Reviews of WaLaw Realty LLC (Real Estate Agency)

Steve Ballon

Simply amazing. WaLaw team is simply the best team you will find in real estate today. I have not come across a team with the professionalism, follow-throughs, and no-nonsense work ethics that WaLaw have. Marc and team is truly one in a million, I considered it a blessing to have the opportunity to have them handle my home transaction.

Benjamin Mathew

My wife and I had used traditional agents before--once to buy a house, and once to sell that same house. We just couldn't see the value, especially on the buying end. If you are prepared to browse MLS listings on your own (like we did anyway with our traditional buyers agent), you can save a boatload of money going with a flat-fee agent like Walaw. They charge about $5,000, which includes attorney fees. Their fees are significantly lower than Redfin, so we went with them. Though we were paying less with Walaw, they were better in every way than our previous buyers' agent: they were more experienced, more honest, and smarter. I've been recommending Walaw (and more generally, the flat-fee model) to everyone I know. It's a no-brainer. We ended up saving $17,125 with Walaw when compared to a traditional agent. I just can't see how home buyers are leaving that kind of money on the table. Go with Walaw, people!

Aaron Lee

We had a fantastic experience with Marc and Claire and would highly recommend them to anyone looking for a new home in the Seattle area.

Logan Mueller

Marc and his team did an *outstanding* job in helping me purchase a house in what is currently a very competitive market, to say the least. Marc's communication skills, intuition, negotiation skills proved most helpful in winning the bidding war that ensued while making an offer on the house I wanted. He is *very* thorough, and I can't stress this enough. He blew me away on multiple occasions with his responses to my questions, in immense clarity and detail. Congruently Kim and Claire provided their insight during the showings and inspection process, able to react swiftly enough to accommodate my hectic and unusual schedule. This is definitely the kind of team you want to have on your side. Though they are not conventional real estate agents, they did provide me the best home buying experience I've had to date, and proved to be more than knowledgeable in answering all my questions. Certainly the most responsible team I had the pleasure of working with during the closing process. Thanks again, guys

Ankit Joshi

We worked with Marc, Jason, and Claire for purchasing our first home. As first-time home buyers, there can be a lot of steps and sub-processes, that can become extremely overwhelming, and expensive. If you're the kind of tech-friendly person that is able to do their own research online, and do it well (using listings from various online resources such as Zillow, Redfin, Trulia, etc.), then WaLaw's business model should DEFINITELY be your first choice. You pay a simple flat fee, which allows you to save a sum equal to "the difference between the buying agent's commission (3%), and the flat fee you pay WaLaw." This is particularly helpful to offset some of the extra costs/charges you incur for closing on a home. At no point in dealing with Marc did we ever feel like he did not have our best interests at hand. He is extremely detail-oriented and will be able to push back on the seller for a variety of issues (that a regular realtor may not be able to). Additionally, because of the flat-fee model, Marc will do his best to negotiate as much as possible (realtors' interests in doing so are not aligned with your interests of saving money - read 'Freakonomics' to understand this further) :) The fact that Marc is also a real-estate attorney (and former loan officer), made it even more worthwhile - it was an awesome value-add to have his eyes on loan/purchase agreement documentation we were signing, terms we were agreeing to, etc. Always good to understand your liabilities in such large investments, so this was totally worth the fee you pay WaLaw! The only minor challenge you may encounter is scheduling time with WaLaw to look at homes from M-F during business hours - but if you are flexible with your schedule during this process, and are able to shortlist with relatively good accuracy the homes you wish to take a look at with WaLaw, you will find that Marc and his team are very flexible and helpful. The icing on the cake was how responsive everyone at WaLaw was to our questions/concerns/issues - they are easy to email, text, and call as necessary, and will help clarify all the various stages in the process. This is certainly the future model of home-buying and selling, so I encourage you to at least call them and explore your options with them - my wife and I could not be happier with our experience. Best of luck to everyone reading this, and I hope you find your dream home/sell your home with success (like we did). Cheers!

Valery Gross

Excellent service...even better pricing! I would highly recommended them over any standard real estate agent. We had the best experience with Marc & Jason at WaLaw. They were prompt, organized, honest, professional, and most importantly flexible in everything we did. We felt confident and assured throughout the entire process having experienced agents and attorneys representing us. On several occasions their guidance and advice helped us steer clear of pitfalls and their thoughtful approach and strategy to making bids ultimately helped us the find the home we were searching for.

Brian Hanley

I'd highly recommend WaLaw to people buying and selling in the Seattle area. Kim and her team took great care of us during our recent Queen Anne purchase, providing sound advice and counsel. On several occasions she advised against going ahead with an offer which showed she was committed to us as opposed to only committed to making a sale.

Gordon Lyon

I worked with Marc and his team at WaLaw to buy a beautiful home in Bellevue. He was extremely patient and knowledgeable and I never felt pressured to buy. And I love their flat fee model. Most agents make more money if you pay more for the house or if they steer you to a house which offers a higher commission. Marc's flat free approach keeps him unbiased and working to get us the best house and deal possible. Plus we got a huge rebate which we are using for renovations. I would use WaLaw again in a heart beat.

