We were downsizing and moving from Montgomery County to Calvert County and we went with John…read moreWilliams. I have to say this was the most stress-free, easy process that we've ever gone through. He made everything very simple, he explained everything to us and was very patient with us. The process took a few months and he was with us the whole time and I would heartily recommend him to anyone looking to sell and buy a home.

John was great for us as first time homebuyers, his knowledge of both the realtor side of the…read moreprocess as well as the maintenance side of things gave us a unique approach at what to look for in the perfect home. Communication was quick and consistent. I would definitely recommend John as a realtor!

I had the best experience buying my arlington townhouse with Steve! His network and connections in…read morethe industry made every part of buying and selling a home a piece of cake! The fact that he pulled off this amazing sell and buy during a pandemic is a testament to his sheer talent and hard work. You cannot possibly find a better real estate agent in this area. it is just not possible.

I would not recommend this company. Using Redfin would of been a better choice. I was very annoyed…read morewith the entire process, even-though the home selling and purchasing experience should of been a smooth and enjoyable process. 1. I had picked out my lot and options on my own before contacting Evan to make an offer with the builder. 2. I negotiated with Evan to receive a refund of 1% from the purchase of my new home, since I have already selected the options and the lot before contacting him. After the negotiations were complete he informed me he could not honor our agreement, since the builder provided a 2% sales commission instead of a 3% commission. 3. Evan had the sales manager of the new property negotiate with me directly, instead of going through him. 4. On the sales of my condo I was told I could get full price, if not multiple offers. Evan had a two hour window for my open house and sent an associate, instead of holding the open house himself. I only had three showings that day. 5. I had originally had a 4.5% total commission to be shared by the seller and buyer agent. Two days before listing of my condo Evan asked me to increase the commission to 5% as his market research had found that buying agents were not willing to show a property for a 2% commission as Compass was receiving a 2.5% sales commission. This should of been brought up before the listing of my apartment when I signed the listing agreement a month ahead of time. 6. I was offered an opening offer by a Redfin buyer $5,000 below asking prior to my open house and I felt Evan was working for the buyer instead of representing me as the seller. 7. At the closing of my condo Evan was not present and his assistant had sent the wrong closing time to the title lawyer, so I waited around an hour past my scheduled closing to sign the closing documents. 8. Evan never showed up to my final walk-through for my new property and blamed a scheduling error. 9. Two business days before closing I had already transferred all closing costs and down payment to the title company. The title company notified me that Evan had emailed them to include admin fees for Compass after I had wired my funds. I had to contact him that this was shady business practices and to remove the admin fees. 10. Evan never showed up to my closing day for my new property and just collected his commission. Horrible business practices.

We bought one place with Jake as our realtor and sold another. He makes the process smooth and…read moreeasy, and I had been thinking it was all going to be totally stressful. He found us the perfect condo downtown and got a great buyer for our uptown townhouse. He also greatly helped our neighbor sell her house when she was at a loss as to how to even deal with tenants, some wall damage and other problems. He knows people who can help! I've known other realtors and none as friendly as Jake!

Unmatched team! The home buying process can be a frantic and stressful time for an individual or…read morefamily. Victoria and Marshall make you feel like family going above and beyond, making themselves available to ensure you are comfortable with every step of the process, that your stress levels are as low as they can be, and they don't pressure you into making decisions that you may not be ready to make. They are also able to answer every question or find a solution to every problem. I could not have imagined a more pleasurable experience!

Victoria and Marshall made home buying so easy for me as a first time buyer! They were incredibly…read moreresponsive and enthusiastic about seeing every home I expressed interest in. We crafted competitive offers without sacrificing contingencies and, using their preferred lender and title attorney, closed on my home within a month. Victoria and Marshall were professional and I feel they had my best interests in mind throughout the home buying process. Highly recommend!!

I was disappointed in DC Living Real Estate, even though I would say that the price we ultimately…read morereceived for the sale of our house was satisfactory, as were the number of days the house was on the market. In addition, the DC Living brokers worked hard. There were aspects, too, of our sale that would have tried the patience of any broker, and they remained cheerful and positive throughout. Some, and perhaps most, buyers would find the two principal brokers to be a good fit. Despite all of this, I found my relationship with one of the brokers to be among the most problematic I've had with a professional. I would urge anyone considering these brokers to make sure that they are equally comfortable with both, as their styles are quite different. My clear preference for dealing with the one with whom I felt I still had a good relationship was overridden at every turn. I particularly regret having agreed to dual agency. In effect, as soon as I had done so, I no longer felt I could receive reliable advice on the price negotiations, and later on the negotiations over the list of repairs. I'm pretty sure in retrospect that the buyers would have gone through with the purchase without the split-it-down-the-middle approach that dual agency invites. I don't know this for sure, and it is quite possible we would have made the same concessions had we been advised by a broker with no stake in serving the buyer, but with dual agency I couldn't be sure. I don't blame DC Living for having agreed to dual agency, although it wasn't clear until afterwards when I asked that they did not have a prior relationship to the buyers before meeting them at one of our open houses. Later, when the broker with whom I had a problematic relationship described a portion of the commission that they were kicking back to the buyer as having been granted to help make the deal work, it seemed curious. When I inquired, I was advised that the buyers had asked for it during the negotiations to bridge the gap between us, but it was not disclosed at the time it was asked for or granted, but rather later as a heads up in connection with a form that we would see at settlement. It didn't make any difference to the amount of commission we paid, but it dovetailed with the narrative I was developing in which I felt managed and not listened to or treated with genuine respect.

