Buyer's Edge Company, Inc.

It went very well. Victoria and Marshall made sure they understood our needs and were assiduous and responsive in finding appropriate options for us. Unlike seller's brokers, they will point out flaws and inappropriate features in a property, instead of just pushing selling points. They helped me negotiate a great price, as well as a grant at closing. Both Victoria and Marshall are experienced and knowledgeable about homes, the buying process, and Things to Look Out For. Best of all, I always felt they were on my side and working to protect my interests and needs. Highly recommended!

Hello Potential Buyer's Edge clients! I have known about the Buyer's Edge for more than 20 years! Why? Because I do a national column on real estate for newspapers across the U.S. and have interviewed Steve Carpenter-Israel many times! The depth of his knowledge has always impressed me. He is truly a very committed consumer advocate with a deep knowledge of real estate markets. So when my son recently decided to purchase a Washington area condo, I turned immediately to Steve to represent him in the search and purchase! What sets Steve and his colleagues apart from the multitude of agents across the area is that he is totally dedicated to the buyers' interests. He takes an in-depth interest in the buyers' priorities and then uses the best technology to search for the available properties in the desired area. Once the buyers have developed a short list of finalist properties, he uses his incisive analytical tools to compare and contrast potential options. This analysis covers both the relative value of the property -- compared with comparable sales -- and the quality of the structure of the home itself. At the conclusion of this process, the buyers can be certain that they have made the best possible selection and have not overpaid. In the case of my son, Steve's work resulted in a very positive outcome. He and his partner are thrilled with the condo they selected in NW Washington and they are certain the price they paid was fair and that the terms of the transaction best served their interests. In summary, Steve and his colleagues at the Buyer's Edge are nothing short of brilliant! I have no hesitation to recommend them very highly.

We were moving from out of state to the Bethesda/DC area, and knew we wanted to work with a Buyer's only agent to buy our house. We're so glad that we found Buyer's Edge (a buyer only agent), and can't say enough great things about Steve. Steve was the owner of the company and our agent from day. He impressed us so much with his knowledge of the Maryland/DC/virginia area. Because we were still living out of state at the time, he would do the initial screen of what's on the market, and give us his suggestions on whether it's worth flying down to see the house. His dedication made us feel that he was not only our agent, but also a friend. Our house was in a multi-offer situation with 5 offers, and we can honestly say his rich experience in real estate is what got us the house. He went above and beyond what a typical agent would do from helping us in finding a great inspector, to recommending mortgage lenders, contractors. We wanted to renovate a few areas of the house, when we couldn't be there to meet the contractors, he did and he even went to the house and did all the measurements for us so that we could order what we need to get the renovation started on time. Everyone in his office was also super helpful and professional. We couldn't have worked with a better agent or office.

We used Victoria and Marshall Henderson to purchase our first home in 2012. When we found we needed to move, they helped hook us up with an amazing seller and helped us locate our beloved second home! They know the business in and out and have great advice not only on searching for homes, weighing priorities, but are extremely knowledgeable about house maintenance and were indispensable on walk-throughs and inspections. They also check in to this day to see how we are doing, ask about our kids, and give advice on home ownership, referrals when asked for home services, etc. We've recommended them to many friends and even family, and would happily use them again if we find ourselves needing to move around the DMV area again!

Steve was fantastic. He was helpful, attentive, and in many cases read our mind about what we wanted. We really felt like he had our back throughout the process. Not only was he knowledgable about the real estate process, but also knew contractors, repairpeople, and consultants for everything we needed. He made an incredibly stressful process easy--a buyer's agent was not something I had heard of before starting this process, and I highly recommend it.

John was great, had a very positive experience with him, He is a type A personality, but is very personable, and is a Top Notch Real Estate Agent. He made sure you had everything organized, he was prompt, would come pick us up. He stayed on top of the market, I have recommended him several times to my friends, and if I was to ever move again I would be looking him up.

Personalized service.

The purchase went very smoothly. There were no surprises and we will definitely seek his help when the time comes for our next move.

