Mark Bayliss – REMAX

I hate it when people post fake houses on Trulia to lure new clients in. Beware. Honesty is an essential quality of a real estate agent, a quality which Mark Bayliss is lacking.
When we called to inquire about one of his listings he said the house was «not yet ready» and then got our email address and sent us daily emails of his other listings.
When we asked him about the first house he didn’t want to share the address because there are tenants in the house, which makes sense. Upon asking about the general neighborhood he gave us a cross street which doesn’t exist (Woodlake and March in the Valley ???). He does have a variety of listings that are real but his tactics of bait and switch are not truthful. I understand these are desperate times but this is not the way to do business.

This might be a little long… but I hope worth it.
First off all, I am as green as you get when it comes to Real Estate. I have never purchased a home before. I grew up in blue collar southern New England, and purchasing a home was what you did after you got married and before you had children.
Being a Gen X’er — I had to do things differently — single and in Los Angeles, a fish-​out-​of-​water, as far away from Maine lobster and the best Sicilian food you could ever have on this continent.
I love 1950’s modernism. Show me a house with all natural wood, open ceilings, open spaces, clean lines, lots of windows, and I’ll show you a happy New Englander.
As luck would have it, I was leasing such a house until I found out the landlord had been foreclosed on. Here I was, like a lot of us today, wondering what was next.
(BIG LESSON: before renting a house — have a thorough check done of the property’s title /​liens, etc. And always get a photocopy of a license of the legal owner and never accept sending your payment as anything other than check to the same person with the notation «Monthly payment on Yearly Lease at (address).»)
I started the process of trying to buy the home from the bank — that may still happen — who knows. The first thing I did was get pre-​approved.
I got two approval letters from brokers.
(First lesson — most agents and sellers don’t want approval letters from brokers, they want to know a direct lender has approved you in this market).
I was referred to a real estate agent.
(Second lesson — don’t let a mortgage broker refer you to their friend, find your own agent and interview him/​her).
My only reference as to what a RE agent was supposed to do for you was from reality TV and the movies. Find leads, aggressive, working in your best interest, knows people, knows how to get things done, etc.
The mortgage broker’s friend was none of these things, and being a polite New Englander, I didn’t say much at first.
Well, after a week and a half of doing all my own searching, and only getting him to show me 3 properties on a Saturday and refusing to show me anything on weekdays because he lived too far away — I fired him.
I then came to Unilocal,and surprisingly, didn’t find many reviews for RE agents in the area. I did find Mark and called him on a Saturday and liked him right off the bat. He took charge of my quest to find the perfect home immediately.
He had several properties as I was talking to him on the phone that he wanted me to see. Not homes he wanted to sell me, but homes that I had asked for.
He called me on Sunday asking me questions and giving me more help. He just called me now and found another property and I am off to look at them.
I will update this review as I go through this process. But, right now, if you are confused, don’t know what to do next, call Mark.
Seriously.
He is an aggressive representative of your needs and best interest. Good Luck.

Mark is a tireless professional and does not give up on finding the right house for you when you have given up on it. He is a master negotiator and got us exactly the kind of house we wanted, in our price range while negotiating a 10% reduction on the asking price. This was in a prime area where there is still more buyers than inventory even in this market.
We had a ton of restrictions with Feng shui, but after 2 months of searching, he got us the right place, being very patient through out. It could not have turned out better for us. It was by chance we signed up with him, and i have to say that was a lucky break.
I tried to work with a few other agents, who I found to be very authoritative, as in heed my word you wont find anything better. not paying attention to our needs. One instance we got outbid because our agent did not have the presence of mind to follow up on progress. Do NOT fall for gimmicks like ziprealty where they promise to pay you part of their commission. This really shows in the lack of motivation their agent’s display in putting forth the effort.
I sincerely recommend Mark, for any first timeor experienced buyers. He sets the the bar very high on the quality of service.