Leading Edge Real Estate

Working with Katya Pitts was a great experience. As a first time home buyer I was not familiar with the terminology or the processes involved. Katya's extensive knowledge on every thing was so helpful and comforting. Katya was patient, friendly, and helpful whenever I needed her. I sincerely and highly recommend Katya Pitts!

Katya was the listing broker for my house in Wayland which closed on 12/16/2016. I interviewed several brokers and received quotes that varied by 23% from lowest to highest. She best understood the house's potential. The house sold for 97% of her suggested asking price, which was the second highest of all the quotes. Although I was planning to move in a couple of weeks, I did not plan to move the furnishings until after the house sold. Katya worked with me to present the house at its best. I met with her stager who told me what to store or get rid of. After I moved, Katya and her stager, rearranged my furniture and art, and brought in her own furniture (beds, tables, chairs) and art. This presented the house in its best light and I am confident increased the final sales price. This was a significant effort that no other agent had offered to do. The sales process was difficult. Vermiculite insulation, a potential asbestos hazard, was found in the attic. Remediation is a difficult, expensive process. Katya immediately arranged for an assessment and estimate by a licensed removal company. She was also aware of potential grants to defray the cost. Although the remediation and some minor maintenance issues threatened to delay the closing, Katya kept the process on track. I cannot recommend Katya highly enough. She is a professional and a pleasure to work with.

Katya is very professional and very knowledgeable. Although I didn't eventually buy a condo using her the only reason I didn't was because I had to look further outside metro Boston to find a place I like but could afford. I would have no hesitation recommending Katya to a relative or friend, and should I move back into Boston at some point I would work with her again. She has my highest recommendation.

Our needs for our next home were challenging: we wanted an older home we could renovate, in a fabulous low-inventory neighborhood, with room to grow. A tremendous challenge for an average realtor, but not for Katya who was an enthusiastic, collaborative partner in making this dream a reality. She helped us find the property, negotiated expertly with the sellers, brought in the very best resources to inspect and advise. Her knowledge is both broad and deep and she is an absolute pleasure to work with. I recommend her wholeheartedly.

My brother and I live in Costa Rica, and a sister in N.H., so we had to find a Realtor who really knew the market, the business and was confident, professional and trustworthy. Katya far exceeded our expectations! A fantastic communicator who really knows the market and how to explain things to us (the sellers) . We contacted her from Costa Rica, told her we'd be heading Stateside, as Mom's passing would be "soon" and that the family home needed to be sold, when she did pass. This required Katya to work out of quite a different scenario, one that required a Trust Realty Trustee, a lawyer the children had hired, and having only one point person. Katya was a delight to work with. Never felt more confident working with such a trustworthy, honest and the HARDEST working professional in Realty. Not one negative thing to say, she was always available, upbeat and always in touch with updates.

Katya was amazing during the very stressful time of simultaneously buying a home and selling my old place. She is an extremely knowledgeable professional who has a wonderful network of resources. She was always available and responsive when I needed advice or questions answered. And she's really smart and thoughtful and acts with integrity. I was so pleased that I could trust that she was working with my best interest in mind. When there were bumps in the process, she steered us through to an equitable resolution. I highly recommend her without reservation?.and I have pretty high standards!

We bought our house in Arlington almost 6 years ago and at that point, we had only 1 dog and no kids. Now, we have 2 kids and a third one coming in a couple of months, we decided that we need to move to a bigger house. I found Katya through Angie's List based on reviews and at that point, we were in the very early process. Anyhow, I left her a voicemail and she called me back within half an hour or so. We scheduled to have her to come to our house and we had our discussion. She came back a few days later with her estimated value of our house. Once we decided to hire her, she had a stager over who gave us a list or projects that may help to speed up the sale + potential higher sale price. Katya then gave us a list of contractors whom she work with closely ... which by the way, are awesome! We had open houses the weekend after Labor Day and Katya was there herself on both Sat and Sun (instead of some hire-guns). We had 40+ parties visiting during the open houses and ended up getting 4 offers. We ended up accepting one which was 10+% over our asking price. One good thing about Katya is she is honest and she did a good job managing our expectation. We haven't closed on the sale yet but it is coming in a month or so ... and since Katya did such a good job, I have decided to write her a review before the whole transaction is done. On the buying side, we decided to hire Katya partly because we need the proceed from the sale of our house for down payment for the new house and we think that having one agent instead of two makes the coordination of the transactions easier. And obviously, the fact that Katya is a pleasure to work with helps. We had a few offers rejected in Winchester and Lexington but we are now in the process of closing on a house in Wellesley, which is scheduled to close a day after the closing of our Arlington house. If you are considering of buying/selling a house, I highly recommend Katya.

