Testimonials

I could not have selected any agent who was more qualified!

Thank you so very much for working with me on the very (very) successful sale of my home!

While it feels like it all happened so fast: listed on Thursday and sold by the following Wednesday, that time table completely belies the amazing amount of pre-planning and the incredible process you follow which delivered these results! The first time we met you walked me through your thorough and experienced plan for my sale, which included staging, highly professional photography, videography, and a multi-page marketing brochure that tied everything together.

We reviewed your sales results and your ability to consistently bring multiple and over-listing offers. You spoke of the documentation you provide to buyers and their agents to help them write strong and competitive offers, and the coaching you provide them in advance of offer review – so they understand what non-price terms are important considerations to me. You described how you evaluate the overall quality of a buyer – beyond their offer, to ensure that the offer I accept will successfully close on time. And you highlighted your negotiating skills – which you described as setting your results apart.

You assessed my house honestly and to expedite the offer process you arranged for a pre-sale inspection, which was thorough, allowed me to make minor repairs prior to listing, and was extremely valuable in making buyers feel comfortable waiving the inspection contingency. Given my travel time-line I needed everything to happen quickly so my house could come to market, sell, and close. We agreed to a schedule – and you met 100% of every milestone! You and Jeff had all of the contacts necessary to schedule experienced stagers, an inspector, and contractors. Jeff was such a big help – he personally installed a new light fixture and moved furniture!

On listing day, it was unreal! The beautiful multi-page brochure featuring my house was stunning! My listing included a professional video, gorgeous photos, and lovely descriptions showcasing my home. From there, you orchestrated the agreed-upon plan! Over 120 potential buyers and agents saw my home in five days. I received an “early” offer outside of the Offer Review period – and it was extremely enticing! But, your seasoned guidance was to stay the course. And when we sat down on Offer Review day, it paid off!

In only five days, I had twelve excellent offers, ultimately accepting a much improved offer from the first buyer! You listened carefully to what non-price terms were important to me – and your ability to negotiate delivered it all! You negotiated a top-dollar offer, and a whirl-wind close with a delayed possession – crazy, but, you understood it was important to me. The Offer Review experience was unlike any in my prior home sales. By the time we sat down to go through the offers, you had already worked with each buyer/agent individually, giving them an opportunity to use an escalation clause and adjust non-price terms. So, when I came to Offer Review, you literally lined them up, 1 through 12 and I selected the strongest one. But, even then, you had a surprise for me! In my behalf, and behind the scenes, you had already improved that offer on price and so not only was it the highest offer, it reflected everything on my wishlist!

Mary, the time you committed, your organized process, and negotiating expertise you brought to my home sale, significantly reduced the stress of my largest and most important financial transaction, and as a result I can say with complete confidence that I got the very best possible price and terms! I could not have selected any agent who was more qualified! And I’ll always be grateful for the results you delivered!

Five stars out of five!

I highly recommend Mary Lee and her staff at Mary Lee and Associates. Their efforts went above and beyond those of the typical realtor. They are professional, patient, extremely knowledgeable and, most remarkably, generous with their time, despite the harrowing pace of real estate sales in the Bellevue area. They worked with me and my unusual medical disability with understanding and compassion. I will be forever in their debt. Five stars out of five!

We were "over the moon!" with the results and we know you will be too!

Those It May Concern,

We recently sold our Somerset home of some 32 years using the excellent and professional services of Mary Lee and Jeff Shaffer with Keller Williams Luxury Homes. We couldn't be more pleased and delighted with the process and a most successful outcome. We've known Mary and Jeff as wonderful neighbors in Somerset for many years and have appreciated their support of our community and of the SUN Newsletter. Their contributions have contributed greatly to maintaining and enhancing the quality, health and vibrancy of our neighborhood and this ensures top home values for Somerset homeowners. We love our community and are still in the Somerset neighborhood.
Along the process of selling our home, which many described as The Crown Jewel of Somerset, Mary and Jeff held our hands and worked closely every step of the way which helped us realize literally top dollar and a record-breaking sale.

