Diane Terry

9/14/20Cori Ann John

Google Review

More than a year ago, we realized our family had outgrown our sweet Magnolia home. The need for more space, our new jobs, and family ties were pulling us toward the eastside. We didn’t know what neighborhoods to consider or when to move, and we certainly did not anticipate a pandemic! Despite being filled with uncertainty, working with Diane was always a no-brainer.   Years ago, Diane had earned our trust tenfold. Not only did she land us our Magnolia home in a fiercely competitive market, while avoiding a bidding war and costly escalations; she then expertly sold our West Seattle townhouse. In a world of uncertainty, we relied on Diane. She had hit a home-run for us before, and we knew she could do it again. She was our first call when we knew it was time to get looking, and we were delighted to meet her teammate, Nahjeen.

Nahjeen and Diane never hesitated when we asked to see a house. They were prepared to make each house our own from the very first mention. From Mercer Island to Kirkland, Bellevue to Woodinville, we were provided fast, helpful details about each home, neighborhood considerations, listing insights, and a fast appointment. The pandemic shut down the whole country, but it didn’t slow Nahjeen and Diane. When safe to do so and following all safety recommendations, both Nahjeen and Diane pivoted flawlessly to the new model. Nahjeen was always professional, masked and bearing hand sanitizer, careful to follow all touring guidelines. We had video conferences at critical times, and they kept us abreast of what the crazy market was doing in the area. When we finally found the home for us, we reached mutual acceptance with the seller only a single day after the home was listed. Diane and Nahjeen’s patience and guidance didn’t end there; they listened carefully to our hesitations and helped negotiate further, securing our home for below list price.

We were next faced with the decision of what to do with our beloved Magnolia home: sell in the midst of a pandemic, or rent? In this new market, will we get the price we need? Will we invest time and money prepping the home for listing, only to need to rent anyway? It was already late Spring when we finally, and hesitantly, decided to sell. Diane and Nahjeen didn’t waste a day. Relinquishing control is not in our nature and not done easily, but we needed help and trusted that we would be taken care of by this team. We took a deep breath, gave Nahjeen a set of keys, and put our complete trust in the two of them to get it done. Even when our anxieties, outside stressors, and need for control surfaced, Diane and Nahjeen’s guidance, patience, and focus on our goals were unwavering.

The network of trades and professionals were carefully selected and scheduled, and the team’s project management was exemplary, keeping us up-to-date every step of the way through painting, carpets, and more. We went up for sale on a Wednesday, and all week we were on pins and needles hoping for just 1 strong offer on our home, to help us feel more at ease about our investment in the uncertain COVID market.

We needn’t have worried. By the following Tuesday, Diane and Nahjeen presented us with 22 offers. Their attention to detail and work behind the scenes ensured that we considered only the best, surest-to-close options. The home sold for well more than we had been hoping for, and fully 20% above list. Our needs were taken care of, and our expectations were knocked out of the park.

We’ve now known Diane for nearly a decade. She’s a warm-hearted business-minded individual, with a strong desire and ability to do right by her clients. Together with Nahjeen, who offers the same dedication but brings her own humor and personality to bear, they are an unstoppable team. Both insist on the highest standards, ensuring low risk for their clients both when buying and selling. We knew when we first called Diane last year, that we would be in for a home-run, but she once again surpassed expectations and managed a grand slam. We highly recommend them.

8/25/20Kate Wisniewski

Google Review

When we approached our realtor, Diane Terry, about the possibility of selling our mid-century home in the middle of a pandemic, we weren’t optimistic about what she might have to say. We had already completed two transactions with Diane, the sale of our beloved north Phinney Ridge bungalow and the purchase of our current home (both with very successful outcomes), so we knew that if anyone could do it she could. Diane did the research and told us that if we trusted her and followed her recommendations she thought we could get what we needed to move the sale forward. A 2nd story addition and extensive renovation to the landscaping meant we had a good deal of equity in the house and we needed to at least get that investment out to make selling a good idea financially.

