Real estate is a transactional industry that pretends to be a relational one. We've tried to make it the other way around — relational on purpose, transactional only at the end, and never apologetic about taking longer than the brokerage chains.
Below: the one promise, ten tenets, the things we don't do, the process we do follow, and what it costs. In writing, so you can hold us to it.
That is the entire promise. Every text, every email, every showing, every offer drafted, every inspection walked, every closing letter — comes from one of the two people whose names are on the door. We do not have a team. We do not have junior agents. We do not hand you off to a "transaction coordinator." If you reach us, you reach us. If you write a reply at 9 p.m. on a Tuesday, Sara reads it that night.
The math of this is uncomfortable on purpose. It caps how many clients we can take in a year, which caps how much we make, which caps how big we'll ever grow. We've decided that's the right trade. The boutique remains boutique because we keep choosing it to be.
The ten things we keep going back to. The order matters; the first one is doing more work than the others.
The home people end up loving is almost never the one they wrote in about. Good representation means widening the aperture before narrowing it — and being patient enough to do that without selling something prematurely.
We do roughly forty closings a year, between us, on purpose. Any more and we'd be doing the math instead of doing the work. Any less and we couldn't sustainably run the brokerage. The number is calibrated, not aspirational.
Septic, well, snow access, fire zone, the neighbor's dog, the foundation crack, the seller's expectations. Anything we know that would matter to you, you hear in the first conversation, before you're emotionally committed. Surprises are bad form.
Standard rate, paid at closing by one side only. No tiered service levels, no premium listings, no "we'll waive that for you" theater. The transparency on this is on purpose — see § Fees.
No drip campaigns. No "just checking in" emails on a 14-day cadence. If we follow up, we have something to say. If we don't, your inbox stays quiet. Subscribing to the Ledger is the closest thing we have to a marketing funnel, and it's a monthly newsletter you can unsubscribe from in one click.
We've lived here twelve years. We know which contractor to call. We know which house went through a divorce. We know which road washes out in February. "Local agent" is a phrase brokerages buy on Google; we mean the thing.
Sometimes the honest advice is "don't buy this." Sometimes it's "wait three months." Sometimes it's "your house isn't worth what you think it is." We say it. If you wanted the answer you'd already decided on, you'd have hired the cheaper agent.
Drone, twilight, walkthrough video, professional editor — included on every listing, regardless of price point. The $400k cabin gets the same treatment as the $2.4M vineyard. The house deserves to be seen well.
We don't sell leads. We don't share your search history with the brokerage chain. Your saved homes, your messages with Sara, your CMA report — all yours, exportable, deleteable. If you leave, you take everything with you.
Most agents fall off the map the day after the keys change hands. We send a card on the one-year anniversary, check in at the five, and answer the question about your contractor referral in 2032 the same way we answered the first one. The book of business is, in the end, just the names we've kept up with.
A profession this old accumulates a lot of conventions. These are the ones we've quietly retired.
If we represent the seller, we don't also represent the buyer. The conflict of interest is real, the savings are an illusion, and one side always feels short-changed by the end.
Off-market deals happen — sometimes they're the right call. But your listing goes off-market only if you sign the line that says so, in writing, after we've explained the trade-off.
We don't pay Zillow for your search history. We don't buy you as a lead from a national matching service. If you found us, you found us — and the introduction wasn't a transaction.
We won't rent the same gray sofa and the same brass-arc lamp that's in every flip in the county. Stage to the house, not the trend. Most listings we don't stage at all — they're already lovely.
If a property is the right one, it's right at the right pace. If we're saying "you'll lose it if you don't decide tonight," we're not advising — we're closing. We don't close.
There are no junior agents. There is Sara, and there is James. The work either has our names on it or it isn't ours.
The work we do, from first call to twelve months after closing. The same shape for every client.
An hour, in person if possible, on the phone if not. No pitch deck, no spreadsheets. We ask about the version of life you're trying to build, not just the bed count.
We map the constraints — budget, schools, drive time, fire zone, climate, deal-breakers. Then we widen the aperture and propose two or three sub-markets you might not have considered.
We tour together — 3–5 houses a day at most, never a parade. After each, we talk through what worked, what didn't, and recalibrate. Slow on purpose.
Offer drafted by Sara, reviewed with you line by line. Strategy on price, contingencies, the personal letter — every clause has a reason.
Inspections, appraisal, escrow, signatures. James walks the inspection with you and the inspector. Sara handles every contingency negotiation personally.
We send a card on the one-year anniversary. We answer your contractor question in 2031. The relationship doesn't expire when the commission clears.
James does the first visit — clipboard, flashlight, ninety minutes. Honest read on what's needed, what's optional, what would hurt the listing if we didn't address it.
Sara writes a 4–6 page CMA you can read — not a 60-page printout. A clear range, the comps that matter, the comps that don't, and what we recommend you list at.
Contractor referrals, light staging where useful, paint, garden, the things that move the appraisal. James coordinates every vendor. No surprise invoices.
Professional photographer, drone, twilight shoot, walkthrough video — same standard whether you're listing at $400k or $4M. Included.
Strategic launch — MLS, our list, Bay Area network. Sara personally hosts the first weekend's showings. We send you a weekly written report on activity, not a portal link.
Every offer reviewed with you in person. Counter-strategy is Sara's call, but your decision. Inspections, escrow, signatures — all handled, all by us.
No tiered service. No premium add-ons. One number, written down, the same for everyone.
If a seller's brokerage offers a smaller buyer-side fee than the standard rate, we tell you immediately and you decide how to proceed. We never inflate our take by routing you toward a higher-paying listing.
Plain answers to the questions clients ask in the first or second meeting. If yours isn't here, send it.
The first conversation is on us — no pitch, no follow-up sequence. Just a real exchange about the version of foothills life you're picturing, and whether we can help you find it.