Liane Sikes

Fantastic knowledge of the industry and terrific to work with.

Liane was amazing to work with to find our dream home

The real estate market is IMPOSSIBLE right now… You don’t need me to tell you, but we’ve got high interest rates, exorbitant home prices and crippling inflation across the board. When I first reached out to our new agent, Liane Sikes with Lock and Key Realty, in May ’23…. I didn’t realize what a ride I was in for over the next year! Maria and I looked at houses over the course of the year – dropping by many open houses and setting up showings with Liane. She would send us specific homes within our price range with elements we wanted/needed for our family. Like 3 bedrooms, lol. We probably saw 15-25 houses in 5 towns but didn’t feel right about a single one However, with each new house we saw, it became easier to figure out what we wanted and didn’t want And then came the day we saw our dream home…. This was a VERY competitive situation… really brutal We arrived at the house and saw a whole bunch of other folks milling around It was clear this house was desirable for a number of people Our 30 minute showing began (back to back with others) and we toured the home. As we went through, Maria and I were wide eyed…. And Liane was taking detailed notes on the condition of every little thing We got outside and Liane was like “so, what do you think??” And I just looked at Maria and had a sense that THIS was the house. This was it! But with all these people here, we had make a comfortable offer and see where the cards fall… it’s just a tough market… blah blah blah... I was already dreading the 'sorry, we didn't get it' phone call As the listing said, “Highest and best offers are due by Wednesday….” What were we going to offer? Here is the part that is still incredible to me…. Liane started her process of assessing the house – taking into account EVERYTHING, and I mean everything She called us that evening and said: I would suggest putting an offer in for XYZ. That turned out to be an absolute GRAND SLAM! Wednesday came and we put in our offer…. With the other 11 offers on the table…. We were notified shortly thereafter that we had WON the bid – by only a sliver !! (I can't share all the strategies she implemented, but there's a lot that goes into this process beyond picking the right number) Later in the story, the house assessed for exactly what Liane had valued it as. So as a permanent learner in life, I asked Liane ‘so how did you get that bid’? I don’t think she wanted to sound braggy, but she said ‘I’m a master at assessing’ (or something like that with other real estate language) In other words, despite the market being brutal and impossible for most, a few people have figured it out and are still competitive in their process We couldn’t be more grateful to Liane and her guidance! It has made the difference in getting a house verse not getting a house Additionally, she has shown the ability to negotiate (which saved us thousands at closing), choose the right price the first time (which saved us from a bidding war), and use her connections with various businesses and contractors to support her clients (which also saved us thousands). Oh and I’m missing a huge part of this – When we identified that the property was misrepresented in the listing, Liane showed incredible support in finding solutions to fix the problem (rather than getting hung up on it). She hooked us up with Ray Brousseau as well, who was a delight to work with and made all the financing come together with ease. I guess this story ends where it began – if you are in the market for buying or selling a home in this difficult market, you’ve got to find the best real estate agent to maximize your efforts. For us, Liane Sikes with Lock and Key Realty was experienced, dependable, easy to work with and highly effective!

Liane is hardworking and professional. She spends time with her customers. It always felt that she was completely focused on finding me the perfect home, and she did!

10/10 - Extremely capable and easy to work with!