This was my wife and I very 1st experience here in Austin buying a home. With my wife being a Foreign National from Tokyo Japan, we knew real estate terminology and the understanding of the real estate process could be an issue for us. I'm an easy going guy and usually just go with the flow of things, but my wife is not that way at all, she's very meticulous and detailed when it comes to assessing a product in regards to making any purchase. At times she can be very difficult, but almost all of the time her meticulous assessment of things always ensures we are getting the product or the services deserved for the money spent. Rachel Hoffman was an instrumental part in ensuring my wife was very comfortable with the process! Rachel ensured my wife had an complete understanding of the entire real estate process and took as much time as necessary to ensure special consideration to my wife's needs, no matter how long it took. In addition, Rachel had an extensive amount of resources associated with the home buying process which could have easily made our real estate experience a one stop shop with external needs we asked about for our new home, i.e. Tree Trimmers, Home Inspector, 360 Home Connect, Loan Company (Loansbytera.com), Wood Floor Companies, Roofers, Pest inspectors, painters, and the list goes on! Of course my wife did not use all of the resources Rachel provided but it gave my wife a Great template to gauge off of which was a tremendous help in my wife's ability to compare analysis. All of the suggested resources Rachel provided were above standard, and my wife was very impressed and pleased with Rachel's professionalism and understanding of external needs a home buyer may want in addition to the Real Estate process. We both were very pleased with Rachel's work ethic and availability to us during the entire process! There were times late at night my wife had questions and Rachel was open to me texting her anytime no matter what time it was. I always got an immediate response from Rachel or a phone call to further discuss. Great Customer Service! We will be suggesting Rachel to anyone we meet in the future that's in the market for buying a home! Rachel was able to do what many other real estate agents could not do! And that was to get us into a Home in East Oak Hill within our price range! We submitted 7 offers for homes in this neighborhood with No JOY! Rachel gave us our JOY on her 1st try and we really appreciate it! In our opinion, Rachel deserves a Formal Appreciation, a Bonus, a Promotion, if any of those things are available :) She literally made my wife and family DREAMS COME TRUE by putting us in a home in an area we thought was an impossible accomplishment. Thank You Reality Austin! And Thank you so much Rachel Hoffman! read more

Hm, what to say about Jeffery Schnabel. Diet let me start by saying that my girlfriend and I were first time home buyers. We really didn't know much about it or what to expect. When we started looking for houses in January we did the proverbial "my friends LOVED their realtor, you should really use them". And so we did. Big mistake. Then we decided to go with a family friend! Yea that was a terrible idea too. Sorry guys, never use friends or family as a realtor. Then we found Jeff. After reading his great reviews I decided to give him a call. I couldn't have ended up more thrilled with that choice. From day one, we sat down in his office and he asked what we wanted out of a house. Of course we underestimated what we could really spend and had a giant list of specifics. Jeff sat there patiently and listened and would chime in here and there with a question that we hadn't thought of yet. Then he told us, "Look, sometimes people may have an issue with the way I help as a realtor because I'm going to tell you like it is. You're going to come to me and I'm going to tell you what you DONT want more then what you think you do want." And that was exactly what we were looking for. From then on Jeff visited, literally, dozens of homes with us from new builds to resales. Always asking why we liked or didn't like and trying to hone in on the exact perfect fit for us. He was always patient and always helpful. That's the thing about Jeff, he is easily one the most knowledgeable realtors in the business. Whether its construction, pricing of the work or even plant life! He seems to know it all. And when it came to the buying process, look no further. He had all the answers we needed and even the answers we didn't know we needed! There's no way we could've done this with out him. He's a tough negotiator with the seller and he was with us every step of the way. And it doesn't matter if you're buying a million dollar home or a 250k home like us. He's the best of the best with both! If you're reading this, you'll have hundreds of people telling which realtor you should get. But please, trust this stranger when I say, don't listen to your friends. Don't listen to your family. So what's best for you and the beginning of a new life. Use Jeffrey Schnabel. You won't regret it. I guarantee it. read more

