Amber Orton-Re/Max Leading Edge

It was nerve-​racking at first when my company announced last Fall to relocate my family as we had put so much effort to our first home. My company did help us with the move and referred a couple of realtors from their network. After interviewing them, I decided to search one more agent myself based on local sales results and list to sales price ratio. That’s how I found Amber. So glad I did that additional step. She paid me a couple of visits in the winter to provide me with lots of helpful information to understand the local real estate market, statistics of recent sales, home selling strategies, and works that could be done to improve the value of the house.
Even though the other two company-​referred realtors had also great experiences and advices, we eventually chose Amber because:
1. Re/​Max seems to have great presence in Melrose and are more recognized around.
2. Amber has access to a large network of online /​offline media to market our property. The fact that her listing properties always get ranked high in Zillow definitely helps, especially with some of the strategies she recommended (see below).
3. Her detailed analysis of regional market and home improvement advices convinced me that she’s truly knowledge and passionate about the local real estate market.
4. Finally, and that’s really what won us vs another realtor — while the other realtor (who also had a lot of sales) arrogantly set our listing price low (so as to maybe allow her an easy/​quick sale), Amber listened very carefully about our concerns (i.e. getting the best realistic price), and worked with us to develop a couple of detailed strategies, listing pros and cons, and backup plans under each scenario. Honestly, this step truly set her apart from the other realtor, and won us over.
Listing process was smooth. She had pictures of our house taken by a professional photographer. And we set the listing price close/​little bit below market value to attract more traffic. The house was listed on Tuesday with an Open House the coming Sunday. Between Tuesday and Sunday, private showings were arranged and handled very professionally. Thanks to her marketing network, and the right pricing strategy, we had an extremely successful Open House. Lots of traffic and multiple offers eventually helped drive the price up to 25K more than the listing price, 30K more than what the other realtor was recommending!!!
Closing process was also very smooth. Amber worked closely with my relocation consultants, the buyer’s agent, and their lawyers, to enable us to close on-​time. All told, it took us 1 week to list the house before getting multiple offers, one and half month from the listing of the house to moving out/​handing the keys over.
So the lessons from our selling experiences are:
First, the number of sales by realtors are not as important as the detailed strategies and how attentive your realtors are. In the home selling process, you want to have someone as understanding and responsive as Amber to help you throughout this process.
Second, setting price low /​on par to market value is counter-​intuitive. But in a market where activities are picking up and with the access of a large online/​offline marketing network, «pricing-​to-​sell» is really your best strategy. Buyers come and go like herds. As such, when possible, initiate a bidding war (among the buyers). Honestly, without Amber guiding us through this selling process, I would never have realized it myself.
Overall, we are extremely thrilled to have had chosen Amber and followed her strategies and advices in selling our home. We highly recommend her to anyone who’s planning to sell his or her house.

We recently purchased a beautiful home in Wakefield. Amber Orton was our agent from the first day we started looking. I cannot say enough about how wonderful she was in guiding us to finding our dream home. From the first day we worked with her she was in our corner with valuable advice. Each home we saw, she asked us the questions we hadn’t considered and guided us in which of our «must haves» were most important.
Once we found a home that we absolutely wanted, she was right there with us every step of the way – from giving us guidelines on an offer (on which we got a great deal) to keeping us up to date with the long and complicated process. Any call or email was answered almost immediately. Her recommondations for legal representation and mortgage brokerage also were excellent – highly trust worthy folks who were reliable, friendly, and helpful.
Overall, Amber is a solid choice for representation. Her professionalism is unparalleled and her knowledge of the area market is top rate. We highly recommend her.