Mary's ‘program and process’ is one that we believed in and after interviewing Mary and Jeff it confirmed what we already knew, that Mary and Jeff were the team for us. They provided expert help in the preparation of our property, including contractor referrals, beautiful high-end staging, custom photography and videography, magazine-style custom brochures and open house events.

Having their professional expertise in marketing and selling our home removed so much uncertainty and anxiety and gave us confidence and peace of mind knowing that our most valuable asset in our estate was in good hands...and to put it in fun terms, we were "over the moon!" with the results and we know you will be too!

We are very happy we hired Mary and Jeff and highly recommend them when selling your home.

My Dream Move to Hawaii ...

This letter summarizes my experience in engaging Mary Lee and Associates for selling my house in Redmond during the spring of 2017. When I met Mary for the first time, she reviewed the process she uses for selling homes. I found her understanding of the real estate business, keen focus on representing her clients, a very high level of integrity and a plan and strategy for putting the seller in driver’s seat to be top notch. Having worked with many real estate agents in my life, I felt Mary is completely in a different league! My other agents were very good and fantastic people. Mary is all of that and a LOT more. It is like watching Michael Jordan play basketball!!

Once I chose her and she chose to represent me, she outlined a rough timeline and the steps I needed to take to prepare the house for sale. The staging process was fun and I fully understood why staging is important. The marketing brochures, videos and pictures taken were unbelievably high quality with no expense spared to highlight the house for prospective buyers. When I viewed the video for the first time, I wasn’t sure I wanted to sell the house

She paid for the house inspection before it got listed so that I had a chance to fix the issues and make it easy for prospective buyers to make an offer with confidence. As a result, my buyers waived the inspection contingency which reduced my risk. This is just one example where the steps she took helped optimize the process while increasing the number of interested buyers!

She made beautiful cards with information about the highlights of the house in each area such as kitchen, family room, bedrooms and so on. These cards were placed throughout the house which is very helpful as it directs the attention of buyers to the highlights. The house was on the market for six days and we had multiple offers. It was very illustrative to see how she guided me on evaluating offers. The house sold higher than the listing price! Mary’s plan and strategy worked to perfection.

I am writing this letter 10 weeks after my house in Redmond closed. Since then, I moved to Hawaii to start my own orchard in the Big Island. Looking back, it is very clear to me Mary and Jeff knew my life situation and future very clearly and they went to bat for me. The combination of their professionalism, skills and focus on doing what is best for the client is the reason why I am breathing easier as I am venturing into a new business and chasing my dreams.

I highly recommend Mary Lee if you are considering selling your home. Her proven track record, process and strategies generated substantial additional profit for me, and created a streamlined and very enjoyable home selling experience. Hire her! You’ll be glad you did!

~ Ravi G. Ravichandran

Multiple Offers & 11.3% Over Asking Price ...

We recently had the pleasure of working with Mary Lee to sell our home in The Summit. We interviewed several agents and decided to hire Mary because of her proven track record for creating multiple offers. One example of her expertise is by having the home inspected before listing it on the MLS, she eliminated the buyer’s home inspection contingency.

With Mary’s expert advice on pricing our home and targeted marketing, she generated a great response from the market. Her proven strategy to wait a week to review offers really paid off and we received 9 offers on our home – all over full-price. Her expert negotiation skills with the written offers improved our final sales price to 11.3% over our asking price (which was well above our goal). The extra profit she created paid all of the commissions and put a substantial amount of extra money in our pocket.

Mary and her team helped us through every step of the home sale and we felt very supported throughout the entire process. She invested in professional staging, photography, videography and beautiful custom marketing pieces that showcased all of the features of our home; this made our home stand out in the market.

We highly recommend Mary and her team and encourage you to call her when you are thinking about selling your home. We are ‘over the moon’ happy and know you will be also!

Multiple Offers & Sale Above Asking Price ...

