WaLaw Realty LLC

Great and affordable option! I would hire them again. You get a great realtor, Claire and a great lawyer to oversee the paperwork. Very creative alternative to overpriced realtors. Check out their website with all the services and fees: [*** Link removed ***]

**** near perfectly. They were professional, timely, knowledgeable, and did everything you expect from a real estate agent. Mark is an attorney, so we were confident that any legal issues were managed. Claire was very efficient and had answers to all our questions. Their list of professionals for inspections, and all kinds of other services is priceless. Meanwhile, we saved $19,000 compared to a standard real estate transaction when they rebated part of the commission back. Next, we're using them to sell our existing house when we move.

The consultation for and sale of our former house was expertly handled by WALaw Realty. We had used them a few years ago as well to buy our current house. Then as now, excellent and timely advice. The sale and closing went smoothly and quickly with zero issues. They are attorneys, not typical RE only brokers/agents that waste your time with irrelevant marketing chatter or details. No comparison to traditional RE brokers/agents (obvious large ones in Seattle area) that I used years ago that make you wonder who they are working for.

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Marc and his team did an *outstanding* job in helping me purchase a house in what is currently a very competitive market, to say the least. Marc's communication skills, intuition, negotiation skills proved most helpful in winning the bidding war that ensued while making an offer on the house I wanted. He is *very* thorough, and I can't stress this enough. He blew me away on multiple occasions with his responses to my questions, in immense clarity and detail. Congruently Kim and Claire provided their insight during the showings and inspection process, able to react swiftly enough to accommodate my hectic and unusual schedule. This is definitely the kind of team you want to have on your side. Though they are not conventional real estate agents, they did provide me the best home buying experience I've had to date, and proved to be more than knowledgeable in answering all my questions. Certainly the most responsible team I had the pleasure of working with during the closing process. Thanks again, guys

It went just great. I had some additional complications as I was a non US that was moving back to his country, so it was not a regular selling and there were several issues that were very particular to the selling. Still they manage to cover all the bases and provide advice regarding my particular situation and the best way to do it. It was not all easy. There were several times when some complications appeared and I was tempted to move in a different direction, but Marc was there to tell me what was my best movement and tell me why it was that. At the end, despite my doubts (and I will admit I have them) everything went pretty good and the selling was done in a record time (I had about 2 weeks to do it!). All paperwork was prepared and on its way before I left and I manage to finish all of it from my new residence. The peace of mind of having all the tools to be able to manage this operation from abroad and having WaLaw providing me advice and support is something I cannot really appreciate enough.

It went smoothly. Jason always responded quickly and gave good advice.

Our experience with Marc and Jason at WA Law was more than we could have expected when we first found about WA Law on the internet. We first found them as an alternative to traditional realtors and Redfin agents. Unlike Redfin, who give half of the buyer's commission back as a rebate after closing, WA Law gives the entire commission back, minus a flat rate $5000 fee. We loved that aspect of using WA Law but actually what we got from hiring them was much more. As attorneys, they were able to review the documents legally (instead of hiring an attorney to do just that), but even more than that we really felt that they were our attorneys who represented us in good faith and had our interests in mind first and foremost. For example, our first house that we were interested in turned out to have some serious foundation concerns that Marc brought to our attention. So instead of closing the deal right there, which would have happened without his input, we ended up not putting in an offer and continuing the search. This happened with another house that we were interested in, where Marc made us aware of potential problems (turned out the house had ground contamination that could have led to major buyer's regret) and an easement that we could have easily missed. The third house that Marc basically warned us about offering had an easement due to tunnel work under the house from the light rail project in Montlake that the seller was seemingly trying to cover up in the disclosures. So three houses that we, as desperate buyers, would have probably bought to our later great regret that we did not buy only because of Marc's thoughtful input, research, and warning. I can't imagine that many agents would have done this. Jason was also great and very accessible, responsive, helpful, and we never doubted his intentions or recommendations/input. Both Jason and Marc also were conservative when we were in the offer making stage, often recommending lower offers and escalation clauses and urging us to not waive contingencies (which everyone was doing at the height of the seller's market in the summer/fall of 2013), which we were glad we followed. The only thing people should be aware of is that (at least when we worked with WA Law) you have three offers to make on three (different) houses, and after that you have to start anew (another $5000 for three more offers). I understand why they do that though (to make sure that people are making serious offers and to make their business model viable) and we bought our house on the 3rd try (that is, the 3rd house we made an offer on) so it worked out for us. The bottom line is that Marc and Jason are amazing, ethical, and trustworthy attorney-realtors who I can unreservedly recommend to anyone looking for a house. We love our house and thank both of them for helping us find and get it.

