Our journey with Amanda began in December 2013, when my husband and I were just starting to think about moving. I found Amanda on Yelp and left her a message asking her whether it was worth meeting up before we were ready to move. She immediately called me back and set up a meeting at our house. She came prepared with lots of details, stats, and graphs on our neighborhood and the housing market. Our two dogs were jumping all over her suit and paperwork, but she gave them hugs and kisses and immediately made us feel comfortable. She also gave us advice on how to begin preparing for a spring move. She also demystified the seemingly scary task of selling one house and using the profits to buy another -without ending up homeless! Afterwards, she sent us thank you notes with Starbucks cards, a thoughtful gesture before we had even committed to using her as our realtor.
Several months passed; I was finishing my Ph.D., so we didn’t want to put the house on the market until spring. When April rolled around, we decluttered as Amanda had recommended and then invited her back to the house. I had recently defended my dissertation and passed, so Amanda brought champagne and a thank you card. We discussed all the numbers and Amanda’s updated research on the area, including our projected net profit from House #1 and our projected closing costs for House #2, and then felt comfortable to commit to using Amanda as our realtor.
A few weeks later, we were ready to put our house on the market. Amanda hired an incredible photographer at no cost to us who made our house look amazing. She also organized two great open houses with a lot of traffic, besides the appointment walk through. Our house was only on the market for 6 days and we got our asking price, even though it was well above average for a house our size in our neighborhood. In fact, we got six offers in six days. Around this time, we began house hunting. Believe it or not, the third house on our list was the one we ended up falling in love with. I think we even saw it on Easter morning, which was really nice of Amanda to come out with us on even though it was a holiday. Because our dream house was also being sold by Pinnacle (the realtor company), she was able to talk the family into considering our bid even though we did not have the funds from our house yet. We put in a bid at $30,000 below asking price, without a penny yet in escrow, and they accepted!
The next few weeks were a blur, but they were smooth and stress-free. Amanda arranged for all the escrows to fund in order and walked us through the home inspection and other contingencies with great advice. Within two months of our second meeting with Amanda, our house was sold and empty and we had moved into our new house, which we love. It was amazing!
We are so happy with Amanda and recommend her to anyone who is selling a house. Though we were located in Sylmar (house #1) and her office was in Encino/Tarzana area, she never complained about coming to us for walkthroughs, inspections, etc. and always took great care of our two dogs. We also got the house we wanted for the price we wanted, and our old house sold quickly and at the price we wanted.
Great job, Amanda! And to any potential home buyers or sellers, check Amanda out! She’s the best.
P.S. On the day we moved in, Amanda gave us an incredible welcome home basket filled with thoughtful gifts that related to our interests. SO thoughtful!
P.P.S. She also always answered all of our questions, no matter how many we had or how silly they seemed to us. She was constantly available through text and email, and helped us understand every part of the process.
