Dear Donna,

What a fabulous job you did as my agent for the sale of this house. You went the 11th mile, went above and beyond, and what other clichés can I think of?

I gave you a short notice to prepare, after my tenants gave me short notice they were leaving and I divided to end my landlord days. You quickly game up with a thorough market evaluation that was right on target. Your suggestions as to what needed repairs or updating to maximize my return were excellent.

The real test was getting ready for sale in a short period. I was leaving town for Africa for three weeks. There was no way I could find the necessary contractors to do the work, meet them for bids, or direct them. You did it all: Found a painter, a carpenter, and a floor refinisher, all competent and reasonably priced. You met them at the house to discuss the work and get bids. Also very important, they were willing to start on short notice. This was no small feat, especially during their busy summer season. It was obvious they were doing this because they valued your referrals. Without all the time you spent organizing this work, it would have been several months longer before the house got on the market.

We did discuss at great length the appropriate pricing. Based on the reactions of potential buyers and the eventual sale price, I’m glad I trusted your judgement. We got a full-price, no-contingency offer quickly. The buyers were qualified and the sale closed without any problems.

Finally it was great working with you. So, thank you!

Yours truly, Randy

Donna and Peter Lindsay,

Thank you for your extremely talented hard work getting my place on Queen Anne sold recently. I have been on the other side of the country for about 8 years and I had some dread about attempting to sell this place. I suspected the property was not in saleable condition and I was worried the tenants would not cooperate. However, as soon as you took a look, you gave me great advice on how to quickly pull the place together to present to potential buyers. In a matter of a couple weeks you arranged to have the exterior painted, the yard cleaned up , a housekeeper and window washer for the inside, and the tenants readily agreed to a schedule for potential buyers to tour the property. I still don’t know how you did this so efficiently and at such a minimal cost considering what needed to be done.

The place sold very quickly, and for top dollar, largely thanks to your efforts. I was highly impressed with how you managed the multitude of offer we received. While you were clearly looking out for my interest, I feel that you worked with the buyers and their agents with high level of integrity and fairness while helping me select the best offer to accept. At closing, I was further impressed with how many details I had forgotten about that had already been taken care of by you.

As you know I have been an active investor in real estate since 1979, and was even an agent myself for about 6 years in the early 80’s. I estimate that you have helped me buy 2 and sell 6 properties since the late 80’s, and you are by far the best real estate agent I have worked with. In fact, you are among the best professionals I have worked with in any discipline! I have learned to trust your judgment and follow your guidance when I have difficult decisions during a sale. I wish you would move to New Jersey when I need to sell again, so you can be my agent here.
Donna and Peter, you clearly are an agent’s agent! Feel free to have potential customers give me a call if they would like to discuss my experience further.

-Michael Neubauer

To Whom It May Concern:

I am pleased to write this letter of recommendation for Donna Lindsay. I have known Donna since 1988 when my wife and I bought our first home. Over the years, Donna has been my real estate agent in 10 buying and selling transactions. Donna’s most impressive professional characteristics are: being extremely knowledgeable about trends in the regional real estate market; providing an honest and well thought out opinion; being very savvy when it comes to negotiating on her client’s behalf; demonstrating a genuine interest in her client’s perspective; and beyond all else, she is very pleasant and not pretentious.

I have also observed Donna in action interacting with other agents on various occasions. From my knowledge and perspective, she is very well respected and trusted by her peers. And the significance for her clients of that peer-to-peer trust cannot be overstated, especially when the markets are volatile and negotiations delicate. She has never let me down and that’s why I keep coming back to her.

Dona is also gracious with her time and hospitality, and over the years our business relationship has developed into an ongoing friendship. She has a diversity of interests outside of real estate that makes her a very engaging individual. However, she is always passionate about real estate.

Sincerely, Stuart M. Weinstein, MD

Dear Donna:
We would like to thank you for the great job you did in representing us both in selling our former home and then purchasing our new home.

You worked tirelessly for us and did more than any Real Estate Agent has ever done in providing assistance on the sale for a house. In addition to advertising and prospecting, which you did an excellent job at, you also went above and beyond by personally assisting us in updating our home’s interior, recommending fantastic contractors and then monitoring their work, staging our house, and finally helping make sure everything came together at the close. Again, we have never seen a Real Estate Agent work so hard, or do so much, in helping sell a house. It’s an understatement to say we were incredibly happy with both the process you guided us through and the results you helped us achieve.

