Todd will respond to any question you have immediately and is always available to help his clients. We appreciated his insight into the market in general along with his expertise of our neighborhood. Above all, Todd has incredible integrity and honesty. Todd never tried to close a deal or push any property. He runs his business for long-term success, which means helping his clients make the best decision for their family.
My husband and I met at least 20 other brokers / agents before choosing Menlo Atherton Realty. We were thrilled with the experience and will only use them in the future! We have recommended Menlo Atherton Realty to many family members and close friends.”
“We worked with Todd and Inna over the last several months while we were buying a home in South Bay. In addition to being very professional and providing high quality service, Todd’s expertise proved invaluable in this challenging market (as a buyer).
Todd and Inna offer one of the highest qualities of service that I have seen among real estate agents (and I’ve worked with a few in the past). All of their administrative procedures are well laid out and easy to follow. Your phone calls and e-mails are returned promptly and you never have to chase down your agent. And no matter whether you are a big or small client, you feel that you are given a high priority.
However, what I liked the most about Menlo Atherton Realty is that Todd would provide a solid assessment of the situation and give a good advice that was in my best interests (unlike other agents that would always push you to close the deal at any price). Todd is very sharp and he would always base his suggestion on sound fundamentals using as much available information as possible.”
“Todd, I wanted to sincerely thank you and for the fantastic job you did helping us acquire our new home in San Mateo. You are one of the most attentive, hard working people I have EVER had the pleasure to work with. Literally hundreds of phone calls and emails, and you were ALWAYS there for us to answer questions (even on holidays and late at night!). Buying a home can be a very stressful situation, but you always said the right things.
You always had the knowledge to put our minds at ease. You were always extremely patient with us. You educated us throughout this process. You and Inna make a fantastic team! You guys closed the deal for us and we are thrilled!! The crazy part is we would never have been able to afford the house we did without your commission rebate and that is the icing on the cake! We will be recommending you to everyone we know in the bay area. We really cannot say enough to thank you both so much!”
“Todd and Inna helped us purchase our home in Los Altos in 2011. We were attracted at first by the rebate. They are the perfect option in my opinion if you are a savvy buyer who knows how to leverage online searches.However I also really valued the fact that even though Todd only got 1% commission, we did not in anyway feel like we didn’t get enough attention. We made two offers. The first one we made a really low offer and Todd offered his honest opinion that it was not the best investment but it was a good one. For our second offer it was a more desirable investment (ranch style house in a cul-de-sac, great schools, walkable to schools, convenient access to fwy) and there were multiple offers. With Todd’s advice, we were able to secure the house below listing price and also we got the house even though we were not the highest priced offer on the table.
To this day I firmly believe we would not have gotten our beautiful home without Todd’s help. Also the price of our neighborhood has increased and we would probably not have been able to afford it if we had waited a couple years.
All in all, Todd and Inna were always on time, very courteous, and extremely professional. We never felt rushed or felt like they were not prepared. In addition, they were great with getting things done electronically since both my husband and I were working full time jobs with long hours. We loved being able to finalize documents using e-signatures online.”
“I highly recommend Todd and Menlo Atherton Realty. My wife and I used him to purchase our first home in Menlo Park in the summer of 2009, and his service level, responsiveness, integrity, knowledge of the market, and ability to negotiate and navigate the closing were second to none. Todd walked circles around the seller’s agent when negotiating the final contract and saved us tens of thousands of dollars (in addition to the great price he helped us negotiate). If you have already identified the home you want to purchase, it would be foolish not to use Todd even if he did not offer a commission rebate to the buyer. We dealt with many full service agents before using Todd and he was the by far the best.”
“I am working with Todd on a very difficult purchase and an even more difficult selling agent–probably one of the most difficult I’ve dealt with in ten years. Through the entire process, Todd has always communicated in the most calm and professional of manners and has always been the eye of the storm, the calm in the middle of a Category 5 hurricane. I will not hesitate to use Todd in the future or recommend him to anyone I know.”
