Andrew Sturtevant Intelligent Buyer Real Estate

Andrew is an amazing agent to work with. We got in touch with him the hard way — after changing 3 agents for buying us our first home. With previous agents we found issues like non-​responsiveness, too busy to give attention to detail, lack of understanding the real estate mind games etc. But none of this with Andrew. He is on top of everything, every single time!
We liked his business model, since we didn’t really need someone to drive us everywhere to see the houses. All the info is online and we directly met him the first time at one of the houses that we were considering. Andrew was prepared with info about the neighborhood, school info and estimates about the cost that would be needed to fix the house. He gave us detailed analysis of selling price estimation and our chances of winning the bidding war. With his help we were even able to put in a few clauses into our offer, that eventually helped our offer get accepted despite it not being the highest offer! He and his team is extremely professional, dedicated and work very thoroughly on the deal and the post-​deal aspects.
He had resources available for all our needs and was always super prompt about replying to our endless queries! He event went ahead and paid some cost out of his own pocket when the sellers agent tried to add on some charges just a day before closing! Amazing, I must say! His buyer rebate is a big help when you are burdened with all the new costs that first time home buyers have no idea about!
The best part about Andrew, is that he is always 100% on your side and helps you with whatever issues you might have with the whole home buying process. We were stuck with some really nasty sellers who took a long time moving out their stuff and even damaged the garage wall in the process. Andrew was right by our side and with his legal resources, he made sure that the sellers were accounted for the damage. Seriously, we really admire Andrew for his professionalism, work ethic and for helping us buy our first home in a competitive neighborhood ! You just cannot go wrong with Andrew :)

Andrew is reliable, professional, honest, straight forward, flexible and everything else you need in a trustworthy realtor. Not only is his rebate program efficient, cost effective and beneficial for all parties, together with his work ethics, experience and knowledge, Andrew is the real deal. We wholeheartedly recommend Andrew to anyone who is looking to purchase/​sell in this expensive Bay Area market. We will definitely continue to use Andrew in our future transactions!

You know when you’re playing Civ (a strategy game) and there are advisers that teach you to play the game as you go? Yeah they’re useless, turn them off.
But Andrew is the awesome version of those advisers. Andrew is like all 5 advisers + the best hacks rolled into one. Let me explain.
Advice
— — -
What we loved most about working with Andrew was that he presented information to us clearly, succinctly, and exactly when we needed it. We walked into our first meeting with him having no idea how to even think about this process. Over the course of our 3 months working with him, I feel like we now know how to intelligently approach the home buying process.
Andrew is not pushy or judgmental. His style is one where he presents the options and risks to equip you to make a good decision, and he’ll support your decision. We loved this.
Hacks
——
Okay. We kind of just felt bad for the other buyers in the market. As you may know, buying in the bay area is competitive right now, and it felt like we were hacking by using Andrew.
Speed Hack: When we talked to Andrew for the first time, we had a house we wanted to buy already and offers were due in 5 days. At the time we had not even started getting a loan pre-​approved and quite frankly did not know what we were doing. Andrew put us in touch with fast and trustworthy loan officers that got a loan pre-​approved the day of our first meeting. I repeat, we had a loan pre-​approved the same day we met Andrew. Andrew also brought us up to speed really quickly, and met us at the property to take a look at it. In general, Andrew is just very prompt and flexible, responding to emails and requests in a matter of minutes or hours. This is a huge edge in the home search process.
Wall Hack (seeing the future): Andrew basically uses his experience to help you sidestep future issues and help you pick the right approach. One example is when we are ready to make an offer. We loved that Andrew would based on his discussions with the listing agent, the disclosure package count, and other factors give us an estimate of likelihood of success of different offers.
In summary. If you want to be informed and have an unfair advantage in your home buying process, email Andrew.

Andrew is the best!
We had him as buyer’s and seller’s agent and he was exceptional as both.
Back in 2011 Andrew helped us purchase the house. He was referred to us by a friend who also got the house with Andrew’s help at that time. We were going to open houses ourselves, and we new what we wanted. With so many resources nowadays, one only needs knowledgeable agent to help with paperwork and answer all questions that might arise along the way. Andrew did that all, and also worked out the purchase price for us. Plus at the end we got huge cash back from him that was really useful, as we needed to get washer/​dryer for the house.
Now, in June 2015, Andrew helped us to sell our condo. He only took 1.5% commission (compared to other agents 2.5−3%), which is a huge help and great deal! But low commission doesn’t reflect on his work. Andrew is wonderful as a seller agent, taking care of the most issues. We went with staging per Andrew’s suggestion, and despite the high price they charge, the result was what we hoped for — a lot of interest and great offers. Again, all issues and all questions resolved and responded in timely manner (we would chat over the email, didn’t even have to call, that’s how fast Andrew responds).
Thanks, Andrew, for your professional approach and wonderful work. Will be happy to deal with you in the future!
We would highly recommend Andrew to anyone looking to either purchase or sell the property.

