My wife and I first met Brandon in 2017 when we were buying our our first home. After the first experience we had with him, we contacted him directly when we were selling it and buying our current house, and we couldn't be more pleased with the results. He is extremely skilled and knowledgeable (how many realtors do you know who hold a general contracting license?), and will alert you to any potential risks there might be with a property you're looking at buying. He'll always make time to make himself available to you and will be extremely patient while he helps you find the right home for your specific budget and situation rather than just trying to collect a commission and move on to the next client. He also knows exactly what makes sense to invest into a property you're trying to sell and personalizes your listing, which helped considerably in our case as we were selling our previous home during a sharp market downturn. Unfortunately, home buying/selling is always going to be stressful given the complexity of the process and the level of money involved, but you can trust that Brandon will not only help you make the right moves every step of the way but go far above and beyond what you'll ever see from any other realtor.

As my husband is retired and I am approaching retirement, we need to downsize and move to a convenient location. When it was time to sell our existing home, we were facing a dilemma: making it appealing to potential buyers required upfront investments, such as staging, inside and outside cleaning, repairs, pre-inspections, etc. Since all our funds were tied up in the down payment of the new home, we just didn't have the required cash. We were very happy to find Brandon. He did a details market analysis on our first meeting, and we were impressed with his knowledge and diligence. He is also very pleasant to work with. What is more, he covered most of the upfront costs with his own funds, so we didn't have to pay. The staging was beautiful that made us almost regret moving. Because he is also a licensed general contractor, he fixed most of the issues found in the inspection himself. We were very happy to get a clean offer within a week. We enjoyed working with Brandon and highly recommend him.

Brandon was the perfect choice for my particular situation. I was looking to buy a place and renovate it, and his knowledge and background as an inspector, among other things, made his advice invaluable. He also was able to help me get an agreement under the list price in a market that tends to go the other direction.

Extremely knowledgeable of Home architecture, home maintenance, local area and even right down to specific exterior walls and paint and had excellent ideas for how to renovate our home. I could not give a higher recommendation for how polite, helpful and hilarious Brandon was for us! 10/10

Brandon is The Role Model of a real estate agent. He helped us both buy our new home and sell our old one in 2021, he also helped us buy a home in 2016. Brandon earned our trust by being very knowledgable, hard working and by always, always putting our interest above his own. When we decided to buy, Brandon saw a lot of homes with us, and was patient and accommodating as we kept deciding we want to see more. His expertise as a home inspector was very valuable in choosing which houses we should not pursue outright. As we found houses we liked, Brandon helped us come up with competitive offers by helping us reason about the various risks and how real they are, and offering unique mitigation strategies. Brandon did tons of research on the houses we bid on. When our offer got seller's attention, Brandon was masterful in working with the seller to come to final terms that put our interest first. Our closing was very uneventful (yay!) Brandon went above and beyond for us many times; for example, when it turned out that the new house needed cleaning, Brandon had someone clean the carpet before we moved in, at no cost to us. Brandon also helped us sell our old house. We really didn't have to do anything. Brandon organized the listing, cleaning, staging, small repairs and seller inspection. He handled the negotiations including dealing with early offers and ended up getting us the best offer possible. Closing was uneventful. Seattle market is tough, and we worked with multiple people before we finally run into Brandon. We're lucky to have him on our side.

I worked with Brandon to buy our first ever home. He has been nothing short of astoundingly knowledgeable, extremely friendly, and exceptionally professional. I cannot add enough superlatives to this review. Brandon was quick to understand our personal taste and needs and help us find our dream home. In the COVID market. In the middle of the high season. I feel so very blessed to have known Brandon and have enlisted his help, I know for a fact that I will not be looking elsewhere if I were to buy or sell a house in the future. Upon comparing my notes with other friends who have recently bought houses, they were all left with glazed eyes and dropped jaws at the level of professionalism and the lengths to which he goes. Note of warning though. If you want an agent that gushes at every house you see, is quick to point out all the niceness of the new house you just walked into, and is keen on getting you to buy the very first place you visit, and if not that then absolutely the second one, Brandon is not for you. He is quick to point out things that down the line might detract the value of the property, he is savvy and knowledgeable about the area in particular and the market in general. He is data-driven, amazingly quick to move on your behalf, and very good at predicting what is the direction of the market. I feel very comfortable in recommending Brandon to others, and in fact I have already referred a few of my close friends to him.

Brandon Barkema is an excellent realtor. He was patient and knowledgeable and helped us navigate a very competitive and difficult market. We were looking for a new house for over a few years as we were patient and waiting for the right one. We finally found one and Brandon was the reason we got it. Thank you so much Brandon we will be calling you again if and when we move again.

Brandon was always quick, diligent and patient. And I mean it - we were very picky and curious about everything and looked ~30 houses until we realized which kind we like. He answered any questions, gave any possible information, reacted same moment we asked him. We made an offer matching the listing price and won it without any delays or issues. Brandon was following us through the closing process, preparing all the required documentation and keeping contact with the selling agent. We're happy owners now and we're sure working with Brandon was definitely the right idea!

Working with Brandon was an absolute pleasure. The level of service and knowledge was exceptional. We live out of state and Brandon took care of all the details and made the selling process as seamless and stress less as possible. When we were not able to get the price we wanted, Brandon was able to assist us with renting the property. The level of service has been exceptional. Brandon is someone you can trust who will always put the customer first.

I couldn't imagine working with someone better than Brandon. We starting working with him way back in April of 2017. Our initial contact with him was awesome - he was very proactive at reaching out, understanding our desires, and educating us on the process and what to expect. As first time home buyers, there was a lot to educate us on and Brandon always took his time explaining, and over the years as our memories faded, re-explaining all sorts of things related to buying and maintaining a home. Most of the agents and associates we dealt with would try to understand us at a superficial level and put us in a bucket in their head and then send us listings that might match that bucket, but clearly didn't match what my wife and I were looking for. Additionally, other agents would look mostly at aesthetics, not at deeper issues that make the decision-making process more complicated. Brandon always brought up future costs to think about (e.g. obvious things like age of furnace and roof, but also more nuanced things like the amperage of the electrical panel or if a tree might grow near the sewer line, and so on). His depth of knowledge also helped us understand future potential. Thinking about if a wall is load bearing so we could change a kitchen or expand a bathroom. Brandon was never afraid to roll up his sleeves and get a little dirt on his suit. I can't count the number of times he pulled out a flashlight and went into a crawl space or attic - something even I wasn't prepared to do, especially not in my dress clothes. Brandon also had a great way of delivering his opinion on a place through the lens of what we were looking for. It made it great to have a second opinion on what was nice or not so nice about a place without feeling like he was pushing us one way or another. Not only was Brandon a patient pro when it came to getting us to find the house we love, he also navigated the closing process with ease. As first time buyer's, we heard a lot of horror stories and were prepared for the worst. Our closing went exceptionally smooth. We went from offer to accepted incredibly fast and Brandon handled all the heavy lifting. After the sale, we had an issue with the furnace. Brandon was there for us every step of the way and called multiple HVAC companies to get quotes, communicated with the seller, and ultimately negotiated a settlement that was fair to us. He took all the right steps and starting getting a lawyer involved just enough to get the sellers to take us seriously. We barely had to lift a finger. Brandon also came through with a number of recommendations for HVAC, septic, and other specialists that have each shown that they are quality professionals and that Brandon has a consistent bar for what he expects when dealing with external vendors. Overall, we feel incredibly fortunate to have found Brandon and wouldn't hesitate to recommend him to everyone we know. On the personal side, he is friendly, charming, funny, and always has a positive attitude which made him very easy to partner with.