You were equally fantastic when representing us as a buyer. You showed genuine interest and curiosity in finding out who we were as people and this helped you to identify what we wanted and needed in a home both for today and into the future. You were incredibly patient at times and always helped us work through the decision making process. When it came time to make an offer, your strategy was excellent and when we watched you interact with other agents it was obvious to us that they not only liked working with you but they had a strong respect for your business skills and ethics.

On top of all of this, you are a wonderful, funny and kindhearted person who we really enjoyed spending time with. You definitely can’t say that about every realtor!

Every step of the way, you exceeded our expectations. Thank you! We truly believe you are the best agent in Seattle and we cannot thank you enough for your outstanding service!

Sincerely, Elise and Joe Thompson

Donna and Peter,

Thank you so much for helping me with the sale of my house. Selecting you as my agent was the best decision I’ve ever made.
I asked for your advice and am very glad I placed my trust in you and took your advice. This was not always easy to do after receiving contradictory information from family and friends.

Thank you for your suggesting Eric. He was such a wonderful handyman and did a great job.

Thanks for help finding the right carpet cleaners, window washers and house cleaners. And thanks for your great staging. My house was so beautiful inside and out when it went on the market that I was sure it would sell quickly.

I know that following your advice helped me get top dollar. I will be recommending you to all my friends.

Andrea Buchanan

Dear Donna,

I’d like to thank you for helping me buy and sell my homes over the past fifteen years. You are one of the hardest working agents I know. Anyone who is willing to give up going to the opera in order to present an offer for me is tops in my book.

Your knowledge of the law, financing deadlines and dates, along with all the other legal odds and ends of real estate is impeccable, as is your ability to negotiate. All of the homes you marketed for me sold for more than the asking price (except one which sold for the list price).

My only complaint is that you work too much! Please, take a vacation! (It makes me feel guilty…)

Thank you for all of your help Donna. You are the best and you will always be the person I refer my friends and family to.

Sincerely, Holly

I am writing this letter to let you know how much we appreciate the fine work of your associate broker, Donna Lindsay. Donna was instrumental in helping us stage our house for sale. Her staging suggestions were very useful and I am sure played a big part in getting the house sold in only 5 days. We were particularly impressed with Donna’s excellent negotiation skills which made the sale a very positive one for us. Donna’s obvious experience in real estate and her attention to detail gave us great confidence in her ability to sell our house and we were not disappointed. She is not only a great negotiator and house “stager” she is fun and interesting to work with as well.

We appreciate all she did to make selling our house a success and we will be pleased to recommend her to others as an excellent real estate agent.

Kathy Sider and Robert Fuerstenberg

Dear Donna,

Thanks for doing a great job getting my latest remodeling project sold for top dollar! Over the years, I have failed to encounter another agent who provides the personalized high quality service that you consistently deliver. Your marketing materials (professionally prepared photo galleries, detailed flyers with a water color sketch of the property, etc.) are among the best in the industry. Your ability and willingness to work with me in the area of staging my properties has produced very positive results and your negotiating expertise is excellent. I look forward to working together on future projects!

Sincerely, Brent Fosso

Dear Donna,

Burns and I wanted to let you know that we couldn’t be happier with our new house, and we appreciate all your excellent work this summer.

As hectic as our summer was, it was a real advantage to have someone with your expertise to represent us. We both feel that we were able to get a great price on our previous house because of the way you market homes: staging the house to appeal to buyers, the professional photos on your web gallery, and your awesome negotiation skills all contributed to getting the most out of our selling price. Thanks also for getting us the lower price on the new house – your confidence as a negotiator really paid off for us.

And on the other side, we were very pleased with your ability to help coordinate between the sale of our previous house and purchase of our new one. This was a very stressful period for us and you did a great job alleviating the pressure. We prepped and sold one house, and found and purchased another house all in the matter of a few months – and we still like each other!

Thanks again for your work – we’ll talk to you soon.

Sincerely, Charlie and Burns Montgomery.

To Whom It May Concern:

This letter is to recommend that Donna Lindsay be retained to provide real estate services by those who are about to sell or buy a home.

Our family just completed the sale of our home in north Seattle with Donna being our real estate agent. The home was occupied by our family for nearly fifty years. This letter is from the oldest son (Robert) of the owner, Mrs. Lenora Frankfurter. Lenora was living in the home until the last part of 2012 when she decided to move to a retirement apartment in Bothell. Another brother, Donn, also lives in the area. Donna had to: coordinate with the three of us; deal with fifty years of our memories; help do something with all the items accumulated over that period of time; and figure out how best to highlight styles and finishes dating back to the 1960’s. Donna dealt successfully with these factors and all the other items and issues involved in the same of our house.