Andrew was awesome to work with! We were moving from Atlanta, GA to Oakland, CA and were only in town on occasion to look at houses. Andrew helped make sure we were able to see all the houses we wanted that didn’t have open house times and we saw the rest in open house times.
We found our dream house and Andrew worked with the sellers and helped us put in a bid that was not the highest, but won us the house anyways (there are many small things you can do to tip the odds in your favor as Andrew explained). We’re thrilled to have gotten the house we did and on the first try.
Then, before we could move in, a truck ran into the fence of our new house and did some damage (while we were still in Atlanta). Andrew helped organize a response and worked with the sellers to get the fence fixed before we arrived — definitely above and beyond since everything had already closed.
On top of everything, the rebate program Andrew has makes him not only great to work with, but also a good deal!

First off, make sure you understand his business model prior to committing. While it was exactly what we were looking for, I can understand it may not be for everyone.
What can I say other than he delivered and got the job done. We had our eye on a house that had been on the market for a while, as the sellers were asking too much. As part of our initial interview, we asked Andrew to investigate what it would eventually go for. In the end, the sellers accepted an offer for exactly what he proposed we offer, which was well below original asking.
His office is very well organized, and very helpful with the process of executing on the offer, contracting, and various steps in the escrow and closing process. As others have stated, he’s very responsive to emails and calls, often surprisingly so. And in the end, we got a nice fat rebate check to help with decorating our new home!
One final anecdote. During our final walkthrough, the seller’s large dog was able to get out of its enclosure. While there turned out to be no actual danger, I did notice that Andrew placed himself between the dog and my toddler, just in case (Andrew was closer to him at that moment). Little thing, but to a parent, it goes a long way.

For months we were actively looking at houses around the Peninsula, going to open houses and getting the disclosures for a handful of houses. Throughout the entire process, Andrew was there to help nearly instantaneously. His business model worked very well for us as we didn’t need the traditional real estate agent services. Whenever we were interested in following up on a house, Andrew replied to our emails within minutes and was always there to give us information and answer questions.
When the time came to finally make an offer, Andrew helped us through the whole process and made it so easy. He was there to make sure we put in an offer with high confidence, and followed up with updates proactively. Would highly recommend Andrew to anyone that is in the market to buy a house and needs someone to facilitate the paperwork and purchase. He’s a great guy to work with!

After interviewing three real estate agents, we decided to go with Andrew to help us buy our house in Menlo Park. We preferred to do our own searches using Redfin and visit open houses, so Andrew’s business model was a perfect match for us. When we were interested in a property, we emailed Andrew about it, and he did prompt research, shared his findings, and gave us his assessment for a winning bid, which was spot on every time.
He was extremely prompt in replying to us via email even while on vacation with his family. The man never stops working!
While we didn’t get the first house we put an offer on, we learned a lot about the process and more importantly, trusted Andrew’s advice and tips on how to succeed the next time. Our second attempt was a success! The whole process from starting the search to obtaining the keys took two months, thanks to Andrew’s efficiency with electronic documents and prompt communication. His assistant Martha was also great to work with.
We cannot be happier and truly enjoyed the process and working with Andrew. The rebate check was a very happy ending to our house hunting adventure!

Andrew was exactly the agent that my husband and I needed for our new home purchase in Mountain View. Because we were only looking at new build, there was a fairly limited set of options and we didn’t feel that we needed the services of a traditional realtor. We wanted someone who could offer some guidance as far as area and pricing, but otherwise we didn’t need much support. Andrew was great with responding quickly and thoroughly to any questions we had as we went through our decision process. He attended the initial signing with us and even caught a few errors in the paperwork that the builder was able to fix before we finished.
One note I do want to add — if you are intending to use Andrew’s services for new build, you must tell the builder that you have an agent when you make your first contact with them. Some builders will even require that he comes with you to your initial visit while others will be fine with just taking his contact information. They generally won’t let you add a realtor later in the process, so be sure to contact Andrew before you go house hunting!