Overall we had a great experience with Katya. The buying process took a while as we were purchasing in a sellers market. Katya was pretty patient with us as we took close to a year to find our new place. Katya really helped us when we sold the condo. We received multiple offers and we went through a couple days of negotiation with multiple prospective buyers. Ultimately she negotiated a great price for our condo and we sold it to a couple that really wanted it. Overall Katya did a great job and we would recommend her and work with her again in the future.

From start to finish the sale of my mom's home went better than I would have ever expected. Without going into detail, there were circumstances beyond my control that prevented me from listing my (deceased) mother's home in October 2014 as originally intended. Katya was professional in terms of waiting until I was able to list the house - with no pressure in the meantime other than to let me know the 'status' of the housing market in terms of current inventory and pricing until such time as I could list the house. When I was able to list house in April 2015 I got back in touch with Katya. Again there were circumstances beyond my control which stood in the way of having an open house. But Katya took that in stride. She had 59 total showings - between Friday May 1 and Monday May 4. She was present at ALL the showings to answer questions and 'talk' up the home. Basically she 'camped out' till the house was sold. She then 'qualified' every offer with the prospective buyer and his/her lender. In presenting me with all offers, she put together a simplified chart so I did not have to initially read every single word of the 21 offers. Instead at a glance, I could get an initial glimpse at all offers through the comprehensive chart she provided. Additionally Katya narrowed down the 'best' offers to five. (Note: 'Best' offer did not necessarily mean highest $ offer but rather took into account ALL factors involved in offer including down payment, contingency clauses, lender verification, etc. At the end of the day though the house to the highest bidder as Katya encouraged me to ask for best-and-final offer from those that had been narrowed down.) Katya is smart, energetic, personable, warm, inviting, non-aggressive in her sales approach - someone I could easily relate to. I highly recommend her. And I would not hesitate to list my own home with her when/if the time comes that I wish to sell.

As soon as we met with her, it was clear she had a great understanding of the local market. Katya understood what we were looking for and the budget we had to work with. She offered insight into the options we had and answered our questions promptly and accurately. The team she recommended to work with was top notch. The most impressive thing was her rapport with the listing agents. It was not hard to tell she is well respected.

I am still using her services. Her service is free until she sells me a house. I find her to be very professional, knowldgeable, good at it, and also quick.

Katya is the ideal real estate agent in my opinion: smart, ethical, kind, personable, professional, and driven. Were I still in Arlington I would use no other real estate agent, ever. Katya was able to recognize and help us capitalize on the strengths our house offered, minimize its weaknesses, set a price 15% higher than our other real estate agent had estimated, and get us 8 offers (5 over asking price) within 24 hours of putting it on the market. Katya is very innovative, technically savvy, modern, and sharp. She is a pleasure to work with. She brought in great people and made top notch recommendations (e.g. window washer, handymen, a wonderful stager) so as to quickly and economically bring out the best in our house. It was as if our house had gotten a (high quality) makeover before it got its (high quality) beauty shots and (high quality) video and web site. Part of the reason she was able to set the price on our house so high was that she actually helped us significantly INCREASE its fair market value through minor, but critical improvements. The one thing that bothered us is that she was sometimes late, but this did not hurt our end result, and I'd rather have Katya arrive late than have anyone else arrive on time, any day.

I found Katya on Angie?s List after having read so many glowing reports on her. I was in the market looking to buy an investment property. Katya is a true professional who has extensive knowledge of the market. We communicated several times via email and phone on my requirements and finally set up a meeting to discuss an action plan. The following weekend, we saw four properties. Katya offered her objective advice on each one ie. potential, proximity to town and MBTA service, work that needs to get done (if at all), condo associations and reserves; comparative analysis on similar units that were sold ? in short, everything was covered to ensure I knew what I was getting into. We were able to finally narrow down to one property that had everything I was looking for and Katya was all ready to help me with the bid. However, due to a personal un-accounted family commitment in the not-too-distant future, I had to regretfully, re-consider my plans for an investment for now. I was very confident however that if we went in to bid, Katya would have successfully done all she could to get the property for me at a price that was fair market value. Katya is friendly, smart, honest, thorough and such a pleasure to work with. It is rare to be able to find someone who is pro-active and knows the market as well as she does. Moreover, with her background in economics and business, she offers very thoughtful and sound approaches, always with my interests at the forefront. I highly recommend Katya to anyone who is looking to buy, sell or invest in real estate. If there was an A+ for rating, Katya would have my endorsement for it. ML

