I was referred to Matt by a friend of mine who bought a house from Matt. My experience with him…read morewhen buying my first home was very good. Matt was very knowledgeable, patient, honest, and not pushy like most salesman. He would provide me with options, suggestions, and advice with my best interest; he kept me grounded while still encouraging me in my pursuit of my dream home. A plus in my books, he's a believer and donates part of his earnings to nonprofit. I would buy from him again!

Matt is the best realtor we ever have buying a property. He helped us bought a home in Issaquah in…read morea tricky market condition. He is extremely knowledgable and took time to walk us through the process and expectation. He was always communicative and very reliable whenever we have questions or need to look at some properties. We originally intend to be more passive while looking at houses and would take time to look through options. Matt was very receptive to that and always ensure we are truly comfortable with any decision we make. In the end, we got a new home pretty quickly also below the list price. The negotiation was handled expertly and any problems during the transactions were handled efficiently. I'd totally recommend Matt to anyone looking to buying a property actively or passively alike.

We bought a 1950s house in North Beach in 2004 & our realtor, Wendy Saddler from Windermere Realty…read morein Seattle, suggested we use Jim Baum for our house inspection. Jim came out to our house & did an ok inspection on the state of the house's power panels, roof, deck but when it came to inspecting the 70's remodeled basement kitchen, he failed to note that the kitchen included one entire structural wall on north side of house that contained rats (note: giant wharf rats :) They were accessing the house, possibly by a duct hose to a stove attached inside that wall. A piece of chewed up chicken wire attached to the wall outside the house was visible and was failing to block the rats' entrance (note: this was discovered by rat exterminator, not Jim Baum.) The whole downstairs reeked of mothballs & being a naive/new home buyer myself, I thought it was due to the fondness for mothballs these retired Missionaries had who were selling the house. Nope, this is an old trick to cover up the highly potent smell of rat urine (note: rat urine odor is extra strong to attract more rats to attend the 24/7 rat party in your house.) Jim's inspection notes on basement kitchen in total: "There are no GFI protected outlets, negative slope on rt side of sink drain lines, and there is no air-gap on the dishwasher drain line." (Uhhmm, the rats Jim?) And how about doing a video inspection of the sewer lines? Something we did after we purchased the house. That might have saved us a few headaches. And notes for the NE basement bedrm: "There is cracked glass in the northern most window" & "there is no door stop." And for the NE main flr bedrm: "There is no door stop." And, wait for it, for the main floor east bedrm: "There is no doorstop." Hmmm. REALLY, it's the owners of the house along w/ Wendy Saddler, & a realtor representing the sellers of the house whom I don't remember, who are to blame. The seller's realtor did tell me that the owner asked him for a donation to his Christian Charity as part of the real estate deal. Niiice. So I'll pay your commission but you have to "donate" part of it right back to me. Owners also had multiple renters living downstairs in the house --I know this by the stream of mail that was sent to our address for years--and they definitely would have noticed non stop, loud, thumping nocturnal activity of rats. The old guy retiree owner even had the nerve to say to me when he stopped by our house as we were in the middle of clearing out unwanted wharf rats (my husband asked him to stop by, see the rat damage) that "oh yeah, he kind of remembered a rat popping out of the washing machine upstairs a few years back." OH YEAH. What about putting that on the disclosure form that is a legal part of every real estate transaction? My husband, myself & a construction friend demoed the downstairs kitchen and walls ourselves after trying to get the old guy owner and/or Wendy Saddler & other agent to help us pay for this surprise expense. Nope. Nada. So we plunged ahead and had to replace all of our electrical & plumbing & basically tore down all the interior walls and did a costly remodel in this North Beach Charmer (note: I guess rats that live in a house for 30 plus years will pee and chew thru electrical wiring, which may cause a giant problem.)..(but seriously, I still love our house.)