My wife and I were referred to Andrew through my wife’s brother-​in-​law, who had a great experience a few years back and recently used Andrew again. We recently closed on our dream home without any glitches! Because of the way the process was handled by Andrew, we are still on great terms with the sellers (this was a private sale) and everyone is very happy with the deal.
Andrew has a great intangible talent of always making you feel that you are the only person in the room. He is also great at putting you at ease. As a first-​time home buyer who didn’t know what escrow meant, I was very grateful that Andrew patiently answered all of my questions. Your mind is going a million miles an hour during the process, and Andrew was always right there, returning each email and phone call promptly, as though this purchase was as life changing to him as it was to us. He was right there with us even while on a personal vacation.
Andrew is highly professional, intelligent, and careful to listen to your individual needs. We felt very comfortable working with him and will do so again.

You don’t become the 3^rd top-​selling realtor in the county by luck or happenstance. In fact, pure hard work, dedication to his clients, and experience and strategy made us choose this amazing realtor. We completely lucked out.
We had Andrew handle our home purchase… Not only did he do our transaction for half the price as the seller’s realtor, but on top of that we got a better man, more experienced, incredibly strategic and savvy… No doubt in my mind we would not have gotten this gorgeous home without him.
The difference between our realtor and theirs was so striking, in fact, that the sellers said they are interested in switching to Andrew for their next purchase… Ouch!
Thanks Andrew. We could not have bought this home without you.

My wife and I worked with Andrew to purchase our home in Menlo Park. Andrew made the process incredibly easy. Although his service model is a bit different than that of a traditional agent, we actually found him to move faster and be more insightful/​prompt in his replies than any traditional agent we’ve ever worked with (I’ve personally purchased two properties through traditional agents and worked with a few others as well).
From start to finish, Andrew was thoughtful, highly organized, and always quick to take action. I often felt like I was his only client. Thanks to his use of esigning and other technologies, processes like signatures and paperwork were greatly streamlined vs. the other real estate experiences we’ve had in the past.
Andrew’s read on the market and how to approach each offer we made was spot-​on. We also greatly appreciated that we never felt pressured to make a bid beyond our comfort level. Andrew will give you his honest take on a property with a recommendation for action based on your preferred strategy, but he always leaves it up to you to determine how to proceed. In particular, we appreciated his flexibility and investment of time as we brainstormed potential tactics during the house-​hunting process.
As others have mentioned, outside of having you find the houses you’re interested in (which I’ve typically ended up doing with the traditional agents that I’ve worked with anyway…) instead of driving you to open houses, Andrew handles pretty much everything else. Getting a rebate check at the end on top of his excellent service throughout the process made it all even better.
I’d recommend Andrew to anyone I know that is looking to buy a house. On that note, I’d add that my wife and I are now looking to sell our prior condo, and after our experience with Andrew, we didn’t hesitate to choose him for that as well.

A very pleasant experience. Buying a house is always stressful but Andrew made it smooth for us. Very patient, always available, never rushed. Very knowledgeable, courteous, and always ready to help. We felt very comfortable with him as our agent. A true professional.

Wow! I had such a bad experience looking for a realtor for Woodside /​Portola Valley /​Los Altos Hills. Their fee seemed so expensive and all the incentives seemed wrong. Realtors have an incentive to convince you to buy a house, whether you want it or not.
I looked online for a better model and found Andrew. He was exactly as billed. He lets you look at homes on your own, choose on your own without the influence of someone trying to get you to buy, and then work through the close with his support. And, then he rebates a majority of the fee. He earns every penny!
Overall, I would say my experience was excellent. He walked me through every step of the bid and close and predicted correctly on every move. For someone independent who knows their own taste, I think you couldn’t do better than Andrew.

We read the reviews on Unilocal and thought that we found our agent. It turned out that because he only gets 40% of the comm, he only closes deals without much hassle. He sends offers that are very close to list price or at list price so to not waste his time. So you think you are getting a deal when getting a refund from him but if the offer is a lot more than you are comfortable with then you wonder if you really are getting a bargain using him or you’re better off with Redfin or another agent. Andrew decided not to work with us only after submitting one offer 5% less than asking price. After it didn’t get accepted, we wanted to submit another offer on another property but he didn’t want to help us out after the first one. So, I think he will fit those people that want to submit one offer and hope that it is accepted. Also, might fit those that are ok with not negotiating with sellers and just accepting whatever they counter with.
I would also comment that our offer that he submitted was not thorough and fairly vague, plus it was all done in very little time.
Anyway, we ended up buying our house with Redfin for a better property with views at lower price which was at our comfort level. Plus, we didn’t feel any pressure on closing the deal so we had the upper-​hand in the negotiations. I am questioning the «he’s not pushy» review since he was pushing us to offer at our max on our first try. I think he is a nice guy as long as he can make a quick sale.
The Redfin folks rebated me 50% commission off LIST price so you might want to calculate if his 60% rebate off final sale price is better. The Redfin person was super helpful since they get commission or bonus based on your survey at the end of the transaction.
I give Andrew 1 star for being professional when he dropped us as his client and for showing us one house.