We followed Diane and her associate Nahjeen Shirazi-Wu’s recommendations. We trusted her when she explained how she would market and price the house. Diane and Nahjeen created beautiful marketing materials and a video described as ‘magnificent,’ by everyone who saw it. Nahjeen chose an excellent stager who understood exactly how to show the house off in its best light. We received 14 offers 6 days after listing the house – all over asking – and accepted an offer that was almost 40% over the asking price!

Needless to say we are thrilled with the outcome! And we have heard that the buyers are equally thrilled to be the new owners. I know we would not have been this successful if we hadn’t entrusted Diane and Nahjeen with the sale of our home. I couldn’t recommend them more highly!

6/10/20Louise Carrabba

Google Review

There’s an unprecedented global pandemic, the stock market crashes and unemployment skyrockets to the worst since the Depression era.
How can Diane Terry help?
She makes house preparation recommendations and stages your home. She times the housing market to perfection. Videography and photography make you wonder why you’re even selling.
Results: – On market to close 18 calendar days. Need I say more? Love you Diane!!

6/4/20Amy Crawford

Google Review

Deciding to sell my first house, my home for 18 years, could have been one of the most nerve-wracking experiences of my life. I tried to ease in to it like a small child tests the waters in the deep end of the pool. But although I knew how to swim I was never going to excel without the right coaches.
Enter Diane Terry & Nahjeen Shirazi-Wu from Windermere Real Estate. These two powerhouses exceeded my wildest expectations. They are more than brokers or agents. They are advocates and brilliant strategists. Every detail of the sale was carefully explained and planned. I always knew what to expect and when. Any time I had a worry or a question I knew I could rely on an immediate response and a course of action that prioritized my best interests.
Selling your most significant investment in the midst of a pandemic is terrifying, but Diane and Nahjeen adapted swiftly and kept me informed and focused on my goals. All of their efforts behind the scenes resulted in a process that appeared seamless to me but I imagine required significant feats of gymnastics for them. I placed my trust in them, and what they delivered has enabled me to take my life to the next level and make my dreams a reality.
What a gift to work with two people who say and mean “I see you. I got you. We’ll get you there.”
Sincerely,
Amy E Crawford

4/6/20Vicky Thorsell

Google Review

My husband and I have known Diane for over 20 years, but that is not why we selected her as our real estate agent when it came to sell a small condo we owned for 30 years. We selected her for several reasons. First we had seen her transform several homes from nice to outstanding in order to sell quickly and with numerous offers. Second my mother was a real estate broker, manager and owned her own real estate company so I know from her what a first rate professional agent can do for your sale, how they can guide you through the process and how to recognize one of these agents. As a result, there was really no question who we ask to help us sell our condo. However, since it was a small condo rather than a home I was not certain if Diane would take it on, but she did. Diane helped us determine what we should fix up to make the most of the unit while leaving some jobs for the new owner to apply their vision to the space. She encouraged us to get everything ready quickly since it was a good time for selling and timing can be very important. The stager she selected did a fantastic job of showing off the best features of the unit. We listed on a Wednesday, had open houses and took numerous offers about a week later. She reviewed the offers with us pointing out the pros and cons of each one and we accepted one of the offers above the asking price that day. Everything proceeded smoothly after that and closing was very timely. All through this process I could hear my mother’s voice confirming everything that Diane was instructing us to do including the listing price. There is no doubt in my mind that my mother would be smiling at how it all turned out. Thanks Diane!

