My husband and I bought a house with Diana Kuang, and she is the best realtor ever! This was our first home purchase, and we initially tried to use a different realty service (redfin) to buy the house. However, after about half a year of looking with 3 failed bids, we decided to get a different realtor. With the recommendation of a friend, we connected with Diana. Working with Diana was worlds apart from our previous experience. Granted, the service models of Redfin vs a traditional realtor are vastly different, but even with that, we know that the service that Diana provided was really top-notch. First off, with Redfin, we pretty much dedicated each Friday to figuring out what houses we wanted, mapping each out, and them driving all over on Saturday and Sunday to the open houses. With Diana, we could just tell her what houses we were interested in, and she would organize everything even coordinating with the sellers to get a viewing outside of the open house. This was a huge relief, as we didn't have to spend any time on logistics - she would just tell us where to be and when, and we showed up. Most importantly, Diana went with us to EVERY SINGLE HOUSE, which I know is not typical with all realtors. One of the seller's agents even commented on how rare it was for a realtor to visit the houses with us. This was a huge advantage, as she was able to tell us if the house was a good buy or had issues, and was in a good area market-wise. The best part of working with Diana was getting the closing bid. During a day of visiting some duds, we saw an ad for house that was over our budget, but Diana said it wouldn't hurt to check it out. We did, and we fell in love with it. Great location, all the big work done, just small personal touches to add, twice as big as we thought we would end up getting. She convinced us we could get it in our budget. Diana gave us on-the-money advice for when to bid and how much to bid for. She got the best comps on the market to negotiate with, and negotiated hard. We got the house for a significant amount UNDER asking - which is still kind unbelievable!, as we had lost other bids where we bid up to $50k over asking. Diana knew exactly how good a price she could get for that particular house and how to negotiate, and she got an amazing price. Diana was clutch for us in the process after bid acceptance. She found a great house inspector for the inspection, and when we found a potential issue, was able to schedule a structural engineer to come to the house in two days to evaluate it before our drop-dead back-out date. We wouldn't have even known where to begin to find the structural engineer, and doing the research and making the calls would have been impossible for us while also trying to juggle going to work and the tight timelines. She made it so we only had to worry about making the decision to buy or not - not who are we supposed to call to do this or that. Once our we signed the purchase and sale, Diana gave us a schedule for when we should have everything done, and kept checking in with us to make sure the mortgage process was moving along. She held our hand every step of the way (even while on her vacation!), and was invaluable for us. We're really, really, happy that we connected with Diana. Will be recommending her to all our friends, and looking forward to using her again, in 30+ years if we ever decide to move out to sell this house and buy a new one (woohoo, she does both!). TLDR; Diana gave exceptional service, saved us loads of money, made the process easy and worry-free for first-time buyers, and got us a house that we love!!! Trust her and her judgement! read more

We had the good fortune to work with Diana Kuang to find an apartment in the area around Northeastern University. We found her through positive reviews on Yelp, and were delighted to find that working with her was every bit as good as the reviews she has! We had one weekend to find an apartment in Boston, flying in from Pittsburgh. We a spoke with Diana on the phone the week before our trip to give her the basic parameters of our desired apartment. She quickly started emailing us listings and asked for feedback on each one so that she could adjust her search. The listings quickly became more and more acceptable, and a few got us pretty excited. She has detailed knowledge of the rental market, and was able to let us know the restrictions that some of the landlords have, allowing us to exclude properties that wouldn't have worked for us in one way or another. We met with Diana on Saturday afternoon, and she took us to a brand new building with units in the upper end of our price range. This was the place that we would eventually end up renting. By showing us what she thought was good first, we were able to get a better perspective on the rest of the units that we saw through the afternoon. Knowing that we had seen something that would have worked well with us right at first made the looking at the rest of the places more fun and relaxed. We could walk in quickly and see that a unit wasn't as good value as the first one. Seeing units at the top end of our price range was just as important as seeing the units at the bottom end. We got to see that the place we finally chose was very good value for money, and made spending a higher amount that much more acceptable. We never really want to spend more, but if we are getting a good deal, well that's different! A word about the broker's fee. In tight housing markets (Boston, NYC) many of the rental units are shown and rented only through a real estate agent. This is just the way it is. It's certainly easier for the landlord to have a realtor show the unit since the realtor has done some prescreening of the prospective tenants (the realtor wants to get paid for their time, after all). There are some units that don't require a realtor to rent, but these aren't the good or interesting places. We were happy to pay Diana a broker's fee (one month's rent) because she has local knowledge to show us places that we would never have considered on our own. Without Diana's help, we would have literally walked by the building we ended up choosing while looking at other places nearby. Diana helped us make a great choice, not just a good choice, and that makes us happy to pay a broker's fee! Diana has been great with the followup: quickly getting documents back and forth between the leasing office and us, answering questions, and being really on top of everything. She really feels like a partner with us in this process. We would be delighted to work with her again! read more

