ZillowVERIFIEDOMG, where to start? We purchased our home in 2019 from a seller whose agent was Laura Baliestiero. Working with Laura was a pleasure -- and we knew, when it came time to sell the home, Laura would be our first phone call.That time came in 2021, at the height of the sellers' market. Laura was our first -- and only -- phone call, and calling Laura was the best decision we could have made. We called Laura on a Saturday, she came over on Sunday, the home went on the market 17 days later, and, 4 days after going on the market, we accepted an offer for $400K more than we paid for it -- and there is no question that the price we got for the home was because we had Laura as our agent. We've bought and sold several homes in the past, but none was as expertly managed as this.First, and possibly foremost, Laura provided expert advice on what changes we needed to make to the home (we had the hardwood floors stripped and resurfaced) and what changes we did NOT need to make to the home (my wife had a laundry list of things she wanted to do before putting the home on the market). Laura's recommendations greatly improved the home's "showability" (is that a word? it is now) while also ensuring that we didn't overspend -- and increase the time to market -- by making unnecessary changes to the home.Second, Laura told us exactly what needed to be done to stage the home, both for pictures and for showing. This included exactly what furniture to remove from the home, what furniture to leave in place, and what needed to be moved. Then she brought in her stager to stage the home.Third, Laura's team is simply superb -- her stager, her photographer, the other agents on her team -- everyone did a terrific job, and was equally terrific to work with. The workmen that Laura recommended to perform the necessary upgrades did beautiful work. By the time the home was ready to show, it really looked fantastic. Heck, I would have bought it all over again!Fourth, Laura's formula for listing the home and reviewing offers is EXCELLENT -- and like nothing we've seen before from other real-estate agents. I don't want to give it away here; all I can say is that (1) you need to work with Laura, and (2) when she explains her listing, showing, and offer-review process, a great big lightbulb will go on and you'll say, "Wow, that makes a LOT of sense!"Between offer acceptance and closing, Laura continued to provide excellent advice -- and also worked hard to ensure that the process stayed on track to get to closing on schedule. In fact, she did a better job of managing the schedule than we did, and we had only one home to manage! :-)And finally, even after closing, Laura stayed in touch with us as final details were wrapped up.I cannot stress this enough: Had we not worked with Laura, our home would not have performed as well in the sale. Simple as that. How MUCH less it would have performed is anyone's guess, but it would have been less.Laura is wonderful to work with. She's smart, she's organized, she knows the real-estate business, she knows the knows the local market, she knows her sellers and she knows what buyers want, she has a remarkable team, and she has what is clearly a well-thought-out and very effective listing and showing process. And you're not "just another client"; we always felt as if we were Laura's only clients, even though it was the height of the real-estate craze in Massachusetts. In fact, by the time we accepted an offer, Laura was a friend of the family.If you are planning to sell a home anywhere in Laura's service area, she should be your first phone call. Really, she should be your only phone call.Laura is phenomenal, and no one else comes close.
