. She really is a pleasure to work with. Nancy combined her understanding of our desired home features with her knowledge of Los Altos neighborhoods, schools and city building codes, ideal lot dimensions, home remodel-ability, etc. to give us great advice. The market was in a newish downward trend at the time we were looking. Nancy recognized this and suggested we bid under list. We did, and we got the house we wanted at a fair price! Once we closed escrow, Nancy continued her quality service by organizing estimates and booking services such as new carpet installation, roofing and tree trimming services and a handyman. She has great contacts that provide excellent and reliable service. This made our move in process seemless and very low stress! Highly recommend working with Nancy to find your next home! read more

I contacted Nancy for her opinion on sell & buy, vs. remodel decision. She gave us her honest advise, to recommend us to remodel, instead of sell & buy. She even comes to our house to give me additional advise on remodeling. She is trust worthy. I definitely recommend her if you are looking for a real estate agent. James read more

You know you've been looking for a house for a long time when you ask your realtor if any of her clients has ever looked longer and she hems and haws and basically implies that if an award existed for taking the longest you would indeed win. Well she didn't exactly say that. But she did couch it in the most polite terms possible and didn't make us feel like we had wasted her time for two years. (We did bid on several homes - they just ultimately went to bidders willing to pay all in cash.) When we met Nancy my husband paid her one of the rarest of compliments: "I like her. And I don't like most people." That's good since you end up spending many many hours with your realtor. Nancy is a sharp cookie. She gives really good advice on houses and neighborhoods, and you really feel like she gives you her honest opinion, when other brokers could easily steer you towards bidding on an inferior property just to make a sale. Nancy put in a lot of time to help us, from scouting out homes she thought we would like or that we expressed interest in to making videos of properties she thought would appeal to us to tracking down information from city governments on zoning and future nearby developments. She stops on a dime to help - day or night, every day of the week, and returns all e-mails that day (usually within only a few hours), even ones that are (like ours) *full* of questions. Yes, my husband and I are a handful. Nancy puts together very competitive bids. Our friends that referred us to Nancy bid $50,000 less than another bidder, yet got their house. For one house we were interested in, our bid was also $50,000 under the next two highest bids, but the owner wanted to do business with us (the house was fine but we decided we didn't want the house after all and dropped out). She will present the bid in person, write the owner a letter on your behalf, whatever it takes. We finally bought our house a few months ago, and since then she has been very active meeting with inspectors, making a detailed list of what work needs to be done before moving in, and setting up appointments with inspectors. She has even gone over to pick up mail that's been already delivered to the new house and dropping it by my husband's work. Nancy is one of those rare breeds - a consummate professional as well as someone who really cares about her clients. She even visited me in the hospital! Our friends that recommended her referred to Nancy as their surrogate mom. She's currently working with my parents to find a home (now that I birthed twin grandkids the grandparents want to move here), and my mom is pleased as punch with Nancy, too. read more

Nancy Carlson has been our Realtor since 2012. She helped us buy our first home which had 36 offers and sell our first home after the covid shutdown! She also helped buy our second house in Saratoga at a reduced price due to the covid impact. We couldn't have done it without her! She is very passionate about her work , extremely hardworking, professional and knowledgeable. From choreographing numerous contractors, stagers, etc to negotiating with multiple parties, Nancy brought diligence and attention to the process. It takes a truly special agent to do what Nancy did.It has been nothing but a pleasure to work with Nancy who made the entire process a great success! Would highly recommend her. Thank you Nancy for all your help! read more

We can't say enough good things about Nancy! My brother and I were looking for an agent to help us sell our family home in Los Altos about 6 months ago, and a friend (also a realtor) referred us to Nancy citing her expertise in this area. Over the course of 5 months she guided us through repairs, remodeling, inspections, painting, landscaping, and everything that came up regarding selling our property. Nancy works with her husband Steve, and one of them was present for every single appointment scheduled. She is direct, organized, concise, easy to work with, and truly understands the market in the Los Altos area. Throughout the process she made sure we were informed on the work at the house, the trends of the market, and the path that lay ahead. Nancy's advice, referrals, and work ethic are what made selling our home possible, and we can't say thank you enough! If you're looking for an agent in the Los Altos area, then you've found her. read more

