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3815 Leland St.
Chevy Chase, MD 20815
March
29, 2006
Ms.
Ruth Dickie
Long and Foster Real Estate
4650 East West Highway
Bethesda, MD 20814
Re:
Ms. Rebecca Williams
Dear
Ms. Dickie:
Ms.
Rebecca Williams represented us in our recent home sale. We
chose her because she sold us this house 13 years ago when
we moved here and we liked what we saw. We have referred
many, many colleagues to her when they moved into town.
This
home sale was a difficult period, made stressful by our
relocating, the softening in prices in the local market, and
our trying to find another place to live in San Francisco (a
very competitive and expensive market). We also have a dog
and Rebecca had to work around showing the house with the
dog in place. My wife and I can state unequivocally that
Rebecca performed superbly. She was attuned to our needs in
a very broad sense, including the legalities of the home
sale, the psychological aspects of what we were
experiencing, and the human subtleties of pricing, showing,
and closing. She is the consummate professional who deals
with people in a way that is direct without being overly
blunt, down-to-earth without being folksy, subtle without
being insincere, and knowledgeable without being
patronizing. There were many times during this period that
my wife and I just looked at each other and repeated, in
unison, “Boy, am I glad Rebecca is on our side”. I just
don’t think anyone could do what she does better than she
does it. I wish we could have cloned her and had her help us
find a new place in San Francisco!
Sincerely,
Robert L. Nussbaum
Clifton & Brenda Henry
9524 Linden Avenue
Bethesda, Maryland 20814
May
5, 2006
Mr.
Wesley Foster
Chairman of the Board and CEO
Long and Foster Realtors
11351
Random Hills Road
Fairfax, Virginia
22030
Dear
Mr.
Foster;
I am writing
to let you
know that your company
will
continue to
be successful as long as
your company can keep
agents that
meet the
performance
standards set
by Rebecca Williams
of your Bethesda Gateway Office.
We almost did not select Long and Foster to represent us
in the sale of our home because we had heard rumors of
potential ethical problems with some agents. That
would
have
been a big
mistake.
Rebecca
Williams was the consummate professional. Early on, and
before she got the listing, she spent time with my wife
making very constructive suggestions as to how she could
best prepare the house for showing. She was firm yet
diplomatic about what really needed to be done to
maximize the sales opportunity. Shó was just as clear
about things that we did not need to do; thereby saving
costs.
We interviewed Rebecca after interviewing two other
agents from other companies. One had just sold a house
for our daughter and found her a new house to buy. We
liked her a lot; but we still choose Rebecca because of
her knowledge of the market, business knowledge and
manner, and our belief that she would do what she said
she would do.
We were not
disappointed. We did our part, which was to do whatever
Rebecca told us to do. Rebecca did her part. She kept
her eye on the market consulting with us on the list
price on several occasions before it was listed so as to
assure maximum exposure of the property and at least get
it sold in a market that was rapidly softening; she and
her support group put together a first class internet
showing of the property; and she got the word.out for
the Open House which resulted in (we are told) more than
60 people coming through the house between 1:00-4:00 pm
on a cold windy Sunday afternoon.
Rebecca told my
wife that her first goal was to make sure that enough people
saw the house. God knows people did.
The house sold
in six days from listing in a market going soft. We have
been looking and it seems as though no similar properties
have sold. Now comes the good part. We know that Rebecca had
to work hard to go through all of the offers, evaluate them,
negotiate with buyer’s agents and be prepared to present
them to us in essentially one and one-half days after the
Open House. She was up to the task.
When we arrived
at your office in downtown Bethesda, Rebecca had everything
organized and ready to present She carefully went through
the strong and weak points of the strongest offers and gave
us ample opportunity to weigh them. As a part of the process
she had to address several ethical issues on which she was
totally transparent
We finally
selected an offer that was $56,500 more than
the asking price for our property. Some say we were lucky
given current market conditions but we say that this
achievement was not luck. While it is true that the buyer
just happen to be in the market needing our location at that
time, one can not ignore the fact that there were other
houses on the market and that we had at least six legitimate
offers that far exceeded our asking price. This was the
result of good professional hard work.
