Amy exceeded my expectations above and beyond what I thought a realtor could be. She provided me a plan of how we would approach the complex problem of selling a house and guided me through options and recommendation each step of the way. I felt cared for and heard through out the process. I was informed and knew exactly what I should be doing during the many steps of selling. On top of that her real estate acumen is top notch, using evidence based decision making and explaining her reasoning in a way I understood at every major decision point. During our sale we didn't have much negotiating leverage, but given her skills we were able to secure an astonishing increase from our buyers. She is creative when monkey wrenches are thrown into the process, timely and proactive. I wouldn't go to anyone else in the future when I have real estate needs. read more

We closed the sale of a condo in San Jose with Amy and The Yao Group. This is the second property within the past 3 years that we have used Amy's services for (on the seller side). My wife and I could not be more happy with both experiences. Amy has a great team of partners (staging, inspections, lenders etc) that all do quality work. She is very thorough and could not be more honest and direct in her communication style. She priced our condo well and we were able to get multiple bids and close the sale in an smooth and expeditious manner during the slower time of the year (Dec) too. Thank you Amy and the Yao Group! read more

We worked with Amy to sell our home which had been a long term rental and had a wonderful experience. I don't live in California so I wanted to partner with someone who could handle the entire selling process from start to finish. This included renovating our home, putting it up for sale and closing the deal. She did all of this with a great deal of urgency and attention to detail. It was especially positive that nearly all my interactions were directly with Amy and I never felt like I had to chase anyone in the process to ensure our house would sell. When selling an older home like we had, there's so many opportunities to get derailed but Amy was really on top of every single detail. Most of my communication with her was via text so I was able to stay informed on everything in real time. Ultimately our house sold for more than I would have expected and closing was drama free. One final thing I'd like to add is that Amy operated with a high level of integrity and honesty. She advocated for accurate disclosures, thorough inspections and worked well with our buyers to answer all their questions up to the few days before closing. I wish nothing but the best for her and the team in the future! read more

Outstanding Realtor--A True Game-Changer We didn't realize how crucial a great realtor was until we met Amy--and choosing her was hands-down one of the best decisions we made. From home selection and insurance to working with our loan and title companies, coordinating repairs, and answering every question with care and expertise, Amy guided us flawlessly through the entire process. Her professionalism, responsiveness, and genuine dedication made us feel supported every step of the way. Amy didn't just help us buy a house--she helped us find our home. From initial offer to closing, the entire process took just 17 days--a testament to her efficiency and mastery of every moving part. Without hesitation, we recommend Amy as the best realtor you could ever hope to have on your side. read more

My family and I met Amy & Walter at a Santa photo experience event that their company called Yao Group hosted. The event took place at Avenue One's Clubhouse. Immediately from arrival the hospitality was warm and friendly. The light snacks were delicious. The one on one Santa experience the kids had was top tier too. Last but not least the photographer did an amazing job capturing our families beautiful moments with Santa. Thank you to the Yao company for your superb hospitality and hosting such an amazing event. Happy Holidays from the Young Family! read more

The Yao Group - Real Estate Services Near Me - San Jose, California

See all

Amy helped our family find our perfect home! The Yao group was very helpful in the whole process; they always made time to educate us on the homebuying process and were available to us in one of the biggest decisions we have made. They made sure we were comfortable and understood everything along the way. Amy also had several strategies to help your offers stand out! read more

Amy Yao makes you feel like your needs are first priority! It was a real pleasure working with Amy Yao who was my husband former coworker for many years. Because he knew her long time and we ever joined her parties to celebrate her new career as a realtor. We chose her because her thorough knowledge, not only of general real estate, but of the local market, the understanding of multicultures, her great team, her professionalism, her quality of thoughtfulness, and her always put customer's best interest first. She was extremely patient, responsive and eased our decision making process. We had a professional photographer at our house, beautiful staging and she made an exclusive website of our house with 3D tour and specification of each room size. She truly understands how to sell houses. She made the process incredibly easy and made it a great pleasure throughout the whole process. Now our good friends are consulting with her about selling their house as they saw that we were extremely happy to working with Amy and trusted her completely. She's the best realtor with a great team around her. read more