We were new to Northern Virginia when we employed Steve and Buyer's Edge and did not know much at all about the communities or markets. We employed Buyer's Edge in late 2012 and specifically requested Steve Israel to work with us in early 2013 after we had a property tour with him in Falls Church. We worked with four or five different agents/brokers in the beginning of our search trying to find what worked best for us. On the Falls Church tour mentioned above, Steve really stood out to us due to his ability to fully examine and detail a property for sale. He was exceptional at finding details of all kinds that we should itemize and consider in order to (1) determine if the property was desirable and (2) determine what our initial offer price should be. At the time we were buying, inventories were exceptionally low and many buyers were offering - one that we offered (and ultimately lost) actually had eight offerors with offer ranges and escalation. All the and quot;textbookand quot; on buying a property is very hard to follow in such an environment and everything becomes quite risky for a buyer. Offerors waive contingencies (inspection, financing) to make their bids attractive to the seller. If we were not willing to take these kinds of risks, we would either (1) have to settle on fix-up or otherwise less desirable properties or (2) make many, many offers and wait to get lucky. Steve was a superb asset especially in this situation - he was very candid and patient in dealing with our risk tolerance (we eventually involved into calculated risk-takers). But most importantly when we would visit properties his ability to guide our evaluation made a big difference. On and quot;hotand quot; properties we would have to waive inspection, for example. There were a few homes where he helped us walk away and and quot;waitand quot; due to potentially major concerns. There were others where he helped us get at least a lighter inspection performed before making a bid (that's right, before). There were still others where we decided the risks to not inspecting were minimal and we offered and quot;as isand quot; without inspecting before. (After all, paying for even lighter inspections does add up.) He had a great ability to eye condition and construction and was very patient and persistent in helping us know what he felt we needed to know, and we learned we could trust him. It actually becomes quite an expense of time and money working as a buyer in this environment, but we feel that Steve did a great job at helping us keep our hunting costs and offer risks to a minimum and eventually get a house that we've been satisfied with in a desirable neighborhood of McLean. Obviously a buyer's agent is paid on commission of sale price, but we felt that he was earnest about understanding what we valued (both my wife and me, individually, and as parents of two children). It is a lot of work to go on many property walkthroughs with clients - I'm estimating we went on 25 to 30 with Steve in Falls Church, McLean, Wolftrap, Vienna, Annandale and Arlington. Often times it was evenings, weekends or lunchtime and on short notice, but he was very accommodating and accessible. Many times we needed to see a property as soon as it went on the market, because often sales occurred within hours or days and before open houses. Without his responsiveness and our collective flexibility there is no way we would have kept up. It is really hard to evaluate Steve as a negotiator, because the vast majority of our offers were in competition. Sellers had their pick of offers and everything sold over list price. We did have one non-competitive bid (which actually went into close and then was killed by seller negligence) and I didn't see anything particularly noteworthy about the negotiation one way or the other. I will say that this seller was exceptionally erratic and difficult to work with (we were not even allowed in the house at first for our inspection while in closing) and Steve showed persistence in helping us stay on target and get done what we needed to. We also didn't really get a chance to evaluate him from the perspective of neighborhood or community selection since by the time we employed him we had already been in the hunt for a while and had a pretty specific set of communities we were targeting. He was able to help us see certain characteristics of homes in certain communities (one example was a very and quot;hotand quot; neighborhood that had homes with risky construction issues), which helped us considerably as our search matured. Steve did strike us initially as edgy and forceful, and we weren't sure how to take that at first since we were used to working with agents with lots of standard image here in Northern Virginia. But it was not long before we became comfortable with his personality and frankness and it helped us trust him. He runs a small brokerage and is an entrepreneur and is a genuine property junkie and we found that to be good for us especially considering the environment in which we were buying. We were pleased with Steve's skills, knowledge and personal attention and would work with him again if buying.

Ben Stern was my buyer's agent for a condo purchase. He was extremely friendly and professional, always very responsive, and did a great job of patiently walking me through the process of being a first-time home buyer. When there was a hiccup in the transaction (through no fault of Ben or Buyer's Edge), Ben provided great representation and made sure the transaction stayed on track. He went above and beyond by meeting contractors at the property when I couldn't be there. I would highly recommend Ben and Buyer's Edge to anyone in the market to buy a property in the DC metro area. The cost of services was 0 to me, the buyer, because Buyer's Edge was paid on the seller's side of the transaction.