About 15 months ago, my wife Amanda and I worked with Nancy and her husband Steve and in less than 8 weeks, we bought our dream home in Los Altos, at a very fair price. Yesterday was Thanksgiving and both of us thought of Nancy and Steve as people we both were very grateful of. So although it was 15 months ago and Amanda already wrote a review, I'd like to leave my own review now. I'd especially like to offer advice to her clients as to how to best leverage Nancy's skills and experiences. If I must say Nancy's one unique strength that differentiates her from the many other excellent realtors we know, I'd say it's Nancy's ability to pick a good home and a RIGHT HOME for the home buyers. If you really are going to be living in the house you're buying, then I'd very strongly recommend working with Nancy. Because 15 months later, we just love this home more and more. I don't think we'd ever want to sell it. But looking back, it was a very risky move for my wife and myself, because we'd never lived in the bay area before; actually, we'd never lived in the US before. There are just too many issues to look out for; many of these may end up causing frustrating regret. I've seen this happen repeatedly amongst my closest friends and even a very close family member. Great home, awesome location, fair price. But just not the right home and after much frustration, they must go through the pains of selling, moving, and buying again. At the time, we needed to buy a home asap, and so we hammered Nancy with frequent home visits, usually as soon as a home was listed and way before the open house. Nancy and Steve were very generous with their time, and looking back, in those cases where we felt it was a right home for us and Nancy had concerns -- she was absolutely right and we now feel very fortunate to have had trusted her judgment. Looking back, some big-name realtors we interviewed and almost ended up working with, felt like deal makers, or investors, or even opportunists. I'm sure they're good at what they do, and if you are buying for investment, then perhaps they'd be good realtors for you. But if you want to find a right home, then I'd strongly recommend Nancy. I've been thinking, what gives Nancy her ability to identify right homes for different clients? I guess the combination of Nancy a) having had so many years of experience as a realtor, b) having had so many years in Los Altos, Palo Alto and MountainView, c) being a loving mother, d) her love for high-quality living, and e) being a homeowner of multiple homes herself. If you want to buy a right home, have no regrets, and, like us, end up loving the home so much you feel you'd never want to sell it, then work with Nancy and Steve. Having witnessed daily frustration and regret from someone very close to me -- you don't want it. My wife's review: https://www.yelp.com/biz/nancy-carlson-los-altos-2?hrid=ZMAeL1oflgSbuJjtZvrvwg read more

Nancy is simply the best. She works efficiently, gets to know us (first time buyers) and helps close the deal seamlessly. 1) Understanding our timeframe - with our hectic schedules, we knew we wanted to act fast when the time came. Nancy was incredibly responsive in her emails, messaged us via text and met us in person when needed. She prepped us perfectly. We went to an open house Sat/Sun and the Seller accepted our offer by Monday because all of our documentation was in place with trusted parties. (Win!) 2) Upfront and direct - Nancy is to the point and will provide her honest opinion - she is the perfect agent. She has the experience and has an eye for working within your means. We appreciated the feedback and reality of finding a home in Silicon Valley. We put in our first offer and it was accepted!! (Woohoo!) 3) Closing - A stack of documents but Nancy was instrumental in helping coordinate with our mortgage lender, title company, insurance, etc to have it all synchronize by close date. She went through the due diligence materials and guided us when we wanted to no longer look at small print and too many words. We made it to the end. (She was a wonderful conductor!) We were incredibly lucky - we looked at two homes and was able to purchase on our first offer with the second house. It was incredibly fast and efficient with little stress. Thank you, Nancy!! Definitely will be the agent I highly recommend to all friends and family who are looking to purchase in SV. :D read more

There aren't stars enough on Yelp to reflect how wonderful of an agent Nancy is. Nancy helped us with both the purchase of a home as well as a sale, and we're so glad to have had her by our side. From choreographing numerous contractors, stagers, etc to negotiating with multiple parties, Nancy brought diligence and attention to the process that we don't believe we could have gotten anywhere else. It takes a truly special agent to do what Nancy did; she handled the process as if it was her own home that she was buying or selling. Hopefully we never move again, but if we do, we know who our agent will be! read more

We reached out to Nancy on Jul 18, 2017, and she helped us buy our dream home on Aug 23, 2017, in one of the best Los Altos locations, and at a very fair price; that's only 36 days total. We won our dream home on our first bid. As a first-time home buyer and a couple unfamiliar with Bay Area neighborhoods, we interviewed 5 top realtors; some had the best Yelp reviews, some were via strong recommendations by our close family members. All of them turned out excellent, but we decided to work with Nancy and it clearly was one of the best decisions we've made in our lives so far. As we close out our deal, I'd like to share why you should work with Nancy: a) In addition to being a experience deal maker and real estate investor, she's also a home enthusiast. She's successful because she has a genuine passion for homes; she has a sharp smell for the goods and bads of a home, and for which homes would suit which of her clients. Other realtors may be able to win a fair bid for you, but if you need good advise on what will make a good home for YOU, then work with Nancy. b) She has great reputation amongst the Los Altos realtors. Quite a few selling agents, upon hearing that we were working with Nancy, told us: oh, she's a very good realtor, please give her my regards. This allowed us to enjoy a great level of trust from the sell side during our short but intensive home search. c) She is very diligent, and she partners with her husband Steve, who is also a certified realtor for Intero. They cover each other. As soon as a property was listed, we reviewed and if interested, one of them would take us there, long before the open house. This allowed us much more lead time than other bidders. d) She does great comps and does not push us to bid high in order to get the deal closed. On multiple occasions, our comp was higher than hers and she discouraged us to higher our bid, believing that the home wasn't really for us, especially at those high price points; turned out, she was right with those cases, and we didn't go bid. e) She's always available. If she's busy during the day, she'll work until late night to finish comps or review disclosures with us. f) She really knows what the fair price is, and also what it would take to win a deal. Because we saw how well she did her comps, she had our trust. When we finally decided to submit our bid, she gave us her suggestion, we ran with it, and won the bid. It was a very fair price for both the seller and for us. g) She always replies very quickly to email and text. Finally, we just feel that she's extremely passionate about finding the right homes for her clients. She gets a lot of satisfaction from achieving this. This is really what's making her successful. read more