We have used DC Living - specifically Deb and Skip - for three purchases and two sales of houses…read moreacross the last decade. On the sell side, they got us record setting high prices for the block both times. On the sell side, they were incredibly patient with us, introducing us to various neighborhoods, faring stops and starts to our thinking about our readiness to move. In addition, they are real home experts - the best at recommending handymen/painters/floor guys and have excellent ideas on home improvement in general. They are pretty much our go-to house consultants. Couldn't recommend more highly.

Libby Bish and Michael Ubertini are consummate professionals and were a joy to work with in the…read moreselling of our house in Arlington, Virginia. Libby and Michael were very informative in walking us through the selling process and guided my wife and I throughout. They were always accessible and totally responsive to questions and thoughts we had. They were very skillful with marketing our house, and that led to a sale within the first few days of going on market, and at a price that exceeded our expectations. Libby and Michael clearly are knowledgeable of the DC and Northern Virginia markets and brought that knowledge to bear on the sales process for our house. My wife and I enjoyed working with them and would do so again in a heartbeat! We unequivocally recommend them.

We can't say enough great things about Libby Bish and Michael Ubertini of Bish Properties, who…read morehelped us buy our first home in Arlington, VA! As first-time buyers, we had tons of questions, but they made the whole process feel straightforward and low-stress. The craziest part? We got the very first house we put an offer on and UNDER asking, even with 4 other offers on the table. In Northern Arlington! Truly unheard of. Libby knew exactly how to position our offer, and their experience and guidance are 100% the reason we landed our home. On top of that, they're simply the nicest people. Can't recommend them enough!

When we were ready to sell our house, we offered the listing to Mark, and had a disappointing…read moreexperience. We had worked with his firm to buy the house and, in retrospect, I think we gave the benefit of the doubt a little too much the first time around. Both times, he was not straightforward with us about pretty fundamental stuff that we'd tried to establish from the beginning. He was also not especially positive to work with, and none of the contractors he recommended were positive either. On the selling end, what we were looking for was a realtor to work with us as teammates in selling our house, allowing us a little bit of input into how the house would be made over for the sale. We were selling a vintage colonial house in MD, so it made sense for it to be presented just a hair differently than a modern high-rise condo in downtown DC, for example. Of the realtors we interviewed, Mark had the most disagreements with us about how to make over the house, but we thought he would be the most straightforward person to work with. So before offering him the listing, we asked how differences of opinion would be settled, and he said he'd ultimately defer to us. After six weeks of waiting on his primary stager, Mark finally brought over another one, Bona Gjoni (who has iffy reviews on Yelp). We wanted to be open-minded, and we agreed to at least 80% of what she said. However, she was very hard to work with; she was cold, rarely spoke to us (she mainly just addressed Mark), and she frankly seemed put off that we were there at all. (Mark later explained that they usually just stage vacant homes.) We suggested that if she told us how strongly she felt about her suggestions on a scale of 1-10, we could use that to inform our decision -- but she rejected this idea out of hand and said she's "a 10 on everything." She wanted us to paint our kitchen a specific shade of light brown (!) because "all [her] clients do that". (Shouldn't design be tailored to the property, not the same for all?) Oddly enough, what was a dealbreaker for Mark was when we disagreed with Bona's directive to paint our whole fireplace a glossy jet black. This seemed way out of character for our parkside country-mouse colonial, and we emailed Mark to ask if we could take a breath before deciding whether to proceed with Bona -- while emphasizing how important it was to us to make sure *he* was comfortable with all the choices made. He said we should leave all these decisions to the professionals, and wrote a long message about how experienced he was. When we said we get it, we just want to be *a* part of the team to some extent, he abruptly emailed us to bow out of the listing because of the fact that we "have your own ideas of how you want to present and market your home." This was a real curveball a month and a half into working with him. We didn't have any particularly zany ideas for our house -- it seemed like the problem was that we wanted any input whatsoever. Then I realized that all 3 of the references I'd called from his recent sales were seniors who had already moved into assisted living and had him handle 100% of the preparation process -- maybe that is his jam. So it seems like Mark prefers to only work with sellers who do not want any input at all; that's fine if that's his choice -- the frustrating thing was that he was not straightforward with us from the beginning, even though we tried to be very straightforward with him. We had shared all our opinions/preferences on the house during the interview stage, so none of it was a surprise. We had even directly asked about how he'd handle differences of opinion. If he had been honest from the beginning about his "my way or the highway" approach, it would have saved us all a lot of wasted time. In the end, the realtor we ended up selling our house with was outstanding: very kind, smart, and straightforward; his stager and most other contractors were excellent (super nice, very responsive, and did quality work); and we were thrilled with the results. So all's well that ends well, but much like in our buying experience, Mark did a bait-and-switch. We told him exactly what we were looking for, he accepted enthusiastically, and then he changed things up on us later in a non-straightforward way. Our hope is that an honest review can be helpful to others trying to choose a realtor that will suit their needs.