We found Katya on Thursday and had an offer accepted the following Monday night. Now that's a buyer's agent. Katya was incredibly informative, detail-oriented, thorough and helpful in the purchase of our first home. She gave us ballparks for repair/home improvement costs and provided comparative analyses of sale history in the towns we were interested in. She knew more than just the basics of heating and electric systems. When she arrived late to the second open house we were attending, we were a bit confused but she came out of her car, notepad in hand, and told us all about the four bus lines that passed the first house and how these might help us commute on the MBTA. When she was told there was a street-wide moratorium on gas lines for a house we were interested in, she called the city engineer to find out more information. We will certainly use Katya again, either as a buyer's or a seller's agent, and strongly recommend her to anyone in the market.

Katya helped an out of estate seller execute a deal that was very attractive to all concerned. She expertly moved the deal along, providing the right amount of education and deal leadership to make sure we got a good bid by a qualified buyer with the minimum of entaglements. Very good at her job.

After setting an initial price, Katya had a marketing specialist (Helene from More than a Move) come to the house and talk about staging. (Katya paid for Helene's visit.) Because it was a small house, it had some clutter, I'll admit (lots and lots of books, for one thing). Helene recommended that we clean the house out completely, repaint it, and stage it with minimal furnishings. We followed her advice (using two dumpsters to help us downsize) and even moved out to an apartment in Somerville so we could really empty the place out. (Moving to Somerville was always part of our plan--we just did it a few weeks early.) After cleaning the house out and having it repainted, we decided to refinish the hardwood floors as well. Apparently not everyone does this much to prepare, but all the extra work paid off, because Katya then raised the asking price when it went on the market. She also brought in several pieces of furniture to help stage it (at no cost to us ) that made the house look very livable and spacious for a small family. Katya then brought in a professional photographer and videographer to create the marketing materials and custom website--again, no charge to us. Having professionals shoot the photos/video made a huge difference compared to a lot of the marketing materials you see on real estate listings. Katya also helped us pick an attorney to handle the legal work. We almost sold the house within the first three days, but the buyer got cold feet and cancelled after making an offer. Unfortunately, we lost two beautiful weekends that we could have had open houses, but Katya told us not to worry. She held several more open houses and showed the house numerous times during the week as well. After about a month, we sold the house for about $15,000 more than Katya's preliminary valuation before the big clean-up. During the time between offer and settlement, Katya kept in touch with us about the buyer's financing, any questions, etc. She and her Team Katya staff also handled things such as the Lexington fire/smoke alarm inspection for us so that we wouldn't have to leave work to meet the town inspector. We settled a short time ago and received our money immediately--no hitches. As a person who has worked (in Virginia) for both a new homebuilder and a large association of Realtors, I'm very picky about who I use to handle my real estate transactions (which, thankfully, aren't that frequent!). Katya Pitts is by far one of the most knowledgeable, professional, and just plain pleasant Realtors we've ever worked with. My husband and I would recommend her to anyone planning on buying or selling a home in the Boston area.

Katya is professional. This is the first time I buy a house. My colleague recommended Katya. I am the 3rd in our company to hire Katya. The first time we met she told me roughly what the entire process will be. I feel that is very helpful for first time buyer because I had no idea what I will have to do, how long it will take etc. She asked me some background and recommended some areas and house types I can consider. All those information is helpful for me. Katya went to a few open houses with me, pointed out things I need to pay attention to. She did evaluation for the price and sent me a detailed table comparing the price / conditions of recent sold nearby. She helped me in making the offer, negotiating and eventually closing. It took me a long time to finally buy a house and Katya is helpful in the entire process. I will recommend her.

