Lan Liu Bowling

If you need help navigating the real estate market in Palo Alto, look no further than Lan. Here’s why:
1) She knows Palo Alto _​amazingly_​well. Think that 2-​story halfway down the block on this obscure street might be your thing? Lan will give you a detailed historical rundown on it, and also mention another couple of properties in the same category that you should think about.
2) She gets to know what you want and is incredibly tenacious in finding it for you. We’ve bought two houses in Palo Alto with her help, and in both cases my first reaction to her suggestion that we look at them was like, huh? But once we looked more deeply, we realized that she had found us something that fit our needs to a T. It’s a rare skill to understand the requirement and not the feature request, and Lan has that skill.
3) She gets the deal done right. Every one of the reviews on Lan has mentioned her negotiating skills and her professionalism, so I don’t need to say much more, other than to add one more vote of confidence on this front.
4) Her relationship with you does not end with the transaction. After buying the houses, I’ve relied on Lan over and over through the years for advice on what to do (when renting, renovating, etc.) and who to trust (for termite inspections, gardening, roofing, etc.). I’m immensely grateful and feel lucky to have had her as a trusted advisor all these years.
Lan is as good as it gets, so if you’re even thinking about buying or selling in Palo Alto, stop reading reviews and give her a call!

This is the second time we came to Lan and John for their services. Since we had such a wonderful and satisfied experience with them a few years ago when we sold our first house. We have a strong trust and faith in Lan and her team, we go straight to Lan again for selling our house this time.
As always, her services and professionalism is exceptional. The most important of all, she knows the market of Palo Alto so well, and she has a sharp eye where the market is and going to be. That takes years of experiences and knowledge, and you can hardly find from other agents.
Lan is also an amazing negotiator. When it is time for bidding and negotiation, she knows where the market stands and she is confident and patient enough to wait for the right buyer without settling on an easy sell.
We are lucky to have Lan and John as our real estate agent. In fact, we can really feel that they take care our house as if it were their own.
If you are ever going to sell or buy a house in Palo Alto. Lan and John are highly recommended!

Lan was my selling agent in Palo Alto. There are not enough accolades I can write about her and her team. She is a true professional that sincerely cares for her client’s best interest. I originally listed my property through Deleon Realty which ended up being the worst mistake of my life. Deleon realty made mistake after mistake with the listing and I ended up with an aging listing with a slower Summer season coming right along.
After the listing agreement with Deleon realty lapsed; I researched all the agents in Palo alto and Lan came right on top of my list. Lan was absolutely fabulous. Her team was able to bring back the listing on a very short timeframe. Lan was keen to take care of every detail and most importantly she was proactively following every lead and interest in the property. The property sold shortly after she took over the listing.
If you have Lan on you side; you will have the best representation you can find. She knows the right things to say and knows her trade better than anyone else in her profession. She is a true rock star. I will definitely will be coming back to her and team the next time I have to buy or sell in Palo Alto.

We just closed our dream house at Palo Alto. My husband and I are so grateful we had Lan as our buying agent. In the past 3 months, we toured almost all open houses within our budget, and this one is the best. We never thought we were able to get it when we toured the house, because so many people came for open house and multiple offers came in. Lan and John made it happen for us.
A friend, the longtime Palo Alto resident, recommends Lan to us. Lan helped her get her house 10 years ago. Lan is absolutely the best among so many agents we interviewed. We checked the historic selling and buying records of Palo Alto. Lan is the top agent and very well-​respected in Palo Alto area. When we started to offer, we realized how important it is to have a strong agent present your offer, especially in hot Palo Alto market. Lan almost knows every listing agent, worked with them before and kept a great reputation in Palo Alto area, it give us a huge advantage in offer presenting process. She is also very knowledgeable about the area, and the market trend. What amazed us is that her estimate of final sold price is so accurate.
We trust Lan not only as our buying agent, but also as a future neighbor/​friend and as an investment consultant. She is very honest about the pros and cons of each house, and gives us insights on which upcoming house we may like, which neighborhood is best for our life style, and which one the final price may out of budget. We feel like she knows us so well, even better than ourselves.
We know Lan has many clients, however we always feel we are the only one. She is so patient to answer questions, keep us posted on market change and help us follow up with all parties after the house closed. I highly recommend Lan if you are looking for a future home in Palo Alto area. The Palo Alto market is so hot, you don’t have time waste on the wrong agent. She will make your dream come true.