Andrew might not be for everyone, but he was the PERFECT buyers’ agent for us and we couldn’t be happier with the service he provided. I think it’s really important for his business that he finds the right kind of clients and that the right kind of clients find him, so here’s the capsule summary (all my own opinions here):
If you are:
— Independent minded and self motivated
— Already using Zillow, Redfin etc
— Capable of driving yourself to open houses
— Disturbed by all the sleazy, high margin middlemen who insert themselves into real estate transactions
— Hard nosed and looking for a strong negotiator to get you the best price
— Interested in getting a big check in the mail
Then stop reading now and call Andrew. You will not regret it.
On the other hand if you are:
— Very busy and willing to pay for someone else to find properties for you
— Not very Internet saavy
— Impressed by richly appointed offices with people in business suits and coiffed receptionists
— Someone who likes schmoozing and being schmoozed
— Sensitive to sellers’ agents being condescending about your independent broker
— Nervous about breaking out of tried-​and-​true business models
Then I would honestly consider a full service broker.
In many ways Andrew provides better service than the «full service» guys. His email responsiveness is better than anyone I’ve ever seen. When he can’t reply in full he still lets you know he got your email and when he’ll be able to reply. His Docusign process is streamlined and time efficient for everyone. Also he does so much volume that his experience with negotiating and awareness of the market is well honed and up to the minute.
Highly recommended.

Andrew helped my wife and I buy a house in San Jose. We found him to be very responsive, honest, and helpful guiding us through the process. We had been looking at homes for sale on Trulia and Redfin for several months, and had visited open houses every weekend for several weeks. We had a pretty good idea what we wanted, so Andrew’s business model made a lot of sense to us. Rather than waste both of our time having him guess at houses we might like, we just monitored the new ones that came on the market and had him take us to look at the most promising ones. I’d recommend him even without his 60% rebate, but when you get great service and then get a check back big enough to furnish your new house… that’s a pretty amazing deal.

Traditional real estate agents typically will send you listings and then unlock the doors to those houses. When you pick your house they walk you through a price and then do the rest.
Alright. Now Andrew doesn’t email you listings. But those listings are available through robot search engines (I used redfin to email me them). Andrew will let you into any house you want. Andrew will help you with an offer price. Andrew takes care of the rest.
Sooooo why have a traditional agent? I don’t know. For the fancy car maybe? Andrew drives a Honda.
Andrew rocks. The only difference I found between him and «regular» agents was that he didn’t pick me up at my house to take me to the houses. I don’t need that. I have my own Honda.
He was with us every step of the way during our 4 month short sale process. He consoled me during the ups and downs. He answered every email within an hour, tops. He worked while on vacation at Disneyland with his twins. He gave us half of his commission. He explained all questions I had. He was pushy when I wanted him to be. He took care of the home inspection and he gave us referrals for things that we wanted to take care of before moving in.
I can’t recommend him enough! He’s a great guy and a great deal.

Andrew was our agent for our recent purchase. As he represented us as well as the sellers, we found him to be very professional and insightful, especially as we were first-​time buyers. We felt looked out for and the advice given was always solid and appropriately positioned. While I’m sure many in the industry are used to this and are professional when representing both sides, it was impressive and comforting knowing that we had his full attention as much as the sellers.
In addition, as my wife and I are folks in the technology industry, Andrew conducted a good deal of our business online via email and eDocument signing. The impressive part was that the communication through the technology was still personal but kept everything moving at a very fast and on-​demand pace; exactly how you’d hope to use it.
Bottom line, the man’s a machine and will be working for you night and day. (seriously, all day and night)
Customer service and care like that can’t be beat.

We bought our Willow Glen San Jose home with Andrew. He was responsive, easy to work with.
It was so much fun working with him and we have a wonderful home.
We highly recommend him to anyone.