Siv Fern Chang

This is definitely overdue =( But last year we used WaLaw Realty to help purchase our first home. We already owned a home, but didn't have the experience of going through the process of a new home purchase. In addition we were going to purchase a new construction. Before hearing about WaLaw Realty (from friends), we had worked with an agent who had worked with some of our family members. Later we realized it was a poor fit and decided to contact WaLaw. We first emailed Marc and later followed up with some phone calls. We immediately felt at ease as if we could trust him before we had even met in person. We felt like he allowed us to voice our thoughts and concerns and genuinely listened to what we had to say. After deciding that we would like to work with Marc, we had our first meeting. It was like a breath of fresh air as we were able to be ourselves and not feel pushed or pulled in any particular direction. As we got closer to making important decisions, Marc really helped both of us by giving us things to think about as well as providing feedback. We are both analytical people who sometimes spend too much time making a decision. But Marc was patient and understanding, and had the right balance of knowing how much space to give us, as well as when to gently nudge us. In the end we made our first new home purchase and are extremely pleased with our home. Marc helped give us a positive experience, and was always there answering any questions about the process along the way. While we tried to understand all the wording of the sales agreement ourselves, Marc was diligent in reading everything in detail and going through the sales agreement with a fine tooth comb. He handled the sometimes annoying law lingo that can be a struggle to sort through and acted as our translator ;). He was both professional and personable, and it definitely felt like we were just working with an old - time, not age! ;) - friend of ours. We are more than pleased with our experience with WaLaw Realty and would highly recommend their services to anyone looking to sell or purchase a home. p.s. We didn't have the pleasure of meeting Marc's partner Craig, but we did get to meet their office manager Claire, who is also a very sweet and kind person to work with. =)

Lon

Working with WaLaw was a great experience; I would absolutely recommend to anyone. Marc went above and beyond, with sage answers to our questions and quick responses to help us make offers on tight deadlines in competitive situations.

Irene Brown

As a licensed real estate agent in the state of Colorado I was looking for a WA agent to handle my Bellevue transaction - specifically, I was looking for an agent that was not only professional and competent in real estate but also in WA real estate law. Marc Holmes and his team provided exceptional service - in fact, for a flat fee brokerage service I was astounded by Marc's level of commitment, passion and sheer knowledge. To say that I'm a satisfied customer is an understatement - Marc Holmes and WaLaw realty provide the absolute best value in the business. From discussing pricing strategy to negotiation, inspection and closing, Marc was there for me every step of the way. Whether you're searching for an agent on the buy/sell side, I highly recommend Marc and am more than happy to field any questions about the process and about my experience with WaLaw.

J.R. Willett

We had a wonderful experience working with Marc at WaLaw buying our home in Brier. If you're comfortable using the internet to find houses to look at, WaLaw is the way to go. Other reviewers have noted the pricing structure - you need to be really sure you are going to buy, since you pay some money upfront to prove you are serious. Also, don't expect them to do all the legwork for you - you need to find houses you like and ask to see them. Going to lots of open houses helps too (that's how we found the house we ended up choosing). With our first house, we used a conventional real-estate agent, which was fine, but we ended up finding the house we wanted without that agent's help. Really all we needed was someone to let us in for tours, and someone to do the heavy lifting when it comes time for all the paperwork. If that's all YOU need, you should check out WaLaw. With our second house, we were going to use Redfin, but my friend who used WaLaw to purchase his house recommended that we check them out. I'm so glad we did! On the paperwork side, WaLaw is absolutely ideal, because they are lawyers too! They aren't just pushing papers around that somebody else wrote - they can make changes on your behalf, and they can explain things to you as a lawyer. Marc and Claire were great from start to finish. I would highly recommend them to anybody. Plus, you save money - even more than you would save by using Redfin! (I also posted this review on Yelp)

Jeremiah Braunstein

I highly recommend WaLaw Realty! We used them to both sell our home and purchase our new home which saved us tens of thousands of dollars. We appreciated Marc's background in law and felt he was head and shoulders above any real estate agent we have ever worked with, I plan to use WaLaw anytime and every time I have a real estate transaction.

Brian Shelver

I've worked with the team at WaLaw Realty as a buyer and a seller and can attest to the outstanding service on both sides of the transaction. I was completely satisfied with the results and felt good about saving a significant amount of money in the process!

Oscar Dicenta

Cannot be happier. I have used Marc's services twice already, once for buying a place to live, and years later to sell it because I had to leave for good. He guided me through the process, avoiding some hidden pitfalls because of my particular situation (I was a non US resident that was leaving the country). It was not easy, and sometimes I felt the urge to do some stupid things. Thankfully Marc was there to give me a good and professional advice and that made that all went good. Thanks so much to all the team! I could not have done it without all of you.

James Carroll

Used these guys to buy my house. Very easy to work with, very professional. I plan to use them for my next purchase.

