Ahmed Arafa recently sold our home in a very short period of time in a declining estate market. We had previously listed the home with another broker for approximately one year and received no offers. In retrospect, I see now that no one at the previous brokerage firm had a realistic perspective on the real estate market.

As home values decline, the process of selling a home becomes more difficult and requires professional knowledge and experience that includes a good understanding of the dynamics of the declingmarket. I believe that Ahmed has an exceptional understanding of the dynamics handling all of the other issues involved with evaluating and negotiating purchase offers and dealing with other agents, banks and title companies.

I tend to easily get “stressed out”. Ahmed and his team at Century 21 gave me a high level of comfort that I don’t usually get when hiring “professionals”. Ahmed is truly a professional. Although I didn’t like the current state of the market when we sold our home, I am certain that Ahmed gave me a true and accurate analysis that allowed me to choose a sensible sale price without hesitation.

I am a very technical and analytical person (engineer) and I recognize technical information that is reasonable, and can usually see through “garbage”. I place a high value on good information. Prior to listing, Ahmed did significant analysis for our home and clearly presented and explained what he believed our alternatives were. I believe that his analysis was up-to-date, accurate, and realistic in every way. He presented everything very well and therefore gave me the perspectives that I needed to make the right decisions.

I have one regret: that I didn’t meet Ahmed sooner. I would probably have saved $50,000 to $70,000 and nearly two years of time and aggravation.

Ahmed is also known by others in the real estate business to only attempt to sell homes at sensible prices, so his listings get immediate attention.

I would normally not take time to write a letter like this, but I am confident that Ahmed did a great service for us. In addition to everything else, he’s a nice guy. A firm negotiator, but also a nice guy.

If you wish to speak with me personally about my home-selling experience, Ahmed can give you my phone number.

When we went to sell our condo the first time, we had only one offer. We kept it on the market for about three months then we asked our realtor to take it off the market. We almost immediately got a letter from Ahmed. We didn’t pay attention. We fixed up the condo, and were getting ready to put it back on the market, and decided we should hear him out;  doing the same thing (with the same realtor) and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. Although we were freshening the place up, we thought a fresh perspective with a different real estate professional was the sane thing to do.

When I met Ahmed the first time, he explained to me his personal metrics; how to judge his performance based on past (charted) results. My old agent never provided anything like this.

Next he started breaking down and analyzing my MLS listing, which by the way, I was astute enough to smell the rat when it came up as “withheld”. Ask Ahmed to explain. When I actually unlisted with the agent, every agent in a 50 mile radius swamped my mailbox. Ahmed was astute enough to smell the rat when it came up as “withheld”.

Then he outlined how to value my property. How simple “by the square foot, by the neighborhood” stuff does not work. Things like relative size and FHA approval actually affect the price.

Next he outlined what he would do differently: in detail. My old agent was a smooth talker, easy to listen to, but was light on details. Ahmed can explain this better that I can.

When I finally listed with Ahmed, I could tell he thought the fixing up I did was overkill (he was probably right), but he never said anything. Whatever; we were under contract within a week after listing with him.

There are several detail points he predicted that came true I will not list here (like who would be offering for the property), but I have already talked on long enough. I wish Ahmed all the best. If you choose to list with him, I think you are making a good choice.