Val Vandervort – Keller Williams

If Unilocal allows 10 stars, we will rate Val 10 stars! We are so happy to have Val as our buyer agent. She is amazingly professional and friendly as well! When we started working with Val, we were quite impressed by seeing all 5-​star reviews on her Unilocal reviews. Now we truly believe that all the reviewers must greatly appreciate Val’s help with their buys or sells as we do. If you are looking for a buyer agent in this area, no hesitation, go work with Val!
Val is so professional, responsible, well organized and patient! She has great professional knowledge on the housing market, which will guide you to the right location, the right house and the right price! She has great connections with other real estate agents, loan agents, lenders, property inspectors, property manager, all kinds of contractors and so on. Whatever questions we asked (we are immigrants, having tons of questions, of course), she tried her best to provide precise and helpful information for answering them and solving our problems. She never pushed us to make any decisions on the houses. She wanted us to consider thoroughly and go for the house because we really like it. She never complained or showed any impatience when we changed our mind at the last minute.
Val is very gentle, honest, nice and friendly. We trust her and relied on her a lot during the whole house purchase process. We had no worries about mistakes we might make at all, since we know she is well taking care of everything. Although purchasing a new home has never been an easy task, her professional guidance, high work efficiency and terrific patience made the whole journey enjoyable.
We just realize that it is so hard to express all our great experience with her and all our appreciation of her strong work and wonderful personalities. We have been looking for a new home for half a year, finally got the lovely one. We were used to get Val’s emails about updates and receive phone calls starting with her sweet voice «How are you?». And we started to miss all these :)

I cant say enough about the wonderful experience we had with Val and team Karen. In short, the road to securing real estate for my family was a rough ride in this climate and with this level of competition we were definitely the underdogs. Val and team cut through the battlefield like butter.
Karen and Val worked tight and navigated every hurdle making the experience easy to manage and cope with. They were open to our suggestions and as we were open to theirs as a team we were successful.
Karen managed our fluctuating emotional states no problem, was capable at playing the hard game or using tact for a more subtle approach when required. Both knew their areas very well and could read the layout of the land and adjust to the rapidly changing climate.
Post closing it was quite clear that the due diligence, team ethic, tact and attention to detail exhibited by Val and Karen was the reason we were able to avoid a serious bidding war, close on the house and even see demands of our own to fruition in what is still clearly a sellers market.
As i have worked with other agents in the past and brought to Val Vandervort Estates through a friends referral it’s quite clear this team is miles in front of the rest. They are all easy to work with, detail oriented and even donated some of their income to charity and our closing to insure all our best interests were accounted for and not only as a personal gesture to us but also at a level in the community that generally speaking, others don’t seem to care about.
I would highly recommend this company and team and have done so multiple times already. I’m not a Unilocaler but felt Val and team deserved my attention in this forum. They are my first Unilocal.
If you want a team to represent your best interests successfully id get in line quick b/​c in this market quality this outstanding is what brings the edge you’ll need to realize your dreams. I’d use them again without batting an eye.
Don’t waste time with other choices out there, sign with them before others occupy their time first. Every second counts in this market. Be willing to contribute and work as a team.

Loved my experience buying my house with Val and Karen.
I felt the whole process was as stress free as possible. They were very nice and helpful. We spent a couple of months looking at properties trying to find the one we wanted and throughout that search we did not feel pressured at any point. They were both very patient, looking to provide as much info as possible, and very friendly and courteous.

If you are looking for a knowledgeable, responsive, outgoing, caring, friendly realtor please contact Val & Liz!
You will be very satisfied with her help in regards to purchasing a home!!! I was 100% satisfied and am extremely happy with her and her team services!
Here’s why: Val is the best realtor I’ve ever had dealings with. When we found the perfect home for my family on this Sunday, and we called her team to check the property for us. After call, they went to the property, talked to the listing agent right away and closed the deal within three days.(They’d been working on my case overnight to counter offers back and forth whole thru the night– extremely hard workers…)
It was great that I could count on Val and Liz expertise of the area as first time buying a single family house.
Val And Liz guided me through the whole buying process and was very helpful and professional. Especially Liz had so much patience with my numerous questions and provided detailed, timely answers. I must say that her expertise & knowledge as well as attention to detail exceeds other realtors in the area. I would definitely recommend Val & Liz to any home buyer or seller in the Peninsula area.
I have owned my home now within THREE days (In this competitive market, I never thought that I can get a home in short period time at all, this is unreal!)
I would do it all over again with Val’s Team as my realtor, if it ever came to that again in the future!
Thanks, Val & Liz!!!

My wife and I just sold our first home which we purchased 12-​years ago. We used Val Vandervort as our real estate agent and could not be more pleased with the entire process. I can be a bit high strung and Val was the perfect realtor to balance me out and always keep me calm and well informed.
It’s also not just Val though. She has an awesome team that works with her who handled much of the process; from home inspections and scheduling and showings, the whole 9 yards. They also have a wonderful network of folks from handymen, inspectors, gardeners, stagers, you name it.
There were a number of times when we asked Val for her opinion on various things and we listened! She is a professional and knows what she is doing. Bottom line is we had a ton of traffic through our house and 29 offers with a final finish of 39% over asking price. Our only complaint was that we didn’t have a half dozen more properties for Val to sell!!!