We were lucky to have Lan and John as our buying agent! Anyone looking into Palo Alto houses knows how difficult it is to get one these days. Unless you have extra deep pocket and are willing to overpay everything above and beyond market value and everyone else, then really you don’t need agent as experienced, resourceful and hard working as Lan and John.
We were anticipating a very long process and potentially many months of multiple rejection offers but to our surprise, we only had to make two offers before we got one. Some may say luck but we know it was Lan and John’s hard work that get us there. Lan is always professional and knows how to prepare offer such that it works to the best of our interest and at the same time strong but also not overkill. But, ultimately it’s your decision. We know some agent out there would squeeze your pocket dry if it meant it could get you the house at any cost. John did a great job too. He always around to help with showing properties outside regular open house time so we could have a better feel of the house.
We would often receive advise from them if they think a property will end up outside our budget. We listened and were surprised to see every single one of them that we wanted to put an offer ended up being way higher than our budget can handle…
Lan and John have a very good reputation and are very well connected in Palo Alto network. Their insight and knowledge helps us understand what it takes to get the house. Every agent would have no problem working with them.

Lan and John helped us find our dream house recently. I remember vividly the first time when we met them and we had an immediate connection. Working with them is the best home purchase experience we’ve ever had. In our years of living in the Bay Area, we’ve met many good and competent agents. But in this super competitive market, you need the best of the best to buy you the place you call home that fits into your budget. Lan and John definitely deliver.
We are impressed with their knowledge, expertise, professionalism, diligence, integrity, and empathy. After we defined the criteria of the house we are looking for, we started receiving regular email updates from Lan. But beyond that, she was very proactive in sharing her points of views on different listings. We quickly found that she had incredible intuition and great tastes. We developed so much trust in Lan that we ended up only seeing the houses she recommended. For a working couple in the Bay Area, this saved us a lot of precious time to spend with family.
Once we found the right house, Lan took us through the overall pricing approach, bidding strategy, competitive dynamics, and market analysis. She really put our interest in front of everything else and recommended a strategy that maximized our chance of winning the house without overbidding. Lan is a great listener, constantly gathering our feedback while keeping us abreast of her engagements with the counterparty. What’s amazing is that she was managing all of that tirelessly, while traveling in a different time zone. I noticed that her reputation, credibility, and work ethics allowed her to operate as effectively and build rapport with her counterparty. John did a fantastic job being on the ground and helping us put all the final touches to the offer package. Their seamless collaboration and flawless execution were the key to overcome the geographic /​time hurdles. We can’t imagine winning the house without Lan and John representing us.
After the sale was final, Lan and John again were with us every step of way, preparing /​planning for the move-​in. I’d recommend Lan and John to any of my friends and family members.

We just sold our property in Sunnyvale with Lan and John helped.
From the moment we met both of them, we felt the connection immediately. They were the one that most stand out among the other agents we interviewed. FYI, the other agents were also from among the best agents in Palo Alto, just like Lan and John.
Lan and John are very approachable, responsive, honest, and professional. Even though they are one of the best agents in Palo Alto, they treat their clients with the same standard, passion and diligent.
You can read some other reviews in Unilocal (read also some that got filtered by imperfect Unilocal’s filter) or you can research about their reputation and MLS records online.
The first step of selling the house is they came to our house and gave their recommendation based on their extensive backgrounds with house selling and buying to get the house ready. They have their own connections for handyman and painter to get things done quick with great quality and best price.
Lan and John are great partners. I.e. John was very helpful with documents preparation, open house, or communication with the handyman and painter. In the other hand, Lan was very helpful in term of time planning for when to have the house ready, brochures preparation, or bidding war.
We did not use any staging furnitures, but our own with their recommendation on how to stage it. They sent their professional photographer, prepared very professional brochures, local newspapers ads, and broker tours.
During open house, both of them were professionally representing us, a lot of traffics to the open house, and a lot of people love it.
We got multiple offers. Lan and John worked very hard to make sure we got the best price for our house. They were very well prepared, really know their business and gave their 200% to get the best deal.
In the end, we got more than 10% above the listing price and so far, it’s the highest price among other houses sold recently in the neighborhood.