Definitely read my initial review -- this does not supersede, just emphasizes all the great things I've already said about Nancy. I cannot give Nancy more than five stars. But I have to add that we've had some issues with "personal property" left at the house and the cost of disposing of it -- I'm talking miscellaneous debris and excess building materials, plus paint (a hazardous material, for disposal purposes). Nancy has gone above and beyond as our advocate. She has made it clear that the listing agent and sellers are responsible, and she has gone out of her way to keep this off our plate. So -- here is the agent who will take care of you even after the closing, even after getting paid. I really don't know why you'd use someone else. read more

Nancy went above and beyond to find us a great home on our first attempt. Due to her knowledge, warmth, and perseverance, we succeeded in purchasing a wonderful home in the South Bay, despite competing against multiple offers. She provided expert guidance throughout the entire home purchasing process. We weren't sure we would be able to figure out this crazy housing market, but Nancy made a potentially painful process a great success! - Annie & Dave read more

My wife and I bought our first house in redwood shores and Nancy was not just our realtor but more like our guiding light, our turn by turn navigation and a friend through this complex maze of home buying in the Bay Area. As many have mentioned below , working with Nancy makes you feel you are her *only* client, and she is always just a phonecall, email or text message away if not in person. One of the concerns we had before we selected an agent was around landing up with one who might push us into making offers that we were not comfortable with. With Nancy you don't have to worry about that , she truly has your best interest in mind not just in the short time but also the long run. For e.g. my wife and I were ready to make an offer in an area that had a super fund site about a mile away , she voiced concerns about it and steered us away from a potentially poor choice. She treats you nothing short of a family member. When writing an offer she pays attention to every small detail and makes sure you as a buyer are aware of the important ones. On multiple occasions she has sat down and read the disclosures with us answering all our questions along the way, ensuring we understood what we were getting into. She helped us concoct the best mix of offer price and contingencies so that we could maximize our chances of getting accepted and never pushed us to raise the offer price. During the end game, from the time the offer was accepted till we closed , she not only ensured we had a critical dates marked for things that must land , but also reminded about peripheral todos like changing our mailing address and setting up utilities at our new residence etc. We continue to interact with Nancy, even post our move in as she is willing to help or answer any questions we have. I highly recommend her to any home buyers out there who are looking for an agent. I know we will surely look to work with her in the future. read more

My husband and I were so excited in 2005 to fulfill our many-year goal of buying a house. We love our home, and I can say without a doubt that we would not have been able to buy this house without our fabulous agent, Nancy Carlson. We are forever grateful to the friend that recommended Nancy. Nancy is extremely professional (she hand-delivered our offer!), extremely patient (driving an hour and a half to show me a property), and extremely knowledgable (she knew what to look for at each location). We knew nothing before we started and she quickly brought us up to speed. We know for sure that we will be using Nancy again when it comes time to sell. She is fabulous! read more

We had Nancy as a buyers agent. She helped us to buy a house in Woodside CA and she was the most amazing agent we've ever worked with. I don't know how she does it. We felt like we were her only clients. She is a super agent. I would recommend her to my family,my friends and anyone I care. Again thank you, Nancy. read more

Nancy earns 11stars on a 5 star scale! We have partnered with Nancy twice, most recently to sell our Los Altos home. In both cases, she performed and delivered in a spectacular fashion. If you need a "playbook" she has that. If you prefer a less structured approach she does that. She is superb at every aspect of buying and selling. Of course she knows the ins and outs of the process and transactions...more though is that she is fantastic with aspects about which most buyers and sellers never consider. She is well connected and well regarded among the Realtor community. Quality Realtors prefer to work with other quality Realtors as it keeps the process smooth and unpleasant surprises to a minimum. Nancy does this, too. Topping it off is that she's smart and funny. In our transactions she was also always right. When you want the best, you want Nancy! read more