Many times in my life I have used professional service providers to help me accomplish goals with tasks that I am not familiar with. Some providers I felt were worth their compensation, others not so much. Never in my life have I had such a positive service buying experience as I did with Aj Farrer of Realty Austin. When I first made the decision to purchase a home, I was a lost soul. I had faint ideas of what I could afford and what I even wanted. Looking for help, a friend of mine passed on a referral to me, and that is when I met AJ. AJ descended like a golden Valkyrie to carry my lost soul into the Valhalla of home ownership. As soon as I reached out to her, she began to provide me with instruction and guidance to get my financial situation in order. As soon as that was accomplished, the hunt for a home began. After telling her what I was looking for, we spent one Saturday visiting all of the potential matches she had found using her Realtor wizardry. The very first house we looked at immediately resonated with potential. AJ recognized the massive potential, and after looking at 15 other properties, we returned to that house for a second look. Today I own that house. But the road to ownership was not without its perils. The home was owned by three different people from the hostile, foreign land of California. This meant every change to every document had to be passed through 4 different hands to become solid. What would have been a nightmare for me to handle, was simplified to mere clicks and signatures on my cell phone. Whenever one of the many issues related to the seller sprang up, AJ took time to educate me on what was happening and what my options were. After discussing the issue, AJ would translate my intentions into action. And all I ever had to do was sign the documents that she prepared and delivered. Buying a home may seem like a daunting task, but with AJ Farrer and her team at Realty Austin, the process will be painless, and you will find the home you deserve. Andrew Anstrom Home Owner read more

We had a very pleasant experience in purchasing our home in North Austin working with Alicia Kelley. I've purchased over thirty properties in multiple states in the U.S. and Canada and Alicia Kelley is the best, most professional and efficient real estate agent whom I have dealt with. Her experience and professionalism enabled us to purchase this home effortlessly. We purchased while traveling out of state and on a tight timeline and her efficiency enabled a potentially messy scenario into a simple process. She has superb expertise in local real estate details and was ALWAYS available and friendly. Her attention to detail and quick response got us the best deal possible. We started looking for a place and within two days we had found the perfect home and had an offer in. The deal was closed within two weeks with title in hand. Never have we experienced such a seamless process including inspection insurance and all the little details. Alicia took us to visit properties all the way out by lake Travis and also into the city the day before she hosted a large birthday party with an impending guest list of 80some people. Even with all of her plans set months in advance, she still took the day to see places with us and never once did we feel rushed even though she had put her plans on hold because of our timeline. One note: the inspector Amir with whom she works is EXCELLENT. If you are from out of town or don't know the right people (electricians, inspectors lawyers etc...) the people who Alicia recommends are all of the highest quality. I don't say this lightly: Alicia is the most congenial professional and efficient agent I've met. We've already recommended her to other family members house hunting and I would recommend her to all of you as well. THANKS ALICIA!! read more

Re: Kristen Fojtik: When I met Kristen in October 2014, I was in dire straits. My Westlake home had been on the market for 4 months with not a single offer. I was getting very few showings on my property and was extremely frustrated. I initially made the grave error of using a discount broker, which truly worked against me. My house was improperly priced, marketed ineffectively and just didn't show in a way that made buyers want to walk in the door. Kristen turned all this around for me, leading to a closed transaction in just a little over 3 months after she took over the listing. And bear in mind, this was during the holiday season, when fewer buyers are around! What did she do to facilitate the sale of my house? A ton! First of all she is an incredibly hard worker and is a highly intelligent person. To back that up, she has a tremendous amount of marketing/advertising experience and is a specialist in the sale of luxury homes. She created a stunning flyer for my listing, put me in touch with reasonably priced contractors that completed work that needed to be done quickly and worked with my stager to give my home a fresh, contemporary and welcoming look that attracted buyers. She knows a LOT of people in this town and is always able to come up with creative solutions that enable quick solving of problems. She's also very calm- she will get you through the stress of a house sale, no problem. Just listen to her- she's kind and knows her business. If she tells you something needs to be done to move your sale forward, listen to her! She will get the job done! I can't underscore Kristen's professionalism and dedication enough. She is the epitome of a competent, ethical Realtor. read more