My fiance and I just got the keys to our first home in Broadview. We were lucky enough to work with…read moreMichael Macdonald and would absolutely recommend him to anyone! We moved to Seattle from Los Angeles so are used to crazy housing markets, but this is different kind of crazy. Trust me, you want an agent that knows what they are doing. We first met Michael at an open house he was hosting in Magnolia. We kept his card as someone we enjoyed speaking with and would possibly be interested in working with whenever we were ready to get serious about purchasing. We ended up saving the business cars of 4 agents that we liked out of the zillions of open houses we went to. Cut to a few months later, we let our landlord know we were looking to purchase a home and he recommended Michael who helped him purchase two homes in the area. What a coincidence that he was recommended to us AND we happened to go to one of his open houses and keep his card months earlier! From the first in person meeting with him, we knew he was the agent for us. He just gets IT. He gets the housing market, he took the time to get to know us and what we were looking for... and he immediately comes across as a genuine person. Because he is. After our first meeting in the Windermere office (happened to be on a weekend), he immediately took us out to see 4-5 open houses to continue to get a feel for us a couple and what we were looking for. Seriously, he just got us immediately. Once it came time to write an offer, he knew it would be a multiple offer situation (which it was) and he had some key tips and tricks to help us look as fantastic as possible. If it wasn't for his attention to detail, we might not have gotten the house as we were not the highest through escalation. But we got it! Through the entire process, Michael was always available by phone whenever we needed and available to show a house whenever was convenient for us. He was crystal clear with the offer writing process and kept us in the loop through escrow making the confusing process as clear and not-scary as possible. Now that we have the house (that needs some cosmetic work) we will surely be going to Michael to ask for suggestions on contractors etc. We completely trust his opinion. Oh, forgot to mention, he put us in touch with our loan guy too! They were a fantastic team. He did not lead us astray. We can't thank him enough for being such a pleasure to work with. Seriously, if you are not sure where to start, give Michael a call and start there. You won't be sorry. Best, Rachel and Steve

Arron Rents out poorly maintained properties and doesn't answer any of his tenants. I've emailed,…read morefb messaged, and asked my agent consistently to speak to him- over a month and nothing. He does not care, the property your rent or buy will be dirty and unkempt (and they will lie to you and say 'they were SUPPOSED to come, as some reviews before me have said) and if that's not enough, our agent, Leah , told us to our face that he enjoys taking advantage of college kids and out of towners. He tried to deny this when he replied to my google review, but she said this in front of me AND my roommate. Are we both liars? Or are your practices just so shady that even your agents dont like you? I posted this review on google, but it seems like Arron is trying to get it removed- i will repost it as many times as necessary, to as many places I need to. If you think I'm just going to live here and shut up, you are wrong. You lose business when you dont take care of your homes/tenants- thats how it works.

Real estate managed by this company absolutely in a worth shape and Arron Renfrew and his company…read moredo nothing about this. My daughter and 9 of her friends renting a house in UW district. House in worth condition possible. Besides broken wood, paint, mold, broken appliances this week we are dealing with leaky roof and no heat. Arron Renfrew and his company has done nothing about fixing this property for 9K a month rent. his company has no considerations for safety and landlord law. SLUM LORD is not enough, do not deal or work with this company and Aaron Renfrew.

We were moving from out of state, and Courtney and Gretta were an important part of making our move…read morego smoothly. They spent lots of time with us over the phone to make sure they knew just what we wanted and needed for our house purchase. When we arrived in Washington to look at houses, all their work up front made the process easy, and we quickly found a beautiful home that works just like we need it to--and it's in a beautiful neighborhood. They also connected us with local contractors to do a little work to the house before we moved in, and we were so pleased with how well that process went. If you want someone who truly cares about your home buying process, Gretta and Courtney are your people!

Gretta and Courtney were so great to work with and helped us find just the right home and location…read morefor us. We contacted them, knowing that - as newcomers to the area - we would need help, at least with location and process. Since we were relocating for retirement, and planning a cash sale, we were almost apologetic, knowing that our purchase would not generate much of a commission for them. But they were happy to help, and really went above and beyond. They took us out on 3 separate occasions, in widely disparate areas, and helped us through the bidding process - even agreeing with our gut feeling that "the one that got away" was not worth overbidding the winning offer to get. We felt that they were very responsive, were clear about when we should expect to hear back from them, and developed good relationships both with us and with the seller's agent. They really make a great team; we felt that we got a lot more working with them than we had either hoped for or expected. They say that their clients become friends, and we definitely feel that we experienced that. I would definitely recommend them to any buyer or seller.

I've lived here since 2013 and it's been ok! PROS: Great…read morelocation near Public Market, and World Market. I walk to work, the rent is fair. They allow dogs! CONS: Random people screaming on occasion, tent cities are starting to form, so if you own a dog you have to be careful because some of the street people have pit-bulls with no leashes. This isn't the buildings fault at all, it's just one of those things. The maintenance guy's are professional, helpful and really nice. The people who live here aren't very outgoing at all. There are a couple of couples who rock, but for the most part the tenants keep to themselves.