I had great experience buying a property with Lan as my agent. She is very knowledgeable about the real estate market. Her knowledge had enabled me to understand the market and my own needs more. She was always there to answer my questions. She made great recommendation to tailor my requirements. I could totally trust her judgement and recommendation. She and her team has top experience in closing a deal very fast. After I bought the house, she and her team were still there to help me with housing issues. I would definitely recommend her to others.

Do you look for a real estate agent who will help you sell your house at the highest price and buy a house at the lowest price? Lan is the one! In a short three-​month period from when I first met her to the time I bought a property through her, I witnessed this. I met Lan in one of her open houses (through a friend’s referral). She eventually sold that house at the highest market price on the street at that time. Through her strong network and excellent reputation, I soon found a potential property with a decent price. I was quite happy with paying the asking price, but she went ahead and negotiated with the listing agent and further lowered down the price by 20k. This is not all! At the time of escrow, I went to the escrow office alone, as my husband was out of town, and I was surprised to find Lan at the escrow office waiting for me. She truly cares about her clients and is the best agent in town.

I recently bought a house in Palo Alto and within the time that it took for the transaction to close, I was able to sell my old condo. This was a challenging process, but I was gifted to have Lan and John as my agents. They got me an excellent deal on my new house, and at the same time, they settled my old house at a price beyond my expectations even though they had to deal with an extremely picky buyer and his inexperienced agent.
I highly recommend Lan and John to any home buyers or sellers who want to make their dream come true to own a house in Palo Alto and Silicon Valley.
I started my house hunting with another well-​known agent in Palo Alto when I was a fresh house buyer with near zero experience in the Palo Alto housing market. So I was hoping to get help from this well-​known agent who I thought would give me honest advice and guide me through both the purchasing and selling transactions I needed to do. Unfortunately, I didn’t get honest advice. Instead, I was given a lot of tricks with a Listing agreement of 9 months duration; the idea that, «if I sell your house above this price, I want be awarded 6% commission»; that Barron Park is the #2 or #3 best location in Palo Alto; to make an offer on a property that had a bankruptcy lien against it with only a 1 day contingency (because the seller would only need one day to clear the lien); that I should remove a contingency on an offer even before the seller had a court settlement of the bankruptcy. In the meantime, that I should put house that I was living in on the market with only a few days preparation time. After some struggle, I managed to terminate my contract with this agent. By the time we terminated the contract a large portion of our day to day things were all boxed and sent to storage. My whole family was exhausted by this process and we started to think about giving up on getting a new house in Palo Alto …
In our family’s difficult time, Lan was recommended to us by a good friend. We had been hurt from working with the previous agent, so with doubts about Lan was really going to be able to help us to get a house in Palo Alto, whether she would be honest with us, we went ahead. Then Lan started helping us in a very professional way. She gave me the basic and factual information about Palo Alto’s different areas. She set up automatic email updates for properties that came onto the market, and she sat down/​or talk on the phone with me on Thursdays and/​or Fridays to go over which new properties on the market would fit my needs and budget. John too was helping me to prepare all the documents for purchasing and for listing. Both Lan and John never asked me to sign any listing agreement as they were focusing on getting me a new house and they wanted to make sure my family and I felt comfortable before we put our condo on the market.
Lan was trying her best to get us the right house through open market listings, off market properties, and through her many connections. On the day we made our offer on our new house, Lan was running at full speed. She was using phone calls, text messages and emails to keep us up on the latest progress regardless of the time of day. She understood our comfort level as to price and she made great suggestions to help make our offer the most attractive one, but she never pushed us to go out of our comfort zone.
Once I was under contract to purchase my new house, Lan and John, in only 3 days, arranged great teams of workers to clean, paint and stage my old house. Lan was using her reputation to save every penny for me. Our staging alone saved me more that $ 1000 compared to what my previous agent quoted me. Lan and John promoted my house with premium quality flyers, full page ads in the local newspaper, emails and phone calls to in-​region and out-​of-​region agents. They were trying everything possible to bring in potential buyers. Lan and John took care of every detail to make sure our sale transaction flew along smoothly. Lan always stays calm. She really took the pressure off of us during the transaction at the critical points. She said «Don’t worry,» and then followed up with actions that relieved me of any need to worry. I think of Lan as not running a business, but instead, of making a sincere and effective effort to help us to a joyful end. My family and I are very happy to begin living in our new house, and we all know it won’t have happened without Lan’s help. Lan is a great real estate agent, and now she is a true friend of my family. I highly recommend Lan and John.