Kristen Rummel, with Realty Austin, has vast knowledge & experience with how the economy affects the housing market & what is needed to prepare & keep a house ready to sell. She also is a gifted people person. Her insights & attention to detail, visibly transformed my house to show the spaciousness it had & to make it shine beautifully. She expertly guided & provided information through every step of the process. Needing to pack up excess belongings was overwhelming to me. Kristen referred me to a reputable organizer who worked along side me to assist with packing & purging decades of acquired belongings. My husband recently passed away so I needed to probate his Will before selling our home. She accommodated my estate attorney who advised legal wording of all documents/contracts. Kristen integrated those in to the documents & contracts. When I needed house repairs done she provided a list of subcontractors for repairs, cleaning, etc. She was a great liaison while selling my house. There was a driveway encroachment which had to be resolved before selling. She effectively communicated between my attorney, a neighbor, surveyor & lender to resolve the issue. She quickly let me know when buyers requested to view the house & provided a helpful information on how to prepare the house to "sparkle". The whole process of selling my house took an emotional toll on me. Kristen always endeavored through all situations at a moments notice when issues were too much for me to handle. She seemed to genuinely care about my well being & made all this possible. I appreciate Kristen staying strong, reassuring & especially for selling my house in a short time span to help me move on with my life. read more

Sam Sheikh helped me find a home for myself and my two friend and I call say is that he was beyond helpful. I knew him from my community and someone had asked me if I had known anyone I told them that I only knew Sam. He was beyond helpful and ended up narrowing down a couple homes for my friend. My friend told him what he wanted and he scheduled for him 5 houses to take a look at in the area taking into consideration all the specific details we demanded. He delivered and before my friend went to visit those homes he assured us that we would find our home in the first three visits. It was the very first home my friend was in awe of. My friend ended up buying the home. Furthermore, my friend was only coming to Austin for a week. He got the deal done and ended up saving us money since the house we were looking for were high in price due to the specific items we wanted. There was nothing he showed us inside the house that we did not like. Sam is an amazing guy and he made sure the process and closing was smooth and did not cause us a headache. He was super patient with us when we visited the home and took care of us greatly. On top of that he offered my friend a place to stay in case he did not have a place to stay when we were closing on the house. Finally, he was so respectful and professional. We could clearly see that he did not want us to buy the house he recommended us just because he was in it for the money. Thank you Sam Sheikh for being so professional. You are an amazing person and we look forward to recommending you to anyone we know. Thank you Sir so much. John read more

Dana Takenaka was PHENOMENAL to work with! We recently purchased our first home with the help and expertise of Dana. We were very nervous about the entire process, as we were not only first-time homebuyers, but we were also doing everything remotely as we are relocating from Brooklyn. We were referred to Dana by a close friend in Austin, and from day one she put us at ease. She provided us with a ton of information on the market, and walked us through the home buying process step by step. She answered every single question we had (and believe me, we had a LOT of them), and she listened to what we wanted and needed. Dana hit the streets immediately and with her expertise of the area, along with the knowledge of what we were looking for, she was able to come back with tons of options for us that had the things we were looking for. You can tell Dana loves what she does, and she does it for all of the right reasons. She really wants to help her clients make sound investments, and find a house that is going to feel like home. She made what could have been an incredibly stressful experience a really smooth one. On a particularly stressful night of packing in Brooklyn, she even sent us pizza so we wouldn't have to worry about making dinner that night! This woman is just so incredibly thoughtful, compassionate, and a killer real estate agent. We can't thank her enough for educating us on the market, advocating for us, and ultimately helping us find our beautiful home. If you are looking to purchase a home in Austin, we would recommend working with Dana a million times over. read more

