My husband and I met Jonathan by chance by requesting to take a look at a listing in Laurel. We…read morementioned that we were also looking to sell soon and he helped us get in touch with a contractor who completed various renovations for us so that we could sell our townhome in Bowie. Jonathan was extremely knowledgeable in the way of what to look for when visiting a prospective home. His level of responsiveness was outstanding as he could be reached at practically anytime of the day - early morning and late night. My husband and I really appreciated his "project management" when it came to renovations, staging and selling our townhouse and buying our first single-family home.

Jonathan was excellent. We met him at an open house he was hosting where even though we told him we…read morealready had a realtor, he was eager to give advice about mortgages and loans. His experience in banking was extremely helpful, causing us to choose him as a realtor instead. Jonathan was very empathetic and also very realistic. He was not afraid to share his opinion about a place if he did not think it was a good fit or if it would take too much to fix. He was very flexible, scheduling with our calendar and also very personable. I was extremely pleased with the house searching process as a result of having Jonathan as our realtor. I even recommended him to my boss, who is now in the process of getting a house after also using Jonathan's services.

Jeff helped us buy our new home and sell our former home in Alexandria. He is an honest, patient,…read morecommunicative realtor who has great follow through. His expertise is much appreciated and it made the process so much easier!

TL;DR - don't sleep on making Jeff your realtor. Your life will be better for it and you'll be…read morehappy you bought a home and a future with his help. If you're on the fence about buying a house, find the prospect of the homebuying process daunting, or find playing the "real estate game" pretty distasteful (hi, that's me -- all of the above), Jeff Jacobs is THE perfect realtor for you. My wife and I met Jeff at an open house and immediately we were impressed by how disarming and reassuring he was. Looking back, I think a lot of that comes from Jeff being a genuinely good listener, and being exceptional at centering his clients' needs. He's got a really good sense of humor, too. Even after our first chance encounter, my wife and I were content to fly solo, but Jeff stuck with us; not engaging in any high-pressure tactics, but simply being consultative he won us over. He literally came over to our house (mid-pandemic) and chatted with us in our front yard as we sat around in camping chairs. Jeff was honest in his assessment about not only what we could afford, but what we should be targeting given the lifestyle that we want to lead. He also shared plenty of his own recent-homebuying knowledge which was invaluable in the process. We found our forever home pretty quickly with Jeff's help and went through a fast closing scenario, where Jeff and his team of experts had everything on rails and made completing the sale relatively frictionless (I may have given him a few gray hairs in the process, TBH). Ulimately, Jeff wants to see his clients happy and set them up for the best possible future. He still checks up on us, invites us to client appreciation events, jokes with us, and talks to us about life. What real estate agent does that in the DMV? This is the kind of white-glove relationship building you find in small towns, not big metro areas.

From the day we met Marc Cowan we knew our home selling and buying experience would be handled with…read morecare. Even though at the time we didn't even know we were in the market! Over the course of a few weeks we got to know Marc and his team's thoughtfulness and attention to detail as we considered a move. When we were finally ready to take "the leap," Marc supplied us with ample market data, timelines, projections and introductions to all the players needed to build out a team for a successful move. Marc's speciality is developing a plan that fit our personality and timeline. From a creative Open House to ensuring our young kids felt part of the process, he was always one step ahead. By the time we reached closing day for both the selling of our home and purchase of a new home, we were in the best of hands and not a single detail was overlooked. Happy to recommend the Marc Cowan team to anyone selling or purchasing a home in the greater DMV area - you will not be disappointed. -- The Anderson Family

Update: I worked with Marc Cowan again to successfully find my home in DC. With his insight, I…read morerealized I would to be able to look for homes in neighborhoods I previously thought would be out of reach price wise. His knowledge of the DC market proved invaluable both for finding a great location to live as well as negotiating with the seller.

