Karp, Liberman & Kern Sotheby’s International Realty

I can’t say enough about Margaret Szerlip at Sotheby’s in Newton. She listed our house and, in the process, gave us great advice about how to get the house ready to put on the market. She created beautiful brochures and showed the house constantly. After about a week, we got an offer that was close to our asking price. Unfortunately, for personal reasons, we decided to take the house off the market and stay a bit longer. Margaret handled the situation in a very professional manner. When we do decide to sell, she will definitely be our realtor.

I have had great experiences working with Beverly Berman at Karp, Liberman. Bev has a warm, low-​key style, but she is a hard worker and a tenacious negotiator. She rescued one transaction with a series of Friday evening, late night calls. Another time we worked until 10:00 p.m. one evening, fine tuning the Purchase & Sale Agreement, and we could still laugh and have a good time. As a former special education teacher for the Newton school district, and a longtime resident, Bev knows Newton and the surrounding communities very well. She is also a great communicator who listens to her clients, and is always available to answer questions or concerns. Your real estate transaction will be in experienced hands with Bev Berman.

I’ve saved my 90^th review for this very moment! Homeownership is mine! All mine!
Here is my disclaimer: Sotheby’s must be one bang-​up place to have an associate like Allison Blank. My review is based solely on working with her.
Here was the situation: My boyfriend and I decided that we wanted to buy a house. We toyed with the idea for a while and after one unsuccessful bout with a lame duck realtor we were referred to Allison by a friend of my cousin’s (networking!).
Let’s just say that what our first realtor lacked, Allison excelled. Her communication with us was frequent and professional. After our first meeting, she was able to gauge what we were looking for and in what price range. She stuck to these guidelines and picked out houses on the market that she thought we might like. We saw our fair share of properties and within the first five minutes she could tell if we liked it or not. (If I’m not mistaken, I’m pretty sure Allison suggested that we check out the house we ended up purchasing).
The major props come down to this: the follow through. Anyone can go through the MLS listing and look at houses — that’s the fun part. When it came down to contacting the selling agent and moving forward, Allison was a star. She is super polite and charming, but firm. From the time we had an accepted offer to the time we closed, Allison was on the mark. Excellent follow-​up through the home inspection, with our attorney and the seller’s agent. If we wanted to see the property, we set up a meeting and she showed us around (again…and again… you can never be too certain!).
It is very clear to me that a realtor like Allison Blank does not come by often. The selling agent was difficult to get in touch with and did not have everything done by our original anticipated close date. Our close was pushed back twice (a common occurrence, yes — but it shouldn’t have to be!) — but through it all we were comforted in knowing that we weren’t the ones holding things up.
We are now in our home and couldn’t be happier! Thanks, Allison!