Lara Liquori – Coldwell Banker

Lara is the best realtor I have ever worked with and I highly recommend Lara. First I met Lara when renting in Maplewood and then Lara was my broker for a purchase in Maplewood very recently. Throughout both experiences Lara was the utmost professional, helping me understand the market and helping me avoid mistakes. I was interested in purchasing a home that had potential issues and Lara very carefully explained them to me and I avoided buying the wrong home. With Lara helping me understand the pluses and minuses of each property we viewed, I found the perfect home for me in Maplewood. I could not be happier with my new home or with the experience working with Lara.

Ms. Liquori helped my cousin find several beautiful rental property options in Essex County on extremely short notice. She went out of her way to line up a comfortable schedule and, most importantly, never once pushed for anything that didn’t meet the requirements. Highly recommended.

I have had the pleasure of working with Lara on multiple occasions in the North/​Central New Jersey markets. Lara is truly committed to her clients and making their real estate transaction as seamless as possible. I am hard pressed to find Realtors® that are as responsive to both their clients and other industry professionals as Lara is. Whether it is morning or night Lara will answer the phone, text or email. So much of a client’s success in buying or selling a home depends on the dedication of their Realtor®. Lara has proved that she is a top notch agent with the tools and skills to navigate perhaps the largest sale/​purchase of your life. If you’re not using me as your Realtor® you better be using her!!!

Lara helped my husband and me purchase our first house in South Orange. We had a wonderful experience working with her. She really listened to our wants and needs and didn’t try to push us toward a house or neighborhood that did not fit our criteria. Lara helped us see potential in homes that didn’t show well on the MLS, and ultimately helped us find our dream home. We are so happy. Being first time house owners, my husband and I were unsure of what to look for in terms of workmanship and quality — for example ongoing water damage vs a one time leak. Lara has a very detail-​oriented eye for these things and a sixth sense for basements. She was also able point out things in need of immediate repair and those things that can wait. She is well connected in the area and can provide contacts for lawyers, mortgage people, inspectors and contractors. Finally, Lara is a pleasure to work with. She helped make a stressful situation pleasant by helping us navigate through multiple bidding wars and appraisal issues. She has a good sense of humor and makes herself available at all times. I would recommend Lara to anyone looking to buy a home in the area.

This was my first time doing business with Lara Liquori or Coldwell Banker. I searched hard for a reputable realtor, largely because my experience is most are corrupt and/​or incompetent. This industry is chock-​full of lazy, unintelligent people looking to make a quick dollar. For this reason I wrote a long and detailed review for those recognizing this and intent on avoiding such people. I was not able to find a verifiably reputable realtor. Therefore, I began a series of conversations with Lara and a realtor of another company and I decided Lara was the better choice and decided to see where this would go.
In short I would recommend Lara to anyone. I talked extensively with Lara about what I was looking for regarding marketing my property and finding responsible tenants. I asked her many questions and at all times Lara was patient. When Lara did not know an answer to a question rather than tap dance around the issue as many do she would say she did not know, research the question, and get back to me (in some circles that is known as character). Lara also demonstrated promptness in addressing issues. One example regards a lowlife who listed my property in a scam claiming to be me and asking people to send him the first month’s rent (half of what I was asking) to him in Texas. When Lara discovered this she filed a report with the local police and convinced the website to remove the fake add. Although this did not remedy the problem since she continued to receive inquiries regarding the fake listing, she at least did everything she could do.
Lara was also great at disseminating information as the situation developed, such as notifying me of paperwork I needed to review and walking through my property for showing to the public. She also kept me informed of prospective tenants interested in the property. Lara was always accessible when I needed to contact her via phone calls (many times), emails (even more times), and texts (even more times), and visiting her in her office (two times).

I stated the importance of finding well vetted renters for my property.
Lara found tenants capable of passing the background check in about thirty days. This is noteworthy since the property was listed on or about December 1^st and she had to compete with two major holidays in the winter. I would think this is the hardest month of the year to find a tenant. This includes turning away prospective renters who could not pass the background check. This partly comprises two parties denied in accordance with my criteria requiring all adults on the premises to pass a background check. In both cases the applicants did not want to comply. Adhering to such standards is crucial to protecting the property. The party Lara eventually found passed the check well (very high credit score, verifiable employment, no known criminal history, ETC). Although it is too early to verify this party will be responsible tenants, the vetting process was adhered to and the future looks positive.
Another area I needed help with was finding reliable contractors to handle installation of a new water heater and to finish the basement ceiling. I called Lara about a water heater that had just broke and she gave me two contractors to call, which included AAA Able Plumbing. I immediately contacted them that night, and I was the first call they visited the next morning. They worked out great (written in another review). A second issue I had regarded a partially unfinished basement ceiling. Lara referenced two parties experienced in painting and drywalling. Of the two I went with two men named Ralph Ford and Tony (last name unknown). They did a great job with finishing my ceiling. I would recommend them to anyone.
It would be remiss not to mention Lara is new to real estate. However, two things I will point are one, given her character, conduct, and performance Lara Liquori was the right choice and she will be called upon again. She outperformed many experienced agents I had worked with before. Two, it was easy to see Coldwell Banker provides oversight to their agents. Not all agencies do this. Given I also needed a property manager Coldwell Banker provided a very experienced agent named Susan Blodgett. Susan provided great ideas for marketing/​managing this property I immediately appreciated. I told Susan about my concern with a previous tenant who would exploit the grace period, and how this combined with the lag time in the check clearing was something I wanted to avoid. Susan suggested adjusting the billing cycle from the 1^st to the 15^th. I also explained how people look at the rooms and wonder if they are big enough to accommodate their beds since the positioning of the radiotors can restrict the placement of furniture. Susan suggested we put tape on the floor that was the same dimensions of a large bed so clients would know there was enough space. This was very useful.
I am very glad I went with Lara Liquori, Susan Blodgett, and Coldwell Banker.

Lara is a hard working, competent realtor who cares about her clients. She helped my wife and I with finding a home in Maplewood. It was not as simple as a few showings and a sale. She worked around our schedule (we were living 2 hours away at the time) and helped us avoid making any mistakes. On our first offer she helped us steer clear of what turned out to be a bad situation with a shady seller. She helped us with another offer, bidding on a property that went for more than we could budget when multiple buyers were involved. And finally she guided us through the difficult process of purchasing a short sale property that we now call home. We are extremely happy in Maplewood and have the perfect house thanks to Lara’s professionalism and dedication.