Several years ago, I met Amy Yao when we both were working in the tech industry. I was immediately impressed with her intelligence and people skills, and with her passion to do much more than an ordinary job, but to make a big difference in the success of the team. When she was ready for more challenges, I encouraged her to move on and see where her gifts might take her. Now I feel happy and proud to see that she has found the perfect career to bring out the most in her many capabilities. I also feel grateful to have had such a strong leader guide my wife and me through the process of selling our condominium. After working with Amy to sell our condo, there are three major reasons why I recommend Amy to anyone looking for a world class agent to help buy or sell their home. First, Amy is extremely smart and savvy. She understands the overall market and the specific market for the neighborhood and competition, customer taste, negotiation, and pricing trends. In addition, she has put together an excellent team of financial experts, stagers, photographers, videographers, painters, electricians, and whomever else who might become necessary to address any issue. Second, she has developed a comprehensive selling process to ensure that every step is planned in advance. She then manages each step so things move in a positive direction all the time. She planned our work and we all worked the plan! ..... When issues arose, she communicated with a common-sense style that was easy to understand. She always had time for us, responding basically immediately to any text, email, or phone question. She was also very patient when it seemed like we may have had too many questions. Her project management and leadership skills made a huge difference. Third, her genuine desire to help people and make a significant difference in their lives, drove every decision she made, and every priority she followed. Everything started with Amy's sincere desire to help people. It is clear that she has a heart for service. She never took her commission for granted - she did everything she possibly could to keep us informed, calm, and positive. We knew that she was looking out for us. To summarize Amy showed professional excellence, along with deep concern for her customers, in multiple ways. If you are looking for a complete expert on every element of macro and micro real estate, it's Amy Yao. If you are looking for someone who will manage every aspect of the process from original pricing through final offer acceptance, and everything in between, it's Amy Yao. If you are looking for someone who genuinely cares (seriously CARES) about giving you the best deal and best experience possible, it's Amy Yao. Why not choose Amy and get all three? read more

Amy and Walter have been instrumental in our success in landing the home of our dreams and reestablishing trust in the real estate industry. Having both bought and sold a home with them, we could not be more thrilled with the level of detail, service, and personalized experience we received. From the start, Amy and Walter listened to our concerns and desires, and set on developing a personalized approach for obtaining them. At each phase of the home buying and selling process they provided us with the support needed to move along and an explanation for the factors we should consider when making a decision. Amy provided thorough and objective analysis of each offer and house and told us everything she knew rather than just what we might want to hear. She respected our wishes and worked diligently on our behalf. We would absolutely work with them again in the future. read more

Amy was incredible from start to finish. From our first meeting with her, and up until closing, we felt supported and were treated like true VIPs. Her team of experts covered all of our needs. She is the expert you're looking for and truly the maestro who will help you get through this chaotic process, and also make it as seamless as possible. We are first time home buyers and our experience with Amy was everything we hoped for. read more

Amy sold our condo at a very challenging times of COVID-19 shelter-in-place. After 4 days in the market, we accepted an offer above the list price. Mic drop! We learned about Amy from a trusted friend whose house was also successfully sold by Amy. Amy came in prepared for our first meeting/consultation. She prepared a report, with her market research of our property, and how the whole selling process will be like. We booked her right there and then. She managed our vendors (deep cleaning, carpet installations, handy-man work, painting job, repairs, inspections, staging, photography, videography etc). All the vendors she recommended did a great job. The staging was sooooo amazing, our home shone like a diamond. The photos, drone photos, videos, 3D rendering, virtual tours and website look great and professional. And so many other processes, paperworks, coordination, negotiation, details that happen behind the scenes, and Amy and her team took great care of them to make the sale happen on time! All throughout this process, Amy was a pleasure to work with. A good advisor and listener, a woman of action, she makes things happen and does not leave things to chance. We are so blessed to have worked with Amy, and that our business relationship turned to friendship after what we've been through together! We highly recommend her. read more