We posted a 5-star review of Encore Realty and our realtor, Diana Kuang, in March 2014 when my husband and I first moved to the Boston area. We recently and abruptly decided that we needed to move, to better accommodate our family's growing needs. We again turned to Diana Kuang at Encore to help us through the process, and we are so fortunate that we did. Diana is without exaggeration the BEST realtor we have ever worked with, in our vast experience ranging from Boston back to Chicago and several states in between. She is extremely warm, welcoming, knowledgeable, and I think most importantly, honest. She really takes the time to get to know her clients on a personal basis, so that she can find the perfect fit for them and their specific needs. We loved that she'd show us a range of properties within the same budget, so that we could make educated decisions on what we could expect and what would be best for our family. Moreover, I particularly appreciated that she was always honest enough to say when she thought we were pursuing a property that wasn't really a good fit for us, even if that property was more expensive than other properties she suggested. Furthermore, Diana is the best advocate for her clients. She works quickly and effectively with other realtors and property managers to set up timely showings and more importantly, in negotiating pricing. We're always impressed with how responsive and active Diana is with any inquiry. Every single time we sent an email/txt/or phone call, it was answered within just a few minutes. Since our first interaction with Diana and Encore Realty, we have recommended several of our friends to her, and everyone has been equally pleased. I can't imagine ever using another realtor, as it'll be impossible to find someone as qualified and friendly as Diana. As I mentioned previously, although we've only worked with Diana, if she's a representation of all of Encore Realty, you will never go wrong with choosing this group to help you and your family find the property that best fits you and your family. Best of luck with your house/renal hunt! read more

I posted a 5-star review of Encore Realty and our realtor, Diana Kuang, in March 2014 when my wife and I first moved to the Boston area. We recently and abruptly decided that we needed to move, to better accommodate our family's growing needs. We again turned to Diana Kuang at Encore to help us through the process, and we are so fortunate that we did. Diana is without exaggeration the BEST realtor we have ever worked with, in our vast experience ranging from Boston back to Chicago and several states in between. She is extremely warm, welcoming, knowledgeable, and I think most importantly, honest. She really takes the time to get to know her clients on a personal basis, so that she can find the perfect fit for them and their specific needs. We loved that she'd show us a range of properties within the same budget, so that we could make educated decisions on what we could expect and what would be best for our family. Moreover, I particularly appreciated that she was always honest enough to say when she thought we were pursuing a property that wasn't really a good fit for us, even if that property was more expensive than other properties she suggested. Furthermore, Diana is the best advocate for her clients. She works quickly and effectively with other realtors and property managers to set up timely showings and more importantly, in negotiating pricing. We're always impressed with how responsive and active Diana is with any inquiry. Every single time we sent an email/txt/or phone call, it was answered within just a few minutes. Since our first interaction with Diana and Encore Realty, we have recommended several of our friends to her, and everyone has been equally pleased. I can't imagine ever using another realtor, as it'll be impossible to find someone as qualified and friendly as Diana. As I mentioned previously, although we've only worked with Diana, if she's a representation of all of Encore Realty, you will never go wrong with choosing this group to help you and your family find the property that best fits you and your family. Best of luck with your house/renal hunt! read more

I never do reviews on yelp, but I must do a review for Jeff Barila. He is the man to go to! I live in New York and needed to find a reasonably priced studio in Boston for a new job. Because I work full-time in New York, I was rarely able to travel to Boston and look at apartments myself. I tried to contact realtors on Craigslist but they were unwilling or unaccommodating to my situation (understandably), as it would mean extra work for them with all the faxing/mailing/e-mailing that would have to be done to look for a place for me. But Jeff was so helpful and found me an AMAZING studio in Coolidge Corner (which he let me know was a neighborhood that had much better deals than places like Fenway, and also close to my work). I corresponded with Jeff by phone and because I couldn't be in Boston to see the place myself, Jeff met with my boyfriend so that he could see the place in my stead and send me photos. I liked it and it was at a price I couldn't refuse, so we decided to sign the lease. Jeff was extremely flexible in all ways, and I was able to e-mail/snail mail him all of the necessary documents. Now I have a place to move-in in two months! In retrospect, it wasn't quite a good idea to try to remotely do the apartment-hunting process from a different state, but Jeff made it possible. Also, realtors/brokers can be busy, busy people and sometimes it will be impossible to get in touch with them. This is NOT a sign that your broker is a bad broker, especially if they follow up within the next couple of hours and explain to you that they had a lot of clients that day, which is what Jeff did. Even when I texted him very late at night (11PM or so) about a question I had, he responded within a few minutes. I still have yet to meet Jeff in person (we were supposed to on a weekend I happened to be in Boston but my schedule didn't work out), but I have full confidence in him and I know I will be moving into a great place soon (my boyfriend assures me it's really that great). read more