I don’t know
what it takes to keep an agent like Rebecca, but this is one
that you should make sure never gets away. We sure will be
recommending her to all of our friends in the Bethesda area
when they have a need for her services.
Sincerely,
Clifton W. Henry
John
J. Buckley III, Successor Trustee John J. Buckley, Jr.
Living Trust
3915 Downs Drive
Chantilly, VA 20151
703-222-0343(11)
703-899-4052(C)buck1eyj@jbuckley.com
March 9,
2005
Mr. Wesley
Foster
Chairman of the Board and CEO
Long & Foster Realtors
11351 Random Hills Rd.
Fairfax, VA 22030
VIA FEDERAL EXPRESS
RE: Rebecca Williams of the Bethesda Gateway Office
Dear Mr. Foster:
I am
writing to let you know how very pleased my family is
with the superior level of service we recently received
from Rebecca Williams of your Bethesda Gateway office in
selling my deceased father’s home (6203 Adelaide Dr. in
Bethesda).
This was
not an ordinary, run-of-the-mill sale. Although I am the
sole Trustee, I have four younger brothers and sisters -
some of whom surprisingly became real estate “experts”
after my father’s death. Two of them conducted their own
market analysis and then submitted an offer on the home
that was 6 percent less than their estimated value. That
created a lot of anger with other siblings, who were
upset that they would even consider enlarging the home
to further profit from it. So, when that approach didn’t
work, the two who had made an offer decided we should
sell it as a FSBO. One of them did a great deal of
research, and was convinced that was the way to go.
While all of this was going on, I was in the process of
interviewing several realtors (some from Long & Foster,
some from Weichert, and one from ReMax).
I was very
impressed with Rebecca, and especially with her very
sound business reasoning as to why we should not sell
the house as a FSBO. She explained how we probably would
be unable to create the same level of “momentum” as she
could, how we could probably not generate as much
“exposure” as she could, and why it was unlikely that we
would be able to create an environment that would
produce multiple offers.
I
convinced my skeptical siblings that we should hire
Rebecca, and they reluctantly agreed. But they were
still skeptical.
I explained
to Rebecca that she was walking into an emotionally
charged environment that included hard feelings, divided
family factions, and skepticism of her. Given that, I
told her I wouldn’t blame her if “she headed for the
hills” and chose not to represent us. She explained to
me that she had worked through these types of family
issues before, and would love to represent us.
We hired
her, and each and every one of us is now very happy we
did.
Rebecca
provided us with superb service. She 1) helped us with
issues regarding getting the house ready for sale; 2)
referred us to an excellent structural engineer; 3) was
masterful in handling the family issues, and one
skeptical sibling in particular; 4) kept me informed
each day of what she was doing, and was always available
when I had questions; 5) generated a lot of momentum and
exposure, just like she said she would; and 6) got
multiple offers.
She worked extremely well with the two agents whose
clients made offers, and even had to spend hours
educating each of them on how to “clean up” their
contracts. She also negotiated extremely well with both
of them, and expressed her discomfort with the ultimate
buyer’s “walk-away home inspection” contingency (which
that buyer not only later removed, but at the same time
increased their offer by $5,000).
Perhaps the ultimate compliment regarding Rebecca came
yesterday afternoon from my once skeptical brother as we
left your Bethesda Gateway office after ratifying the
contract. His comment to me was “Wow
-
that woman really knows her
stuff!
I’d definitely hire her again!”
Rebecca
sold our property for $35,100 above the asking price
(+6%). The true financial value of having her represent
us, though, is the bottom line to my family. After
paying both broker’s commissions
and
our share of the transfer tax, we will walk away
with $36,800 more than we would have with the original
family offer. And I’m sure that figure would be
considerably higher had we decided to go it alone as
FSBOs. In short, Rebecca proved to all the real value of
working with a top-notch realtor. I am absolutely
convinced that FSBOs who think they are saving a lot of
money (i.e. no real estate commission) by going it alone
are actually losing a lot of money without even
realizing it.
In closing,
I would like to stress again how very pleased we are
with the superb service and value that Rebecca Williams
provided our family. We are very grateful, and couldn’t
be happier with the end result!