See all

If you are serious about purchasing a home, you need to work with Amy. Amy eased every anxiety and apprehension I had about homeownership by taking the time to educate me on the home buying process every step of the way. As we read through disclosure after disclosure, Amy always made sure I did my due diligence and drew my own conclusions of each property before sharing her expert opinion. You will be an educated and well informed buyer with Amy by your side. I will be recommending Amy to all of my friends and family! read more

Just the best to work with.. When others say no he help to make the dream come true Help us to find the perfect home read more

I decided since we just did our second transaction with Amy as our realtor that I should write another review. If you didn't know Amy is as organized as a general, as caring as a new mother as smart as scholar while being as tough as anyone I know (and I know a lot of tough people). Amy helped us sell our first home which had been a rental for the last 6 years. As you can imagine after renting a home there are some things that needed to be done. We were blessed with great tenants but there was still quite a bit of work to do to get the house ready for sale including cleanup, painting, floor refinishing and a few minor repairs. Amy was front and center helping with organizing vendors, timelines and even offered to help us do some of the cleaning herself (which we did not take her up on but the offer was still sweet and genuine). She also organized our inspections while keeping all things above board and legitimate to make sure all parties were being taken care of. She would check in on timelines and even helped us adjust one week later as one of our vendors took a little longer than we hoped. Our home that she helped us sell was not in an incredibly desirable area of the East Bay. Making this home attractive to buyers was critical and Amy and her team helped make it as good as it could possibly be. Most homes in this zip code take longer to sell but after less than two weeks she was able to get us a great deal that met our expectations and even beyond. Something that should not be overlooked is that I can sometimes be a pain to work with. While never disrespectful of anything like that I definitely have my opinions and in fairness they are usually based in research and data. I can be stubborn about my perspective and Amy did a great job working with me, making me feel heard and helping us find the best price point and strategy with going to market. In the last year between our own house hunting and my friends house hunting I have been to over 80 showings. I can honestly say that the little details that Amy added to our showings were above and beyond ANYTHING I saw elsewhere. Her and her team were just fantastic! If you get Amy working on your side you are lucky. It's that simple. She's a great person and will work harder than anyone to make you realize your real estate goal to the fullest potential. Please contact me if you want more detail because I know she's going to be the person that you want on your side. read more

We are so glad our paths crossed with Amy. She is a knowledgeable and caring Realestate agent that goes above and beyond to make sure her clients achieve their goals. Our journey in finding our new home took more than a year but Amy patiently worked with us to identify our needs and going after them. With research and preparations she helped us list and sell our home above asking price in a short period of time. She was extremely efficient, resourceful and effective in executing the plan while staying calm and poised during the process. We can not recommend Amy enough. She is caring and yet data driven. She is knowledgeable and uses real time facts to help you make the right decision. Thank you Amy for your guidance and teamwork in helping us sell and buy our new home. read more

Amy was referred to me by my good friend, and I'm so glad we decided to work with Amy and her team. My fiancé and I had originally connected with Amy to buy our first home together, but with our upcoming wedding and hectic schedule these past few months, we decided to postpone our search and pivoted to selling my condo first. Amy was extremely patient as my fiancé and I went through the ups and downs of making this important decision for ourselves. Once we decided to move forward with selling my condo, it was all hands on-deck. Amy provided us with so much support and guidance throughout the entire process, from prepping our condo for listing, scheduling (and rescheduling) repairs and appointments with the staging company, setting up off-market showing appointments, navigating negotiations with buyers, and even referring us to movers - she really went above and beyond. Amy is very responsive and efficient, and she answered all our questions thoroughly and transparently. She always made us feel like her top priority, and we felt very lucky to be partnered with someone so knowledgable. We ended up selling our condo for above the goal price we had initially hoped for, after just 3 days of off-market showings! We truly couldn't have done it without Amy, and I whole-heartedly recommend her to anybody who is looking to sell or buy a home. read more

