Duong Kim Group – Jameson Sotheby’s

As most other reviewers have attested, Amy is incredibly hardworking, talented, personable, and most of all dedicated to her clients and making sure they are well represented in a real estate transaction. I cannot say enough good things about her especially as a first-​time home buyer; she was very patient with us throughout months of searching for the right place, never hesitated to go out of her way so that we could see properties we were interested in as soon as possible (which can be important in fast moving areas like West Loop), and made communication a breeze. One thing that perhaps hasn’t been mentioned by others that I noticed is that Amy is very well connected, and more often than not she knows the realtor on the other side of a deal. Those kind of connections can go a long way towards ensuring a smooth experience for both buyer and seller.

We worked with Amy on purchasing our first home last year and looking back, couldn’t be more pleased and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend.
Amy is extremely knowledgeable with regards to the landscape of the Chicago land area, trends in the market, the assigned school district, neighborhood trends and demographics, etc. She arranged for us to see over a dozen homes all within a single day and offered excellent insight with regards to floor plans, what items added value to the home and estimated renovation costs for parts of houses we would potentially want to change.
She guided us through the entire process and was very responsive throughout. If our family ever decides to move, we’d most definitely reach out and would love to work with Amy again.

Incredibly talented and dedicated.
Worked with Amy as the executor of a relative’s estate, selling a condo in River North along with parking spaces. Amy knew the market, the likely buyer demographics, was aggressive in pricing and showings, and in the end got our estate above what I had expected. Amy’s also excellent at communicating with her clients– I was never worried about getting an update on what her team was doing to sell our unit, and what they saw coming on the horizon.

Everything about the home-​buying experience was annoying, except working with Amy. She’s fantastic.
As first time home buyers, visiting from out of town and in a hurry, we were lucky to find Amy. She’s knowledgeable, friendly, and brings with her none of the smarmy posturing that seems to haunt the real estate industry. We met a lot of agents in our whirlwind tour of Chicago, and in every case we were glad to have Amy on our side. She scheduled a dense weekend of viewings that perfectly matched our desires and aesthetics, jumped into negotiation with zeal, got us a great deal on a lovely condo, and remained helpful and communicative throughout the entire process. If we ever move again, we’ll definitely try to hire Amy.

I worked with Amy as a first time buyer to find a condo in Chicago. She is very laid back and truly wants to help you to find exactly what you are looking for, without letting you walk into a bad investment. Amy kept me calm throughout the whole process and provided excellent insight to help me find the perfect place to live. I would 100% recommend her to a friend.

Amy is a true credit to her profession. She is calm, cool, and collected, and knows her stuff better than most. I love working with her and wish more realtors out there would follow the Amy Duong template of excellence.

Wow! Amy was fantastic!
My husband and I just purchased our first home with Amy, and we could not be happier. Amy was so available and informative (and we had a ton of questions!). When we began the process we already knew almost exactly what we were looking for. Amy helped us look at the places that we were interested in and some others that she thought may be of interest to us. She was able to give very immediate and direct feedback about what we were seeing, which was helpful because we are not from Chicago and not as familiar with the available options. Amy was available for every little question that we had, any time of the day, any day of the week. Even after we were under contract she checked on us from her honeymoon in Asia! In the end we got the place we wanted for not a penny more than we said we were willing to pay. She even offered to bring boxes over for us to help with the move– now that is dedication!
I will definitely be recommending Amy to all of my friends in Chicago!

We worked with Amy on buying our first place. Working with her couldn’t have been better. She was extremely prepared and knowledgeable and helped us through the entire process. She helped us each step of the way and provided tons of good advice. Anytime we had a question, she was always available, whether it was a phone call, text message, or IM. She knew how much we should be paying for each property and made sure she got us the best price. After we had finished closing, she was still following up with us to make sure everything was going well.
We loved working with Amy as our realtor and will absolutely work with her again! We will be recommending her to anyone in know in need of a realtor.

We worked with Amy and she helped us purchase a short-​sale just this week. It was a TON of work on her part to get everything rolling smoothly including getting the existing tenants (who became squatters) out before closing. If you aren’t familiar with a short-​sale, the process of it can be quite a nightmare. It comes to show that we had the best agent when we were able to close on the short-​sale in such a short about of time.
We absolutely loved working with Amy and will definitely use her again in the future!

I read Unilocal reviews every week, but this is the first review I’ve written. I parted ways with my first Realtor with another agency after meeting Amy with AAA Realty. There wasn’t anything wrong with the first Realtor who was very nice, but I was looking for a negotiator, someone more aggressive maybe, to advocate for me. Although Amy’s a busy lady, I always felt prioritized, as if I were her only client. I’m sure she’s great with your standard house or condo, but I found her extra helpful with a more complicated short sale multi-​unit purchase. Something that was helpful to me in being a first-​time home-​buyer was that Amy came up with suggestions instead of just asking me what I wanted to do about xyz. Although she has a great sense of urgency, she was very patient with me and my husband.

We would highly recommend Amy for all your real estate needs. We were looking to list our house in the suburbs for sale or rent. Amy was very knowledgeable and helped us get the house listed right away. The pictures of the property that she took looked great! We had showings scheduled starting the next day and mostly every day after that. Amy kept in contact with us to let us know when there were showings and any other information she had. We received lease applications shortly after and signed a lease within 12 days after the house was listed. Amy helped us throughout the whole lease process and was a very active liaison between us and the tenants. We couldn’t be happier with the whole process and we have Amy to thank!