Mary is an amazingly good sellers’ agents. She worked hard to minimize my effort. Through Mary’s marketing and negotiation skills, I received many offers and my house sold 13% above asking price (which paid her fee and a lot more).

Mary invested a lot of effort every step of the way. She arranged a seller’s inspection, to avoid an inspection contingency. She reviewed the inspection report with me, to help me decide which fix-ups would make my house more sellable and which were unnecessary. To help with the fix-ups, she found inexpensive contractors who did great work on short notice. She arranged for staging, to highlight how a buyer might use the space. She produced attractive signs to post all over the house, each one highlighting a feature that a buyer might not notice. And she produced gloss high-quality marketing materials for buyers to take home after a viewing, to help them remember what they saw and to keep them excited about it.

Moreover, Mary was great to work with. She were very responsive to phone and email. In a word, Mary is outstanding. She worked hard for her fee, and her work paid off big. Hiring her as as my agent was one of my best business decisions. I recommend her very strongly. Hire her! You’ll be glad you did.

~ Philip A. Bernstein

Proven Process and Professionalism ...

As original owners, there was much emotion in deciding to sell and in determining who to best sell our home. Our first choice was Mary and her team because of their mailings on selling homes in the area that demonstrated their knowledge of our community.

Mary’s professionalism and kindness permeated the selling process. We bought in to Mary’s program because it made sense to us. To have a formal inspection, correct any things lacking, and provide a narrative to prospective buyers of what was done were most beneficial to getting the home ready for the market. Professional staging allowed potential owners to envision how their possessions may fit our home’s floor plan. We were proud to sell our home as these steps were completed.

We appreciated all the helpful material she gave us. Both her Seller Guide and Pricing Guide with price analysis and market study were most helpful to us as we cooperated in the process. Caring about our future relocation, she referred us to an excellent Windermere agent in our destination city.

Mary’s expertise in pricing our home, keeping us informed all along the way, working behind the scenes for our best interest, and encouraging us in many ways will not be forgotten!

Support Throughout Life-Changing Move ...

After 25 years in our home, we decided to downsize and purchase a smaller new construction home. The builder would not accept a contingent offer, so we were already under contract when we started the process of getting our home ready to sell. It was critical that we get our home closed in time, or we would lose our Earnest Money deposit on our new one. We are so thankful that we hired Mary and Jeff, who helped us every step of the way. Their expert knowledge of the market, and proven marketing plan for creating a strong response from buyers allowed us to have our choice of buyers and sell our home without the normal buyer contingencies. We received a 200% return on the strategic improvements in the home that they suggested, and we were able to sell the home over our asking price and close our new home on time. Amazing!

We received a very high level of professional and hands-on personal service from Mary and Jeff and have enthusiastically recommended them to everyone we know.

Overcoming Obstacles to Get Our Dream Home ...

The current real estate market presents incredible challenges for buyers, especially if you have a home sale contingency. In our case, we found a specific home that we loved, and with Mary and her team’s help, we were able to get our offer accepted. We then turned around, and in a short period of time, put our existing home on the market.

With their expert guidance and sheer hustle, our home was beautifully staged and priced in a period of a week. Over the next two weeks, the home was marketed, drawing some 50 families to view the home. Several offers were tendered, one of which met our criteria. We were of course thrilled, but the process was not over yet!

As we moved towards closing on both properties, Mary and her team smoothed over communications between all parties, offered wise strategies, and provided moral support. They gave up nights and weekends, even spending both of their birthday evenings with us, to make sure every detail was covered and we had the most up-to-date communication. The icing on the cake was that Jeff was a perfectionist at getting photos of the house, and Mary even came over one night to help us clean when she heard we were behind schedule on getting moved out. Service like this is extraordinarily rare, but it serves to show how deeply Mary and her team care about what they do!

In the end, we moved into a new home that we love, in the time frame we were hoping for, while meeting our financial goals for the transaction. When asked why things worked out so well for us, when there are so many stories about homes that won’t sell or deals that fall apart, we respond with two answers: faith … and the best realtors around!