“We would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank you for everything you did to help us through our recent move. Our chance meeting at a home showing turned out to be one of the best things that could have happened to us. We have talked to some of your other clients that feel exactly as we do. Your advice and preparation for the sale of our house helped us not only to have a contract the first day our house was on the market, but a contract for almost our full asking price. In addition, you helped us negotiate and arrange a two month lease back agreement with the buyers that was very helpful to us. We are extremely satisfied with every aspect of this transaction - from the initial advice on when to place our home on the market and how to determine the appropriate sales price to closing day when we deposited our check in the bank.
But most of all, we want to thank you for the extraordinary measures you took in working with our builder in the purchase and building of our new home. You went above and beyond, you contacted the builder on many occasions when we had questions and concerns. You regularly checked the progress and attended many meetings with us as our representative and consultant. You even used your expertise in homebuilding to help assure us we were getting a quality home and recommended an independent inspector to help alleviate our concerns. We are certain we would not be in our beautiful home without your incredible patience, understanding and expertise.
You can be assured that we intend to be your customers in any future real estate transaction. We will continue to recommend you and your services to our friends and family. Thank you Barbara Bentley!” - Barbara and Ruthie Davis
“Thank you so much for EVERYTHING you did! You found our "dream home" for us. We looked patiently for years for this home. You were so diligent and patient with us. You made it a great experience and we gained a wonderful new friend in you. Thank you. We appreciate your high integrity and honesty. You definitely put your buyers first. You treated us like family.
Over time, you nailed down exactly what would make us happy. You checked the housing market daily. We loved the phone call from you on that Friday. You said we have a "CODE BLUE !" You said that a house just came on the market that morning that we might want to see. It met our "picky" criteria. We were at the house in about an hour and by 5:30 it was ours! WHEW!!! Four weeks later we were in our wonderful home.
We couldn't have done this without you. You are definitely good at what you do! We appreciate you! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!” - Al and Laura Monsalve
“This letter is to recommend Barbara Bentley to you as a real estate agent for the sale or purchase of your home. Before you read any further, you should understand that Barbara was not our real estate agent. We had our house up "FOR SALE BY OWNER" and Barbara was acting on behalf of the people who purchased our home. Her demeanor and professionalism were such that we felt is necessary to write this letter on her behalf.
By way of background, we have moved six times in the last 20 years, buying six houses and selling five. These moves involved five totally different geographical areas of the U.S., so we have seen many real estate agents from many different companies work.
It has been our observation that most agents bring prospective buyers to the house, then stand back and say nothing while their clients wander through the house. They don't "sell", but rather just "show". When Barbara called to set up an appointment to show the house, she came early, walked through the house making note of the architectural details, then asked pertinent questions before her clients arrived. By the time the prospective buyers arrived, she was familiar with the house and actually SOLD the house by pointing out its positive features. Because she was familiar with the builder, she was able to point out features in our house that are not available from other builders in our area. I could also tell that Barbara had previously built homes, because she pointed out features to her clients that I was unfamiliar with. After her question and answer tour with her clients, Barbara encouraged them to tour the house by themselves. This was great! The potential buyers had another opportunity to learn what they needed to know about the house and therefore ask more relevant questions.