Some reviews are not exciting to write but reviewing Amy and her stellar service is one that makes me happy to be a Yelper that gets to share my point of view with the world! My husband and I decided to buy a home during the pandemic craze in the East Bay Area. We interviewed realtors and there were a couple of things that just stuck out and made Amy the most logical and best choice for us: 1) Preparation! Amy showed up to our intro meeting with passion, energy and excitement for the journey she would join us on. 2) Straightforward: She told us like it is in this hot market and asked if we really knew what it took to win. We sure know now thanks to Amy! 3) Multi-faceted strategy: She outlined the various components of our home search and purchasing strategy that helped us feel like we would be in good hands at every step. We talked to Amy the next day and that sealed our business relationship as well as a friendship moving forward and we could not be happier with the decision! The process started by really diving deep into our likes, dislikes, must-haves and deal breakers. Making us write these things out help us to narrow our focus. I would also like to mention that we had a top 3 in terms of location but also had a couple of cities we were not sure about. Amy did not care that there were many locations and reinforced to us that every home visit was a learning experience that would help us get to our end goal. She was right. She carved out time to take us to every home we were interested in and asked probing questions during home tours to help us focus in on what we really wanted. That process lead us to our hopefully forever home- combining our must-haves, likes and long term goals. She reminded us "You can't change the lot and you can't change the location, but you can remodel." This reinforcement helped us not to compromise on our must-haves in terms of lot size and where we wanted to live. Amy checked in through text, calendar invites and email. She knows what type of way to communicate given the information she is going to convey and she communicated every step of the way. This was very important to us as we would rather have all of the knowledge to make an informed decision and hate having to prompt someone for that information. She always told us what we needed to know before each step as well as during each step of the process. Amy's strategic negotiation skills helped us win the home of our dreams and we were not the highest offer. Her attention to detail and business savvy make her clients win in this ultra-competitive market. Sometimes I am in a meeting at work and wish I could send Amy in to close the deal for me, that is how much I appreciate her winning style If you are looking for a realtor that will put you and your priorities first, give you realistic expectations of your situation and the market as well as take a business & human approach to your transaction, you will not be disappointed with Amy! I highly recommend her to anyone looking to purchase or sell a home. You might also make a friend in the process that will send you photos and videos that were made along the way, making the process fun as well as successful. read more

We contacted Amy for a sales consultation and was immediately floored by her professionalism, knowledge, and presence. Selling one's home is like a walk on a very long and winding path, riddled with pot holes and dead ends. Luckily we had Amy and her fantastic team to guide us through. We had a very limited schedule as we needed to sell our house in order to purchase another out-of-state. There were several stressful hurdles early in the process, and just when we felt we were in over our heads, Amy stepped in provided guidance to the point where we just trusted her advice without question. She fought for us and at the end of it all, Amy and the Yao Group team made it happen...$300K+ over asking! I would recommend Amy Yao to my closest friends and family without hesitation. 5 stars! read more

My husband and I are young, first time home buyers and we were extremely nervous about finding and being able to secure a home in the competitive Bay Area market. Knowing nothing about buying a house, Amy guided us through the entire process and gave us so much clarity it felt like a walk in the park. We cannot express how LUCKY we felt to have found Amy and her group. Not only is she a great teacher with a positive and understanding approach to her work, but her dedication and skill is absolutely unmatched. She was able to get us our dream home at a great price in under a week, something we thought it would take months! She worked from early the morning to late at night to ensure we were in the perfect position to buy something we loved, I'm not exaggerating when I say she was there for us any moment of the day. I could go on forever, but I'll end here by saying that Amy deserves all the praise in the world and if I could give her more than 5 stars I would. Thank you so much, Amy! - Johnny & Vanessa read more

My wife and I are first-time home buyers, and we would not be where we are now without Amy Yao's help! She made the entire process of buying a home in the bay area as clear and painless as possible. She explained all the paperwork, terms, lingo, and what to look for in a disclosure package. On top of that, her expert negotiation skills helped us defeat two other offers that were much higher than ours! I couldn't believe it! So if you're serious about buying a home in this competitive bay area market, you need to have a serious realtor like Amy on your side. read more