Mark Meyerdirk is a rock star, plain and simple. Super organized, on the ball, and extremely…read moreknowledgeable about the DC market. We saw a listing in pre-sale and loved it. Mark went to bat for us and within an hour he'd sent us spreadsheets of comparable homes, pricing trends, and his impressions on what we should offer. He also advised us to write a personal letter to the seller. He surmised correctly from the condition of the house that the owners would likely prefer an early offer so they don't have a parade of people coming in and out of their lovely home. He was so right! The offer price he suggested was higher than the asking but not astronomically high. After reviewing all the data he shared, we followed his advice for the offer price and also spent some time writing a personal letter to the seller. It worked! Even though the sellers had another pre-offer, they accepted ours. Mark was not done. Since we were first time home buyers, Mark walked us through all the steps to closing. He communicated by email and text and answered questions at all times of the day and night, be it 7AM or 11PM. His working style fits right in with the typical DC type-A crowd, who (like me) want things done yesterday. Finally, we closed and then went out for drinks with Mark. He even bought us a surprise house warming gift that was incredibly thoughtful and personal. Mark is such a personable and likable guy. He'll adapt to your working style and roll with the punches. His communication style is straightforward and (thankfully) completely lacking the typical real-estate patronizing tone. I cannot recommend him enough for the DC market! Apart from being our agent, he is now our friend and we look forward to that friendship. Kudos to Mark. Even my angry cat is happy!

My wife and I mainly write reviews for the prospective buyers out there who, just like we were, may…read morenot know the ground truth in certain areas. Both Alex and Martine Irmer helped us both buy and sell in Old Town Alexandria. We couldn't not recommend them more! If we could have them for our future transactions (we're moving out of the area, we 100% would. Both Martine and Alex were very professional, gave us the upmost confidence in their knowledge of the markets, and served as a good advisor and friend through, what can be, a stressful process. I would argue they have the top pulse on the Old Town market, knowing block by block which homes are worth the value. In some cases, they had previously sold the homes and were intimately familiar with the history, the work done (especially in the case of renovations and flips), and past issues or complaints about the location. Alex went above and beyond to show homes in the market in two days, seeing over eight homes! He worked hard to show the pros/cons of each property, educate us on the inventory, and guide us to the right choice. In both the buy/sell negotiations, you NEED Martine Irmer on your side. She's very smart about real estate transactions, will defend you as a buyer/seller, and knows the landscape well. I would recommend to anyone out there looking to buy or sell, give Martine and Alex a call and talk with them about your goals, intentions, and plans. We happened upon Martine at an open house and we're forever grateful for it!

The Irmer Group recently assisted me with the sale of my Old Town home. Because I had already…read morepurchased a home before I put mine on the market, I was anxious about the process. I could not have been happier with the competent advice and level of service the Irmer Group provided, or more impressed by the way Martine Irmer fiercely advocated for our interests. They began by helping me identify the most cost effective and appropriate repairs and updates on our 120+ year old home to ensure a good sale price. They even assisted me in finding a reasonable and responsive contractor to do the work when my initial contractor fell through. They were excellent in communicating about the process, always listening to my concerns, and ensuring I knew the next steps and what to expect. They were also always available when I had questions, providing timely and insightful responses. We were impressed by how proactive they were in assisting us in finding the right buyers for our historic home, which came with all the quirks (uneven floors, etc..) of Old Town homes. Our home sold above the asking price on the first day we accepted contracts. When our first buyers unexpectedly decided to breach their sales contract, Martine Irmer did a good deal of hand holding and gave me valuable advice on how to proceed. Despite the hiccup, as soon as it went back on the market, our home sold again above the asking price in a timely manner. I am thankful we had such experienced and competent realtors to assist us through the complicated process. Knowing that we had someone we could trust and rely upon made all the difference. I highly recommend the Irmer Group. Their years of experience and passionate advocacy for their clients were a reassurance when the process unexpectedly got complicated and helped us obtain a positive outcome.