9601 Wadsworth Drive
Bethesda, Maryland
December 9, 2004
Long & Foster Real Estate
4650 East West Highway
Bethesda, Maryland
Dear Rebecca:
We wish to express our appreciation
for your assistance in the sale of 11005 Candelight Lane in
Potomac, Maryland. Your professionalism and competence were
most reassuring. You furnished us comparable sales in the
area, suggested a reasonable price and made suggestions for
modest improvements that would make the property more
appealing.
Mr. Thompson was a "find" in
carrying out some of the improvements.
Sharon Dean was most satisfactory
in conducting the Estate Sale. That is a labor intensive
exercise and Sharon was unflappable.
Your presence at the "closing" was
very helpful.
We wish you every success in your
continued endeavors in the real estate market and may you
and your family have a joyful Christmas.
Sincerely,
Edward and Barbara Barnes
THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI MEDICAL CENTER
2500 North State Street
JACKSON,
MISSISSIPPI 39216-4505
School
of
Nursing
Area Code 601
984~6200
September
27, 2002
Rebecca Williams
Long & Foster Realtors
4650 East West Highway
Bethesda, MD 20814
Dear
Rebecca,
John
and I both want to thank you for all of the outstanding
expert
assistance you gave
us on the sale of our house in Bethesda, Maryland. We
were both very impressed with the high degree of
professionalism you initiated and maintained throughout
the process of marketing, selling, and closing on our
house. Your initial presentation and overview of the
Bethesda market clearly outlined what we could
reasonably expect. We also want to thank you for the
prompt and straightforward communication you maintained
with us throughout the process.
Your
assessment of the market and timing associated with the
pricing of our house was clearly a factor in being able
to obtain an offer and execute a sale. In addition,
because our house had studio space, your expertise in
understanding how to market our house was even more
important in being able to identify a buyer. We both
thank our lucky stars that you worked with us, even when
there were some unexpected issues that arose as we
worked through the contracting process. At each juncture
you kept us on track with the required steps and clearly
communicated the expectations that we needed to fulfill.
Your expert guidance insured that things went as
smoothly as possible for us.
In an age
when the word “Professional” is often used in a very
loose fashion and all too often not deserved, you are
among those rare individuals who clearly meets and
exceeds the meaning of the word “Professional.” Both of
the recommendations we received from our neighbors were
more than well deserved.
Again, many
thanks for working with us. We simply could not have
done this without you. Both John and I sincerely
appreciate all of your hard work and effort on our
behalf
With best
regards,
Annette B.
Wysocki, PhD
Professor
4615 North Park
Avenue Apt 220
Chevy Chase, Maryland, 20815
September 28,
1999
Mr. P. Wesley
Foster Jr.
Long and Foster Realtors
5th Floor
11351 Random Hill Road
Fairfax, Virginia, 22030
Subject: Letter
of Commendation, Rebecca Williams
Dear Sir,
I would like most highly to commend Ms. Rebecca Williams, of
Long and
Foster Realtors,
for the perfect way in which she shepherded the sale of my
home.
Rebecca Williams went the extra mile.
Her approach and procedure were expertly professional in
keeping with the highest traditions of the real estate
industry.
I shall always be appreciative of your agency’s competence,
and I shall gladly recommend Rebecca to my friends and
acquaintances.
Sincerely,
Anne E. Geiger
546 Russell Avenue
Gaithersburg
MD 20877
Mr. Wes Foster
Long and Foster Real Estate
11351 Random Hills Road
Fairfax, VA 22030
Dear Mr. Foster:
I would like you to know of the splendid service my wife and
I received from your agent Rebecca Williams, of the
Bethesda/Hampden Square office, on the sale of our house at
8304 Melody Court, Bethesda, for which the closing took
place on August 24. She was indefatigable in her work on
our
behalf, explained fully to us the various
processes involved in selling, looked after our interests
very well, and was a wonderful morale booster throughout an
anxious time. She gave us valuable advice on what we should
do to prepare the house for sale, and she left us in no
doubt of the necessity to be realistic in setting the price
at a bad period for house sales. Thanks to her efforts the
house was placed under contract just eight days after going
on the market.
It was a pleasure from start to
finish to work with Rebecca and we congratulate you in
having an agent of her calibre.
Yours
sincerely,
Reginald Westlake
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