The best real estate Agent we could ask for!!! She is always on top of the process, always available when you need her and she is very very resourceful! She has best team of people around her that get things done and on time! read more

Words cannot describe how competent and reliable Amy is as a real estate agent and a friend, though I do know that calling her amazing is an understatement. As a first time buyer, Amy walked me through every step of the house hunting and buying process patiently. To give an example, she stayed on the phone for 2-3 hours to teach me how to read a property disclosure and highlighted any concerning points throughout. That kind of effort cannot go unnoticed and should be rewarded. Amy also responded to all of my questions no matter what time of the day it was, and I never had any concerns unaddressed. I had a dream to buy a beautiful house at the age of 25, and Amy made it come true. read more

The Yao Group - Real Estate Services Near Me - San Jose, California

Writing a review for Amy is very difficult, because a review can not describe how thankful we are for Amy! She is truly a real estate super star! We are first time home buyers and met Amy at a random open house back in the Fall of 2019. We had met a few real estate agents but every time we met with them, either at an open house or in person we felt like something wasn't right. It felt like they just wanted us to find our house, tell them how much we wanted it for and then use their paperwork to submit an offer so they could make a commision. That was the complete opposite with Amy! After meeting her at an open house she invited us to come to her office. As first time home buyers we didn't know much about the home process. She met with us for a few hours and took us through everything we needed to know, answering all our questions and making us feel so much more comfortable with the process. At the time, we were not really sure if we wanted a move-in ready house or a fixer upper. Amy didn't care that we couldn't make up our minds, she was there to answer all our questions no matter the circumstance or house we were looking at. One of our favorite stories when working with Amy was at the beginning of our search. We found a fixer upper we were really interested in. Amy met us at the house before work (7am) and by the next day had a general contractor meet with us at the house again, so we could strategize our offer and next steps. She was quick, and was willing to help in any way. We didn't have a general contractor or especially one that would meet us at a house on such short notice, but Amy did! This is just one of the many examples of how Amy went above and beyond for us. Amy is well known and well liked in the real estate community which we didn't know was so important until going through this process. Amy taught us the ins and outs of real estate as we looked at multiple houses from November 2019-March 2020. She taught us how to stand out from the crowd in a competitive market! We finally found our dream home in March 2020. We called Amy after seeing the house at a Sunday Open House. She came with us to see the house again the following morning (before the sunrise). We decided we wanted to put an offer on the house. (our second official offer) She put together a strategy for us for the negotiation and she executed beautifully. Once our offer was accepted Amy didn't stop there. She was not only our real estate agent but also our therapist. Never did we know buying a house could be so stressful but Amy was there to help every step of the way. A week after our offer was accepted the Covid-19 stay at home order was established. Amy didn't fret and kept us in good spirits. She made sure everything was in order, answering all our questions about the real estate, loan process and escrow process. Even when she was not the expert in something, she still gave us the best advice she could, or in some cases even talked us off a ledge. No matter the time of day she was there to help. We knew we weren't her only clients, but man did we feel that way! Without her we don't think we could have made it through! Even after finalizing the paperwork for the house, Amy checked up on us to make sure everything was ok and we were happy. Due to social distancing regulations she sadly couldn't be with us for our walk through or the day we got our keys but she has been there via video calls, texts etc. Amy is amazing and we truly can't express in words how thankful we are for having her on our side! read more

See all

It was an honor to watch Amy work. We were real estate Gypsies that never used the same agent in our last 7 RE transactions. Now she's converted us into believers and we wish we had more houses for her to sell. Our times together were short and sweet. She is highly efficient. She turned our house around and put it on the market 10 days after we moved out, by doing so we were able to catch the most optimal buying window. Our home was sold quickly and the sold price was higher than other homes in the neighborhood during one of lowest market times. We were thrilled. She presented to us her innovative marketing strategies to increase exposure and drive the highest number of offers. But it wasn't until we saw her actual executions, which went above and beyond any glorious picture she could've painted, that we saw she was the real deal. Her words were beautiful but her actions lived up to every single promise and then some. Setting the list price was a data driven science and her methodical approach made us feel reassured and well informed. She diligently provided market updates at all the right times, we felt comfortable with her realistic and yet positive take. She was pleasant and efficient with communicating the progress in all the moving parts, checking in often to provide support to us. We were fortunate to have met her. We wholeheartedly recommend her to anyone during this most stressful and exciting time of your life; she's a teammate that will always have your back. read more