Very professional & knowledgeable agent and VERY easy to work with. She went above and beyond in all parts of the sale from upgrades to listing to negotiating to closing!!!! Her responsiveness is sensational. Bottom line: we got full price (over $1M ) five days after it was listed!!! Key for me was her management of ALL repairs/upgrades since I was remote in So. Calif. Repairs were extensive since it was a rental for over 10 yrs. Could not ask for a better agent............ read more

Nancy was our realtor when we purchased our home last year, and she was simply awesome across the board. She goes all out to get the right home for you. She's a great listener for a start, but sometimes we don't even know what's right for us, so she will show us plenty of choices, gauge our reactions, and help us better understand what we're looking for in a home. We learnt a lot from visiting properties with her, thanks to her experience and attention to detail. Making a successful offer on a home in this area is no cakewalk. I definitely valued Nancy's data-driven approach to pricing, which gave us more confidence when deciding whether to make an offer and how much to offer. One other thing that stood out was her dedication to her clients. When it came time to make an offer, Nancy drove 45 minutes out to our place to go over the offer in detail and in person on a Sunday night. I don't expect that level of effort, but it's greatly appreciated. There were a couple of homes we almost made an offer on, one unsuccessful offer, and one which was accepted. We are thankful we made decisions we were comfortable with throughout the process, and we ended up with a great home, thanks to Nancy. read more

Nancy is a pro-- mindful of details, dedicated, experienced. In addition, she addresses every issue regarding buying/selling a home with integrity and practicality. On top of all that, (and I don't know exactly how she does it) she does make you feel like you are her only client, which I knew was absolutely untrue at the time she represented us in the sale of our home, but felt nonetheless. Nancy really cares about her clients, and will pull out all the stops to get them what they want, whether it's top dollar for a home they are selling, or a good deal on something they want to purchase. And it's not because she's all about money; it's because she's all about the client. She'll offer good advice while taking into consideration what your needs are, and she'll work her tail off to make whatever you want/need come to fruition. Honestly, I don't think you can ask much more from a realtor. read more

Short version: Professional, Patient, Passionate. Longer version: So, once we decided it was time to buy our first home, I was excited of course, but also, nervous wondering who can be patient enough with me because I am very cautious shopper. (Probably, spending more time to do research on something that may not even worth it....) Knowing that I can be very annoying, I browsed in yelp to find someone with patience and expertise, and Nancy Carlson was the one who stood out. I gave her a call... Once we hired her, she quickly beat our expectation; She went above and beyond for presenting our offers to the sellers, so it would be more appealing to them. She expressed her honest views and educated us on different neighborhoods. Because of my husband work schedule, a few times she even stayed very late (like after 11pm) in her office to help us draft a thorough and appealing offer. In the mean time, she never ever pressured us to buy a home, that was quite surprise to me because I expect Realtors wanting to close a deal ASAP, but she wasn't like that at all. She was always up to our pace, sometimes we were serious and sometimes we were not, and she was very accommodating along the way. In times, she even warned us on putting an offer on a property that she determined would not be a good fit for us. It took us about 7 months to find the home that we felt was right for us, and Nancy was on vacation for the day the offers had to be presented. So, she worked things out with the help of her friend (who was as professional and passionate as she was) so that to our disbelief our offer got accepted! She handled the whole situation in a way that we did not notice her physical absence. Once she got back, she went through details and pull out all the important information we should be aware of. She scheduled and brought different contractors to quickly give us some estimate on how much the fixes would cost, so during our contingency period we got as much as info possible on what we would be committing to. Of course, she was with us on the day of escrow... OK, so it's been about 14 days since we bought our home which needs lots of repairs (we wanted the house so badly that we accepted it as as-is condition). She got her commission, and technically, she is not obligated to provide her time and service to us anymore, but here is when you see her genuine interest and passion on what she does. She is like a mommy to me (although she is probably younger than my mom :) ), but her sense of protectiveness and care is very noticeable and that is very comforting. Under age of 30 with a project to make a fixer-upper liveable is a daunting task for me. So, she is still in touch with me, gives me her advice (which I appreciate a lot since I know nothing about renovating a home), and still calls and schedules appointments for me and joins me when I need her wisdom in dealing with contractors. She is working above and beyond your expectation, and her service never ends.... I am not sure how many agents can offer that to their clients. Also, thank you all yelpers for helping me to find Nancy! read more