I've lived at the Ventana apartment building on Western and Lenora which is owned by Allegra…read moreProperties for over three years now. The place isn't perfect but the management is really great, especially for a downtown apartment. I've had experiences with other property management companies in Seattle where you feel like you're dealing with a corporate robot. That isn't the case here. Their staff actually listens to you and are very accommodating. Anyway, if you're looking for a place downtown, consider the Ventana. It is really hard to get a steal on a nice apartment downtown, but they actually have amazingly good rates for a building that's only about a decade old. The main reason I think they have such good monthly rentals is because the building lacks pretty much any amenities (their is a small gym however). However, the price of rent is worth the trade off. Plus, the Seattle Athletic Club is only half a block away and you're a block from the waterfront, so you won't exactly feel like you're living on skid row. I have been looking at other apartments in Belltown to see if I could get a better deal than what I have and I have literally not been able to find a single better deal out there. I would highly recommend renting from Allegra Properties, and especially the Ventana apartments.

Rich and Shelly are an exceptional team. Shelly was recommended to us by a family member and she…read moreand Rich helped my husband buy his first condo 7 years ago. Fast forward to May 2023 and we've just settled in our first home together. Let me start by saying that their approach to real estate is simple: great house, great neighborhood and great investment. If you're missing 1 of the 3 then they will tell you. They are extremely honest and therefore we trusted their advice and opinions implicitly. Aside from that, their knowledge about the neighborhoods in Seattle blew us away. They know practically everything about each of the small neighborhoods in Seattle and all of their nuances... neighborhoods that my husband and I didn't even know existed before starting this process (we both grew up in Seattle too!) This kind of knowledge is invaluable when you're looking for not only a home that you love but a neighborhood that suits your/your family's needs. A lot of this is due to their extensive experience with Seattle real estate but part of it is that are both from Seattle (or have lived here for a very long time). In fact, Rich went to elementary school in our (new) neighborhood! Shelly is really warm, friendly, outgoing and funny. She made the process fun and exciting. She doesn't make house hunting feel like a chore. In fact, you will end up looking forward to seeing her just as much, if not more than seeing the house. She also will tell you if she doesn't like a property or doesn't think it will be a worthwhile investment. Rich does the background research and let me just say... this guy doesn't miss a thing. I have never seen that kind of level of attention to detail before. It blew us away. This is CRUCIAL if you're putting in an offer (especially when you're waving inspections, etc.) He prepares an entire report on everything there is to know about a property before you've even seen it. He's a walking encyclopedia of Seattle real estate. I wholeheartedly trust and recommend Rich and Shelly. I will continue to work with them in the future/recommend to every family member/friend who might be thinking about buying in Seattle whether it's their first home or their 10th. They will make the process seamless from start to finish. We ended up with a fantastic home in a neighborhood that we love and we would have never found it had it not been for them (shout out to Shelly for finding it).

My wife and I worked with Shelly Baker from Refined Reality Group in the fall/summer of 2021…read more Shelly was an awesome, friendly agent and helped us navigate the highly competitive Seattle market. We landed on a great, move-in ready home at list price, which was uncommon during that period in the Seattle real estate market! We were able to close quickly and smoothly, without any issues. I'd highly recommend working with this team! Shelly was highly responsive, knowledgeable about the local market and great to work with.

No better place to live in Seattle! The building team is amazing- could not ask for a more…read moreinclusive and luxurious experience

Sorry ladies, but Mr. Grey will not see you now.. lol!!!! Yes, I know Christian Grey is a…read morefictional character and does not really live here, but it's a great tourist attraction if you have read the Fifty Shades trilogy. I didn't even attempt to go inside (cuz that would make me a creeper), but just took a few pictures on the outside. Unlike the movie, there is no "Escala" sign on top of the building, so it may be easy to miss. There is however, a large, multi story, Bed Bath and Beyond store directly across from it. The Escala is located on the corner of 4th Street and Virginia. Not much to see here, but a great place to take selfies and tell your friends back home, you went to Christian's pad.

I called Molly with unique, yet important, questions about the Seattle real estate market. She…read morepromptly dismissed everything I said/asked without offering further explanation. She said she would call "look into it" and call me back. Now for the shocking part of this story: she never called me back. Luckily it didn't take long for me to find a more professional real estate agent to help me out.

Courtney was great in finding us a home for the price we wanted. Very supportive and helpful. We…read moreconnected for awhile after our home purchase, but then things got weird. We asked her various home-related questions, and she became unresponsive and standoff-ish. She said it is not her business policy to provide information about schools to help us determine the neighborhood for our future home. We were completely confused by the situation and it ruined our relationship. We are now currently searching for a new agent.