This past spring (2010) my wife and I decided to look into selling our home in the Sixteen Acres area of Springfield. We had owned this home for almost 11 years and knew that we had a considerable amount of equity in it. I asked our new next door neighbors who they used for a Real Estate Agent when they purchased their home only months before. They gave us the business card belonging to Amy Mateus working with Grace Group Realty saying she was a friend that took good care of them with their purchase. We had not had the best experience with an agent we used when we purchased our first home so we thought we would interview a couple of  brokers before we decided on which one we would use. Amy was the second broker we called but the first one we invited for an interview. When she arrived, to our surprise, she started giving us suggestions on ways to make our home more marketable and appealing to a potential buyer. Mind you we had not even talked about hiring her for our sale yet. Amy quickly built our confidence in her with her knowledge of today's housing market and did not lose site of the fact that even though she may sell houses every day, that we do not. She spoke to us in simple terms that we could understand and did not try to impress us with boastful talk. Not only did we feel comfortable with Amy selling our existing home but also contracted to have her help us find the home of our dreams. During our shopping process Amy was very aware of what we desired in a new home and quickly picked up on the items we felt were necessities when shopping. She showed us only what we wanted to see and had no issue showing us the same property two even three times. Our house in the Acres sold in only 16 days and we found our dream home at the same time. During this buying and selling process Amy catered to our thoughts and wishes never telling us what to do only guiding us in what she has learned as the proper direction. In the 11th hour we decided that we wanted to move our closing date so as to close sooner as opposed to later. As difficult a request this was, Amy helped to expedite the process getting all parties involved to be willing and on the same page. Our attorney even asked if Amy was a friend of the family because, in his words "It's few and far between that you find a Broker who is as on top of her work as Amy. If she says she is going to fax me something I get it in minutes, not days. She is very good at what she does". Due to Amy's efforts we were able to close on both our sale and our purchase before a July 1st tax deadline earning us an extra $6500 tax break. Furthermore we made a whopping $90,000 on the sale of our home in the Acres. Our experience working with Amy Mateus was enjoyable, easy, effortless and very profitable. We give Amy and Grace Group Realty a very strong recommendation if anyone is looking for a Real Estate Broker. Their fees are comparable to other Brokers but their service goes well beyond expectations. We love our new home and feel that Amy and Grace Group Realty played a part in helping to make it happen for us.