Betsy is amazing. Her knowledge of the housing market and years of experience paired with her willingness to go above and beyond to find us the perfect home make her the absolute best realtor. Our situation was unique, as we purchased a home in Austin while stationed overseas. Having never been to the area before, we were completely reliant on Betsy, and put our full trust in her. From the beginning, she was incredibly professional, proactive, responsive, knowledgeable, and personable. She met every question we had with a helpful and realistic answer, and every need with a solution and follow-through. She took the time to understand exactly what we were looking for from the features of the home to the area it was located in, as well as our financing and how the transaction would be completed from afar. She was always quick to get us information on homes, and even to view them on our behalf since we could not be there. She not only met our needs, she overwhelmingly exceeded them. I feel that she truly advocated for us as her clients, and ultimately found us the perfect home. She was the core of this transaction as she was incredibly diligent in making sure no detail was overlooked, and in constant communication with us and all parties involved. Words cannot adequately express our gratitude for all her. I could write a novel saying all the different ways she helped us, and is still helping us even after closing. She made purchasing a home possible for us in our situation. I would recommend her to absolutely everyone! From the bottom of our hearts, thank you Betsy! read more

When we were considering our home sale in Avery Ranch, I reached out to Realty Austin due to their solid reputation in NW Austin. Barrett Sandefur responded and met me at the house the next day. He already had a market analysis prepared and we briefly discussed options. I was very impressed with his professionalism and always asking me what I wanted to do rather than pushing me in any direction. We decided to wait a year to sell and throughout that time, Barrett would periodically check in just to see if he could help with anything. Again, not pushy at all. I used the opportunity to ask a few questions along the way and he was quick to respond with helpful information. When the time came, I had no doubt who we wanted our agent to be. I called Barrett (now about 1 year after our initial meeting) and we met again. He came prepared with an updated analysis and we again reviewed options. We decided to sell and he started the process. I've heard plenty of horror stories about selling a home so I was skeptical about the process. Barrett quickly reassured us that he had everything covered and he truly lived up to that commitment. The entire process from initial presales contract up through closing took about 2 months and Barrett was professional, attentive, and extremely helpful throughout. The experience was actually very positive. He took care of all the heavy lifting and went above and beyond to make sure we were informed and comfortable the whole way through. We don't plan to buy or sell anytime soon but when we do, I know who I'm calling!!! Thanks Barrett! read more

Amy Mills is simply the best realtor I've ever encountered, and I've met several and once played one myself when I sold our home back in Pennsylvania "by owner." Amy has now sold us two homes--one mostly long-distance when we still lived in Pennsylvania and bought our current home in Austin, and now the second on the spot and from very close range, as we've bought a second home in Austin (while still keeping the first one Amy sold us). I'm not sure where to begin or end in praising Amy's skills. She replies swiftly to emails at all hours of day and night. (I just looked at my emails now that things have finally died done, and there are 106 threads--not just individual emails, but whole threads some with 20 emails in them--almost all of them involving Amy answering questions.) She's smart. She knows where to get the answers when she doesn't already know them. She's persistent--but very tactful. She'a always upbeat. She has an unerring instinct for what buyers want: Our first house here was the first one she showed us, and now our second is one that Amy found for us before it even hit the market. She not only answers questions, but points things out that we didn't even ask about. She's more than just a realtor--there are shades of attorney, home decorator, contractor, and more in her. I asked what it would cost to replace the floor in the house we just bought, and she named a dollar amount without missing a beat that proved to be very accurate. I could go on all day like this. I'll just end where I began: Amy Mills is the best. --Jim Cahalan read more