Vitalina Komashko

WaLaw is the answer for tech-savvy home shoppers. The amount of money we saved by simply being able to use freely available online MLS sources is unbelievable. Setting up automatic new listing alerts is easy and saved us thousands of dollars (covered our entire closing fees with enough left over to lower our interest rate!). It’s important to note, however, that less expensive does not mean no frills. We found WaLaw agents, Marc and Kim, Jason and Claire, to be incredibly responsive and communicative. They included us on every email possible and kept us in the loop constantly. They toured numerous homes with us giving their valuable opinion and had what it took to close a home in a very seller-friendly Ballard market. I think most importantly WaLaw are not just real estate agents, but also real estate lawyers. They advise on the state of paperwork and look for important details that we had no idea about. They noticed a missing tax requirement form in our final paperwork that could have cost us months down the line. We have no doubt that many real estate agents can fulfill your needs but WaLaw did everything we wanted and more for a fraction of the cost (We had around 70% savings!) We cannot recommend them enough and will be recommending WaLaw to all of our friends. We will look forward to working with WaLaw the next time when we need to buy or sell a house.

Marco Magdy

Unlike the majority of realtors who got their license by passing a simple test after studying for two days, WaLaw agents are actual attorneys, they're very detailed and thorough. Kim pointed out things in our purchase agreement that we would not have realized or understood, thanks to the extra long 60+ pages of legalese enforced by the builder. With WaLaw you get legal representation and you save thousands of dollars compared to vanilla realtors. Highly recommended.

Brian McFadin

WaLaw was great to work with, and we saved over $11,000 on our home purchase! Highly recommended.

Austin Thomas

Based on a friends recommendation, we engaged WaLaw Realty for our home purchase, and it turned out to be the best real estate decision we made! Being novices in the real estate market, we really benefited from Marc and Kim's real estate acumen in deciding on the right house and the right offer amount. Kim worked with us on the house we ended up buying and she really made the whole process very smooth for us and ensured we closed on time! The icing on the cake was the hefty rebate we got from WaLaw Realty which helped cover all the closing costs and on top of that we were able to reduce the purchase price of the house. I would love to work with them again!

Mike Nash

Fantastic service, expert advice. A drastically more equitable approach to home buying. Good stuff!

Scott Gunther

We used WaLaw to list and sell our house. Marc was great. He provided just the right amount of service and his knowledge of the wording of the sale agreement was great. The amount we saved was great too!

Ruby Hoang

Highly recommended. Marc and Claire have been a great guidance for first time home buyer like us in the Greater Seattle area. They went above and beyond to address any concerns we have promptly, making the buying process a lot smoother. We also love their flat fee model and never felt pressured to buy.

Brad Kinley

We recently bought a home with Walaw in a market with very low inventory and aggressive closures. Kim from Walaw was our broker and did an excellent job helping us find, and secure, a home. Kim was a fierce proponent of our interests from the initial search, to final closing. She was thorough, aggressive in making sure we could bid quickly and competitively. She viewed all of our top picks in person with us, gave us insight from the MLS notes about the listing, and her recommendations on the type of things we should look for. I was most impressed with Kim in that I always felt she was not looking to quickly put us into a house, but rather finding the right house with us, and make sure we would be happy there for the long term. For me, that alone is what will keep me recommending walaw to my friends and family. They responded quickly to email and phone calls, and were able to view properties with us on very short notice. She also was instrumental in helping us complete a very quick closing, wrangling our lender/the seller. The only aspect of the service I didn't like was the home inspector (john) we used, which was on their list of recommended vendors, was not great. I wish I would have looked elsewhere for that aspect, but overall this is less their failing than his. Overall, we saved a huge amount of money at closing, felt protected and in the hands of an advocate, and got the house we were looking for with minimal fuss in a difficult market for buyers. We will be using walaw again!

Lauren Buckley

We enthusiastically recommend WaLaw. We initially chose WaLaw solely because of the lower fee structure compared to other realtors, but we were very happily surprised by the great advice we got from Marc. On home tours, he was quite knowledgeable about details of construction and comparative market value of property. He was very analytical and gave us much more detail than we were used to hearing from realtors. Once we selected a property, Marc worked effectively and efficiently to submit a strong offer. Having a lawyer working on our behalf increased our confidence during the purchasing process. Marc and Claire were responsive and helpful every step of the way. In the end, we got a much nicer house than we hoped, for less money than we planned to spend. WaLaw provided great value at an affordable price.

D Plumb

Great experience selling a home with Marc and team! Smart, insightful, attentive and honest service. The biggest help was their pre-sale inspection and ability to make suggestions that really helped make the sale competitive. You can always feel confident with Wa Law on your side, and who doesn't like saving a bit of money.

Prasad Nair

We worked with Jason while selling our home at Sammamish. The service was professional and Jason was very punctual. We saved money hiring WaLaw Realty. We are glad that we used WaLaw realty. In fact, I was referred by another happy customer !