Testimonials

Rodney J.

"After searching extensively online, we finally found a property that we were interested in putting in an offer, but we lacked an agent and a lender. We found Melanie via referral from another client who has closed multiple transactions over the years with her. After calling Melanie out of the blu..."

"After searching extensively online, we finally found a property that we were interested in putting in an offer, but we lacked an agent and a lender. We found Melanie via referral from another client who has closed multiple transactions over the years with her. After calling Melanie out of the blue, she wasted no time in viewing the property within hours, meeting us after work the same day to tour the property privately, and moving forward with getting disclosures so we could make an informed offer on the house. Melanie's extensive network of vendors allowed us to get a home inspector who is also a contractor onsite by the following Monday to look into the property and advise on a timeline for any necessary work and rough costs we could expect. Simultaneously, she referred us to several lenders who were able to secure us an extremely competitive loan. She was able to negotiate a clean, competitive offer that ultimately allowed us to close on the home under our budgeted amount against several competitive offers - helped in no small amount by her extensive knowledge of the local market, lenders, and agents. In the run-up to the offer, she went above and beyond to help us understand a permit issue so that we could move forward with the deal with confidence. She was able to ready our home for sale in only a couple of weeks, drawing on an extensive list of vendors to prep our house for listing. We were able to close on an offer above our asking price within 2 weeks of listing the property - despite some cooling in the housing market. Throughout the purchase and selling process, Melanie was responsive, proactive, always available, and helped us make an offer with confidence with very little runway. If you are in need of an agent who can take you from unprepared to making an offer to under contract in only a week in a highly competitive real estate market and get you top dollar for your existing home, we highly recommend Melanie as the right agent to represent you."

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Kerry S.

"I was absolutely dreading the prospect of selling the family home in Los Altos and finding a decent place on the coast. A friend recommended Melanie Kemp and I tentatively scheduled a meeting. (I understand now why almost all of her clients are from referrals.) Everything has been a whirlwind sin..."

"I was absolutely dreading the prospect of selling the family home in Los Altos and finding a decent place on the coast. A friend recommended Melanie Kemp and I tentatively scheduled a meeting. (I understand now why almost all of her clients are from referrals.) Everything has been a whirlwind since then. Melanie not only brought in an astounding well over list price allowing me to retire, but also powered through two really difficult buyer situations to find me an unbelievably beautiful beachfront home at Sunset Beach (only 14 hours later). I was totally skeptical of the process going into this but Melanie laid out exactly what she was going to do, educated me on the process and documents, took the extra time to make sure I wasn't freaking out, then, time after time blew me away with all that was accomplished. I felt like I had won the lotto. Four abilities stand out that really made a difference for me 1) she accomplished everything she promised (and then some) 2) she has this remarkable ability to match a personality to the right house 3) she has a cadre of appraisers, inspectors, contractors, accountants, trust attorneys all with lots of experience, integrity and professionalism and 4) she has an eerie ability to read and make people feel realistically optimistic and comfortable. Bottom line, Melanie has a genius for very effective multitasking so no opportunity or detail even comes close to falling through the cracks. And, most importantly, she was absolutely relentless and brilliant at the Art of the Deal, taking out the worry and confusion of the process by constantly keeping me informed of progress daily (and sometimes hourly when things started moving fast), and leveraging every bit of her long experience. Like I keep telling friends who couldn't believe what happened with the resulting sale and the new beach house: "She's the Real Deal"."

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Pat & Earl C.

"Melanie Kemp has represented us in 2 home purchases and 2 sales over the years. She is very knowledgeable about the Bay Area real estate market. She understands pricing strategy which is key to getting quality and possible multiple offers. She is lavish in her use of marketing tools such as drone..."