Donna has many qualities that contributed to the successful sale of our home. She has a great blend of personal connection, sincere involvement and participation, a professional approach, and practical solutions. She is enthusiastic, positive, and cheerful; she brings “good energy” to the whole process.

Donna also helps directly with the preparation of the house for sale by arranging for necessary contractors, bringing some of the “staging” items, and working at the house along with us to prepare it for sale. Our process included an estate sale which Donna arranged through her contacts. She focuses on details when they are important and she is very conscientious when reviewing offers and working to complete the sale. There is no doubt that her work and suggestions helped us sell the house for top dollar.

Donna is good at “nudging” people, including our family, at key points to take care of details without exceeding the capacity we had to cope with the details at each point. She is a good coach when needed.

In terms of the “bottom line,” with Donna we were able to sell our house in an orderly manner for an excellent price based on her success in obtaining a good number of offers, several of which were substantially above the asking price. We know that that she worked hard prior to the open house, during the open house, and in the negotiations that followed. Form our side, the process was easy! Her ability to connect with people was obviously a valuable asset.

We can recommend to others who are selling of buying a house that they select Donna Lindsay as their real estate agent. We think the qualities described in this letter make Donna pretty unique and that they qualities speak for themselves. With these qualities and a very successful sale, it is easy for me to recommend Donna Lindsay to anyone in the process of selecting a real estate agent. I would be happy to speak directly about Donna with potential sellers or buyers (425-881-1026; or email rfranklin@cascadiamontessori.com).

Sincerely, Robert Franklin

Dear Donna and Peter,

We want to let you know how much we appreciated both of your help with the sale of our house in Ballard in July 2011. Jim had lived in the house for over twenty years and preparing the home sale was daunting. Having your guidance in determining the extent of preparation for the market was invaluable. In the best of cases, preparing and staging a home for a market is stressful. There seems an endless list of to-dos, and even though we called (often!) to ask about mundane details you were always helpful and calm, qualities that cannot be understated during this process. We felt encouraged and supported and grateful to have you in our camp.

When it was finally time for market, we appreciated the time and care that Peter took to produce beautiful photos. He was careful about lighting and brought a photographer’s expertise that helped our home stand out in the crowd and really showed off those months of hard labor. Thank you!

We were biting our nails when the listing finally went “live” and really felt like fish out of water. Donna, your years of expertise, really showed at market time. Your calm, expert guidance helped us walk through what can be such a confusing and emotional process, with equanimity. We always felt you had our best interests at heart and when it came time for negotiation, we were glad to have you on our side. You fought to get us the best deal that we could get, without drama, and we are eternally grateful.

And also, thanks for taking time to advise us about the purchase of our new home (a year later!). It’s funny that when we felt unsure, the first person we wanted to call was you. We appreciated your taking the time to give us advice.

We would welcome any communications from prospective clients to recommend you; feel free to pass them along.

Wishing you the very best, fondly, Jim Doulong and Rhonda Brown

My husband Jay Young and I have been working with Donna Lindsay for about thirty years and have bought four houses and sold four through her. Recently we bought a home in Bainbridge Island and sold one in Shoreline. We are retired and found that, though we were very interested in the Bainbridge house, it didn’t look like we would be able to finance it. Our Shoreline house wasn’t even on the market and lender regulations would have required a 50% down payment. It was looked pretty hopeless to us.

Fortunately Donna did some research and came up with a workable plan to finance to down payment using a bridge loan for the down payment that would satisfy the mortgage company and give us time to sell our house. She also helped us negotiate a good price for the Bainbridge house as well as a long closing. In addition, she helped us plan work on the Shoreline house to get it ready to sell and stage it so it looked really wonderful. This was a very complicated group of tasks, but, in the end, we sold our house in three days for an excellent price (there were eight offers!). We got a cash offer with no contingencies and a two-week closing and avoided the bridge loan altogether!

What a great deal! And without Donna’s overall expertise, extra legwork, decorating savvy, and handholding, we would not be enjoying our new home today. We also really appreciate Peter’s tech expertise, ferry rides to Bainbridge, and other important support. We are immensely grateful for the work they did to make this happen. With thirty years of quick and successful house sales and some really wonderful houses, we have to say “Donna and Peter are the best!” Thank you Donna and Peter and Windermere Real Estate.

Sincerely, Merrilee Conway

Dear Donna,

I just wanted to thank you for all your hard work in helping me find and close on my home in Queen Anne. Finding a home I liked was really a challenge because of my very specific criteria. I appreciated your diligence during my year and a half search. When I finally did decide on the home I wanted and there were 3 other offers, I was equally impressed by the negotiating expertise and competence you exhibited in a competitive situation.

