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Jan Mikus, Buyer and Seller

Posted by Johnine Larsen on June 29, 2020
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We’re happy to have moved to a smaller community (Anacortes), but miss our friends in Seattle! Over many years (and multiple real estate transactions) Johnine, Gayle, and Scott became that for us. We can’t count the hours of conversation, advice (and sometimes hand-holding!) they gave us thru some of those adventures. The thing that stands out for us, though, is the integrity underlying interactions with anyone from this group—that, and their deep knowledge of the market(s), and how to get what you need in transacting real estate—these people are a special resource. We LOVED working with them.

 

–Jan Mikus, 2020

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    Michael Ryan
    Michael Ryan
    19:04 10 Oct 22
    We had a fantastic experience working with the Real Estate Gals to buy our first home in Seattle! Johnine and Tonya met with us before the pandemic and remained super patient and helpful with us as we went hot/cold on whether or not to buy *several times* over the past few years. When we finally... found the home we eventually bought, Tonya's help, advice, and feedback were all invaluable to us. She was also super responsive to calls and texts, and was just great to work with in general! Hopefully we won't be looking for a new house again soon, but we will absolutely go back to the Real Estate Gals when we do!read more
    Kathy Sullivan
    Kathy Sullivan
    19:03 27 Sep 22
    Johnine, Tonya and Scott have seen us through 4 houses and were with us every step of the way. I can't say enough about their professionalism, expertise and kindness in dealing with us for the last 27 years!
    Simon Ninon
    Simon Ninon
    03:23 23 Sep 22
    Unfortunately, my wife and I had a bad experience with Johnine.We were FTHB in WS. Our search was fast (under contract within 2 weeks, involving only 2 visits with Johnine, and 4 with Tonya as we did a lot of open-houses on our own). We were on top of everything and had an excellent lender (Ryan... Maxwell from Homestreet) allowing us to close 3 weeks later.We reached out to this agency after having a mediocre experience with Redfin. Given their stellar rating, we were expecting to be more lucky with Johnine and her team.After an initial meeting with Johnine, we had some trial visits with Tonya over one evening, and it was excellent. Tonya was scouting the different homes, taking the time to discuss with us, and sounded very knowledgeable. We really enjoyed our experience and were looking forward to keep working with her.After these visits, we only got to interact with Johnine.To say that Johnine lacked professionalism or represents too many people is an understatement.We only had 2 visits scheduled with her, and she had been significantly late for both (15-30 minutes), even though she is the one that set the time. Both time was because she was touring homes with another customer on the other side of Seattle and couldn’t make it on time for our visits.This was mildly annoying, but the second property was one we wanted to put an offer on, so we stayed put.Then, things turned chaotic. As we signified interest in putting an offer on that second property, it was a nightmare to schedule a time to meet with Johnine. The offer deadline was on a Monday, but Johnine could only meet us on the Sunday before. She had to reschedule that meeting 3 times, even though she was the one setting the time every single time.During that meeting, Johnine did not remember the offer Deadline correctly and thought it was on Tuesday. If I didn’t bring it up, Johnine was only planning to work on drafting the offer the following day and might have missed the offer.After our offer was accepted, communication became really abysmal. As a FTHB, I do not expect to be baby-sitted, but I was hopping that Johnine would at least detail us what to expect and when. However, she took the fact that we were on top of things as an excuse to not do anything than the bare minimum. This caused unnecessary stress on our end as we were trying to figure out stuff completely on our own. All we had from Johnine for the following 3 weeks was a brief “next step” email with poorly worded shallow details on what to expect, and barely understandable instructions regarding utilities. That’s it. Even at open-houses, listing agents distribute printed PDF with more useful information than what Johnine provided us.At no point did Johnine mention anything regarding a final walkthrough that we had to schedule ourselves and that we didn’t even do with her.The ice on the cake was closing day, where we had literally no idea what to expect the day of.Johnine was out of town and couldn’t get the key for us, so Tonya was scheduled to do it for us and meet with us the following day.But the day of, Tonya informed us BY EMAIL that she couldn’t make it, and that the seller’s agent left our home key under a rock in the garden for us to pick up anytime.Neither Johnine nor Tonya tried to arrange for another agent/staff to pick up the key for us to make sure that we were able to enter our property. They did not even bother calling us to check what was the best option for us or apologize for the inconvenience.I had to interrupt my work day in panic to go figure out what rock was the correct one and pick up the key.Johnine received a $27,000 commission out of that purchase where I felt she did not represent us better than a Redfin agent and put no effort to represent us at any step of the process. Beware.read more