Nancy just helped us buy our first home, and we couldn't be happier with the experience. Nancy is the definition of a true professional. She is hard working, thorough, and organized. She shared her expert knowledge and demonstrated great attention to detail during walkthrough of homes and while going through paperwork (there was A LOT). Her communication is simply stellar and she's an absolute joy to work with. We would HIGHLY recommend Nancy to our friends and family! Nancy helped us in every aspect of the home purchase, starting with finding the right house, getting our offer selected, financing, and closing. Nancy was extremely accommodating to our busy schedules, viewing houses with us in the evenings and on the weekends. She always promptly and clearly replied to email messages, phone calls, and texts. She made us feel like we were her most important clients. In this seller's market, it is extremely difficult to get an offer accepted. Not only must the price be competitive, but the buyer's agent also plays a huge role. Nancy was able to talk with the seller's agent and figure out exactly what we needed to do to make a competitive offer on the house. Thanks to her hard work, the sellers chose to work with us (out of 10 offers!) even though our offer wasn't the highest. When an issue came up with our lender due to circumstances outside of our control, Nancy was right there supporting us to make everything work out. She put together contingency plans just in case we needed them without us having to ask. We felt that she genuinely cared about us, listened to what we wanted, and went above and beyond to do everything with our best interests at heart. Even after the sale had closed she continued to help us get bids on various jobs that we had decided to do on the house before we move in. She arranged for contractor appointments, and even offered to be onsite to check in on the work in progress. Nancy exceeded our expectations on all accounts. We would definitely use her again in the future and will be sending all of our family and friends to her awesome service in the meantime. read more

Nancy has been nothing but a pleasure to work with. Not having been working with any agent at the time that we saw a property that we were interested in, I randomly called up Nancy to see if she could help us check on the offer deadline. To my surprise, not only did Nancy pick up my phone but she also helped obtain all the information and provided all the comps that I requested for some other properties, without questioning our intention and readiness to purchase like some other realtors may do. Once we identified a property that we wanted to put an offer on, Nancy diligently helped us review the property's disclosures, made sure we knew what the property did and did not have to offer, and skillfully negotiated the contract on our behalf. Our offer ended up getting accepted, and we closed escrow within expected time. During the whole process, we were constantly impressed by Nancy's responsiveness, honesty, attention to details, and thoroughness. She remained accessible and continuously provided support for us after we moved in. We are confident that we can always reach out to Nancy for help, and would recommend her to anyone looking to purchase a home in the Peninsula market. read more

I had a wonderful experience buying my first home with Nancy. Very professional, patient, knowledgeable real estate agent and easy to work with. I would not have gotten the house I have now, in this toughest real estate market, without her. She went above and beyond her duties to help me! Her professionalism and responsiveness cannot be matched, and she always takes that extra step that makes you feel like you are her most important client. She is also great at following up through your transition after closing the escrow. I would definitely recommend her to anyone purchasing home in Bay area. Thank you Nancy for all your help! read more

Nancy Carlson is excellent is all respects. Anybody can sell a home in our area, but Nancy does the myriad of the little things that make a home sale and consequent move so much easier. Always available, always professional and with great advice that you didn't realize you needed. Highly recommend. read more

I have worked with Nancy several times, and I am very impressed by as a realtor for her thorough attention to detail, professional manner, and just plain old hard work. Today, as we performed one of our inspection services for her mutual client, she was watering her clients plants, and cleaning their pool while she waited for us to finish our work. She shows up early and leaves after everyone else is done. We don't see much of that type of thoughtfulness in our normal work situations with clients, but with Nancy, it is normal for her to outdo herself continuously. We give her a 10 out of 10! Mark G. read more

We couldn't have found a better realtor to work with than Nancy! I wish we could give 10 stars honestly! Nancy went far over and beyond to help my mom sell her home of 56 years. Not only is she professional, responsive, and easy to work with, but when my aging mom had no one else to help and way more things to move out than the average person, Nancy was there, helping empty out closets before I could fly to town. She gave excellent advice, kept us right on schedule and even helped move boxes when we needed them moved and couldn't lift them. I don't know of any other realtor who goes that extra mile. Her stagers made the house look gorgeous and I felt like we had gained a new family member by the end of it all. Nancy is truly one in a million and I wouldn't look for anyone else in the Bay Area! read more