We met Amy at an open house and took a chance with her. She was more than what we expected from an agent even after we closed on the house. She goes abive and beyond her job and ensures that you are not only happy with your purchase but ensures that you have everything you need. From a plumber, gardener, engineer, and anything you can think of. And everyone we worked with through her recommendations were top notch. I would definitely recommend her to anyone looking for a house read more

The Yao Group - Real Estate Services Near Me - San Jose, California

I just can't find the right words, but Amy was my angel, making my dream come true. We came here as immigrants with my parents, and my Dad always wanted me to be a homeowner. Owning a home in the Bay area seemed impossible for us. But when I started working with Amy and shared the story of my late father and how I felt about the house, she made it happen for us. She went above and beyond to ensure the closing went smoothly. There was a lot of negotiation with the seller, and she made sure we won the house. I'm incredibly grateful for working with Amy; I feel like fate brought her to me to help fulfill my dream. read more

I have the good fortune to work with Amy and Walter. I have personally witnessed how they treat their clients and seen how happy their clients are. You simply can't go wrong with the service that the Yao Group provides. Ritz Carlton service at it's best! read more

Amy is so unbelievably knowledgeable when it comes to her craft. I'd worked with multiple realtors before being referred to Amy, and the difference was like night and day. Communication is very important to Amy, so she checked in daily with us and updated us the minute she found out something new. We got the house we really wanted and we weren't the highest bidder! I truly cannot say enough wonderful things about my experience with her and I've already referred her to so many of my coworkers. read more

My family and I had recently moved to San Diego from San Jose. We still had our property up in San Jose that we owned and being so far away, we wanted to make sure we had the best representation. Amy Yao was more than we could ask for. She is dedicated, knowledgeable and negotiates hard. Amy handled everything from upgrades, fixes, inspections, to get the home ready for sale. We knew we were in good hands. When we received offers for our home, Amy walked us thru making the right decision by providing her insight on the San Jose market, which was extremely valuable. Did I mention she's a tough negotiator! I highly recommend Amy as a your seller or buyer realtor. She is 100% vested in you and your needs. read more

Walter with was amazing to be connected and work with as a first time home buyers.He displayed in-depth knowledge of the local market and trends, offering useful insights and help throughout the process. He constantly kept us updated and addressed any concerns swiftly. He was also extremely organized and efficient, making the buying process easy and stress-free. His expertise, devotion, and real effort to obtaining the best possible offer for us pleased us. I wholeheartedly suggest Walter to anyone in need of competent real estate assistance. read more

We really enjoyed working with Amy for a local buy/sell. She has deep knowledge of the Bay Area and provided invaluable assistance navigating the real estate process. read more

Recently bought a house from this agent and she and the contractor team she hired are a master in hiding all the serious issues from the inspections. To name a few we discovered: 1. Water leak in the bathroom was claimed to be fixed and all the damages were repaired. However when we moved in we found out that all the mold was simply covered with a plywood so we had to remove the wood to clean the wall ourselves. 2. Apparently paint over termite droppings is an effective way to escape termite inspections. We ended up replacing all the sidings and the inspector we hired was also appalled by how she managed to hide all the signs. 3. Door trims were poorly painted. Amy and her team used water based paint over oil based paint and the paint chipped and peeled off on almost every door. 3. Bathroom floor was revamped with laminated floor, cool, but with no baseboard beneath it and no waterproofing whatsoever. Another masterpiece from Amy and her cohort. After all Amy will be a great agent to work with if you are the seller of the house, I highly recommend her to you if you care about profit over integrity. BUT- If you are a buyer, DO NOT BUY HOUSES FROM HER. I doubt that this lady has any integrity and I have shelled out 10s of thousands of dollars just to repair what she and her workers did. read more