1/10/20Ann Saxton

Google Review

December 2019
My husband and I have had the great luck and pleasure to have worked with Diane on the sale of (all) three of our homes in Seattle – from 2003 to 2019 – and over that time she has become a dear friend. While many agents come and go with the boom and bust of the real estate market, Diane has stood the test of time with almost 30 years as a realtor in Seattle. And for good reason: she brings her deep understanding of the market, its fluctuations (historic and projected), and knowledge of Seattle’s neighborhoods and their attributes, together with her excellent marketing prowess. Diane has been such a valid advisor in how to prepare our home for the best outcome for us, pointing us to her curated portfolio of recommended service providers (stagers, mortgage brokers, window cleaners, hardwood refinishers… you name it. And they are all excellent), as well as taking time with us to understand our objectives and set expectations. The materials she prepares and the partners she selects to work with (photographers, drone videographers, et al) are stunning, and the icing on the cake is her masterful ability to price a home for sale. Too often this critical attribute is not given the consideration it deserves – and this shows in the results (the traffic a home receives, how quickly it sells and at what end price).
Her business/financial and real estate expertise, combined with her integrity, attention to detail and overriding commitment to her clients have resulted in a well-deserved reputation among her peers – and her clients benefit from this: potential buyers know they need to play it straight and bring a solid offer to the table if they hope to successfully enter into a contract with her/her clients.
In the recent sale of our home, Diane dealt with a greater challenge than usual: literally the day after preparing our house for sale, we moved out of state (way out of state – to Texas! – due to a job transfer). In our absence she paid to have someone go to our house every morning to turn on lights, put down toilet lids and close closet doors, repeating the same after 9 p.m. each night. She proactively notified our neighbors of the marketing schedule and provided them with her phone number in case anything unusual occurred (which came in handy on one occasion!). And the result of these efforts showed: we had two excellent competing offers in hand one week after we listed, and our home sold for significantly over asking - in a real estate market under threat of softening. We were thrilled with the experience and the result, which took a huge load off our minds – leaving us able to focus on finding a home in our new town across the country.
Beyond this, Diane is such a lovely, generous person. A Rotarian and active supporter of causes benefiting young people, particularly Youthcare, she is thoughtful and empathetic. She has made my Grateful List many, many times – for reasons beyond her real estate acumen. For all this, we recommend her without reservation.
Thank you, Diane, for giving us 16 years of professional excellence! We are so happy for the continued friendship.

Sincerely,
Ann Saxton Darcy

5/7/19Joy Jacobson

Google Review

“I met Diane 27 years ago when I bought my first small condominium. Even though I’ve bought and sold a few times since then, when it came time to sell our family home in an estate transaction, I knew we needed a professional like Diane.
Sixty years of ownership in one family and a lot of possessions to sort through. Diane was as pragmatic as I was, and we did just the right amount of clean up and clear out to show how the house could be someone else’s future home and ready for their sensibilities.
The showing and sale went incredibly smoothly, we received above the asking price and the closing was almost at lightning speed. Thank you Diane!”

3/28/19Tom Rayfield

Google Review

There’s an old adage, “Don’t mix business and friends”. Many profess this is a recipe for disaster. I look at it from a different perspective. Choose your friends wisely and if they are exceptional in business, partner with them for success. Such is the case with my friend Diane Terry. She is exceptional, demonstrating a unique combination of professional expertise and personal integrity. Over the years, Diane has helped my wife and I through five real estate transactions navigating challenging situations and market conditions. We trust her knowledge and instincts implicitly. You should too. Diane’s the friend you can trust with your real estate business.

3/16/19Teresa Fair-Field

Google Review

This is my second time working with Diane. Her tenacity on my behalf made all the difference in purchasing my home. Naturally, she was the one I called when I made my decision to sell.

Working with her is always seamless, just absolutely seamless. I am so grateful to her for making these important transitions as smooth as possible.

I hold her in the highest regard among professional women.

5/25/18Alicia Arter

Google Review

Diane is the person I would trust to sell my home in today’s market. She understands what buyers are looking for, knows what is important and also what is not, and she is able to ‘read’ your home’s place in the current market. She also keeps tab on subtle weekly changes in your neighborhood market.

She is able to recommend the right timing for putting a home on the market.

We took all of her upgrade recommendations, such as painting, freshening floors and carpeting, and staging and we were delighted with the results. She recommends tried-and-true painters, craftspeople and stagers who all performed beautifully. It made our job as homeowners/sellers much, much easier.

We also found her ethics to be impeccable, which was very reassuring to us.

She patiently answered every question we had and explained each step of the selling process both beforehand, and also while we were at that step.