My husband and I were first time home buyers and chose to work with Nancy after meeting with several other realtors. We chose her based on her obvious command of the home-buying process and the local market, as well as her straight-forward attitude and manner of working. During several open houses, she taught us a lot about what to look for in a good home and how those features contributed to the pricing, so that we would be best equipped to make a competitive offer in a seller's market. She took us on a neighborhood tour in our area of interest to point out features of particular streets so that we could find the best fit for us. When we found a home we were seriously interested in, she met us there several times over the course of the week in order to make sure we were ready to move forward. Nancy was terrifically helpful in the process of crafting our offer -- she went over the disclosures in great detail with us and helped us focus our attention on what was really important. She gave us excellent guidance on what some of the outstanding inspection findings might cost so that we could make the best possible plan for our budget. When it came to setting our offer price, Nancy did a lot of research on recent nearby sales and how comparable the houses were. She was very patient in answering all our questions and helping us create our final offer, and she did a good job explaining how she expected the process to go based on the competition for the home. When presenting the offer, she kept us informed about the events transpiring throughout the whole process. We were extremely fortunate in that our first offer was accepted! Nancy also worked with us a great deal during the closing process and even thereafter as we got settled into our new home. Nancy and her husband Steve compiled the home inspection report for the home into a searchable spreadsheet that has been very valuable to us. She also worked with us to recommend some contractors to address the most urgent issues with the house, and even managed some of them as we went out of town directly after the closing. Nancy and Steve have gone above and beyond in making sure that we not only were able to purchase the home we wanted, but also to be happy living in it and caring for it. We highly recommend working with Nancy! read more

Thanks to Nancy my husband and I closed on our dream house in January 2014! My husband found Nancy thanks to all the great Yelp reviews (thank you fellow Yelpers!) and she exceeded all of our expectations. You will immediately notice she is experienced, organized, available, patient, has proven strategies to maximize the appeal of your offers and is very personable. Nancy is also very knowledgeable about the characteristics of each city / neighborhood ( we looked in San Jose, Campbell, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto & Menlo Park) and keeps up with market trends. My husband and I both moved to the Bay Area several years ago for work and we saved for what seemed like a very long time to buy our first home. We were just pregnant with our first child so we wanted a home large enough to grow into in an area that has good schools and a sense of community. After hearing about both positive and negative experiences from friends with realtors we knew we wanted a someone who had our best interest in mind. Nancy takes a personal interest in each client and works to make sure you really find the property that suits you (even if you didn't know what that is starting out). To many, Nancy will become more than just your realtor. As first time home buyers we appreciated Nancy walking us through every tedious detail (my husband is an engineer and likes details) and she answered all our questions. When walking through houses she pointed out things like the quality of material used in the construction, obvious code violations, zero lot lines, the quality of neighbor's houses /yards, and tree roots that could damage a home's foundation in the future. We quickly learned more than we ever expected and on the occasion we ventured to open houses alone we felt much more confident we could gauge if it was a home worth pursuing. If you are looking for a "value" home where you expect to do some work in exchange for a better deal then Nancy is a pro at identifying potential. She even has a list of contractors she recommends (take them or leave them) to assist with any renovations after you purchase your home. After winning the bid on our house we had "contractor day" where we had electricians, plumbers, painters, window, carpet guys, tile guys, and HVAC all come out to do various inspections and give quotes for work. Nancy took a day out of her schedule to be at the house and greet each person, explain the work needed, and then helped summarize everything for us. We can't say enough good things about Nancy and have already recommended her to a friend who is now also a home owner. read more

Nancy helped my husband and me buy our dream home in the Bay Area and we are so grateful that we worked with her! She is a prompt, concise, and thoughtful communicator - from quickly responding to our emails/calls/texts to helping us put together our offer. We felt like Nancy truly cared about finding the right home for us and we learned so much from her knowledge of homes and the neighborhoods along the way. She also provided valuable guidance on the paperwork, understanding repairs to be done, working with lenders, contractors, and more. We highly recommend Nancy! read more

When we met Nancy several years ago I was struck with her organizational skills - I was a software developer and am very attuned to people with strong project planning skills. At our initial meeting Nancy came across as the most organized and project-focused agent I have ever met, and she kept in touch with us over the years. We decided to have Nancy represent us in the sale of our home in San Jose, and have not regretted the decision. Every step of the process was scheduled, organized, and effectively completed. Nancy was able to prepare our home, overcome obstacles (including repairs and appraisal challenges), and complete the sale - with multiple offers and over list price. Nancy's communication with us was regular and constant, and we felt we could contact her at any time, day or night, if we had a question. She was always available for us. We had worked with another Realtor for many years, but knew that the sale of our home would require an aggressive and creative agent. Nancy surpassed our expectations, the whole preparation and sale process worked exactly as she said it would. We know we would not have received the same personal attention or care from another agent. We will definitely use Nancy to represent us in the purchase of our next home. And can highly recommend Nancy to anybody who would like to sell or buy a home! read more

Nancy got us our first home and we couldn't have asked for anything more through it all. She really made us feel that we were her only clients. She was extremely organized, very prompt at returning emails or calls, and she even guided us through a bunch of open houses. She can work really flexible hours, which was really good for us since we have a 15 month old daughter and sometimes the only time we could meet was late at night. She has a very keen eye and instincts, and she was very vocal about options that were not good for us, irrespective of price. For us, she really gained a lot of trust by doing all of these things, which helped us make a winning offer. read more