We recently bought a place in Palo Alto with Lan. If you’re buying (or selling) a house in Palo Alto, you need Lan Liu Bowling! She’s amazing. Here’s why:
1) Lan knows the Palo Alto market like the back of her hand and knows what it takes to win an offer (beyond just throwing more money at it :))
2) She’s super responsive, she works at the speed and with the technology we’re used to, responding to calls, text messages, emails at all hours. E-​signing of documents sure beats printing/​signing/​scanning!
3) She works with an ‘A’ team and all people she works with or recommends deliver!
4) She’s not pushy, but provides very thoughtful, honest advice. We really felt like she had our best interests in mind. For example, when we started to get frustrated /​distracted and stray from our original goal, she led us back on track and advised us to wait for something that would better meet our needs.
We’ve tried other agents before and even started to wonder why we need an agent at all in this age of Redfin listings that you can see yourself. But once we went with Lan, we could see the difference and value-​add with a true professional.
On the day of the offer, Lan called me constantly with updates and to strategize so that we wouldn’t overpay given the situation (which is a sellers’ market).
Now that we’re doing some renovating in getting ready to move in, we’re even using many of the vendors she recommended.
She really has her stuff together!

My wife and I have invested and sold many homes throughout the years, we also each owe business that service the real estate industry. We have working relationships with thousands of agents throughout the Bay Area. However, for selling our own home in Palo Alto, we’ve went with Lan Bowling. In our case, the whole selling process was executed fast and precise, and makes it a great example of Lan’s expertise, professionalism and execution.
Lan’s knowledge in real estate is unparalleled, she can dissect and analyze the markets not only by neighborhoods, but down to the level of street and house numbers! On the spot, she can recall and explain her thoughts on the real estate transactions happening around town. Combining her analysis of the market and her first hand information of the upcoming competition, we quickly planned our listing schedule to minimize potential competition and maximize the exposure of our own home.
Our initial meeting with Lan was Friday, together we decided the open house is to take place the very next weekend. In such tight schedule, we divided and conquered, while we cleaned up the house to make it presentable, Lan and John put together the marketing material, printed flyers, submitted listing information to various publications, went on the radio to promote the house, hosted broker tour, and started to generate interest from the potential buyers she and her colleagues had.
The very next weekend since our initial meeting, we had a hugely successful open house, which Lan and John personally hosted. In today’s white-​hot market, it is not hard to sell a fairly new home in Palo Alto. However, the strategy on setting the listing price is critical: it needs to be attractive enough to generate interest, but need to be a decent starting price for bidding. Lan is a confident quarterback and was in control from initial planning to accepting offers to close of escrow. We truly believe Lan’s strategy got us the top dollar for our home, in fact we even set a new record for the neighborhood!
Will we use Lan’s/John’s services again for our upcoming Palo Alto homes? You bet!

I have bought and sold many homes with Lan Bowling. She is the most knowledgeable and professional agent I have ever worked with. She is incredibly diligent and responsive when it comes to navigating this ever changing market.
I feel incredibly lucky to have met Lan, she has helped my family and I through so many job changes and moves, always creating a very positive result and impact on our lives.