Amy is a wonderful agent, absolutely. She gets things done and knows the way to people's hearts because she pays attention and actively listens. We bought a house with a rose garden but had never taken care of roses before. Upon learning about our difficulty, Amy sent us a guide book. This is merely a small example. Furthermore, she has connections with various types of house care personnel and ensures her assistance does not end after the house purchase. We're fortunate to met Amy! read more

We recommend Amy especially for first-time home buyers. We met Amy at an open house and talked for a bit. (I worked with Amy when she worked in the tech-sector. In the tech sector, Amy was a go-getter and always able to get things done quickly and efficiently.) She brought those skills to real estate. Amy used those skills as she helped us look for homes, as well as during the negotiation of our property. Amy is well connected with professionals regarding all things related to homes. She referred us to a couple loan consultants who worked for the large banks. The person who we chose to go with was excellent and able to close on time. She and her team are high-quality professionals and will work for you. Amy will walk through you on a winning-strategy for winning the home. She will walk through how to read the home documents and will work with you late into the evening to work on strategies for homes that you've selected. Amy will stay with you from the beginning to the end of the home purchasing process. The day we had placed our bid, Amy texted and called us throughout that day to keep us updated with the negotiations. Amy has kept in touch with us since the close of the home and we've appreciated all the help she's given to us. We had such a wonderful and enjoyable experience and recommend Amy to anyone who is looking for a home. read more

Amy is miles away *the* best real estate agent in the bay area. I went through 6 agents over the course of 2 years -- not to mention, several of them had incredibly high reviews here on Yelp -- before I was introduced to Amy from an agent in Los Angeles who had said she was one of the best agents in the Bay Area. With that, I set up a 2 hour appointment at her office. We went over every single detail of the house-buying process including her signature 'secret recipe' that she's touted as having a 100% success rate. Of course I was skeptical (spoiler alert: I got the first house I went in on). But what was apparent to me during this meeting was that she had a superb work ethic and care for all minute details of the buying process making sure I understood every step, even going over how to avoid common pitfalls that other highly rated agents I found on Yelp actually fell for! My skepticism quickly turned into being sold on the spot. She made me feel comfortable and more than just a client. By the end of it, she wanted to make it clear that it was okay to talk with her about anything about the house-buying process and thereafter. This would play a huge part later during the house-buying and even after. Now at this point, typically many agents will take you on full afternoon trips to see a multitude of houses that they think you should see. Amy found it a much better use of both our times to have me first look at houses online through a Zillow/Redfin-like site she provided. This site also provided a way to communicate what we liked and didn't like about a house and used our feedback to match us with the perfect house. Once we found a house we liked, we would then communicate that to her so she could schedule a walk through of the house. This actually saved me a lot of headache because I never felt pressured to have to take off weekends or work hours to go see houses. I've seen some agents take me to houses where they will start with the worst house on their list and slowly work their way up to the 'grand finale' by ending with the best house just to play it up. Maybe that wasn't their intention but it definitely felt like that at times. This wasn't the case with Amy, of course. After a couple weeks, I ended up finding a house I loved and Amy immediately sprung into action. We were constantly in communication over calls, texts, and emails. She's very quick to respond and was very meticulous in making sure we were getting everything just right as we were deploying her 'secret recipe'. I went through a couple failed buying processes in the past with a couple of agents, but I was not expecting the kind of work ethic that I got from Amy. She was in full contact with every single person involved from the lending agent, seller's agent, myself and orchestrating all aspects of the buying process. She made sure that every piece of the recipe was carried out in perfect fashion and always extended any way she could help if I had other things I needed to tend to. Amy was there during every step to make it all happen and it felt really good to be working with someone who felt like they cared! By the end of it all, I had acquired my first home and for a price lower than listing to boot! Even after all of this, Amy was still in full contact with me to make sure I would be happy with my home. She had a plethora of contacts for movers, contractors, you name it. To this day, she still checks in to make sure how we're doing and if we still need anything from her. We're actually currently working with her now to discuss how we'll be going about future renovations for our place which I never thought I'd be excited for...I can only guess that's Amy's witchcraft at work. Without a doubt in my mind, Amy is -- in every way -- a 10+ star real estate agent. I can't think of enough positive adjectives for her -- she's honest, meticulous, dogged, friendly, responsive -- she's everything you'd want from an amazing real estate agent. I'll just take a quote from a recent text that I think sums up everything I've written above, "I want you to be happy with your new home -- don't worry, I got you covered". read more