Just before the holidays, I used A.J. Farrer at Realty Austin as my realtor to purchase my first home. I had nothing but positive experiences during my time working with A.J. She was incredibly helpful during the entire process-- not only working with the builder/agent and lender, but also in explaining each step in the (complex) process of home-buying for this first-time buyer. She wanted me to understand each step and make informed decisions. A.J. spent the time to find out what was on my "must-have" list and my "wish" list, and made sure that I fell in love with my new home. She spent countless amount of time on the phone with the builder's agent and construction lead to make sure that everything stayed on track and fell in line with my various requests. She made insightful suggestions based on her experience/personal preferences, but never pressured me into any decision. She was very patient with my indecisiveness! A.J. used her many years in real estate to find us the best loan officers, who I trusted immensely. And always made sure that I understood my options and made the best decision for my financial situation. I would not hesitate to recommend A.J. to my friends, family, or YELP strangers. Even during the busy holiday season, I was in constant contact with A.J. and closed without a single issue. She never made me feel like my constant questions were a burden, and worked patiently through the entire process with me. She'll be my #1 choice for any future real estate transactions! read more

My husband and I had our home for sale for six months with not one offer before we switched to Realty Austin with Alexia Dauterive being the agent. And WOW what a difference she made!!! She came into our home on a Sunday evening with the most current comps for our area and was so organized that it literally made our heads spin! We are not novice home sellers as we have bought and sold numerous homes through the years and we have to say that she is the very BEST that we have ever worked with! She assured us that our home was indeed priced to sell and that she would sell it if we would follow her advice and trust her! She said that we needed to 'restage' our home, which I absolutely dreaded, but we trusted her! She came back 3 days later with mulitple bins full of goodies for staging and did it all HERSELF!!! Oh my gosh---what a very pleasant surprise! Then, new photos the next day and 4 days later, we had a contract and I'm not kidding!!!! She was in constant touch with us via email, text, and phone during the entire process. She planned her work and worked her plan and as a result, we will be her clients forever!!! Needless to say, we can't say enough about Austin Realty and Alexia Dauterive!!! What a fantastic team they are! Alexia is smart, a worker bee, and has the full support, and a plethora of resources, available to her from Austin Realty to get your home sold or to locate the perfect new home for your family!!! Kudos and Thank You! Tom and Gail Glass read more

This was my 2nd time working with Ryan Gamble at Realty Austin on a home purchase, and can't say enough great things about her! Not only is she super knowledgeable about the Austin market and provides spot on recommendations about what would be the best fit AND investment, she is ON TOP of communications and takes representing you in the home buying process to the next level. My fiance and I recently purchased a house being built, with a building company with less-than-stellar reviews, so we knew we were taking on a risk. Ryan went to battle for us many times throughout the 6 month build process. She voiced our concerns to the builder and made sure we got them all addressed quickly. Basically, making all of the negative things that other homeowners experienced with that builder something we didn't have to experience. I know that it was because of Ryan, that our new home building experience was, to us, painless and fun! If you're going the new construction route for your home, I highly highly recommend getting an agent like Ryan Gamble to represent you. You will not regret it. I also worked with Ryan for my first ever purchase a couple years ago, when I bought a condo. Taking that first leap from renting to owning was a bit scary, but working with her made me feel more confident in my investment. And it paid off! If you're curious about owning rather than renting, you should definitely talk to Ryan! read more

Melissa Roberts was top-notch and went way beyond what we ever expected. Upon initial communication, i was confident Melissa "got me" and was impressed with her fast and excellent communication (i'm not a patient one). I first spoke with her on a Monday and told her we were flying out from Ohio to Texas on Thursday and "was she free to show us homes?" She complied an impressive list of the very best homes in our price range and in the very best areas for us. Not being familiar with the area, her guidance was invaluable. In a period of 3 consecutive days, Melissa showed us 33 homes. She worked endlessly to make sure we found the "perfect" home that weekend. THEN she negotiated us an unbelievable deal - we literally had zero stress getting a great price. This is where you expect most agents to disappear and eventually send you a thank you card. Not Melissa, while back in Ohio packing for the move, Melissa was sending us photo updates of the final stages of construction (it was a new home). She was at our side at the inspection, the walk-through, the final walk-through, the closing and has connected us to resources in the community for utilities and additional custom work. We feel completely blesses to have found Melissa and believe she is a total 'gem' of an agent. We would absolutely recommend her to anyone buying or selling. She is professional, personable, and never skips a beat. read more