"A couple of months back, we bought our first house (a single family) in San Carlos and could not be happier! It was in mid 2020 that we thought of buying a house. Being first time home buyers who did not even grow up in the US, we were basically a couple of clueless kids who only had a vague idea..."
"A couple of months back, we bought our first house (a single family) in San Carlos and could not be happier! It was in mid 2020 that we thought of buying a house. Being first time home buyers who did not even grow up in the US, we were basically a couple of clueless kids who only had a vague idea that “we should buy a house in the mid peninsula as we work at the opposite ends of the Bay Area and don’t like spending a lot of time in the daily commute. Initially, we talked to (and in some cases, even looked at houses with) quite a few REALTORS before deciding to proceed with Carmen. We found Carmen to be knowledgeable and experienced without being pushy about what we should do. Carmen patiently helped us navigate through the various aspects of the housing market and guided us on how to evaluate the various parameters. Looking at multiple single family and townhomes in Redwood City, Redwood Shores, Foster City, Belmont, and San Carlos, we soon realized what we actually wanted and where we wanted to put our money. Carmen would frequently get us off market houses as well, giving us ample opportunity to make an offer before it hit the market (or if we didn’t feel comfortable enough to make an offer pre market, at least a few extra days to make a bid). In addition, Carmen was super helpful in going through the disclosure reports and in one case, even connecting us with contractors so that we could get a cost estimate for the work that would be needed if we decided to bid on a particular house. We also gained from Carmen being in the industry for such a long time as we would frequently bump into REALTORS at houses who knew Carmen and that personal contact helped Carmen get us extra insights on properties as well. In addition, that also made us more comfortable in proceeding forward. She knew a lot about the various neighborhoods in the mid-peninsula and would keep educating us about them, which was particularly helpful with most things shut down due to covid. Due to a family emergency, we also had to put our house hunting on hold for a few months in between. We felt bad for wasting Carmen’s time then but she was very understanding. And as soon as we were back in the market, we contacted Carmen straight away. Once we got the house (we only bid on one house before that), Carmen was super efficient in connecting us to various lenders, insurance agents, contractors, painters, cleaners, etc to wrap. Our closing and follow-up work is done in a very timely manner. We eventually went with her suggested contacts in almost all cases since even after our own research, we could not find any better deals. When the appraisal seemed to get held up during escrow, Carmen went out of her way to ease our minds and worked with the lender in getting a person who would submit the appraisal in time. We found Carmen to be super helpful, and trustworthy and felt that she did her very best to look after our interests. We felt comfortable asking her all our silly and noob questions, even after moving into the house. We recommend having Carmen as a REALTOR, especially in the case of first time home buyers."