Amy is a go getter. She hustles for every client and is very well informed and honest with her opinions. Buying or selling she is diligent and effective. Houses don’t stay vacant for very long when she is on call. People say your realtor should be trusted like a member of your family since it is probably going to be the largest financial transactions of your life. Amy is completely all that and a bag of chips. I recommend everyone use her.

We’re working with Amy to buy a single family home, and sell our condo. In this real estate market, it’s extremely important that you have a great agent, and I’m so glad we found Amy on Unilocal.
Amy is a go-​getter who doesn’t take no for an answer. She’s persistent when talking with selling agents on our behalf, and makes it a point to follow up with every buyer agent who sets up showings of our condo. She is constantly in touch via phone, email, and gchat. Amy seems to be constantly working!
Amy is a direct communicator and doesn’t hesitate to ask sellers about problem areas that she finds in homes (water spots, mold, etc). She is knowledgeable about most repair costs and spouts numbers like a true former-​actuarial science person. And, she’s a tough negotiator!

This is actually a 4.5 star rating and Unilocal does not allow half stars on a single review… read for more…
My family and I recently closed on a single family new construction using Amy as our realtor. It took us over half a year to finally find one we completely adore. The house will be completed in October and I have total faith that it will be a beautiful home. The things that I highly praise Amy for is her accessibility and negotiation skills. I’ve graduated from college a couple years ago, still live with my parents, and haven’t even ever rented an apartment on my own in college, let alone buy a house. I was constantly high strung and anxious during the negotiation period (which lasted for almost two weeks) so I was relentless with my phone calls. I ask tons of questions and called Amy all the time. This was a new construction home which means twice the work and attention was needed to hammer out all the details from the various house allowances to the actual floorplans. Amy was very responsive, always returned my calls timely and had good resources to provide me with helpful/​educated answers. We got a few unexpected +‘s for the house including getting a corner lot that came with various perks. The contract was also more complicated than your usual dealing since I wanted to make sure the place got built before the cut-​off date for the $ 8,000 1^st time homebuyer’s credit. Amy was even more stern on the deadline than me and really used this point on top of our other requests as leverage to help get everything we wanted worked into the contract. The other realtor was exhausted towards the end and mentioned multiple times that we were very lucky to have Amy as a realtor. That must count for something! And of course I chuckle to myself every time knowing that we did get an awesome deal. I feel like I won something coming out of the negotiation. I give Amy four and a half stars for her negotiation skills and I am very satisfied with how everything turned out. I am holding back on giving Amy five stars because this is after all my first home buying experience and I do not have a point of comparison since I have never worked with another realtor before. Just trying to be honest here. Definitely consider Amy and see for yourself!
************Update Sept. 2012*************
Long story short, we had to come a full circle before we get to live in the house… b/​c the developer’s loaner went bankrupt and whole deal just seemed to have gone astray from that point on. That following winter we walked away from the deal and I was for certain jaded and ready to give up on home buying. Fast-​forward two years later, a new developer came in, we were contacted and Amy with no less ounce of patience and diligence in her work helped us with everything from tile selections to setting up an inspection to the closing. I know it’s her job and in the end $$ in her pocket but I am very grateful for Amy. I’ve been living in my new home for 3 months now and love it so much! I admire her work ethic :)

I’m glad I had Amy as a realtor. She’s knowledgeable, confident, and genuine. However, the most important quality for me about Amy was that I could trust that she was thinking for me. When I wasn’t sure what type of condo I wanted to buy, we looked around first to see what I like. Once I let her know what I prefer, she did a great job in narrowing down our search.
I found a few places I really liked but it was really unfortunate that I had some personal issues that delayed me from purchasing a place. But I wanted to post a review for Amy in appreciation for all her help and to recommend her anyone else looking for a place in Chicago.

Amy is an extremely diligent, proficient, and helpful realtor. She made the process of buying a home for the first time so easy that i have referred her to a few friends who have had similar positive experiences. I highly recommend her as she always has your best interests in mind.

Very knowledgeable about the business, friendly, professional, organized… this girl knows what she’s doing. There wasn’t a question she couldn’t answer. She looks out for you and will fight for you and what you want.
Looking to buy? Check her out!

Why 4 and not 5, previous experience with other realtor @ company.
Started out with another Realtor @ AAA Realty Group. That didn’t work out so well. (Lesson learned: don’t work with a part time realtor).
She took over towards the end and helped to finish the deal with no problems. She’s always a phone call away. (very available). Knowledgable, Attentive, & Professional are just a few traits that she possesses. Glad that I had a chance to work with her.

I recently attended a Home Buying Workshop that Amy held a sorority convention. She was very informative about the overall process and what to expect as a first home buyer. She shared details about affordability, market values, loans, foreclosures, renting to own and even more.
When I do have enough money saved up, I’ll be going to Amy to purchase my first home.

Amy is a really friendly and approachable realtor, and she’s been very helpful in answering all of my questions in regards to buying my first home. She pays attention to your likes and dislikes and tailors that to the places she picks out for you to see. She’ll work well with you to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible, and she’s easy to get a hold of when you need her!
I’d definitely send my friends her way if they were in need of a realtor!