Rodolfo Costa, Realtor, Century 21 Alpha

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A brief intro of myself. I’m a female under 30 and very tight on time, and no one or nothing has ever motivated me to invest my time in writing a review. I have never in my life left any reviews for anyone before until this day. Karen’s a miracle to me.



Mine was a very small purchase: 1 bedroom condo in an area where I would never put my child in school if I ever had one. Trust me, my price range was very small that I got flaked off by two agents. After being literally dissed by two realtors to even show me homes, I gave up. I knew that it was a great time to buy, but I thought maybe I had to save more money for a down payment and put my self on a high payroll for an agent to take a look at me.



Anyway, I get an email from Karen, who was referred to me by Aaron from Stewart and Soss Mortgage (Thanks Aaron, if it weren’t for you for introducing Karen to me, I would be still sitting in my room brooding), who introduces herself and asks for what kind of place I’m looking for. I didn’t write her back the same day and I get another email the next day asking for a response. I called her back and BOOM~~! We meet up to see the places within two days, I tell her I like these two units, she contacts the sellers ON WEEKENDS, does her homework and get the comps, put in an offer within that day I decide to put in the offer, totally negotiates the prices and gets it a whole LESS than the listed price. (As I told you previously, it was awfully small purchase already and she made it smaller.) She does that within a blink of an eye and I am already in contract within a week of meeting her. Some crazy story, right?



EFFICIENCY. That’s just Karen. She doesn’t do any of “Please leave your message, I’ll get back to you within one to two business days.” Everything is instant by email. Contacting the sellers, escrow people, loan people, you name it. She will push push push the other parties to do their job by constantly by asking for updates. And of course, you get cc’d like crazy, so you are on top of your case. She doesn’t give you a chance of asking yourself what’s the status.



RESULT. There are things that agents don’t have control over, but I think what’s important is how the agent is on top of your case and pulls your case through. That’s exactly what Karen did. Within about 2 months of first meeting Karen, I have my keys to my new home. I’m a happy camper!



Here’s the thing. The reason why I was so impressed and made me write this long novel about her was because it was amazing that she ALWAYS made me feel like my case was her number one TOP PRIORITY. Was I buying a mult-million dollar home where it was going to land her with more than 30k commission? Nope, definitely not. Was she a rookie where she needed a guinea pig to build experience? Nope, absolutely not.



She is totally opposite from snobby agents who only smell money. Although her regular base clients are high priced homes, she also takes on small cases like me because she really likes what she does. She has more than fifteen years of experience and darn it, she’s so professional. Karen values you and looks out for you. Let’s just say that she’s the definition of a true agent.



Like I said, it’s your loss if Karen’s not your agent. If you are looking to buy or sell a home, take mine and other reviewer’s advice and contact her ASAP. You’ll be thankful later. Thanks for taking your time and reading my ever first review on anyone or anything! *^.^*

We bought our first home May of this year and Karen was there for us throughout.

When we first started looking in May of last year we picked Karen based on her yelp reviews and neither she nor yelp let us down. We are first time buyers who had no clue as to how to go about doing things and Karen was really nice and helpful. She answered the most stupidest of questions and guided us through the process.

Never once did she pressure us to buy a home if we did not like it and neither did she pressure us to increase our offers if we did not feel comfortable beyond that number. She was always honest with us whether it be about the home or about the offer we were placing.

She took time and effort to see what we wanted. Whenever we walked a home, she would explain everything and answer our questions and also make some recommendations so that we knew what we would be getting into with the home.

Karen is also super responsive via email as well as phone. She also keeps us in touch with the market pulse via her email updates. Her emails inform us of the state of the market, let us know what is selling and what is not and provide all the detail in an easy-to-read and understand manner.

We wholeheartedly recommend her and hope you have the same experience we have received from having Karen as our agent.

I found Karen completely unsolicited, just based on Internet review searches. Honestly there were a lot of highly rated agents in the area, but what got my attention was the fact that other reviewers mentioned that Karen is super responsive via email, which was a key criteria for me. My line of work does not allow me too much time to make or take personal phone calls, so I appreciated the fact I could communicate to Karen via email and get fast replies. Karen was very honest about the market and helped me purchase my first home. She took her time to send me lots of listings and showed me many houses on the market. Even though what we found eventually was a short sale situation, and there were lots of complications, Karen helped me navigate through it all with ease. She even offered to cover some unexpected expenses although these costs were not incurred through any fault of hers. Overall, I couldn't really ask for a much better agent, and I have already recommended her to my friends and family who may be looking for real estate assistance.