Testimonials

One day, 22 years ago, my boyfriend (now my husband) and I decided that we were ready to buy a place close to our work. We were tired of commuting and being stuck in traffic every day. We googled for real estate listings and found "mlslistings". You can imagine that we had no idea about what it takes to buy property in the US: I had lived in the area for about 3 years, while my boyfriend relocated from Europe 8 months prior to that. We took a peek at mlslistings and found a house that caught our eye. I called Coldwell Banker (the listing agent) and scheduled an appointment to take a look.

When we came, we were greeted by Shelly Potvin. She was very pleasant and inviting and made us feel quite comfortable from that very moment. We felt so much at ease when she outlined step-by-step what we needed to do if we were serious about buying a house. She pretty much guided us through the whole process. What surprised us most was the fact that she made us go and look at other comparable places, when she found out that it was the 1st place we looked at. Right then we realized, it was not about making a sale, it was about building a positive long term relationship with the clients. She wanted to make sure that we had done our homework thoroughly, and she was there for us every step of the way answering tons of questions, giving her professional advice and managing what needed to be done for a whole process to go smoothly, organizing handyman, inspections and hardwood floor resurfacing.

We were so impressed with Shelly's work that we had referred her to several of our friends who are now very happy home owners as well. Shelly was helpful not just on the real estate side, but also kept us informed about what was going on in the community. As time went by and our family grew, so did our requests for Shelly to find us another house according to our requirements and price. She was always on the look out for us. And sure enough, she found what we were looking for on the street we wanted.

So, if you are looking for a trustworthy, hardworking and persistent in her search agent who can help you find your dream house, Shelly Potvin IS that agent.

I recently worked with Shelly to buy my home in Capitola. Thanks to her ability to provide me with up to the minute listing information, her willingness to tour homes while on FaceTime with me, and her absolute professionalism in explaining critical neighborhood information and disclosure information, I was able to buy the home of my dreams remotely. I would highly recommend her as a real estate agent that will go above and beyond to exceed your expectations, whether buying or selling a home.

I met Shelly about 10 years ago when she helped me purchase my first investment property. She even helped me find my first tenant! Since then, she has represented me (both as a seller and buyer) in several transactions and has done an outstanding job each and every time. Shelly is very detail oriented, extremely responsive, a GREAT negotiator and has a great understanding of the market. In addition, Shelly has exceptional people skills with a high level of empathy for her clients. I highly recommend Shelly to anyone who is looking for an outstanding realtor to represent them!!

Shelly helped me buy my first home and she was great in helping me understand the neighborhoods' flavor and the many details needed to close! She really understood what I wanted... better than even I could articulate. She never stops working for you. Here's the kicker. After finally deciding to put an offer on a home, I came into her office the next morning to deal with the paperwork (yeah, this was before all that emailed signature stuff). She greeted me with that "I have some good news" look. She mentioned that there was a brand new / updated listing that morning that seemed to be an even better fit.

She quickly arranged a visit and I fell in love with it, just steps from downtown Palo Alto with a garage for my motorbike and everything. She hustled to get an offer together and we were signing later in the day.

Shelly was not content to just "close" me with the first home, which would have been a compromise. She was looking out for me the whole time. Love it!

She also helped me sell that place (snif) when I was remote and moving. She handled *everything* and got me a good price to boot.

What are you waiting for? Go with Shelly!

What an amazing experience working with Shelly & Michael. It could not have gone any better. They made the entire process from start to finish as painless and stress free as possible. To anyone who has sold a house before, you know there are a lot of moving parts to get the house ready to sell. It is easy to overlook something or miss something that would cause a delay to getting the house listed. They just nailed everything. In fact, they ended spot on if not a little ahead of the schedule he presented.

I very much appreciated that they are very careful and thoughtful with expenses, They did not recommend anything that they did not think would add value to the house. Michael and Shelly were very conscious about keeping any expense within reasonable limits and there was not anything they recommended changing that did not make total sense.

One of the best things about Shelly and Michael is constant communication, I never felt like I did not know what was going on throughout the process from getting the house ready to sell, to the open houses to accepting offer day.

The house did sell for way over asking and way over what we thought it would sell for. Shelly & Michael did a great job during the negotiation process with the buyers.

Do yourself a favor if you are looking for a realtor, hire Shelly & Michael, you will not be disappointed.

Shelly was awesome, I really enjoyed working with her! I was a bit clueless when looking to buy my first house years ago, but Shelly was so patient and able to share all her knowledge and experience in a way that made me understand this crazy market better and feel secure that I made the right choice for my first home. And then she helped us again when we purchased another property several years later. She continued to be a big help even afterwards, helped me when I had questions about fixing up and renting the place, as well as provide contacts to some trades people. She's always very responsive and on top of everything!

I am a first time homebuyer. There are so much easily accessible data to MLS listings these days, so I wanted a realtor that would go beyond what these offered, and would negotiate a winning deal in the absurdly competitive Silicon Valley market. I went with Shelly for these reasons. She sat down with me to understand what I wanted in a home, knowing that I was in absolutely no rush to buy. Shelly worked with my horribly unpredictable schedule, not the other way around. She made me feel like I was her only client. And of course, Shelly negotiated a winning deal that I did not expect. Admittedly, I had a different approach in mind, but I trusted trusted him and had my offer accepted. After the terrifying reality of new mortgage debt, she helped me through the process to close on time. I highly recommend her if you are remotely considering buying a home in this area.

Shelly is a stellar realtor! When buying my first house, I intended to interview a few agents to find one who would best match my needs and I looked no further than Shelly.

She's incredibly professional, knowledgeable and I trust her implicitly to guide me safely through the mountain of paperwork and legalese involved with buying and selling a house. Even though I know she's busy with lots of clients, I always feel like I am her only client.

Shelly is also responsive, reliable and honest. I've utilized her services three times now and each time I feel that she has my best interest at heart. Never have I felt that her professional advice has been self-serving; with her, it's all about the client. She also serves a wide range of property prices and mine have been at the lower end of her range, but she's never treated my homes as though they or I were small beans.

When it comes to other house-related questions, she's a wealth of information! I've asked her countless times for referrals for loan officers, insurance companies, remodel advice and referrals, neighborhood information and resources (what to do about a barking dog?) and she is always happy to help and her referrals have all been wonderful.

Her most recent referral was her own husband, who is a general contractor and worked on remodeling the house I bought with Shelly. They're quite a team!

I'm happy to give Shelly 5 stars and wholeheartedly refer her to everyone.

Shelly was our realtor for selling two homes and buying our current home. She is very knowledgeable, professional, efficient, responsive and pleasant to work with. She had excellent recommendations for preparing our homes for sale, including improvements and staging. She represented our interests and fought for us when necessary. Both houses sold within a week, over the listing price, in a bad real estate market. The two homes sold and the new purchase were each under $500,000 and Shelly worked as hard for us as she does for her multi-million dollar listings. She kept us informed every step of the process. We highly recommend Shelly Potvin to anyone needing a great realtor.
This review was written some years back, and we continue to stand behind every word. We are grateful that Shelly helped us purchase our lovely home in the Villages (in East San Jose). It has been a fantastic place to live.
Janet Syphers and Carolyn Vielma