“I wanted to work with an agent that gives a commission rebate. Most are either not giving you enough rebate, especially for the level of services you’re getting (e.g. Redfin, in my opinion, which doesn’t give you agents as knowledgeable as Todd), and some may return an even bigger commission, but are neither local nor knowledgeable. I thought local/knowledgeable wouldn’t matter as much, but my home purchase ended up being complex because there were tenants in the property, and because my loan was delayed due to less-than-competent loan people. Todd was very good at handling both. I don’t really feel I got any less service from Todd than I would with a full-service broker.
Maybe if I wanted him to accompany me to open houses and drive me through neighborhoods, I would have felt I got less. But come on – this is Silicon, and most people who buy here are smart and rational. This is not 1987, so you can do a bunch of research yourself (find comparable, info on neighborhoods and schools, previous sales, etc.). If you want to pay 1.5% of your house value for these extra services (and you DO pay for them, regardless of the ‘seller pays’ fallacy) then maybe it’s worth it. For most of us who don’t dislike money, Todd is the best agent I can think of.Finally, Todd was extremely responsive with email and phone, and also very personable and fun. Seriously, if your transaction is traumatic, like mine was (through no fault of Todd’s), this matters. I recommend Todd very highly for anyone who wants to buy a home in Silicon Valley and wants a commission rebate.”
“Todd was a great partner in our very long house hunting odyssey; patient, knowledgeable and never pushy. When we really needed to move to make an offer (more than once) he was quick to respond, always available, and right to the point. His record keeping / paperwork system is also very automated and saved many hours of time along the way.”
“I came to Todd and Menlo Atherton Realty when it came to buying our condo in San Francisco. We ended up finding a short sale that we loved and Todd was able to execute on multiple levels. First of all, Todd is a great communicator. He texts, emails, calls, uses e-contracts – whatever it takes to get the job done easily and efficiently in the least amount of time. Secondly, Todd is very thorough – constantly double checking and going above and beyond to get us the best deal possible. Todd was able to negotiate down the sales price an additional 15k for us which was just an added bonus.Third of all, Todd is very knowledgeable about the real estate industry. Even though Todd doesn’t live in SF or even do that many SF sales, he answered all of my questions with confidence and honesty. He helped us a lot with understanding how the short sale process works, what to expect from the bank, the timing of how it will all play out, etc. Bottom line, definitely go to Menlo Atherton Realty if you want to make the right real estate choices and work with a company that is honest, efficient, and works for you.”
“Todd recently helped my wife and I success-fully navigate a few tricky multiple offer situations. The education provided by Menlo Atherton’s documentation was critical in getting me up to speed on the ins and outs of multiple offers. Todd had us very well prepared and was able to point out the potential pitfalls. The electronic signature processes enabled us to quickly and seamlessly make an offer while my wife was out of the country.I really appreciated Todd’s no pressure approach. He always rendered an honest opinion and never tried to push us into a home. I feel very comfortable sending my friends to Todd knowing he will provide them with the same honesty and high quality service as I received.”
“I bought a house in Palo Alto with Menlo Atherton Realty and highly recommend them. Todd and Inna are both very professional, knowledgeable, and accessible. We got into a rather complicated negotiation and Todd handled it perfectly and ended up securing a great price for us.
He has a very large depth of experience so he knows all of the ins and outs of real estate, and his feel for the art of the deal proved dead on accurate: he sniffed out a bluff by the listing agent more than once. The commission rebate that Menlo Atherton Realty offers is the industry best, and when you add that to the negotiating savvy that Todd brings to the table, you’re likely to end up with a significant chunk of extra cash when the deal is done.”