When it came to selling my house, your efforts were unflagging whether it was picking paint chips, finding contractors or bringing rugs and artwork to help with staging. Again I appreciate the efforts you exerted on my behalf as a seller. The cosmetic improvements that you suggested as well as the staging you assisted me with were critical in getting my home sold quickly and for top dollar. I was pleased as well as surprised at how smoothly everything went and I realize that your efforts were crucial in this positive outcome. I will not hesitate to recommend you to my friends!

Sincerely, Tina Finesmith

Dear Donna,

I want to thank you and Peter for all your help in successfully coordinating a very smooth transition with the recent sale and purchase. Over the years, I have had very spotty experiences with other real estate agents, so I do not take this positive experience for granted. Donna, you and Peter, have been consummate professionals and have exhibited the much needed expertise and diligence needed to coordinate a sale and purchase which presented many challenging conditions, one of which was the stress of my poor health at the time. Your patience and diligence as well as excellent staging advice and strong negotiating skills were a huge asset in helping me achieve my goals.

Your many years of experience in the business as well as your insights and extensive knowledge of the real estate market made me feel confident that you and Peter would not only get the job done, but produce the best results possible. My confidence was not misplaced. Thank you again and it goes without saying that in the future, I will refer all my friends, neighbors and relatives to you.

Sincerely, Karen Gustafson

Dear Donna,

Just a note to express our thanks for all you did to make the sale of our house go through so smoothly and hassle free.

You gave us such terrific advice, from helping us stage and prepare the house for sale so that it looked its best, to negotiating every piece of the transaction, which included the eventual sales price, the intricacies of the inspection, possession date, etc.

You were courteous at all times, always had time for us, and above all were fun to work with!

We would certainly recommend you to any of our friends looking for a good real estate agent.

Sincerely, Susan

Dear Donna,
I just wanted to let you know how please I was with the job you did of selling my home in Wallingford. Your responsiveness to my last minute call was amazing, and I’m sure the house would not have sold in only 3 weeks if you hadn’t lined up all those good agents from your office to hold open houses 4 weeks in a row. You did tell me when we first met that negotiating was one of your strong points, which you certainly proved me when you took charge during the sale negotiations and were able to obtain a price I wanted plus gain some other concessions from the Buyers. Your advice was always sound and I’m glad I followed it. So, thanks again, and I look forward to working with you again when I’m ready to sell my rental.

Sincerely,
Faith Sokol

Hi Donna,
Julie and I want to thank you for helping us sell our Wallingford home and purchase our new Maple Leaf home. You were always there when we called and because of this we were able to “snap up” our new place before someone else got it. We are getting settled into our new place and love it very much. I believe that we bought this home at a great price (with your help!) and it should appreciate quickly with minor elbow grease.

I will tell others about you and how you managed to get us a simultaneous closing thus eliminating any double-mortgage financial hardship. That made the whole process much less stressful. We think the list price was “right on” and coupled with the nice website presentation using the awesome sketch and quality photos got us maximum dollar in minimum time. Feel free to add us to your reference list.
Please thank Peter, too, as he was very helpful getting the inspection items taken care of on the old place and I valued his opinion on our new place. You are a great tandem!

Keep in touch.
Sincerely,
Bryce, Julie, Kyle, & Andrew Stevens

Dear Donna and Peter,

We are comfortable settled into our new home and it is beautiful here! We want to thanks you for getting our Queen Anne home sold, not to mention connecting us with the best agent on the island here in Hilo! We were in quite a mess with our other agent when we contacted you. We had wasted a lot of time and gotten no positive results (so much for trying to send our business to a friend instead of contacting an expert). What a contrast it was when we started working with you! Thanks to your pricing expertise, marketing plan, and staging tips, we experienced more interest in our home during the 1st 2 weeks than we had in two months with [previous agent]. Your efforts on our behalf were relentless. You didn’t stop working and following up until we had our check safely in hand and were on the place in Hilo! Thanks for going above and beyond the call of duty. We will recommend you to all our Seattle friends!

Sincerely,
Terry Rose & David Blouse

Dear Donna,
What can I say Donna? You were (and are) whiz! In your capable hands we went from “just looking” to finding exactly what we want. We are so excited about the house. Nervous too, as we continue along the path of commitment and togetherness. But the point of this note is to say “THANK YOU1” so there it is. Please add us to your list of satisfied home shoppers. We will give you rave reviews.

Best,
Jim