"Melanie Kemp has represented us in 2 home purchases and 2 sales over the years. She is very knowledgeable about the Bay Area real estate market. She understands pricing strategy which is key to getting quality and possible multiple offers. She is lavish in her use of marketing tools such as drone video to showcase the home's placement and surroundings, glossy brochures with helpful descriptions, and targeted emails and web posting. She studies sales in the immediate surrounding area so you are up to date on comparable home sales and the competition. She is skilled at preparing a home to shine and knows how to showcase its features. After meeting with you and seeing your home, she will devise a laser-focused marketing plan. She is unstoppable regardless of challenges - when severe traffic threatened to make her late for our Open House, she abandoned her car and walked blocks to the house. When a smoke detector chirped during another Open House, she managed to change the battery on a very high ceiling. When a counteroffer was accepted late in the evening she completed the paperwork before midnight to start the sales clock ticking. Based on these and other positive experiences we can say with confidence that Melanie is smart, dedicated, efficient and honest. She puts her client first, delivers on her promises, and most importantly, gets results. We, along with several of our friends, consider her "our trusted realtor.” The first thing I would tell you is that everything you’ll read in these reviews about Melanie was true for us. She has a true talent for staging a home for its best appearance and has a great approach to marketing your home in ways that are targeted to the right buyers and are cost-effective. She did all the work herself and is an excellent communicator and problem-solver."

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Caroline & Reed H.

"Melanie has helped us buy and sell homes in the Los Gatos/Saratoga area over the last 15 years. The most recent was 3 weeks ago. Without a doubt, she is really strong. Now, since a lot of people say that about Melanie, let me give you some specifics that differentiate her services: 1. She worked ..."

"Melanie has helped us buy and sell homes in the Los Gatos/Saratoga area over the last 15 years. The most recent was 3 weeks ago. Without a doubt, she is really strong. Now, since a lot of people say that about Melanie, let me give you some specifics that differentiate her services: 1. She worked to build a 'strategy' on when to sell and how to price our home. She explained the plan, got our agreement, and stuck to it. We sold in days. 2. She coordinated pre-marketing inspections to provide prospective buyers with full transparency on the property. 3. She has a very strong resource network that she brings to the transaction. She helped to source structural inspectors, pest inspectors, and pool repairs and covered all of the details in the transaction. 4. She made sure we were informed of the transaction's progress and that we understood our options in each decision-making process. 5. She was involved in the transaction. On many days Melanie was at the house managing inspections, checking on contractors, and driving the process along. When contractors fell behind, they got a call from Melanie. She did research on the city and the permit process. All of these provided valuable assurances to us that the purchase (and sale) were in good hands. My thanks!"

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Lara & Cass A.

"Melanie just helped us find our dream home and we couldn't be more pleased! We were only in town for less than a week and she was able to organize dozens of showings so that we could make the most of our time and get a feel for the market. She was extremely efficient, thorough, and an absolute pl..."

"Melanie just helped us find our dream home and we couldn't be more pleased! We were only in town for less than a week and she was able to organize dozens of showings so that we could make the most of our time and get a feel for the market. She was extremely efficient, thorough, and an absolute pleasure to be around. She made this process seem more like vacation than work. Once we found the home we knew we wanted, she was amazing. Her can-do attitude as well as her binder full of contacts allowed us to close in record time. No one thought that we could possibly arrange all of the necessary inspections as quickly as she had promised. They ate their words. Melanie impressed us on all levels, but the way she handled the negotiating process and closing was spectacular. While Melanie is very sweet and kind, it was her pit-bull-sized attack on the negotiations that blew us away. There's something extremely comforting about having someone who knows every trick in the book on your team. We went back to the East Coast completely confident that Melanie could handle anything thrown her way. We highly recommend Melanie as both an agent as well as a local tour guide! She's fantastic, and we feel very lucky to have met her."

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Gail A.

"Our family's estate in Atherton -- Though I had heard many stories of high-end realtors listing properties and then turning all work over to assistants, this was never the case with Melanie. She answered every phone call and every email from the trustees, attended every show, participated in ever..."

"Our family's estate in Atherton -- Though I had heard many stories of high-end realtors listing properties and then turning all work over to assistants, this was never the case with Melanie. She answered every phone call and every email from the trustees, attended every show, participated in every conference call, and personally worked with every buyer's agent. Along the path of our journey there were many times when another realtor might have delegated tasks or responsibilities, but never did this happen. We hired Melanie and we got Melanie. This is in stark contrast to reports of several friends who have sold houses in town over the last years. Melanie is an artful negotiator who represented our interests with keen insight, integrity, and professionalism. She guided us through every step of the way through the many details that need tending when a house is under contract. She vigilantly shepherded the deal to keep it on track. Her many years of experience, depth and breadth of knowledge, and dedication made all the difference in bringing about a successful closure to our transaction."

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