I highly recommend Scott Frost. He sold my condo in record time for a great price…read more Prior to selling, he suggested a few attractive upgrades and sourced an exceptional contractor to do them. The result was reasonably priced and stunning. Scott is pleasant and low-key, but underneath is a powerhouse. For buyers and sellers alike, he knows all the neighborhoods and many individual buildings and how they are managed. He communicates well, responds promptly, and has all the facts on hand, or else will find them in record time. He is honest and trust-worthy, and generally a great person!

We found Scott through Zillow and were very satisfied with our experience. His knowledge of DC was…read morehelpful in helping us evaluate neighborhoods. When our financing was at risk, we used his expertise to show the lender the errors they were making. He was an advocate for us throughout the process and we would recommend him to others.

As a first time home buyer in a difficult market, Jessica Johnson's experience and negotiation…read moreskills helped us craft a strong winning offer. Thank you for finding us a home in our dream location. I highly recommend Jessica and Real Living Reserve.

I used Real Living-Reserve Realtors for my first home purchase and could not have been happier…read more Tammy made the process so easy and fun and I trust her implicitly. She was also extremely responsive and helpful when it came to any questions I had, and this being my first purchase, I had a ton of them. Finding her was like finding the perfect hair stylist, when you find the right one, you don't go to anyone else. I would definitely recommend them to anyone buying or renting a home, you will not be disappointed!

During a recent trip back to the DC area, I had the chance to meet and work with this company. I…read morehad called in to get help with homes for sale and other real estate info. Eric answered the phone and was more than helpful. He addressed my questions, showed me how to search for properties on their website, and invited me in to one of their free workshops. The workshop times didn't work well with my schedule so he offered to have an agent sit down with me off-hours. I took him up on his offer to meet an agent in person. During my trip, I've now met with Gerard 3 different times in-person. It's been a great experience and I'm glad I took the time - I've learned a lot and am leaving town having all my questions and concerns answered.

We used UrbanLand to list our property in Glover Park. We no longer live in DC area and had renters…read morefor a few years. Gerard and Trish were a God-sent for us. They helped us get the property in selling condition: they handled dealing with contractors and then stage the home beautifully for us. The result was a night-and-day difference from when our renters moved out. We needed up selling at a higher price than we expected for the rowhouse. Gerard is very knowledgable about the DC housing market. He has lots of connections and gives sound advice. He and Trish are very trustworthy and true professionals. I wouldn't hesitate to use them if you're looking to list your property. I would give 6 STARS if I could.

John was recommended to me by a mutual friend when I needed an experienced realtor quickly. I was…read moremoving from Philly to Baltimore and was traveling back and forth to finalize a contract on a new construction home. At our first meeting I saw that John is an excellent negotiator and felt really looked after. When I had technical questions he always offered thoughtful answers and advice. Throughout the process I felt confident that John had my best interests in mind. He is very knowledgeable and friendly which made it a true pleasure work with him. I highly recommend John to anyone who wants to buy a home in the Baltimore/Washington DC area! He's the best!

I can't say enough nice things about John. We were surprised that our housing search had us in…read moreBaltimore, but John was so knowledgeable and opened our eyes to how charming the Baltimore area was. He knew that we were not in a rush to buy and never once pressured us. He was willing to take us to several homes and was patient with my fiance and I as first time home buyers. I cannot recommend John enough!