I am writing this review specifically about Heidi Shenker. We had such an amazing experience with finding our apartment in Cambridge that I have shared her name with MANY of our friends and contacts. We recently purchased the apartment we were renting (that she found for us), and I almost regret that we didn't get to use an agent during the sale, as it would have been great to get to work with her again. We weren't supposed to be working with Heidi, and we ended up with her as a stroke of great luck. Living in DC and moving to Cambridge for grad school, we originally worked with a Boston-based broker who was extremely pushy, and kept referring me to rentals above our budget and in fancier neighborhoods. On the day we drove to Boston to check out apartments with this agent, his wife went into labor, and he sent a newbie agent as a replacement. She showed us sad, overpriced places in Harvard sq, and it was a disaster. We reached out to Heidi via a google search as a last-ditch effort to find a reasonable place. Within a few hours, she scooped us up in her car and escorted us to FIVE fantastic options, all within our budget and location. We felt ZERO pressure to sign, and felt our needs and desires were 100% heard and catered to. When we found a place we loved, which was $300 a month LESS than any other places the other agent had sent to or showed us, she worked furiously to get our paperwork in. She was so incredibly thorough that when something came up on our background/credit check, she had us bring in more documentation to ensure that we would have an attractive and thorough application. We ended up with the dream apartment, thanks to Heidi! I think she would be a great fit for any type of apartment/home hunter, and couldn't recommend her more highly. read more

This review is for DIANA KUANG, who really went above and beyond to make our apartment hunting process as easy and stress-free as possible. Diana was professional, efficient, listened to our needs, and we never once felt pressured. My husband and I will be relocating to Boston in August, and although we were a bit reluctant, we decided to proceed with our apartment search from our current location. I reached out to Diana based on other positive reviews I had read, and she replied back within a few hours, even though she was on vacation. Once she got back, she asked us what we were looking for, and immediately got back to us with a list of apartments that she handpicked. I was impressed that she had already calculated the travel distance and routes to my (future) workplace. The apartment that we liked got rented later that afternoon. Fortunately for us, there was another apartment that was just listed that night, and Diana took charge and scheduled an appointment for a video tour. Although there was a sense of urgency because of the competitiveness of the Boston rental market, we never once felt pressured from Diana to make a decision. We loved the apartment, so Diana quickly got the application process started in order to get it off the market asap. A couple mornings later, we woke up to a wonderful text from Diana congratulating us for securing the apartment. Throughout the entire process, Diana was professional, efficient, and always available. We also thought it was also really sweet that Diana was very understanding of the fact that the upfront fees can be expensive. We felt like Diana really took care of us, and I would recommend Diana to my dearest friends and family, and would work with her again in a heartbeat! read more

Edit: I wanted to give a complete story to this business I did with Encore Realty. Lauren D was great but I feel I was tricked by her somehow. I was shown this gorgeous 2-bedroom apartment in Brookline by Lauren D and was told that it was a no-fee apartment. My sisters and I loved the apartment and was so excited that it was also a no-fee apartment. However, just before we were about to sign the paperworks, Lauren said she had to check again in her computer to make sure again it was a no-fee apartment. Then, all of a sudden, she said that there was a system error and that there was actually a one month broker fee! How convenient to have a system error just before we were about to sign the paperworks and after we have completely fallen in love with the apartment! My sisters and I were completely trapped in this. On the one hand we love the location and the apartment, but on the other hand, it is an additional one month fee which was almost 3k! In the end, we decided we didn't want to go through with the hustle of finding an apartment again and didn't want to lose this apartment so we had to agree to her terms. I am just writing this so people can be aware of this and be able to make sure that there are no hidden fees. We were promised professional cleaning and fresh paint to our 2 bedroom apartment. And because of this, we weren't even able to move in until 10am of the move-in date but the apartment was nowhere close to being cleaned or painted at all when we moved in. Lauren said that she would take care of it and will send out a cleaner. Let's see how only one cleaner will be able to professionally clean this mess in a big 2-bedroom apartment. read more

