I met Simon at an open house. Traffic there was slow, so I took the opportunity to ask him a lot of questions: about the housing market in general, how people pick a purchase price, strategies for negotiating, waiting for price reductions, using a structural inspection. And also pointed questions about why I would use a realtor like him rather than Redfin. He gave me straight answers, not bland marketing talk, and I learned a lot from the conversation – and decided to use him as a buyer’s agent. He did a great job guiding us through the tricky negotiations, so we also brought him on as the selling agent for our current house. All along the way, we appreciated his straight answers, deep knowledge, negotiating skills, and good ideas - working with us as a partner and consultant. He helped us with stagers, movers, flooring contractors for the new house. He also advised us on what was not worth doing to prep our old house, saving us time and money. He was unfailingly professional and very responsive. He is also part of a 4-person team, so if he was ever busy, he had a teammate ready to help us. We’ve done 10 real estate transactions in life, and Simon was by far the best realtor we’ve worked with.