Although this wasn't our first home purchase, being new to the DC Metro area, we decided to enlist the help of a real estate broker. A family member suggested we look for a buyers only representative as she had had a positive experience with one in St. Louis. We did some basic internet research (without Angie's List) and came across Buyer's Edge. After a quick telephone consultation with the owner of the company, we set up an appointment with one of the agents, Ben Stern, and we weren't disappointed. He was energetic and knew the area well having grown up in Montgomery County. He spent some time listening to what we wanted in a new home and then helped us devise a search that would find us what we were looking for. When we went out to visit homes, he educated us about what to watch out for and what was a good sign that the home was well maintained. In under 3 months, we found the right home for us and, when we did, Ben patiently walked us through the process of completing the transaction. All-in-all, it was an excellent experience and we will definitely go back to Ben and Buyer's Edge if we decide to buy another home sometime in the future. Note: The reason the amount paid is and quot;$0.00and quot; is because Buyer's Edge shares the commission with the seller's broker and, as the buyers, we didn't have to pay him a thing.

Dana was extremely knowledgeable, professional and helpful throughout the process of home-buying from the day we interviewed her until after settlement. During house showings she was good at pointing out many things that we, as first-time buyers, were unaware of. She was a great negotiator for us and supported us in all decisions that we made, whether it was to end negotiations or move forward. The time from negotiation to settlement was when Dana really shined. Her tenacity in fighting for us during an unusual settlement gave us confidence that we were well represented and relieved a lot of stress. We absolutely recommend Dana and Buyer's Edge to anyone looking for a home in the DC area.

Our agent from Buyer's Edge acted as if our home purchase was "small potatoes" to him. We signed a contract with him and found our house one week before the contract expired, and we were disappointed that we did not find the house a week later. As a customer of a real estate agent, I did not expect the treatment we received. for example, Whenever he brought us to properties to view them, we had to drive ourselves, and meet him, or drive behind him. When we closed on the property, his gift to us was a used flashlight from the backseat of his car (now a running joke in our circle). He was not available to bring us the paperwork to sign for the contract, and sent an assistant, as he was too busy when the papers needed to be filed. As an aside, we spent 2 months looking at properties, it is not as if we had been looking for 8 months and were "high maintenance" clients by any means. Overall, I felt like we gave him a commission he did not work for. I found the house we ended up purchasing, and ended up going to the open house by myself. He did not file the paperwork himself, and he was overall rude to not only my husband and myself, but to other agents when we viewed properties(one agent actually gave me feedback regarding this). It was embarrassing to have him as an agent. We just purchased our second home, and no, we did not use Buyer's Edge! However, in all fairness, maybe someone had a better experience with another agent affiliated with Buyer's Edge. My experience was with one agent only....

This was our second home purchase, though first in this area. We previously used an exclusive buyer's agent and Buyer's Edge was the only realty of this sort in this area that we could find. Although any agent can act as a "buyer's agent", few exclusively represent buyers. Jeff Thompson was punctual, professional and understood our needs. Ultimately, I feel we purchased an excellent home at a good price.

My fianc and I were in the market for our first home, so we began the process incredibly early. We knew we wanted to work with an exclusive buyers agent because we didn't want to have to deal with any potential conflicts of interest. I visited a website and conducted a search through their website for agents in the DC area. After a short while I had responses from a few agents, one of which was Dana Hill. I liked her from the moment I spoke with her on the phone. She was very straight forward and provided a lot of information about the process despite the fact that I had not even signed a contract with her yet. (The agency she works for, requires a contract that guarantees the agent a 3% buyer's agent fee; however, the contract is breakable by both parties should any issues arise...it's just your standard buyer agent contract.) I met Dana as well as several other agents when my fianc and I decided she was the one. At our first meeting she inquired about our lives, our interests and our expectations and desires for our new home. She also inquired about the areas we were interested in, the neighborhoods, and the types of properties. Unfortunately for Dana, we weren't altogether nailed down on any of those aspects, so we dragged her all over the Metro DC area. She educated us on what to look for when looking at a house, some basic information on what a home inspector might notice, and what to look for in a neighborhood if you're interested in property appreciation. There were some houses that we expressed an interest in that wouldn't have been the best option for us and after she pointed some details out to us, she talked us out of something that would have been a big mistake. That is one of the many aspects of Dana that we loved, she will never let you buy something that you would regret in the long run, and she always kept in mind what she learned during the interview. Most importantly, she teaches you how to recognize when you've found the best house possible; and, when you've found it, she is an amazing negotiator. The house we ended up buying appraised at $50,000 over the amount we purchased it for, and it is in an area and neighborhood we absolutely adore. Dana is truly an amazing agent and I highly recommend her to anyone!