We came to Val & Marylene asking for advice in our house hunt in the Peninsula and we did not only find the best professionals in the market, but also great friends!
From the very first moment when they walked us through the technicalities of the process till the close of escrow (and even beyond that, during the renovation of our new home!) we always had them on our side, with their extreme competence, courtesy and honesty. My husband and I are first-​time home buyers, and navigating this crazy Bay Area real estate market would have been a true nightmare without their help. Putting down a significant monetary offer for a house can be super stressful, but we felt we always had the right advice from Val and Marylene.
Here is why you can’t go wrong with Val & Marylene:
— They are good listeners: they understand the needs of their clients and tailor the house search accordingly
— They know the market really well and can effectively strategize on how to make a competitive offer: this is not trivial in a crazy market where you might deal with 20+ bidders for a property!
— They know the real estate agents on the other side very well and are superb negotiators
— They know good contractors in case you need to do some work on the property
— They make good use of your time, you never feel you are wasting a minute when you are with them
— They are super responsive and are always one phone call away to answer any question on the process
— Their personal touch made us feel we always had the right support in this stressful process
Still not sure? Let me tell you this then: we got an amazing house in 1.5 months and our bid was not even the highest! Val and Marylene did an amazing job positioning us to win. We highly recommend them!

Val helped us purchase a home in Belmont last fall and we had such a great experience working with her. In our initial meeting, Val was very interested in what was most important to us in our first house and gave us guidance in terms of whether or not our expectations were realistic for the current market. We also had some unique challenges with financing and Val seeked out and found alternative paths for us. When we started attending open houses, Val and her team would pre-​screen the houses so that we could focus our time on houses with the greatest potential. Val was always very focused on finding us the right house, not just making a sale. Despite a competitive market, we were able to find the perfect house for our family in 6 weeks! Many months after the sale, she continues to offer help to us in our new neighborhood and we feel fortunate to have worked with an agent truly focused on providing a wonderful customer experience.

Val sold our town home in Belmont this summer 2014 in less than10 days.
She is a master of using all of the computing tools but is blessed with the people skills and attention to detail that ultimately make the difference as an effective realtor.
–Val gently educated us on the benefits of staging, pricing, and took care of all the details.
–She is a wonderful listener and all of the exclusives that we cited, she incorporated into the sales brochure utilizing a professional writer!
–Val contacted us when needed but many of the to-do’s and follow-​ups were managed transparently by her and her team. Only upon the sale did we learn of many of the details and issues that she resolved. As a business person, but layperson in real estate, I came to appreciate the value of a professional realtor.
–Very good responsiveness: Follow-​ups, availability by phone or email.
–She listened well and provided us with pros and cons on pricing. It was clear that she had our interest in mind.
–Honesty and integrity perhaps are the key benefit of having Val as our real estate agent. What is normally a fairly stressful period, no matter how many homes one has owned, was truly minimal because my wife and I knew we never had to second guess her.

I highly recommend Val and her team, Karen Eller Ha and Liz Min.
A couple of friends recommended Val since I had been looking for a house for two years with no luck. A few months later, I closed on my new home!
I was very impressed with Val’s knowledge of the local market and it’s current trend. She is very personable, warm and extremely competent.
In a tight market, Val’s expertise was invaluable. She guided me through a couple of offers without pressure, simply her vast experience.
Most of the process for my purchase took place when I was overseas. With a 9 hrs time difference and quite a bit of jet lag, Val’s team was present and receptive from start to finish. Every phone call was returned and every email was addressed.
Should I ever need an agent again, Val will be my top choice.

Val and Karen were fantastic agents. My wife and I had been looking for our first house for over 6 months, and at no point did we ever feel pressured into anything we were uncomfortable with. They had a detailed knowledge of all the peninsula neighborhoods, were able to work within our schedule, and they even showed us some off-​market houses. When we put in bids, Val and Karen had great ideas on how to put together strong offers. I would definitely recommend working with them if you’re looking for a house on the peninsula.

A long overdue review. Val helped us buy our first house in Belmont in 2009; we are still happily living in it. Val paid attention to our needs, was always available and responsive, and made it easy to trust her through the entire long process at a time when the market was full of flippers, banks were super strict, and houses were scarce.

Val is an amazing person to have on your side. As we went through the process of preparing and selling our home, she attended to every detail, providing us facts and analysis so that we could proceed with confidence. There are innumerable things that can go wrong in a real estate transaction. Thanks to Val, we never worried about a single one of them.