My wife and I worked with Marc and his associate Claire to purchase a new home. New to the Seattle area, the duo initially helped us peruse the very limited selection of resales on the Eastside. I checked the MLS listings every day but we were frustrated by what was available in our target municipalities. Claire took point in this phase, joining us on these listing tours. We ultimately went with the new construction route after three months of almost weekly open houses and tours. Once two promising listing was found, Marc helped us negotiate / evaluate with the two builders in the Sammamish area who happened to place listings on the MLS. (I believe this is key, as WaLR needs to earn the agent commission that they then rebate to *you*). He correctly pointed out the potential pitfalls in new construction and structuring the commission rebates so it would still pass muster with our mortgage lender. As other reviews have noted, Marc's fee structures are much lower than Redfin's or RE agents that will rebate some of their commissions. This is possible because Marc runs an uber-lean operation and he expects you to do a lot of the home-search legwork.

My wife and I had used traditional agents before--once to buy a house, and once to sell that same house. We just couldn't see the value, especially on the buying end. If you are prepared to browse MLS listings on your own (like we did anyway with our traditional buyers agent), you can save a boatload of money going with a flat-fee agent like Walaw. They charge about $5,000, which includes attorney fees. Their fees are significantly lower than Redfin, so we went with them. Though we were paying less with Walaw, they were better in every way than our previous buyers' agent: they were more experienced, more honest, and smarter. I've been recommending Walaw (and more generally, the flat-fee model) to everyone I know. It's a no-brainer. We ended up saving $17,125 with Walaw when compared to a traditional agent. I just can't see how home buyers are leaving that kind of money on the table. Go with Walaw!

I new exactly what property I wanted to purchase and didn't want to pay a full commission to an agent when the leg work was already done. I found the WaLaw website that described fixed rate real estate services. I contacted Craig Blackmon at WaLaw and after reviewing the contract decided to give them a try. Craig wrote up the offer and subsequent counter offers. He included some contingencies specific to the property involved that protected my interests. Craig handled all of the communications with the selling agent and after negotiating an acceptable price we signed a purchase agreement with the sellers. Later, Craig corresponded with the escrow/title company and reviewed all of the escrow and title documents with a layers eye which was comforting. At closing the buyers agent's commission, minus the remainder of Walaw's fee, was credited back to me. I saved about $7,000 compared to a standard agent setup plus I had the benefit of a real estate attorney looking out for my interest. Communication with Craig was quick and easy by telephone or e-mail. He uses an electronic signing service so all documents (prior to closing) can be done at your leisure from home. I would definitely contract with WaLaw again. oo

This was a great experience for us. If you are able to do your own research in searching for a property (they show you the best way to accomplish this) and do some of the footwork on your own, this is a great service and these folks are really good at it. We saved over $6,000 in real estate commissions by using their services and would use them again.

Everything was great. Marc guided us through the whole process and we feel very comfortable with the services he provided. The amount of money we saved was great too.

Marc Holmes recently helped me with purchasing a new home. Working with an attorney was a vastly different experience to the real estate agents I have worked with in the past. Marc provided valuable insight and guidance through every step in the process. The advice Marc provided was always astute and based on sound legal reasoning. The substantial rebate WaLaw Realty provides enabled us to more than cover our closing costs and makes his unique service an incredible value.

also hadds value due to the legal

I worked with Marc Holmes over the course of 18 months attempting to purhase a home with 4 attempted purchases. The one I succeeded at was a very difficult short sale transaction, with an intransigent short sale bank, a very unreliable seller, and a listing (seller's) agent who ultimately became discouraged and disinterested. It took 9 months to successfully close. Despite the length and difficulty of these transactions, Marc was always right there with good work, good advice, great negotiation skills, and, above all, availability and quick response. Their business model is unusual, as they have no financial interest at all in the transaction itself, their fee is separate from the success or failure of any given transaction. Therefore they have no conflict of interest and they represent you and you alone. They never, ever "steer" you. I chose WaLaw specifically for that aspect, having had bad experiences with traditional real estate agents in the past. They more than delivered and at every step they amply demonstrated they were representing my interests and assertively followed up on everything. They are extremely diligent. Because of the difficulty and length of the transaction, I feel a traditional agent may well have tired of waiting for a commission that might never come with the house I wanted. I know the listing agent certainly did. Marc kept doggedly at it and actively and continuously followed up on everything. He became a true partner in what turned out to be a very difficult journey. WaLaw Realty fufilled every expectation I had when I retained them. While they provide "discount" real estate services, there is nothing "discount" about the service they provide. They are absolutely first rate. I would have been delighted with their service whether I got a rebate at closing or not (I did). Bear in mind though, you must do your own legwork in finding properties you are interested in. If you are willing to do that, you'll find them real estate agents and attorneys who will ably represent you in your purchase.