What can I say? Amy s amazingly talented at what she does. She listens to you, clarifies things, and keeps reevaluating to ensure that what you are looking for in a home is available for you to view. She worked tirelessly with me and for me to get the condo I always wanted. Those are a few of the many reasons I would have no reservation to refer my friends to Amy for their real estate needs. read more

We love Amy so much, and she is absolutely the top agent in the Bay Area, and we have a lot of reasons to say that. First, she is an agent who is really patient and very willing to spending time helping her costumers to get their dream house. For instance, she has set up several study sessions with us to patiently teach us how to read seller's disclosures and find the key points in the most time-efficient way. We have learned so much from her in the process of purchasing our house. Secondly, she is super efficient and professional. Whenever we requested to view certain properties, she would arrange the showing as soon as possible, a lot of the times even on the same day, and I remembered that we viewed nine properties within one day. Her efficiency and professionalism were also embodied in the process of the submission of the offer. She was so quick in preparing for the offer and submitting it, at the same time got the offer done in such a professional way, to make sure that our offer was accepted by the sellers successfully on the first try. Thirdly, Amy has superb communication skills and she helped us negotiate the price very successfully. When our house was in escrow, Amy communicated with all the parties almost on daily basis to ensure that everything is in place and the transaction went smoothly. Thanks to Amy's efforts, our house closed right on time within 30 days. Last but not the least, Amy is such a great friend, and she still checks on us from time to time after our house closed escrow, and asked us if we need anything that she could help. We are so grateful to have Amy guide and help us along the way when we purchased the house and have such a wonderful life-long friend. We recommend Amy whole-heartedly to anyone who wants to get their dream house in the Bay Area. Thank you so much, Amy, our dear friend. read more

We found Amy on MLS website when we first decided to buy a home in Los Gatos downtown area, it was a good choice and very pleasant experience. Whenever we have any question, Amy is always responsive and able to explaining things in an easy clear way. She has tons of knowledge in this real estate area and is very good at negotiation. During the house search and offer bidding, Amy always comes up with the good suggestion but never pushes us to make any decision that we are not comfortable with, she really respect our choice. After 5 months search, (yes it's a long term cooperation) finally we found the home meets all of our prioritized requirements within our budget. Thanks for Amy's patience and help, will definitively recommend Amy to our friends who has real estate needs. read more

I met Amy as a real estate agent and she became much more than just an agent on our way of house search! She became a caring, attentive friend, while staying knowledgable real estate agent, who is always there for you and puts her clients interest above all! I am more than grateful fro her patience, readiness to help and be just on top and ahead in the crazy world of Bay Area real estate! Thank you so so much on behalf of all our Family for all the help! read more

Amy Yao is a great agent for both beginner and experienced buyers! My wife and I were first time home buyers not knowing anything about what to do or how to go about looking to buy a house. Compared to the other new customer presentations, Amy's by far impressed us the most. What stood out about her presentation was that like every other realtor, they always say they will get your dream house under list price, but Amy provided a detailed plan of how to do that. My wife and I are pretty meticulous when it came to the questions, and Amy always either had a very definitive answer or she would go find out for us. The process of looking at homes, she made herself available on a moment's notice. When we found the house that we wanted, her plan definitely worked because we were able to get our offered accepted at the lowest bid. Her communication with us on the negotiations were real time and allowed us to make well informed decisions in a short amount of time. During the entire buying process, we felt like we were able to put 100% of our trust with her because she really worked for us. We are ecstatic that we won the house we wanted and would highly recommend Amy in the future. We will definitely be using her again with any future purchase or sale! read more