After it was listed for just under a week we received three excellent, clean offers and ended up accepting an offer over our asking price.

4/20/18Asanka Moehring

Google Review

We were delighted with the service we received from Diane, she was professional and diligent taking care of every detail and helping us set realistic goals to help us meet our bigger goals.

She followed through on all details. An example was our staging where she provided strong recommendations, helped us evaluate all the quotes, made sure we understood the contract terms and even inspected their work.
Another example, was the counsel she provided when we received off market offers and multiple offers. In each of the cases, explaining the strengths/weaknesses, so that we could make informed decisions.

Her experience, expertise and commitment were a great asset to us and we would happily recommend her to our friends and family.

1/19/18Mindy Stern

Google Review

In the current Seattle real estate market we’ve all heard about people trying desperately to buy a house, repeatedly making offers, and never getting to close a deal. By contrast, in the space of 3 months, Diane guided two pairs of family members to close on two different homes, both of which were the objects of multiple offers above asking price, and then she helped us buy a home. The process could not have been smoother or more exhilarating. With over 25 years’ experience, Diane possesses all the qualities you want in an agent: she is honest, knowledgeable, and relentless in her pursuit of what will close the deal. She maintains close contact with you so you know exactly where you stand in the negotiations, and what you must do to make your offer the one that will be accepted. She read the market so ably that while other homes were going for above asking price with no “extras,” we paid asking price and she negotiated $20,000 in improvements and give-backs. Diane’s insistence on a second inspection before closing, including the use of an infrared-device, revealed a leak that was attended to immediately rather than being discovered later at which point it would become our expense and inconvenience. Over the past 40 years, we have bought and sold about half a dozen properties. Never was the process smoother or more enjoyable, and it’s clearly thanks to the expert guidance we got from Diane Terry. She has earned her reputation as one of the best and we recommend her enthusiastically.

1/18/18Martin Kaduc

Google Review

“My wife and I first had the pleasure of working with Diane when we purchased our first home back in 2012. We were relatively new to the Seattle area and realized throwing money to a landlord in a downtown high rise no longer made any sense. Diane was highly recommended to us by friends of ours and we clicked instantly at our first meeting. We ended up purchasing a great townhome in Magnolia and with Diane’s help the process was seamless and worry free. In fact the purchase of our townhome was so easy that my wife and I still joke that planning and purchasing vacations was more stressful. Two years later we found ourselves getting antsy yet again. The townhome began to feel claustrophobic and recent departures by some neighbors made the decision to start looking again easy. What was not easy was not knowing what we wanted. When the bug hit, we instantly called Diane to discuss the process. Diane’s first recommendation was to meet with the money people to look into a line of equity against our townhome and to kick off the prequalifying portion for the potential mortgage. Diane’s first recommendation was an important first step and proved to be invaluable as we were able to submit a much stronger offer on our eventual purchase.

Now that financing and prequalification was out of the way the actual hunt could begin. We were in the dreaded zone of not knowing what we actually wanted. Our list ranged from land on Bainbridge Island to a rebuilt warehouse in Pioneer square. We met with Diane for breakfast one day and spent several hours discussing what we were trying to find. At that meeting it became clear that what we were really seeking was a yard, a bigger garage, light, a single family home and a view. We searched the web and attended many open houses but could not find anything that we liked. Then one day we happened to stop at an open house and walked into one of the most colorful abodes that either of us had ever seen. The colors. Oh the colors. It was truly difficult to get past the colors of the house. Every wall a different color. Every electrical outlet a different color. Six different types of flooring. We thanked the agent hosting the open house and left. Three blocks down the road we pulled over and it hit. The place had great bones and amazing potential. We called Diane and set up a time to tour the house with her. Again the colors. But Diane had the same reaction we did; she saw the potential of the place. We put down our first offer which was 85% of the original asking price of the house. The offer was rejected but countered. Diane recommended walking away and letting the seller sit on it for a few weeks. We did as Diane suggested and a few weeks later the seller agreed to our price. At our inspection, Diane’s team of experts were able to find a few issues with the house which resulted is further reductions in price. Finally when the paperwork was signed, we ended up purchasing the home for a final price that was below our original offer.

