Neal Rubin Real Estate

We met Neal in 2008 when we were trying to buy a house outside of Conshohocken. He was not the listing agent for the house, so after he showed it to us, we took him on as our agent.
First, Neal bent over backwards trying to make a deal with the owners, who proved to be intransigent. (Added to this, the whole thing was contingent on our selling our house in the city, so he was already in a difficult position — our bad!). So that did not work out, and of course he made no money at the time, but continued to come up with similar properties that might be of interest to us. Admittedly, he had some self-​interest, but this is what he does for a living, so we didn’t mind. Besides, he was smart, insightful, fun and, as it turned out, he was also a very hard worker, a tenacious advocate and he was extremely knowledgeable about real estate practices, inspections, legal matters — pretty much anything you might want in a realtor.
We didn’t sell our house at that time. Fast forward 2 years to summer 2010: with the market plummeting, we somehow managed to sell our row house in the city, and we were in the market for a house in the near suburbs, with 6 weeks to find it. We did not hesitate to contact Neal. Our decision was rewarded many times over. We did a lot of research on our own (Trulia,
etc), but Neal would meet us after work 2 or 3 times a week, and sometimes both weekend days with our itinerary of 3 to 5 houses all planned out. We’d roam around Jenkintown, Elkins Park, Rydal, Abington for hours, taking as much time as we liked, Neal ever upbeat, never saying no to suggestions, meeting times, long days. He probably spent his eventual commission on gas alone.
We made one offer that didn’t work out (several evenings of work for Neal there, we were not happy with the selling realtor, and Neal made sure he knew it), another offer we decided against at the last minute (owners did not disclose that the house was in the flood plain… Neal gave that realtor an earful too!)
Finally we found our house in Elkins Park. The realtors for the seller were fine, but the owner was somewhat difficult. At one point she totally backed out based on a disagreement over inspection. Neal smoothed that over too.
In the end, Neal walked us through the inspection, paperwork, financing, and closing, late nights, phone calls by the hundreds probably.
In the end, all I can say is you cannot do better in your choice of real estate agent. He knows everything, works like a dog, is unflappable (unless you want him to flap), charming, businesslike, and extremely tolerant of his client’s idiosyncrasies.