We could not have asked for a more thoughtful, knowledgeable, and responsive real estate agent!
We had a tight timeline and some very specific requests, and Val was able to find the perfect property for us! She found us a good number of houses to see, didn’t push us into anything that we didn’t feel good about, took the time to show us the variety of what was on the market, walked us through the ‘making an offer’ process and went above and beyond to find us a phenomenal house that was about to go on market, which we ended up buying!
For the places that she saw before us, she knew which we should actually visit (either because she knew we’d like it, or because she knew that we needed to see what was on the market). For the places she walked into for the first time with us, she knew exactly the questions to ask, and had an incredible instinct on whether it was the right place for us.
She knows the market and community, and we are overjoyed to now be a part of the San Carlos Community in our dream home!
In not enough words, Val was incredible, and we would, will, and have highly recommended her to friends and neighbors alike.
Thanks So Much, Val!
James & Mallory:)

We started our home search last August and were visiting open houses to get an idea of what was on the market. We were lucky to run into Val in one of the first open houses we visited. Val walked up to us, asked what we were looking for and immediately, we could see that we had found the person who would answer all our questions about the home buying process, guide us, and better yet, someone who was willing to honest with us. Val guided us through the entire process and within a few months we closed on a house that we loved! Val and her team are amazing! She was able to work with our crazy schedules and was always available to chat with us during the various stages of the process.
Val even visited us two months after we moved in to make sure that we had settled in and were happy in our new home. Val also understands that newbies in an area are always looking for recommendations, and she provided us with an extensive list of her recommended vendors for various services in the area before we even moved in!

My husband and I recently bought a home in Belmont, and there is no way we could have done it without Val’s hard work (including while she was on vacation!). Our ideal house seemed like an impossible dream given our budget and the areas where we were looking, but I am now typing this review from our perfect home!
Not only is Val hardworking and diligent, but she has amazing instincts for the real estate market in our area and is an easy/​fun person to interact with during the stressful process of buying a house. We had complete confidence in how Val conducted our search, bids, and closing. She kept us involved throughout out the entire process and clearly articulated what to expect and how to proceed at each step. Everything went incredibly smoothly, and we cannot thank Val enough. We also cannot recommend her enough. If you’re buying a house in the area, you should definitely call Val!

After making the decision to sell my Redwood Shores condo, I looked on Unilocal to find an agent that had received positive reviews. After looking through all the readers comments about Val, I decided to give her a call. It’s one of the best decisions I have EVER made! She is very professional and yet extremely personable — a win-​win combination.
The entire transaction from beginning to end was extremely smooth. Nothing ‘fell through the cracks’. Her network of individuals from carpet cleaners to movers made the whole process painless. I have sung Val’s praises to almost everyone I know!
If you are in the market to either purchase or sell a home on the Peninsula, Val is your go-​to real estate agent. I guarantee you won’t regret it!

I don’t typically write recommendations because I rarely feel strongly enough about anything to be bothered to do so. But Val is amazing and here are the reasons why.
My original version of this review was turning into a novel because I just can’t say enough about how much my husband and I have enjoyed working with Val. To make this easy to digest, here are the bullet points.
1. Val was our advocate every step of the way!
2. Val took the time to learn what types of properties would be of interest to us.
3. Val helped us understand the pros and cons of every property we were interested in.
4. Val knows the schools and the neighborhoods.
5. Val gave us hope that we would one day be able to find the right house for us despite the housing craze.
6. Val understands the bay area housing market and often accurately predicted the price a house would sell for.
The day our offer got accepted, the first thing my husband said was, «This would not have happened if it wasn’t for Val!»
The day we signed our loan documents, the last thing my husband said as we were walking out the door was, «This would not have happened if it wasn’t for Val!»
I can’t say enough about Val. If you are looking for a house, work with Val! Working with Val was the best decision we ever made. We enthusiastically recommend her!

We successfully bought the very first house we offered on — our bid was accepted with no counter-​offering (over 6 other bids, one of which was all-​cash) and our deal was closed in 3 weeks flat. That is the most important thing to know about Val — she knows how to get deals done.
She knows her areas, she knows the schools, the neighborhoods, the values (she frequently correctly predicted the price a house would sell for while we were looking). She responded immediately when I needed her to, and she’s fun to spend time with. She is ethical and low-​pressure and just exceedingly competent.
Val represents both buyers and sellers and if you look at her closed listings, you’ll see how quickly they sell for great prices. When we were putting together our offer, she gave great advice and sent a very detailed list of items we needed to close quickly. I hope we never move but if we do, she will be our listing agent. We are so grateful we found her.

Great agent for first time house buyers! My fiancée and I just bought a house with the help of Val and we gave her double thumbs up. She is very responsive, very knowledgeable and super kind. We feel like she works exclusively with us, although we are sure she obviously has other clients. Val basically takes care of literally ANYTHING for us and gave very helpful suggestions. We would highly recommend her to any home buyers!

Val came to us through a glowing recommendation of a well-​respected professional in the local real estate business. My husband and I had been casually looking at purchasing a home in San Carlos and decided to bite the bullet by lining up a realtor.
We had a fantastic experience with Val; she carefully listened to our needs and helped us narrow our search down. Once we found «the one», Val jumped into high gear, negotiated an excellent deal for us, and has helped the daunting home-​buying process become relatively seamless.
Val is a class act!