Kate Foster-Bankey

Kate is fantastic. She knows the market, what makes sense to sell for the best price and made the process so easy for me. House selling made easy! Not what anyone expects when approaching selling a house but definitely what she delivered. Highly recommend Kate if you are looking for a professional, knowledgeable, driven and great real estate agent and partner.

Kate was invaluable to us during the home search and buying process. When we initially met with her, her warm and outgoing personality immediately put us at ease, and she also demonstrated a strong knowledge of the housing market in our area. Since this was our first home, we really relied on her knowledge and experience, and she had great advice for us every step of the way. We constantly peppered her with questions, and she was extremely patient with us and never rushed us off the phone. She introduced us to a number of her contacts, and we liked every person she recommended to us. We would wholeheartedly recommend Kate to anyone looking to buy in the DC area --- she is fantastic, and we cannot rave enough about her.

Kate is wonderful in many, many ways. She was unfathomably patient and calm as our search extended nearly a year. She is a lot of fun to spend time with, which makes a difference when you are giving up weekend after weekend to searching for a home. She has great taste (or at least was great at making us think she shared our taste!). She was well-informed about everything from taxes and titles to boilers and roofing, providing information that we didn't even know to ask. She was great at engaging our daughter so we could take in a home with minimal distraction. And when it came down to making an offer and getting the house we wanted, she dug in like a bulldog. Her polished people skills may disguise her tenacity, but make no mistake it is there. She is everything you want in a realtor.

This review is very tardy, but I did not want to rush through all the amazing things that I have to say about Kate. Let's start from the beginning: my husband and I were displaced from our apartment in Arlington due to a fire, and we had an urgent need to find a place to live. We decided to pull the trigger and buy instead of renting again, and went to a good friend of ours for a realtor recommendation. Our friend synced us up with Kate. When you first meet Kate, you can see that she is petite, but immediately I knew that she was an aggressive, no - nonsense woman; something that I respect, admire and strive to be. After chatting with Kate initially, we explained that our home search came with a deadline: we wanted to find a home in 6 weeks before I had to move out of town for the summer. Kate was honest, upfront about our expectations, but remained calm. She got to work immediately and explained what we could expect from the market. She brought us to homes that were within budget and had as many of our requirements as possible. After looking for homes with Kate, only 3 weeks after meeting her for the first time, we put in an offer for our first home, and won the bidding war. The home had everything we wanted, and also room to grow and make our own. Kate knows the DC market so well, that she was able to predict, with precision, what we needed to do to win in this competitive market and walked through the process calmly and carefully. The fire was a terrible experience, but it really was the best thing that could have happened to us because it brought us to our first home. We absolutely LOVE our home and know that we would not be sitting where we are now, had it not been for Kate. If you are looking for an amazing, professional, diligent and smart realtor, Kate is your woman. Seriously, she's the best.

Kate was excelllent. Overall very knowledgable and had excellent strategies for selling our condo. She also was very good at staging the apartment which helped with the showings. I'd definitely recommend using her as an agent in the DC area.

As first-time homebuyers, Kate worked with us tirelessly to help us find our dream home, write the most competitive offer for it, and close on it in an extremely short amount of time. She is without a doubt the best agent you could choose to work with--and she surrounds herself with the best people in the business, from the lender we worked with to close in 18 days to the home inspector that did our pre-inspection the very next business day. Every piece of the puzzle fit seamlessly in this process, and it's because of Kate. We would not be where we are without her. By the time we sat down to sign all of the documents at closing, we were comfortable, prepared, and informed of what we were signing and why it was on the table. She imparted so much knowledge to us each time we looked at a property with her. I could not recommend working with Kate more!

Kate is the absolute best in the business! She sat down with us 1.5 years ago and we were honest with her on our timeline. We were looking to buy a year-plus out but she had no hesitation in spending almost every weekends with us for 1.5 years! She is patient and kind, made for customer service and will entertain any and all silly questions you have. She'll set up showings at midnight the night before, knows the ins and outs of the DC/MD/VA market like the back of her hand but more than that she became a trusted friend in the process. Even after we closed on our home, we still feel like we can call/text her about any home problem we have. I have no doubt that all of her clients feel that way about her too. We call our new home the Miracle House because of the way Kate wrote our offer. It made us the most competitive offer without even beating the best-priced offer. This was the first offer we had written and we beat out 5 other offers on a condo that was on the market for 2 days! We also closed on the condo in 18 days, completely unheard of! She never pushed us to buy a house that wasn't right for us and never tried to up-sell us. Our budget was firm and she won us the house because of her skill, strategy and expertise. I cannot thank her enough for what she has done and if you get the chance to work with her, don't hesitate! It'll be the best decision you'll make.

As a general rule I don't write reviews but, as we all know, there are exceptions. I make this exception because buying a house is one of the biggest decisions we make in life. I was very fortunate to have Kate guide me and represent me through the home-buying process.Kate had what I consider to be the most important attribute - negotiating skills. Kate was able to negotiate a price well below what I was willing to pay. Kate negotiates from a position of strength because (a)she knows and understands the real estate market (b) she analyzes what houses have sold for in the area, and (c) she has a truly remarkable ability to observe weaknesses (structural or otherwise), which are not apparent to the untrained eye. I had a lot of questions (and so should you), and Kate was easy to reach or called back within a reasonable time frame. This was true for every aspect of the process but especially during the important home inspection.I also liked the fact that once Kate explained all the necessary facts about the particular house, she would step back and let me make that final decision. I was her client but also had the final word without any pressure.Finally, I was very pleased by the measures taken by Kate and her team to protect the security of my purchase. Due to my profession, I am keenly aware of the rise in fraud (especially during closing) due to hacking.

As a first time home-buyer, I could not be happier with my experience with Kate. She was accommodating to the learning curve I was up against and was extremely responsive and detailed in her approach to securing the property in question. I would recommend Kate to anyone in the DMV area looking to purchase or sell, especially first-time home buyers!

We are so thankful to our friend who referred us to Kate. At our first sit down meeting, she meticulously walked us through the home buying process in great detail, patiently answering our questions and modestly sharing her tried-and-trusted strategies. We worked on an accelerated timeline as we decided to jump on a house when we saw it. Kate was extremely helpful, resourceful, patient, and professional at every step of the way it became clear early on that she was always thinking ahead and would explain things to us before we could even ask the question. Communication with both Kate and her staff was crystal clear and quick. As first time buyers, we knew early on that we were in excellent hands. If you have a chance to work with Kate, wed say without a doubt: go for it!