2nd review for Encore Realty, and more specifically Diana Kuang. She recently as of last May of 2016 helped me purchase a condo after a long search, but with my luck I received a new job opportunity in California, which left me with 2 choices.. 1. sell my condo I just bought or 2. rent it out. I seeked out Diana for her help, and we talked it through and decided to rent. With a new job starting across the coast in less than a month, I was very short on time, so I sought Diana to once again come to my aid and rent out my condo. Diana was very professional throughout the process, and quick to inform me if there were prospective tenants who wanted to view my condo, while at the same time respectful of my privacy. I couldn't imagine going through this whole process without her help. There were so many things on my plate, from looking for new housing and preparing for a coast to coast move, Diana was exceptional in helping keep this issue from being another stressful event. Working with Diana through different phases of realty from purchasing and then renting out as a landlord, I've been able to see the great professional services that she provides in many different facets of her responsibilities. Based on my experience, I highly recommend her as a purchasing agent in addition to a leasing agent. I'm sure she excels in other roles as well, based on her previous reviews. I look forward to working with her again, if the need arises that I need to find a new tenant. read more

My husband and I were looking for an apartment to rent. We contacted Diana Kuang from Encore Realty with an e-mail in which we explained what we wanted. She replied within less than an hour with some suggestions. We picked one and arranged to have a showing that same afternoon, less than 2 hours after our initial e-mail to her! Diana had actually paid attention to what we wanted so the apartment turned out to be almost a 10/10 in our very specific and detailed list of desirable features and in fact had a couple of perks that far surpassed what we had thought we would be able to find. We went ahead and submitted our rental applications. Thanks to Diana, the application process was fast and smooth. We explained to Diana that we needed a quick reply since we had to give notice to our current landlord within a certain deadline and she made sure to get back to us as promptly as possible. She also successfully negotiated for us the move-in date that was best for us. I have been in touch with many real estate agents and I can truthfully say that Diana is a great find. She is friendly and pleasant to talk to but also professional: she paid attention to what we needed/wanted and did her best to ensure it came about. I will be happy to recommend her to my friends and I won't hesitate to contact her if I ever buy a house. read more

My wife and I recently relocated to Boston from Chicago for work. Given our busy schedules, the long distance nature of the move, and our relative unfamiliarity with Boston, we kew we needed a broker - Encore Realty and Brian Kitchens were perfect! We provided Brian a pretty long list of needs and wants for our new home and he cleared time in his calendar for us to visit from Chicago. Brian was extremely professional, impeccably knowledgeable on the local market, and thoughtful in his property selection. Most importantly, he was very honest - he was upfront about the pros/cons of different homes/neighborhoods and at no point did we feel pressured to choose a particular home under a tight deadline. We eventually signed a lease at a property Brian had selected that we're extremely happy with. Especially for those relocating, Encore's communication, responsiveness, and negotiation skills are fantastic. They have your best interests in mind and, whether it's negotiating concessions or simply asking the property manager a question, Encore's services are like being in two places at once. I felt they were an extension of my interests and I could rest easily in Chicago knowing that everything for our Boston move is or would be arranged efficiently and effectively. read more

We had an excellent experience with Diana Kuang at Encore Realty! She was (and continues to be) very communicative and is very open about where things are in a process. She's very easy to work with, not in the lease bit pushy (very different from other Boston area realtors) and all around very pleasant to work with. From the very start, she made herself available to show properties on short notice and facilitated all aspects of the application and ultimately signing the lease. I would highly recommend her. I'd also credit Encore Realty with having several unique properties. We were searching for an apartment in the Greater Boston area for about 2 months, and almost every realtor we saw had the same properties available, which were all on Craigslist anyway. I forget how I first found the Encore website but the first thing that stood out was that they head a large number of properties that I hadn't come across elsewhere. The one place they could improve is the initial contact received in response to signing up on their website doesn't have the follow-through that it should. I'd encourage folks interested in working with them to call directly after seeing a property you like on their site as you'll get better/faster service that way. read more

