Best real estate broker in the area

My wife Beth and I recently bought and then sold our homes through one of your agents, Carol Staats. I had known Carol from working on the RTC together and other town organizations, so I contacted her and asked if she would meet with us to discuss the possible sale of our Falls Village home. With our last child in college, we were investigating our options and wanted some professional advice on how to proceed with our goal of downsizing.

When Carol met with us in the early fall, she let us know that the Falls Village market was a bit slow and a sale could take some time. We were discouraged because we wanted to start looking right away and we knew we could not buy until we sold Falls Village (or so we thought). Upon further discussion, Carol suggested that, with our low mortgage balance, we look into a home equity line of credit which would allow make some pre-sale repairs and still have money to purchase our new home. She helped us find a smaller home in Ancram, and we were able to avoid the NYS mortgage tax.

We quietly listed the house for $325,000 in the fall of 2017, but choose not to make it public, until all the repairs were completed. I worked through the winter rebuilding my porch, redoing the sheetrock of the upstairs hallway, and painting, as Carol suggested. We also took her advice and had the septic inspected. That turned out to be great advice, as the tank needed replacement and we took care of it in advance without stress!

As the time approached to go public with the listing, Carol suggested one more thing! I was exhausted at this point but was willing to listen. She said, "you need to remove the pantry” and open an area that had been two small hallways. We were tired of making changes, but she insisted that this job would remove a major flow issue of the home. She said that a $2000 expense will net us a $10,000 return. We were hesitant, but we went along with it. The result was better then we could have expected.

We closed on our house in Ancram and were anxious to get moving, all of the projects were done so the Falls Village house was put on the MLS. We had a number of showings and finally, on day 27 of the listing, we received an offer for $5,000.00 below asking price, way more than the $10,000 return on our $2,000 improvement!

Carol's knowledge, energy, and encouragement made the whole process seem so easy. Beth and I are thrilled with our new home and are so glad that it was Carol who helped us. She is a true professional and an asset to Elyse Harney Real Estate.

Respectfully,

Tom Grayson

The Elyse Harney Real Estate team led by Kathleen Devaney and supported by Elyse Harney Morris and their team were incredible. Their knowledge of local market conditions and the network to support and complete our recent sale were impressive. It felt like there was nothing they could not facilitate with a few short calls. They are clearly professionals and extremely well connected in the local community. We could not have been in more experienced hands. More importantly, Kathleen went above and beyond multiple times throughout the entire process including taking on many of the tasks of the buyer agent to complete the transaction. Definitely the MVP. She left no stone unturned. She kept us completely informed throughout the entire process.

We used the services of the Elyse Harney Real Estate team to buy (many years ago) and then recently sell this property. Kathleen and Elyse are wonderful to work with professionally. They are both fun, wonderful human beings. We can, without reservation, highly recommend their services.

A year ago, we spent the better part of the afternoon sitting out front of the White Hart catching up with Elyse Morris and telling her that after five years of on and off looking, we were really ready to buy. The fact that she and John Panzer still took our phone calls after all this time, probably says it all. They didn’t just want to sell us a house, they wanted to help us buy the house that was right for us.

Having only ever owned apartments, buying a house, let alone buying a house from afar, was a daunting process. We knew nothing about furnaces, roofs, annual landscaping costs, and the list goes on. John and Elyse went above and beyond, pointing out potential issues, educating us on the pros and cons of various heating and cooling systems and helping to entertain our children as we toured houses.

Alas, when we did find the right house all did not go smoothly and again John and Elyse stepped up to the plate, keeping both parties engaged in a deal that could have easily fallen apart and helping to oversee the installation of a new septic system prior to closing.

We have been the happy owner of a CT weekend house for the past seven months and while we don’t expect to ever leave this home, if we do, John and Elyse will be our first call.

We highly recommend Elyse Harney Real Estate for their personal service, market knowledge, and deep relationships with local service providers. They make everything easy from purchasing, renovating and renting a home to selling it. Elyse Harney Morris and John Panzer listen to and understand your goals and guide you personally through everything necessary to enjoy the wonderful Lakeville and Salisbury area.