Vanguard Realty

When I first met Matt, I had pretty much written off realtors as a profession. When my husband and I bought our first condo a number of years ago, our first buyer agent screwed us by convincing us that we should waive the mortgage contingency. When the appraisal came in low and the lender denied us financing, I was fortunately able to save the deal on my own by finding a different appraiser who appraised at asking price, no thanks to our buyer agent who had stopped answering my calls. After a few years, we sold the condo FSBO and purchased a several properties using only the seller agents. They were pushy, self-​serving people who were primarily interested in getting their commissions. One agent didn’t even bother getting us the keys after we had closed on a place because he had to go trick-​or-​treating with his son that evening.
Such was my mindset when I first worked with Matt two years ago. I was selling two condos FSBO, and Matt was representing an investor buyer. The buyer was very interested in the location of one of our units, and Matt was trying to close the deal prior to our first open house. However, although Matt was a strong negotiator on behalf of his buyer, I never felt taken advantage of. He was courteous, very accommodating in bringing items to our house for us to sign, and ethical in his dealings with us. For example, I didn’t know he spoke and understood Mandarin Chinese and started what I thought was a private phone discussion with my husband in Chinese about the terms of sale. Matt literally ran out of the room to allow me to have my «private» discussion without him hearing/​understanding it. To finalize the deal, he included some terms less favorable to his commission that sweetened his buyer’s offer. I was impressed by this. I also didn’t know until later on that he had founded his own independent realty company that he was president of. He was always very down to earth and never acted as if he was too good to do the work of a regular agent.
After we closed on the sale, we wanted to buy an investment condo near our house. I had pinpointed a newer building I wanted to buy in. After showing us some comparables, Matt notified us immediately when a unit in that building came on the market, helped us negotiate a sales price below asking, and assisted us with the purchase, which was a bit complex as it involved a rent-​back to the sellers. Since that purchase, we have had Matt help us with two additional real estate purchases, one for my in-​laws and one as another investment. Matt was very tolerant of the long search for the perfect condo for my in-​laws, who had many specific preferences. Even when he was sick, he set up and attended showings with us early and late and in all kinds of weather. He was always very objective about the properties he was showing us and never tried to sugarcoat anything just to convince us to buy. Matt is also very skilled in multiple-​offer situations and bidding wars. With our most recent purchase, we had pretty much given up hope that our offer would be accepted since there were several other offers above asking. Matt worked with us to adjust the offer price (not excessively above asking) and terms. We were pleasantly surprised when our offer was accepted. While we were waiting to close on this purchase, Matt and his leasing agent David Morganstern helped us find excellent tenants with high credit scores to lease the condo and parking spaces. We agreed to pay half the fee and Vanguard only charged us a quarter fee. On the day of closing, our lender flaked out and wasn’t able to have everything ready in time for the signing despite us being on time with all documentation. Matt stayed calm and was helpful with getting things the lender needed to finalize the closing two days later. He is a consummate professional. In short, I am very happy with the services Matt has provided to us and plan to use Vanguard Realty for all my future real estate transactions.