“Todd turned what is possibly one of the most dreaded experiences, home purchase, into a seamless transaction. Todd was instrumental in every aspect of the home buying process, right from helping us with what amount to bid on the property to getting all the loan documents in order for a timely closing. Love the fact that we have embraced technologies like e-Signature to make the entire process less burdensome on home buyers and sellers. Always reachable, prompt and professional, I would recommend Todd and Inna’s services to anybody considering a home purchase in the SF peninsula.”
“I worked with Todd in a highly competitive market and am very pleased with the services he provided. He has a unique business model that rewards buyers who want to do their own search. This also enables him to focus on activities where he can add most value, which are to review the disclosures, negotiate and prepare the contract, and ensure a smooth transaction. Todd is extremely knowledgeable and responsive, usually replying to my inquiries within a matter of minutes and never more than 24 hrs. His all-electronic documentation process makes it very easier to submit offers quickly. I highly recommend Todd and Menlo Atherton Realty.”
“Very highly recommended. My wife and I recently purchased a house in Palo Alto and we could not be happier with the service we received from Todd and Inna at Menlo Atherton Realty. My wife and I were drawn to Menlo Atherton Realty for their industry-best buyer rebate (they take a 1% commission and rebate the remainder). Like a lot of buyers these days, we preferred to do most of our research ourselves, using Redfin and MLS listings to find properties online and going to open houses ourselves on weekends.
Todd is able to offer such a large rebate by keeping his hand holding to a minimum in the early stages of the house hunt — he can arrange showings for you if necessary (Inna showed us one house after hours), but he will not be burning hours taking you from house to house browsing. I initially viewed this as a simple value proposition: In exchange for doing legwork that we were planning to do ourselves anyway, we get a larger rebate and save money. However, after running through the full buying cycle, I discovered a much more significant effect of Menlo Atherton’s business model: Because he runs a high volume business and doesn’t waste time parading buyers from property to property, Todd spends most of his time engaged in the activities that are most valuable to us as buyers: the art of deal making around the contract negotiations and close.This has had the effect giving Todd an edge over his competition in precisely the area that is most critical. We engaged seriously in a few houses before settling on our current one. In each case, events proved Todd’s professional instincts to be correct: when he said a selling agent was likely bluffing and we should wait, he proved correct. His command of multiple bid situations also proved to be accurate, and he got us through a complicated escrow process with minimal disruptions. The other positive side effect of the Menlo Atherton business model is that with higher volume than typical realtors, Todd and Inna are not inclined to push for a quick sale — they want to get their clients into the right house at the right price and build a base of lifetime clients and referrers. There were a couple of properties that we really liked that Todd effectively talked us out of for various reasons (school, cross-traffic, difficulty of resale, etc.).Realtors that I’ve worked with in the past would have been quick to seize on any interest and close a quick deal. Throughout the process, Todd and Inna were both very responsive, returning emails very quickly and answering or returning calls promptly. I highly recommend Menlo Atherton Realty.”
“Menlo Atherton Realty helped us purchase a townhouse in Mountain View, where we competed against a lot of well-qualified buyers. Todd and Inna have figured out how to process real estate deals through secure web tools. They did a great job of setting things up so that I could read and sign documents online.
Not only were they less expensive than other agents, but also they saved me a lot of time. We had to make offers on four houses before we got an acceptance. It was tough, but because we were working efficiently we were able to stay in the game and compete effectively. Hats off to Todd and Inna. Thanks to their skills we are living in a nice place that we like very much.”
“Todd’s business model is exceptional. My wife and I were already doing weekly open house runs for several months so we were familiar with prices and offerings in our neighborhood so not having to pay for the service that we were doing ourselves worked out great. A previous agent we had used ended up not paying attention to our needs, but Todd was very attentive and responsive. Todd was also prompt with returning communication requests. Calls and emails were returned promptly, usually the same day within minutes. Todd’s heavy use of digital documents and email was also helpful in quick turnaround times when signing and reviewing the mountain of paperwork came around.”