We decided to work with Lan in selling our house in Palo Alto after interviewing 3 other agents. Lan simply gave us the sense of confidence and yet very personally approachable feeling.
Lan’s knowledge and expertise in the local market is unparalleled. And her sense of the market and her assessment of what type of buyers might be attracted to our house is right on. Our house went on the market at the same time tons of other houses were listed in Palo Alto and surrounding areas (the day Facebook went public). Despite overwhelming positive feedback from open house goers, we honestly started to worry after 5 weeks on the market and started to urge Lan to consider lowering the price. It would be an obvious and easy choice for any agent. But Lan repeatedly assured us that we don’t need to undersell and the right buyer will appear. Surely enough offers started to come in soon after. Lan was very professional and a true master in negotiation. She handled all the details in closing smoothly and both the buyer and seller were pleased with the transaction.
Throughout the 7+ weeks we worked with Lan in selling our house, Lan gave us the feeling she truly understand the emotion we have for the house and wanted to find a nice new owner to the house as much as we do. She’s also super responsive and made us feel we are the only client she’s work for at the moment. And last but not least, we know she’s always putting our interest first, never rush to close a deal in order to make a quick buck.
We highly recommend Lan Bowling!

I recently bought a home with Lan Bowling’s help in the Palo Alto area. She was referred to me by a very close friend who also purchased a home with Lan’s assistance. My friend shares my needs for working with a realtor who is an intelligent and proactive individual, professional, easily accessible by email and phone, and personable. Lan exceeded all my expectations when I first called her. She immediately displayed curiosity and interest in getting to know me. She was a great listener who immediately wanted to understand our needs before making any suggestions. In fact, after my first contact with Lan, I decided that it was too early to buy a home for us (partly with her advice) and instead continued to rent for about a year and a half before getting in touch with her again.
My husband and I were first time home buyers, full time working parents of 3 kids under 5 years old when we decided to seriously look for a home and contacted Lan again. We were somewhat anxious to find the right home and didn’t have much time to spend on this very important process. Lan was absolutely wonderful in helping us look at options, both accompanying us to open houses that we were interested in looking at and also suggesting many homes on the market that she thought would be of interest to us. After each visit, we would discuss by phone or in person what we liked about it, what we didn’t like about it, and how many of the things we didn’t like could be addressed with her high level estimate of how much it would cost us to address these issues. She was always so sensitive to our time and schedule with work and child care, and was always accessible by phone or email even off business hours.
When we found the home that we wanted, Lan helped us with the inspections, the negotiations, and final transactions. She addressed every detail and went above and beyond to help us with some of the updates we made to the home both indoors and outdoors. She has wonderful taste and has seen so many homes that I was grateful that she was willing to give her opinion on everything at all hours of the day! Even after buying the home, she periodically continues to check in and has also been available when we have had home maintenance issues or questions that we depend on her expertise for advice. Over the time we have known Lan, she has become a friend of ours as well and we would trust her again fully if we were to buy or sell a home in this area.

Over the years, we dealt with realtors on the east coast, San Francisco and overseas, most of them are hard working good person. But when you come to Palo Alto for house buying, you need a great realtor that can bring you some luck. That’s what Lan has done for our new home in Midtown Palo Alto. She showed us a «pocket-​list» house and negotiated a deal within six hours. With her strong team (kudos to John) and extensive network of service providers, we sailed through the closing, remodeling and move-​in smoothly. The best part is this choice meets and exceeds all of our requirements.
Here are what a great Palo Alto realtor like Lan can deliver beyond the hard working and nice person:
” Best with the numbers”: This is not only just about the price negotiation, but also the micro market statistics, financing loan composition and personal financial analysis. Lan has a special instinct and sharp memory with the numbers. She negotiated a good deal below our walking price.
” Knowing your peers and be respected”: In the hyper competitive Palo Alto bidding wars, it’s important to know the traits of other great realtors and plan your chess strategy before the show-​down. In our only bidding war experience (lost to an all-​cash offer), Lan laid out her mind game on bidding strategy based on the remaining realtors. At the end, they all came over to greet and catch up like old colleagues.
«Character counts»: A great realtor is more than a nice person. Lan is a genuine and professional person, but more so, she’s a great inspiration for what she has done for her family and her mom. Such characters won trust and lasting friendship and new business, of course.
Last but not least, luck always helps, and it will spread among the people who are prepared with diligence.
Thank you very much, Lan!