Barbara presented the offer to us in a most professional environment and in a most professional way. Accordingly, she was able to conclude the agreement, decisions and paperwork in a couple of hours. In our experiences, most real estate agents are pleasant, but most are not very professional. Barbara is both. We highly recommend her to anyone!” - Marvin and Janice Ball
“Steve and I really appreciate all of your help and expertise on the sale of our house. It was such a peace of mind for us to know we had you on our team handling all of the issues that came up. We started to sell our house by ourselves or through BUY OWNER. Looking back, I am glad we did not try that. You did a great job for us and were always available to us when we needed to get in touch with you. Don't ever lose your cell phone! I will definitely refer you to our friends who need a real professional to help them with their real estate needs.” - Steve and Shelley Ard
“Barbara was a great asset to me and my
family in helping us find the right match in location, pricing
and closing with our new home. Barbara's experience in home building and
years in the real estate business provided invaluable insight into the
present real estate market. Barbara was a professional in wading through all
of the jargon of marketing to bring everyone in on the bottom line with a
win-win attitude. She listened to our needs and concerns, and helped us
find items on the builder's walkthrough that we would not have found. Her
knowledge of the area allowed her to make recommendations to us that made
our home purchase a really smart investment. There's no doubt that Barbara
Bentley is the agent that will guide you every step of the way in the
selection of your new home.” - Steve and Ruby Stanley
“Barbara performed an excellent job while
finding a new house for us. During our search, she not only
has shown us beautiful houses with excellent quality, but also guided us
to figure out our exact needs in our first time home. As we ended up
building a new home, Barbara helped us at all the important moments
throughout the building process. From the signing of the contract with the
builder, to the three on site construction meetings, her help was
invaluable. Her assistance at our walkthrough was great! Barbara is very
friendly and always concerned about buyer's needs. We are truly happy with
her overall customer service. We have already recommended her to three of
our friends!” - Mohammed and Shamima Ali
“ Barbara listed and sold our existing home in Plano. She then guided us through the process of building our custom home in Southlake. She put together a list of homebuilders that she felt like could meet our tough requirements and one by one she arranged interviews with each builder. When it came time to do the interviews, Barbara already had a long list of questions to ask each builder-questions that only a homebuilder would know to ask. We had such a great peace of mind after we chose our builder. We felt that we had asked every question and "turned over every rock" that was possible. Next, Barbara worked closely with us and our builder in selecting our lot and the design of our home. We had no idea that one lot could cost us $30,000-$50,000 more in "lot prep" than the lot next door. Barbara was able to drive by and look at the various lots and tell if substantial hidden costs were possible. She helped us chose a great lot that literally saved us about $15,000 in costs in retaining walls, tree removal, dirt excavating, etc. We believe that we picked the best lot in Southlake and it didn't cost us one extra dime! When it came time to designing our home, we were worried about being at the builder's mercy regarding design issues and how they affected the cost. Barbara took alot of time and drove us around looking at different design styles and educated us on which design features cost money and which ones did not. We felt like Barbara went above and beyond at this stage. I would have never expected this kind of help from a realtor. Barbara was right there when it came time to review the costs of all of the little "extras" and she was able to negotiate the costs down considerably. It became evident at this point and the builder realized that Barbara knew just as much about homebuilding as she did. When the builder started talking about the costs of framing changes, mortar colors and flooring options, Barbara confronted the builder when the price quotes got out of hand. We had absolutely no idea what the costs of these items were, but Barbara did. We estimated that Barbara saved us another $10,000 in the cost of changes alone! Once our home got to the finished stage, we had a walk-through with the builder. Barbara asked us to call her when the builder scheduled the walk-through because she really wanted to be there. At this point, we wanted her there as well. After going through our home almost everyday during construction, we felt the house was ready and the walk-through list would be fairly short. Barbara's experience continued to amaze us. She checked every cabinet drawer and door, looked under and over everything. She got up in the attic and even on the roof! She checked toilets, sinks, light switches, all of the countertops for scratches and every single floor tile for any chips or cracks. She found many items that Tom and I didn't catch (nor did our builder point out!).
...When it came time to make decisions
about interim financing, permanent financing and one
time closings, Barbara's input allowed us to make the right decisions that
kept our closing costs down.
...After living in our new home for a short while, we really love it! It
is everything that we hoped for. We had friends that told us not to build
a home, mainly because of the horror stories that we have all heard. Well
now I have a wonderful homebuilding story to tell! We love our home, our
lot, our neighborhood and our builder! Tom and I are convinced that none
of them would have been possible if Barbara Bentley had not been there every
step of the way! She made it fun and interesting and we learned an awful
lot about homebuilding. We can't imagine the headaches and the frustration
we would have had without her help! Last, and certainly not least, Barbara
saved us a ton of money along the way! I highly recommend Barbara if buying
or building a new home. We have recommended Barbara to several of our friends
and will continue to do so in the future.” - Tom and Tracee Sisioan
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