Stefanie Smith – Keller Williams Realty

A year ago we decided to sell our house in Seattle and move to Boston. We’d spent time in Boston before, but not enough to know the nuances of the various neighborhoods. We needed an agent who could do a whole lot more than just help us negotiate on price, and all from 3,000 miles away.
A real estate agent friend of ours pre-​screened agents for us, and recommended Stefanie Smith and a few others. I called her and we spent an hour on the phone going over the types of neighborhood we were interested in and the types of things that we were and were not looking for in our next home. Stefanie was not critical of my advanced planning (we were planning on moving in 6 – 9 months), and at that point, I decided that I had found my agent.
Over the next few weeks, Stefanie compiled lists of towns for us to consider, based on schools, distance to the city center, and the types and prices of housing. She answered countless questions for us, and even drove up to a town and made a video of the area so we could see it for ourselves.
During our visits to Boston, Stefanie arranged house tours for us so we could get out and look at neighborhoods and houses, even though we were not yet ready to buy. She always asked us what we did and didn’t like and why so she could fine-​tune her understanding of what we were looking for.
After many months, the time was here. Our house in Seattle sold, and we were ready to buy. We toured several houses in several neighborhoods, then we began to narrow our search until we found a house that we loved. Stefanie explained the process in great detail to us (the process of buying a house in Massachusetts is really different than what we did to buy a house in Washington). She answered every question patiently, and she always made sure we knew what was coming next so we were never surprised.
Stefanie helped us negotiate with our sellers, and we were happy with our final price. She’d given us good data to use for comps and other sales in the area (we liked to see the data ourselves), and she gave us her professional opinion of the market. There were some inspection issues, and Stefanie stayed on top of them (even through the horrible winter we’re having) to make sure things were done as they should be.
Moving long-​distance is extremely stressful, but having an agent as professional, competent, and hard-​working as Stefanie helped make it easier. At every step, she went above and beyond what we were expecting. She knew what we wanted almost as well as we did, and she made it all come together in the end. She was an invaluable resource from start to finish, and we were exceedingly pleased with her efforts to help us achieve our goal and settle in to our new house.