We hired Katya based on a few factors -- (1) she's smart (has background in corporate America / management consulting) and takes a thoughtful, quantitative approach to valuing a property, (2) from her corporate experience, she understands the importance of being responsive to one's client, (3) she had great reviews on Angie's List, (4) she includes staging services in connection with representing sellers, and (5) her commission rate was highly competitive (and cheaper than other realtors whom we met with). Did she meet or exceed our expectations? Absolutely, without question, she exceeded our expectations. She was outstanding and produced a fantastic result for us, selling our home within one week and for approx. 10% over the asking price. She was also a pleasure to deal with in the transaction; she has a pleasant, friendly, and confident manner that deals effectively with a range of personalities. We needed to sell our home quickly -- having already purchased another home in another town -- and Katya 100% delivered for us. We highly recommend her services without hesitation.

We met with Katya in Nov of 2013 about the sale of our 2-family home in Arlington Heights. Katya immediately impressed us with her knowledge of the market and her professionalism. We were impressed by her approach to the sale and suggestions on what to do and not to do in order to sell the property on our terms. We put the house on the market in April of 2014 and after the first weekend we had 10 offers on the house. Katya guided us about cleaning and staging the property, painting, and all the necessary repairs. We could not recommend Katya more highly.

Katya is a pleasure to work with. She's very well-informed about the local real estate market and is an expert in sales trends, comparables and pricing. She has a calm and personable demeanor and puts people at ease. I used her services as a selling broker, and even the buyer's broker commented on how great she is to work with. She made sure my home was fully ready for sale by bringing in a stager and giving me a number of recommendations on small repairs and touch ups to make my home look its best. She was also invaluable in the negotiating process, being firm yet professional in representing my wishes. There were a couple of moments when she asked me to have something fixed or changed in the house on short notice. I would have preferred to have advance notice for these, or maybe a written checklist. To be fair, some of that may have been beyond her control or just a reflection of the aggressive market in my area. But some simple tips (like how to handle nail holes in the wall for the final walkthrough) would have been appreciated earlier. This is a minor issue though and overall I would recommend her services without hesitation.

I interviewed Katya along with two other realtors in November of 2013. I was immediately impressed by the fundamentally different way in which Katya approached the valuation process. Katya's background in both economics and in business means that rather than relying only on subjective judgements, Katya was able to provide a thorough market-based quantitative analysis that was specific to my property and the specific time I wanted to be on the market. Though of course every house and every sale is different, Katya's advice helped me get a final price on the sale of my home that was a full 15% higher than the high end of the ranges provided by the other two realtors. This makes a huge difference for me as a young professional--I would have left a very significant amount of money on the table if I had gone with one of Katya's competitor's recommendations. I could not be more pleased with Katya's service, and will recommend her to my own friends and family looking to work with a realtor in Boston. Katya was always available by email and phone any time I had questions, and she even connected me with other professionals that helped during the process, including an appliance repairman and someone to help me manage my move away from Boston.

Katya is a professional real estate agent who knows her product and presents it well. I highly recommend her as an A+ real estate agent.

As a first time home buyer in a very competitive market, I knew finding an agent I could trust would be extremely important. I found Katya by listening to the way she spoke to the other attendees at an open house she was hosting. She came across as warm and with a deep knowledge of the markets I was looking at. After reading through the other reviews here and scheduling some time to talk with her, I knew I'd found the perfect agent for me. Throughout my search, I felt Katya listened carefully to my input, and gave expert advice about everything along the way, from location, to pricing, to giving me the best possible chance of success when making a bid. Despite an extremely competitive market, she never pressured me to make concessions I wasn't comfortable with or to commit to a property I wasn't really interested in. In the end, I feel her advice was absolutely critical in securing my successful bid. If you're looking for an agent who values market data and experience first, and who acts with her clients' interests foremost, I can't recommend Katya highly enough.

I was very lucky to have Katya as my agent for my condo sale. I hired her after reviewing so many positive reviews from the Angie?s list. The house selling process is a stressful process, but Katya made the process as smooth and easy as possible. She is very professional, helpful, patient and honest. I think she truly loves what she is doing. Katya also responded to all of my questions almost immediately and was always there when I needed her. She was extremely hard-working and was always very well prepared. Her team members I worked with are also very professional and friendly. I highly recommend Katya and I am sure that you won?t regret it!

Katya was professional, friendly, and accessible. She was able to stage our house very well, attracting great offers. We were able to sell the house sooner than expected, and at a higher price point too. Granted, the market this year has been great, but Katya made the whole process painless and very stress-free!