Diane’s advice, ability to listen, availability, great instincts, honesty as well as her broad knowledge of the finer details of home purchasing are invaluable when buying or selling a home. However, it is Diane’s focus on her clients’ needs that sets her above her peers and why she continues to have such a large amount of repeat business.”

1/17/18John Hollan

Google Review

A friend of ours on maternity leave, also a Realtor, referred to us Diane to assist us with the sale of our home. We were under a very tight timeline and getting our house to market presented some unique challenges. During our first meeting with Diane it was clear she had not only a great deal of knowledge about the market, but also about ways to best position our home for sale to find the perfect offer. Recommendations, resources and regular check-ins helped us reach our “go to market” goal and led us to a very quick sale with an exceptional offer.

We are truly appreciative of her expertise and her help at each step of the process. We feel very fortunate to have had her on our side and would recommend her highly to others looking to put their home on the market!

1/17/18Shlomo Freiman

Google Review

In 2017, my wife and I worked with Diane, and were successful in buying a townhouse in Seattle. Her tremendous experience and insight into the ultra competitive Seattle real-estate market helped us get a beautiful home at a great price. Diane is a great negotiator and was extremely resourceful and effective. Over the years we have bought and sold several properties, and our experience with Diane was by far the most enjoyable. She made the whole experience as pain and stress free as possible. Even after we bought the house and she was no longer obligated to help us, she continued to go out of her way to be of assistance. Perhaps what has most impressed me about Diane, is that her attitude is fundamentally different than most real estate agents, who are solely focused on closing deals and immediately moving on to the next one. Her business model is all about creating a long-term working relationship where she can be there for her clients as a resource, including long after all the papers are signed and titles are transferred. She is truly exceptional, and the short and long term value she is offers to her clients is one-of-a-kind.

1/14/18Bill Fitzharris

Google Review

My wife and I worked with Diane to both sell our home of 34 years and smart size to a condo. She was a superb coach, helper, taskmaster and adviser. Her sense of humor gave us perspective on the difficult process of making life choices. Diane has deep knowledge of both her profession and the market. At every step of the process, she demonstrated high ethical standards and worked tirelessly to better our best interests. We give her the highest possible recommendation.

8/2/17Eric Bartholet

Google Review

The 2017 summer market is very strong for sellers now as there is very little inventory available and lots of demand. As such, we would strongly advise against an off market sale, as you could be leaving a lot of money on the table. We were actually approached by our tenants to purchase our unit but we declined. Also, it has always been my opinion that the additional liability (paperwork problems, not being aware of city, county, state laws, etc.) you could open yourself up to by not using a realtor is not worth the perceived realtor commission savings.
We strongly recommend our realtor, Diane. She was referred to us by my wife's boss at Nordstrom corporate offices. She has 26 years of experience in the industry in the heart of Seattle neighborhoods. She helped us get the house of our dreams in Madrona in 2015, in an incredibly competitive market and time then as well, by making our lender financed offer competitive against all cash offers. We have used her referrals (contractors, property management, furniture stagers, lenders, insurance, etc.) numerous times as well. Diane did a fantastic job of presenting our unit in the best way possible (her staging company referral dressed the place up well) and properly vetting the 13 offers we received. She will always be our real estate advisor.

7/24/17Jessica Newcomb

Google Review

Diane was referred to us by one of her colleagues and it may possibly be the best referral we have ever been given! Having never sold a home before, especially in the wild Seattle market, we were originally overwhelmed with making sure we did things correctly. However, once we spoke to Diane we knew we were in the right hands. We discussed options of price, whether or not to do staging, and ultimately deciding on the best offer. Diane hands down is a superb professional and I'm confident in saying our home would not have sold as quickly and easily if it wasn't for Diane's help. Thank you Diane for EVERYTHING, we couldn't have done it without you! Cheers to buying and selling more in the future together!