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    Louisa Helms
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    Kyle McDermott
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    23:36 23 Dec 21
    We sold our home and bought a new one in Seattle with Johnine and Tonya. Both were incredible and we'd highly recommend them! SALE: We got multiple offers and Johnine negotiated a great deal for us - dream price!! They had great suggestions for improvements and excellent contractor contacts that... helped us get top dollar! PURCHASE: Tonya had amazing patience as she showed us MANY houses and didn't pressure us to make a hasty decision. She has a great eye for detail and helped us get comfortable with pros & cons for each potential house. In the end, we found a great home in this crazy market and she negotiated a fantastic price for us. Very happy with the entire process!read more
    Lil Be
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    Marian DiPerna, LMP
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    Johannes James
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    21:23 24 Jun 20
    The Real Estate Gals were a great team to have on our [buyers'] side when we purchased a home last year. I have read and strongly disagree with the negative review left below. We worked with both Johnine and Scott, who both expended a lot of effort and time to understand what we were looking for... in a home - which was a challenge due to our multi-family needs with preferences for large scale project space, but close to work in Seattle and in a tight budget. They quickly and accurately gauged what would work for us and helped us sift through the options with frank and straightforward feedback. When the perfect house finally turned up at the end of a long day touring around King County with us, they then burned some serious midnight oil slamming together the aggressive and fast-tracked offer that turned out to be critical for us securing our home. From my perspective, I cannot overstate the value of having a buyer's agent actually care enough to go these extra miles. I wouldn't be writing this from such a perfect home if it weren't for this team. I can only imagine these qualities have made them even better as agents during the pandemic. The Real Estate Gals will always have our gratitude - thanks especially to Johnine and Scott!read more
    Susan Waller
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    20:34 24 Jun 20
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    Virginia Bunker
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    14:08 14 Feb 20
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    linda wright
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    00:45 04 Dec 19
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    Paddy Lazar
    Paddy Lazar
    23:42 03 Dec 19
    I was lucky enough to work with Johnine and her very competent team to sell my home. I have to tell you how easy the entire process was. On her wise suggestion I had my home inspected, as there actually were a number of maintenance items that came up in that inspection and she even arranged to have... all of the repairs completed in a very short time. The only thing I had to do was to let the repair folks in. Then, to my surprise, Johnine , had all the windows and the whole house cleaned before listing it. She then had the house beautifully staged and had the yard cleaned up with even a little landscaping thrown in. The house sold within the week for OVER full price!Everyone I dealt with was always kind, helpful and professional, their communication was exemplary all through the process. I’ve decided to rent for a while but you can be assured that it will be Johnine and her team that I will go back to when ready to purchase a new house. I have sung her praises to all that I know.read more
    soumak ghosh
    soumak ghosh
    00:00 14 Nov 19
    They were representing the seller, and I was the buyer. Very limited communication from the agents. Waited days for a response for any email/text. I would eventually get an answer after multiple follow-ups. Almost cost us the deal.[Update]I have seen all the text/conversations of my agent with... your agency. Regarding the oil tank decommissioning, according to the contract, the tank was to be decommissioned 5 days before closing. When asked about so, 5 days before closing ( for which I have seen the text/email conversations of), you gave my agent very little to no information about it and even said it was on schedule. It was only after my agent called the oil tank decommissioning company herself that we got to know that it was not even scheduled 2 days before closing.Any buyer who was not as intended to buy the property as I was; could have walked away due to breach of contract. We got the final documentation 2 hours before the closing deadline. It was only after I wrote the review that your agents became responsive.read more
    Sarah Donaldson
    Sarah Donaldson
    18:44 18 Jul 19
    Darcie was such a joy to work with. She felt like family during the sale of our house and the search for our new home. We may have found our forever home, but if we ever need a Realtor in future, Darcie from Real Estate Gals will be our first call.
    Brian Heagler
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    16:55 02 Jun 19
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    Anne Slater
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