Andrew Mitchell & Company

About two years ago I tried to sell this same property (with a different real estate agent). It was a dramatically different/worse market and the property sat on the market for seven months, with multiple (large) price drops, with no offers. It was one of the most miserable and stressful experiences I've had in the last ten years. I always felt my agent was lying to me about my place "being in the top two apartments for consideration" from people who viewed it, and wasn't honest with me about pricing or other improvements I needed to make (she told me originally not to put in a dishwasher, and then when I needed to put one in she said "I told you to do that originally" and so on).  
So I was really worried about putting it on the market again. Fortunately, I found Michael.  If I could sum up my experience with Michael in a few sentences, I would say that there were two things he brought to the table: really good customer service and honesty leveraged by extensive experience in selling houses (and also representing the buyer side as well). When I was doing my original research, one of the things that struck me most was that he has sold *a lot* of properties in the last few years (and not just during the recent boom). This is *extremely important* when looking for an agent. It means that the advice they give you will be supported by all the experience they have, and also that they are doing something right in the marketing of the property. It is the biggest reason to have a real estate agent -- you're not the expert, so you hire one. Especially if you have a property like mine that is for some mysterious reason hard to sell (it looks great on paper - large one bedroom in Coolidge Corner, on the C line, in a well-maintained pre-war building), this is crucial. Probably the best example of this is when we had to do the one and only price drop this time. I was under an extreme pressure from my partner to do a very large price drop (around 20k). Michael told me that he felt very strongly that it was a bad idea, that it wouldn't be necessary, and that it send all kinds of bad signals to the market, so we agreed on a smaller and more reasonable drop.  Within a few days we were in the process of negotiating the offer I accepted. I'm really glad I listened, but what allowed me to trust Michael was his experience. I really felt like he knew what he was doing.
The other good things: Michael was extremely responsive. I don't think more than a few hours went by before I heard back from him from texts or email. He was happy to go over any questions or concerns I had, but also was not afraid to make a strong recommendation. He also went over the place with a fine-toothed comb getting it ready for the the first showing/open house: he replaced lightbulbs, replaced a lighting fixture, an outlet cover... I was really impressed.  Same thing with the post-negotiation preparation -- I honestly thought the thing was going to be much more of a hassle than it was, and I felt like because of Michael's efforts there was very little I had to do.
I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Michael as a seller's agent to any of my friends. I also plan on having him be my buyer's agent for my next real estate purchase. 

great personality, professional, and sold my home in five days. Highly recommend
This realtor. He will find you the perfect home.

Michael Pallares is honest and not pushy at all.  He goes above and beyond to ensure your needs are met and keeps in touch to see how things are going.  I would definitely recommend him to anyone.

Michael was very personable, hard working, and did a great job.

We would look online and email Michael who would the set up the appointments to go look. If we ever liked a place, he would insist we look one more time, specifically in daylight, before proceeding - which was very insightful.

Great service.  Always available for phone calls.  Answered all of my questions and was fantastic.