“I highly recommend Todd. Todd represented my wife and I in purchasing a home in Los Altos. We were drawn to using Todd due to his commission rebate back to us. This rebate enabled us to afford a more expensive home.
However, what impressed me most about Todd is that he provided much better service and expertise than other full service real estate brokers that we used before. Todd’s insights and guidance in crafting an offer and his negotiating skills helped us get a great price on our home. In addition, Todd’s loan broker got us a great rate on a loan. With the commission rebate and the great service that Todd provides, it is a no-brainer to use Todd as your real estate broker if you are purchasing a home.”
“Todd and Inna are a very professional, efficient and results-oriented husband and wife team. Todd is dynamic and energetic, and Inna is very sweet and detail oriented, she takes care of all the paperwork. I loved working with them to buy my Palo Alto home, as they work seamlessly together to cover all aspects of the process and the actual transaction. They give the extra mile to get the work done, for example, one day that I was caught up in back to back meetings, Inna met me at a convenient location for me on the road to sign some documents.
Todd was instrumental in helping me and my sons be the winning offer in the very competitive Palo Alto market, among 18 other offers (yes, 18!), even though there were several bidders that were very close to us and one even higher. The day Todd presented our offer was very long and nerve wrecking (as we had almost the last turn after 18 other people), but Todd’s reassurance and confidence helped me stay focused all the way until the final negotiations. But their help didn’t stop there, they helped me and my boys transition into the new place, and gave me great recommendations of professional and tradespeople that I needed at that time.Overall, I felt that Inna and Todd always had my best interest in mind, and gave me honest and valuable feedback about the properties that I was considering. Even though my experience with Menlo Realty is in the buying process, I will not hesitate to use their services again when the selling time comes.”
“We bought our first home in California through Todd & Inna and can’t say enough about their excellent service. Todd was a great negotiator in a tough deal/uncertain market while Inna was excellent at making sure all of the details were taken care of! We will definitely use them when we are ready to sell and buy another home.”
“I strongly recommend Todd and Menlo Atherton Realty. I hired them to purchase my first home in the Silicon Valley area in 2011. They were very professional and patiently walked me through each step of the home-buying process and answered all my questions. Todd knows EXACTLY what he’s doing. Every page of every contract and form was clear to him, and every aspect of home ownership was considered on our behalf as if he were the one buying the house.
While all real estate agents pledge to act in the best interest of their clients, Todd truly does so. In the one month that it took for escrow to close, we felt continually supported. There were never a sense of “Oh, their deal is going to close soon anyway, and they’re not going to back out, so let me go pay attention to other clients instead.” Being detailed-oriented, we must have asked Todd lots of questions, each of which was patiently and thoroughly answered. When he wasn’t absolutely certain of the answer, he made sure to find out.We have also received a rebate from him and saved a lot of money in the transaction. Todd is a rare find in the real estate business. He will definitely be our first call the next time we have a real estate transaction!”
“From my own work as a professional in a transaction-oriented field, I expect service providers to live up to high standards of thoroughness and responsiveness, which has sometimes left me frustrated with my experiences with residential real estate agents. Todd was an exception, though, consistently meeting or exceeding my expectations for professionalism. For buyers who expect to take the lead in a search for a home, Todd’s service is a great value.”
“We recently purchased our first home and couldn’t have been happier with the experience. Knowing that we would be doing a lot of legwork ourselves (researching online and attending open houses) we chose Todd and Inna based on their commission rebate program.
When we started working with them, I didn’t expect them to handhold us since they only keep 1% commission. I was very pleasantly surprised though, as both Todd and Inna were available to us at all hours of the day. They responded to emails almost instantaneously and provided answers to our never-ending list of questions that ranged from steps in the home buying process to the escrow period. Another thing that we loved about them is the fact that they are all digital. The vast majority of communication was done through email. More importantly though, is the fact that they use docusign to gather electronic signatures. I was out of town when we put our offer in, so this would have been impossible with a traditional agent that still requires physical signatures.