DIANA KUANG at Encore Realty is the literal embodiment of a perfect realtor, so much so I'm writing my first yelp review :) Her combination of professionalism, prompt responsiveness, and great personality is unparalleled in her field. I live in Houston and needed a lease for my 12 month medical fellowship in Boston. I wanted to handle everything remotely, read her glowing reviews on yelp, and took a leap of faith after a bad experience with a prior Boston realtor (randomly assigned realtor first time around after clicking inquire about availability on a specific luxury apartment complex) and it was the best decision I could have made. The entire process start to finish was smooth, seamless and extremely efficient. She kept me up to date about everything and even took care of a little leasing snafu on my end (realized after the application was approved and deposit accepted that I needed a 13 instead of 12 month lease, oops. Though the landlord initially was resistant to a 13 month, Diana was ultimately able to make it happen) Look no further if you need to rent/buy in Boston especially when time, even the matter of hours, can mean the difference between securing your place or missing out and starting all over again. read more

This review is for Diana Kuang is the greatest real estate agent, who I had the pleasure to work with that went above and beyond in making it possible. I initially contacted Diana a few months prior before moving ahead to ask her opinion on renting versus buying. She gave me her opinion and suggestions that were really helpful. I definitely would have not chosen any other realtor, she was my first choice and I was super glad I chose her for my entire journey! She walked me through the entire process and answered all my questions while she was on vacation and at late inopportune times. Always a phone call or text away! With her experience in negotiation, she was able to lock down the deal even though there was 4 other deals on the table. While still on vacation, she managed to help me set up the home inspection and negotiated repairs to be done by owners even while there were back up offers after the home inspection. She definitely made sure the repairs were done before moving forward with the deal. I didn't have much interaction with her office, I only had to interact with Diana throughout the whole process. She plays hard ball and always has her client's best interest at heart. A kind, honest and kickass realtor! read more

Linda Klein is a godsend. After months of searching for apartments and getting shuffled around, ignored, and insulted by brokers and management companies, we finally came across Linda. She was professional, responsive, readjusted to our wants and needs, and most importantly, she took the time to understand us as people. We'd been shown unkempt, tiny, inconvenient apartments that were out of price range and were absolutely sick of it. Then Linda came along! She only showed apartments of high quality that were in our price range and in a location we had asked for. When we told her space was an issue, and that we'd need a lot of it, she readjusted to show us fantastic, HUGE apartments that other brokers claimed didn't even exist. She was also a magician who made appointments appear out of nowhere. While we were hounding other brokers just to view an apartment in a reasonable span of time, but if we told Linda were interested in seeing an apartment, she somehow was able to made show it to us the VERY NEXT DAY! She's also just so incredibly personable and kind. After an incredibly tiresome search, we felt such relief once Linda came along. Would HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend reaching out to her. She's just fabulous! read more

Diana Kuang is the best possible broker ever!!! I worked with her while I was moving from California to Boston, which means she worked with me remotely before I visited. She took the time to listen to everything I needed and sent me links throughout the month, in order to figure out the kind of apartment I was looking for. When I did finally visit, she picked me up from my hotel and had a full day planned for us. The apartments that we saw on the first day didn't work so she worked throughout the night and early morning (seriously, I'm not kidding) to re-arrange and find new listings for me. When I told her I was worried that I wouldn't find a place, she told me that she's been feeling my anxiety and that she would do everything to make sure I found a place--basically she's a dreamboat friend, partner, broker all mixed into one! I could tell that she really cared about finding me an apartment. AND!!! I found the most perfect place! She got me into an apartment the morning it was listed before anyone else had the chance to see it and I signed the lease before returning to California. Working with Diana was so incredibly pleasant and enjoyable--I absolutely believe everyone should work with her!!! read more

I loved working with Lauren Deyeso! She found my boyfriend and me the perfect place in a weekend! It was exactly what we were looking for in terms of location, (kitchen size), and price. We moved in recently and are loving it so far! The overall process was remarkably stress free. Lauren took care of contacting our new landlord and getting the paperwork together for us. She kept us updated along the way and helped us through the process. We appreciated this so much because on the other end of things we were dealing with getting someone to take over the lease for our previous apartment, which was a headache to say the least. So, to have Lauren there for us with our new apartment was very helpful. She stayed in constant contact with us, calling us to let us know next steps, and she even greeted me at the apartment with the keys on our move-in day! She seemed genuinely enthusiast about helping us find our next home, and she's a delight to be around. It was clear she loves what she does and enjoys meeting new people. I am grateful to have worked with Lauren, as she helped to make the whole moving experience much easier. I definitely recommend reaching out to her if you're thinking of moving. read more