We just bought our second house with Nancy, and sold the first one, and what's important about Nancy is that she is a M-F-ing boss. Nancy knows the local market like I know the kinds of cookies at my local bakery. She is also great no matter what type of buyer you are. The first time, we were both clueless idiots who had no idea what we were doing, and she was really great at guiding us through the process and making sure we knew what we needed to. The second time, we were really lazy about everything, and Nancy made sure we didn't miss deadlines and got the important stuff done. Because Nancy is such a boss, she knows a ton of other amazing people (like Steve! who is also awesome) and can help you get sh*t done on your new house. She even helped us coordinate with contractors (which is f*ing awesome if you are as lazy as we are). For the house we sold, she recommended really tasteful but inexpensive renovations (like replacing the red carpet we put in, hey, we all want to feel important sometimes) that I am confident fetched us a higher price. She is smart like a fox, if the fox was Albert Einstein and Albert Einstein was a realtor, and responsive like a different fox with an iPhone glued to its paw. 10/10 did buy a house (and sell one) with Nancy again. read more

We found Nancy on Yelp with a 5 star review and after working with her would honestly love to give her 10 stars!!! She is a hard working perfectionist who is very methodical and has all the right contacts to get you going be it the loan or staging your house. She helped us with both buying and selling and throughout this stressful process she was optimistic, ready with facts and helped us get through it smoothly! We couldn't be happier and thankful. read more

We were introduced to Nancy Carlson by some friends of ours, and she came as highly recommended as it gets. She traveled to our house to sit down with us and spent a long time discussing our needs, desires and concerns about buying a house in the Bay Area market. By working with Nancy, we also got to work with Steve, her husband who is also an agent, so we had two good agents to run everything by. Both of them are extremely detail oriented and never hesitated to spend huge amounts of time with us during the entire stressful process. We ended up buying an ideal fit for our first home, and if it weren't for Nancy and Steve I don't feel we would have stood a chance in this competitive market. As other reviewers have mentioned, she really went the extra mile for us and we always felt like our needs were Nancy's priorities, even after close when we had to coordinate with multiple contractors to have work performed. Nancy was extremely thorough and responsive during our search and especially during close, answering our questions and taking our calls anytime we needed to chat. I'd easily work with her again and would not hesitate to recommend reaching out to her if you're looking for an excellent agent. read more

We worked with Nancy on the purchase of our new home and the sale of our former home (after we found her on Yelp). She did a tremendous job on both houses. She provided thoughtful guidance, good market knowledge, and an incredible level of service (e.g., helping to maintain our prior house during the sale process). Whenever a snag in the process occurred, Nancy handled it calmly and proactively. We would HIGHLY recommend Nancy for anyone in the market to buy and/or sell a home. read more

Just about a month ago, I was reading through these reviews, wondering if I could really trust my life's most important investment decision to someone I'd "only" found through Yelp. In our first meeting, Nancy wiped out any skepticism. She displayed a deep knowledge about the local market. She is pretty "handy", and did some very useful "mini home-inspections" with us, alerting us to potential red flags on a house. Nancy is tech-savvy (relatively rare amongst real estate agents, yes, even in 2014): she is at home with text messages, DropBox and digitally signed documents. More importantly, she thinks and moves at the speed of this market. The first offer Nancy wrote for us was accepted. The seller told me yesterday that Nancy was one of the reasons they accepted our offer. Nancy presented our offer with passion. She then handled the negotiations with the seller with a cool head, grace and confidence. I don't want this review to descend into hyperbole. There's no such thing as the "best real estate agent," only good fits. On the buyer side, the kind that would be a good fit for her would be someone who has watched the market for a while, has a strong, realistic understanding of what they can afford, and is able to decide quickly, once the right opportunity presents itself. To use a soccer analogy, you use Nancy as a striker, not as a mid-fielder. A real estate transaction has so many moving parts, and many of those parts are fallible human beings, who make mistakes, or are just very busy. There were many moments when I got anxious. Nancy kept the ship "steady as she goes", co-ordinating with everyone: nice where possible, tough when needed, but always with our interests in mind. My wife and I were sitting in the backyard of our new house yesterday. We were having a friendly argument over whether I deserved any credit for the house. After all, my wife was the one who decided on our budget, selected the location, first spotted the house on redfin, and said no to all the other houses. "Yes", I said, "But I found Nancy." Goal! read more

Nancy was a pleasure to work with. She was very thorough in handling all issues related to the sale of our house. She always responded immediately to all requests or questions that we had. She was very knowledgeable about our area and any special circumstances related to our specific property. We highly recommend her services. read more