Todd showed great expertise in the bidding process. We had already lost out on another home (for which he had indicated that he thought our offer was too low), so we listened to his advice more the second time around. It was a multiple offer, multiple counter situation, and Todd’s insight and advice for next steps really worked. Additionally, he mentioned that he had worked with the other agent before, so I suspect that his strong network and relationship with the agent helped us win the bidding war.
Inna was remarkably organized and always went out of her way to accommodate our schedules. She met up with us for a final walk through of our property on Labor Day weekend! I thought she would rush right through the inspection since it was a holiday, but she really took the time to walk through with us, and even provided some design feedback and ideas. Even though that was the last “official” thing we had to do with our house, she has still been in contact with us, providing recommendations on stores and contacts to use during our home remodel.
Both Todd and Inna were an absolute pleasure to work with. Their responsiveness and expertise throughout our home buying process was great, and I couldn’t imagine going through this process without them.”
“We have been renting on the peninsula for over 10 years and were finally ready to buy – and we are so glad we chose Todd and Inna as our realtors! We were buying in a very competitive market and needed people who knew what they were doing to win the bid but we didn’t need anyone to hold our hands. Since we knew exactly what we wanted, we felt confident going to open houses on our own.
In this age of the internet with MLS and other sites that let you know what houses are available, I really appreciated having the option of saving a huge chunk of money on realtors’ commissions by signing with Todd and Inna since they do not come to the open houses but are basically available for everything else. Both Todd and Inna were easily accessible and great at answering all of our questions and giving us sound advice on what to expect and playing the odds to win the house while staying in our budget. I have recommended them to everyone I know and would not hesitate to work with them again! Thank you Todd and Inna – we love our house!!!”
“I highly recommend Menlo Atherton Realty/Todd. Thank you Todd for helping us purchase our Los Altos home, in 2007. This was not our first home purchase, so we really hunted for a competent, honest agent that understood the real estate market and could represent us and negotiate the deal. I applaud Todd for his 1% commission while many other brokers bristle at the thought. Todd is very confident in his ability to close a deal on behalf of his client and rightfully so. I also appreciate that Todd is a email/phone call away for our other real estate questions, thanks for keeping in touch all these years!
We bought our first home with Menlo Atherton Realty and the experience was exactly as advertised. The service is to the point. Offers get done quickly using the latest technology such as electronic signing. The service also includes solid real estate knowledge and invaluable local knowledge; the real estate market in the bay area is unique and, therefore, requires unique knowledge that people from Menlo Atherton Realty mastered. The art of making offers in a competitive market. The rebate they offer is also very strong and makes you feel like you are paying only for what you really need.”
“We bought our first home with Menlo Atherton Realty and the experience was exactly as advertised. The service is to the point. Offers get done quickly using the latest technology such as electronic signing.
The service also includes solid real estate knowledge and invaluable local knowledge; the real estate market in the bay area is unique and, therefore, requires unique knowledge that people from Menlo Atherton Realty mastered. The art of making offers in a competitive market. The rebate they offer is also very strong and makes you feel like you are paying only for what you really need.”
“What is most valuable about him is his very common sense yet tried-and-true approach to things. He knows real estate buying and selling very well and can see consequences of specific actions from so many different angles that no other source out there can match his advice. I have dealt with a few hundred agents in the area and I can tell you that this guy is top notch. He truly loves what he does and got darn good at it.”
“We had a extremely good home-buying experience with Todd & Inna. His great expertise in dealing with the bank agents, loan agents etc helped us finally get the home of our dreams- there were many times along the way we thought we won’t get it, but he patiently kept pursing it.
All along the process he constantly guided us & was always available- even late in the night sometimes. I really like his calm, no-pressure style of working with his clients. He goes out of the way to help his clients. Inna was kind enough to even help us pick out some great colors for the walls. We recommend him to all our friends & would definitely go back to him again to buy our next home.”
