Justin Borsuk
Sold a Single Family home in 2020 in El Cerrito, CA.
When we were making the tough decision to sell our house in El Cerrito and move away from the Bay Area, we started reaching out to everyone for names of realtors. Our financial advisor recommended Ken, and immediately after talking with him on the phone one evening we knew he was our guy. Since Ken grew up in the Bay Area he has extensive knowledge of the entire area, the current market conditions, and specializes in the East Bay. This was our first home, and first time selling a home, so we had anxiety and were nervous about the process, especially in the middle of the pandemic and during the holidays. Ken and his amazing team immediately put us at ease. After touring our home and taking notes, we developed a strategy and his team took care of everything from that point forward. We cant say enough good things about Kens team and working with Compass. Some words that come to mind, professional, communicative, organized, positivesuper impressed with his office coordinator keeping us on schedule with inspections, touchups, etc. A special shout out to Allison Walsh who was fantastic and so nice to us throughout the whole process. We were always kept up to date and Ken made time to answer any questions or concerns, and also justified certain steps we were going to take even if we pushed back. The preparation for selling a house is stressful, but Kens team helped put us on auto-pilot to let them handle all the marketing, copywriting, yard cleanup, photography, everything. We were blown away at how the photography came out especially, and while using our own furniture as staging (since we were still living there). The copywriter did an amazing job describing the place that we loved so much. When it was time to list the house we started with an off market approach to test the waters, but Ken quickly convinced us to just go on the market and try to consolidate as many showings as possible into one weekend so we wouldnt be inconvenienced for very long. Ultimately this was the right decision, and we left for a weekend while Ken and his team scheduled 57 showings, during the pandemic, right before Thanksgiving! Absolutely stunned. Yes, the market is absolutely bonkers and we were not expecting this, but they did a phenomenal job coordinating and making sure our place was respected with that many groups going through. Before we came back to our house Ken even hired a professional cleaning crew to spend half a day disinfecting, making sure our place was better than we left it, and COVID safe, for us to return after a weekend away. The result of that weekend was that we received 15 offers (stunned again) and it blew away all of our expectations. When it came to making a decision, that was the easy part. Ken really advised us to make a purely business decision and consolidated all of the offers into a spreadsheet with key info where it was super simple to decide which offer was the best. This was actually the easiest part for us of the entire experience. For date of listing, to accepting an offer was only 6 days! Unheard of. Not only did Ken and his team exceed our expectations, they helped us negotiate a free rent-back so we could stay in our home through the holidays and take our time packing and moving. There was no pressure and we had a list of resources provided by Ken to help us with anything we needed after the sale, from hauling to cleaning services. After this whirlwind and the excitement, Ken and his team continued to go above and beyond. The day before we had to hit the road on our next adventure, Ken and his team knew we had a big road trip ahead of us, with a toddler. The amazing Allison showed up at our house and brought us probably what I would describe as the best gift basket we have ever seen. It was incredibly thoughtful and sweet and each thing was picked out for us. Pastries from one our favorite places in Rockridge, phone chargers, hand sanitizer, essential toiletries for the road, healthy snacks, toys for our sonI mean, who does this? We literally used everything on our drive and the whole way we were still shocked at the level of service and special touches that Kens team provides. Many of our friends and family I told this to after the fact would say how in the world did you find Ken?! Or I wish my realtor was like that!. We feel very lucky to have met Ken and he would be our first call for buying/selling a home in the future. In fact, I have already endorsed him and referred him to many of my colleagues at work looking to buy/sell in the Bay Area. We would totally hire Ken again without hesitation, and you should consider his expertise, and service to be top notch. Best in the Bay.