I've worked with the main agent at Playa Realty since 1999. Monica Trepany sold me my first condo when I moved to LA. She was really patient about showing me different places and even managed to find a condo complex which allowed me to have 2 dogs. When it came time to sell that condo and move to a house, she helped me through a series of REALLY complicated transactions:
First, we got into a contract with a For Sale By Owner person who turned out to be crazy and tried to back out of the signed contract. At that point, we were already in contract to sell our condo and Monica helped us finesse and negotiate our way to a settlement with the For Sale By Owner seller as well as our new prospective buyer. She did this all at no charge, just hoping to help us complete a sale and a purchase. It was months of work. Thanks to her expertise and solid guidance, we made it through those situations as well as we possibly could.
Next, we had our eye on an ocean view property and she helped us make an offer to the elderly owner to encourage her to sell to us. That didn't work out, but I liked her strategy and she was also very thoughtful towards the elderly owner---no hard sell, no bum's rush.
She gave us really good advice when we wanted to buy a house in a particular neighborhood: She said for us to go to EVERY open house, and to look at EVERY property for sale in the neighborhood so that we'd know exactly what was available and what every nook and cranny of the neighborhood was like. That turned out to be really good advice because what I had in mind for the house I wanted turned out to be unrealistic in that neighborhood, and at the end of the day the neighborhood was more important. So when we stumbled across an open house (after going to the open house for the home we THOUGHT we wanted to buy) and went in even though we hadn't planned to, I realized that THIS was the house that was perfect for us.
Monica helped us make an offer right away and suggested we offer slightly more than the asking price to let them know we really wanted their house. We were in competition with another couple and Monica knew that.....and our offer was accepted.
There's really no substitute for your real estate agent having so many years in the business and tons of negotiations under her belt! I saw her run circles around those other agents and I was really impressed.
THEN my mother in law died and we had to sell her house. There were 6 heirs and their spouses, all with different agendas. Monica managed to negotiate between all 6 of us and get everyone on the same page (no small miracle!) and got a price OVER our asking price. She even helped with the garage sale.
Playa Realty is amazing. 14 years and 4 completed transactions later, I'd highly recommend Playa Realty to anyone. read more