Shelly Arora was our agent twice, first as a buyer's agent in 2008 and after seven years as a seller's agent in 2015. When buying, we had very specific constraints based on Indian Vastu (a la Chinese Feng-shui). We also additional requirements about the price-range, age of the house, look and feel, neighborhood, etc. Shelly showed us hundreds of houses, week after week, month after month, pleasantly and patiently, with a kindness and understanding that I wish I had for others. We finally found a house that we fell in love with. Given that it was our first time home buying experience, we had numerous questions. With Shelly's help, we breezed through it all. She helped us with the few rounds of negotiations (our offer was lower than the asking price), arranged the home inspection after acceptance, stayed in touch with my mortgage broker and the seller's agent to coordinate our need for an expedited buying process. There was a section-1 item that Shelly got the sellers to fix before we moved in. When selling, we had some constraints about when we can start showing the house to potential buyers, when we wanted to start packing, how to rent back from the buyers, etc., and we of course wanted a quick sell but only at the market price! Shelly suggested minor home improvement projects to better showcase the house. We took almost all of her suggestions and got them implemented using a handyman team; it was an investment that provided good returns. Shelly also accessorized the home and when she sent the photographers to take pictures, the home looked like a model home. Shelly hand delivered flyers to our neighbors and hosted a special open house for other agents and neighbors. Shelly and her team hosted many open houses and private showings for potential buyers. We received some low-ball offers that fizzled out later. Finally, Shelly sold the house for more than our asking price, for which we are very happy and grateful. Again, Shelly guided us through the negotiation process till the offer acceptance and helped us navigate a tricky situation when were traveling abroad during the signature of the closing documents and handover of the keys. While we didn't know Shelly prior to our decision to become homeowners, but I'm happy to say that our experience with Shelly has been quite positive and friendly, which has resulted in her now becoming our family friend. Overall, we were very pleased with Shelly's service and gladly recommend her to other buyers and sellers.

Zillow should add another criterion in the review category "Patience" and Shelly will get the highest Score on that too. As a first time buyer, we had tons and tons of questions, Shelly answered all our questions (and as she says No question is silly) with a smile on her face. Shelly showed us around multiple locations around the east and south bay and was always available to show us a property when needed, she was always through with the information on the property and if sometimes she did not a specific details she would make it a point to note it down and get back to us by the end of the day. I think the second most important trait for Shelly is her responsiveness, she would reply back to our call/emails/texts very very promptly. Shelly always gave us the pro's and con's of the property with a very open perspective and always let us decide on how we proceeded. We Thank Shelly for her help with our purchase, she made this process as easy and streamlined as possible for us.

Shelly helped us sell our property in south San Jose at the bottom of real estate crash in 2012. It was an important time to have an agent as skilled and compassionate as Shelly. A lot of homes in the area were short selling or going into foreclosure at the time. We interviewed 3 realtors and chose Shelly because of her experience and professionalism. Shelly stuck with us as we went through a long process of staging and advertising the home before listing it. She managed our expectations well as we went through weeks before receiving the first offer. She negotiated a good price so that we didn't have to opt for a short sale. She worked closely with the buyer's agent to ensure that they had all the information and comparable sales for the buyer's loan to be approved. Overall, Shelly managed the process brilliantly for us and I have no hesitation in recommending her for anyone selling or buying a home in the south bay or east bay.