In today's extremely competitive Bay Area market, you need every small advantage you can to win a home, and Nancy knows exactly what it takes to win. When we first met with Nancy and her husband Steve, we expected the home buying process to take us 12-18 months. Even after mentioning this protracted timeframe to them, they didn't bat an eye, and simply explained that they've worked with couples for much longer. The first time we viewed a home together, Nancy and Steve taught us everything that they look for in older home, warned us what to watch out for, and their honest impression of the house. After the first few times of teaching us, we felt comfortable enough to venture out to open houses alone, and evaluate the condition of homes ourselves with confidence. When it finally came time to place a bid on our first home, Nancy stayed up late with us over the phone, literally until past midnight, to walk us through the disclosures. She and I both knew our bid was a long-shot, but she was completely willing to go the whole nine yards. In the end, Nancy accurately predicted the final selling price within 50k. Nancy always prefers to present your offer to the sellers in person, and will present you in the best possible light in a very clean and attractive package. In the first two bids she placed for us, all of the sellers were rooting for us to win, but we were ultimately outbid by grossly higher all-cash offers. In our third bid, even though our offer was significantly lower than the highest one, the sellers decided to go with us. I truly believe if it weren't for the way Nancy presented us, we wouldn't be living in the home we live in today. Nancy has a fantastic network of real estate professionals that she knows and trusts, ranging from mortgage brokers, advisors, inspectors, contractors, and more. All of these people she recommends based on past experiences of working with them. Through her network, we were connected with a truly excellent mortgage advisor, who was equally responsible, competent, and responsive as Nancy. Our loan ended up closing in three weeks, which is practically unheard of these days with today's lending standards. A lot of realtors depend on volume and advertising for their business, but Nancy relies on word-of-mouth and referrals, which is always impressive to me since it speaks to the exceptional service that they provide to their clients. They made sure that we felt comfortable and confident through every step of the buying process and we can't recommend them enough! read more

After meeting Nancy for the first time my sister and I were convinced that she was the right person to help us sell our beloved childhood home. Her professionalism, kindness, warmth and respect for our ideas shown through. Nancy's many years of experience and intimate knowledge of the Los Altos area, in which the house resides, were tremendous selling points. Nancy sat between us on a sofa and patiently explained every aspect of the daunting paperwork that we signed and initialed. She has an eye for detail and a deep knowledge of the process of selling, every step of the way. She has a wonderful group of professionals in her files who help in the process of staging houses, and they do so in a timely manner. To handle our estate sale, for example, was Mark Ebner. He did a magnificent job! Nancy's ideas for staging were creative and beautiful! If you want a professional relator who will go spectacularly above and beyond your expectations, Nancy is the one. If you want a warm, kind person who will communicate, communicate, communicate and care about your thoughts and feelings, you would do well to grab her. Nancy is a jewel. My sister and I are so lucky to have had her expertise, energy and undaunted enthusiasm. We can never thank Nancy enough. read more

In summary: You will love Nancy. She is thorough, reliable, responsive, and an overall pleasure to work with. She goes the extra mile to make sure your offer stands out in a crowd and never makes you feel like you're putting her out. She is knowledgeable about many areas on the peninsula and can give you the inside scoop on schools and other factors that affect the value of your home. This is the second home we have purchased and Nancy set the bar much higher than our first real estate agent experience did. For the details: Nancy impressed me right away by her responsiveness. I contacted her via email and received a response within hours. From our first meeting, I knew that she was organized, easy to work with, and listened well (an important quality for me and my husband). We searched for a new home on and off for about a year. Our search began with different priorities than where it ended and Nancy was patient with us each step of the way. It was a crazy, competitive market (a few of the homes we bid on had 20+ offers) and I appreciated Nancy's honesty and her willingness to go the extra mile. She worked around our schedules, coming to our home for documents sometimes at 10pm, and submitted multiple offers in a day in person. Nancy reviewed all of the disclosures and summarized the issues we needed to be aware of and gave us rough estimates of what we could expect to spend on repairs. And when we finally closed on a home, she did not leave us to fend for ourselves. She arranged for competitive bids on repairs and saved us several hundred dollars. I never thought I would gush about my real estate agent, but I cannot recommend Nancy highly enough. Nancy's knowledge, ethics, and effort will impress you and her kindness, sense of humor, and willingness to allow your four year old to tag along will endear her to you. read more

We just bought our second home with Nancy. She is the best agent there is. In the highly competitive Bay Area real estate market, you want someone who is knowledgeable, responsive and hard-working. Nancy is all that and more. She always goes the extra step, ensuring that her clients stand out. Nancy helped us navigate a multiple-offer situation by giving us great advice on putting together an attractive offer. She established a strong relationship with the seller's agent and even drove down to her office to pick up documents that were not available online. Through the closing process, she worked with us every step of the way, ensuring that everything was done perfectly and on time. She even set up contractors for home repairs that needed to be done prior to moving in. I don't know how she does it, but Nancy makes every client feel like they are her only client. read more