When we were ready to sell our house, we offered the listing to Mark, and had a disappointing…read moreexperience. We had worked with his firm to buy the house and, in retrospect, I think we gave the benefit of the doubt a little too much the first time around. Both times, he was not straightforward with us about pretty fundamental stuff that we'd tried to establish from the beginning. He was also not especially positive to work with, and none of the contractors he recommended were positive either. On the selling end, what we were looking for was a realtor to work with us as teammates in selling our house, allowing us a little bit of input into how the house would be made over for the sale. We were selling a vintage colonial house in MD, so it made sense for it to be presented just a hair differently than a modern high-rise condo in downtown DC, for example. Of the realtors we interviewed, Mark had the most disagreements with us about how to make over the house, but we thought he would be the most straightforward person to work with. So before offering him the listing, we asked how differences of opinion would be settled, and he said he'd ultimately defer to us. After six weeks of waiting on his primary stager, Mark finally brought over another one, Bona Gjoni (who has iffy reviews on Yelp). We wanted to be open-minded, and we agreed to at least 80% of what she said. However, she was very hard to work with; she was cold, rarely spoke to us (she mainly just addressed Mark), and she frankly seemed put off that we were there at all. (Mark later explained that they usually just stage vacant homes.) We suggested that if she told us how strongly she felt about her suggestions on a scale of 1-10, we could use that to inform our decision -- but she rejected this idea out of hand and said she's "a 10 on everything." She wanted us to paint our kitchen a specific shade of light brown (!) because "all [her] clients do that". (Shouldn't design be tailored to the property, not the same for all?) Oddly enough, what was a dealbreaker for Mark was when we disagreed with Bona's directive to paint our whole fireplace a glossy jet black. This seemed way out of character for our parkside country-mouse colonial, and we emailed Mark to ask if we could take a breath before deciding whether to proceed with Bona -- while emphasizing how important it was to us to make sure *he* was comfortable with all the choices made. He said we should leave all these decisions to the professionals, and wrote a long message about how experienced he was. When we said we get it, we just want to be *a* part of the team to some extent, he abruptly emailed us to bow out of the listing because of the fact that we "have your own ideas of how you want to present and market your home." This was a real curveball a month and a half into working with him. We didn't have any particularly zany ideas for our house -- it seemed like the problem was that we wanted any input whatsoever. Then I realized that all 3 of the references I'd called from his recent sales were seniors who had already moved into assisted living and had him handle 100% of the preparation process -- maybe that is his jam. So it seems like Mark prefers to only work with sellers who do not want any input at all; that's fine if that's his choice -- the frustrating thing was that he was not straightforward with us from the beginning, even though we tried to be very straightforward with him. We had shared all our opinions/preferences on the house during the interview stage, so none of it was a surprise. We had even directly asked about how he'd handle differences of opinion. If he had been honest from the beginning about his "my way or the highway" approach, it would have saved us all a lot of wasted time. In the end, the realtor we ended up selling our house with was outstanding: very kind, smart, and straightforward; his stager and most other contractors were excellent (super nice, very responsive, and did quality work); and we were thrilled with the results. So all's well that ends well, but much like in our buying experience, Mark did a bait-and-switch. We told him exactly what we were looking for, he accepted enthusiastically, and then he changed things up on us later in a non-straightforward way. Our hope is that an honest review can be helpful to others trying to choose a realtor that will suit their needs.

Mark Meyerdirk is a rock star, plain and simple. Super organized, on the ball, and extremely…read moreknowledgeable about the DC market. We saw a listing in pre-sale and loved it. Mark went to bat for us and within an hour he'd sent us spreadsheets of comparable homes, pricing trends, and his impressions on what we should offer. He also advised us to write a personal letter to the seller. He surmised correctly from the condition of the house that the owners would likely prefer an early offer so they don't have a parade of people coming in and out of their lovely home. He was so right! The offer price he suggested was higher than the asking but not astronomically high. After reviewing all the data he shared, we followed his advice for the offer price and also spent some time writing a personal letter to the seller. It worked! Even though the sellers had another pre-offer, they accepted ours. Mark was not done. Since we were first time home buyers, Mark walked us through all the steps to closing. He communicated by email and text and answered questions at all times of the day and night, be it 7AM or 11PM. His working style fits right in with the typical DC type-A crowd, who (like me) want things done yesterday. Finally, we closed and then went out for drinks with Mark. He even bought us a surprise house warming gift that was incredibly thoughtful and personal. Mark is such a personable and likable guy. He'll adapt to your working style and roll with the punches. His communication style is straightforward and (thankfully) completely lacking the typical real-estate patronizing tone. I cannot recommend him enough for the DC market! Apart from being our agent, he is now our friend and we look forward to that friendship. Kudos to Mark. Even my angry cat is happy!