Aileen La Bouff – Sereno Group

Hire her! Seriously.
We were trying to buy an apartment in our condo. There was 13 offers. And we won, thanks to Aileen, her hard work and her advice, that helped to land our apartment.
She is really organized, she is always picking up her phone, answer to emails, texts, etc. I mean it, always and right away. Even though she was at the vacation at the different part of the globe for the first week of the deal, she was always with us on the phone or email.
We are first time buyers, absolutely clueless. Aileen taught us about every aspect of a deal, every possibilities, every legal procedure, every written or unwritten rule. She knows her stuff, the market and she was really strait forward about every possible scenario. It was really nice.
She is dedicated and organized, Aileen knew exactly when we should start preparing this or that, when we should nudge our lender or other companies involved. We closed really fast. And that wasn’t the end of it. She helped us with HOA, with contractors and even helped us to break a lease and rent out our previous apartment.
I would highly recommend Aileen to anyone who is trying to buy a home.

I tried several times to post my review since 31 August 2014. Hopefully this time it will work.
—31 Aug 2014—
My wife and I couldn’t be any happier. We are so elated moving in to our new home way ahead of schedule. Using a VA loan, we honestly did not expect to close in less than thirty days. We signed on day 23, recorded the next day and had the keys to our new home that afternoon! This was made possible through the hard work of Aileen La Bouff. Aileen was assigned to us by Navy Federal Credit Union in May 2014, while I was still stationed overseas. She began working with us well before my family and I moved back to the states in July which made a huge difference in terms of saving time we didn’t have, allowing us to narrow our searches for properties as soon as returning to California which expedited the contracting process. When we returned from overseas, Aileen picked us up (my entire family of four) from our hotel since our vehicle was still in transit from Korea to immediately begin house hunting. Aileen’s excellent ability to represent and advocate for us paid dividends making the sellers feel very comfortable about entertaining buyers using a VA loan, which many sellers normally shy away from. From start to finish, Aileen was consistently prepared, thorough, prompt and professional. Aileen never missed a beat and overcame any obstacles that would otherwise slow the momentum of the closing process. She was very thoughtful and sincere about the well being of my family especially while staying in hotel for more than thirty days and enabled our speedy check out of a very crammed room. We will definitely seek Aileen’s services again when we are ready to purchase our retirement home, or should we decide to sell one of our properties. My wife and I strongly endorse Aileen to represent U.S. military veterans, active and reserve members. Aileen understands the needs of military members and their family. USAA and Navy Federal must continue to consider Aileen’s services in future. The only thing that I regret is my inability to rate Aileen with more stars than allowed! If anyone out there is looking for an agent, look no further. You can reach Aileen at:

This is a shout out to Aileen for all her hard work and dedicated service. My partner and I truly value your knowledge and business acumen, and especially for guiding us in our quest to find a home in Silicon Valley. The market is very competitive and we’ve hit several bumps along the way but I know that we could not have done it without you. I would highly recommend Aileen to anyone looking to purchase or buy a home.

You WANT Aileen to sell your house for you. She is so much more than a real estate agent. Aileen has a keen design eye and with all her very reasonable contractor contacts can turn your home into a jewel that will attract multiple bids
My best recommendation is to stand back (as hard as it is sometimes) and let Aileen decide what to change, pick colors, etc. She can get the work done for a fraction of what it would cost you. If says something like «all the cabinet pulls and door hardware needs to be updated… believe her. She has such a keen sense of what is wanted in today’s market.
Things don’t always go right like in the case of my house (the high bidder could not meet their financial obligation) Aileen immediately contacted the next highest bidders and negotiated a fantastic final selling price.
What can I say about a cheery, humorous, artistic, whip-​smart, savvy business woman like Aileen? HIRE HER!

We’ve been working with Aileen for nearly 7 years on three transactions (2 home purchases and 1 sale). In all this time she’s been extremely professional and nothing but amazing. If you’re a first-​time home buyer or trying to move up to a larger home, like we were, you need an experienced pro on your side who really knows the current market conditions, and more importantly, what it takes to make your offer stand out and be successful. You also need someone who is there for you and who can act quickly. When the listing for your dream home comes along nothing else matters.
When we bought our first home in 2006, Aileen helped us prevail against 13 (!) other offers and close in record time. Aileen quickly did research and helped us strategize how to make our offer look most attractive in the face of strong competition. We were successful even though our offer wasn’t the highest and this was the first time we had ever made an offer on a house. Even more impressive to us was the fact that we had only met Aileen the day of the open house. Three days later, she called us with the good news that our offer had been accepted. There are not many agents who would jump right in with new clients and have such an outstanding track record in making successful offers.
When it was time to sell our home in 2012, Aileen recommended sensible improvements that significantly improved the look and feel of the place. She works with a team of quality contractors (gardener, painter, stager, photographer, etc) who you can trust will do an excellent job. We had over 300 people show up during the open house resulting in 10 offers, with several above asking price. You simply can’t ask for a better result. She really helps take the stress out of selling a home.
Aileen uses the latest tools to set up automatic searches for comparable homes. You can also do most of the paperwork online and sign electronically. This saves you a lot of time and you don’t need to go to an office in case you’re traveling. At the end, Aileen gives you a CD with all documentation from the transaction for your records.
So if you’ve read this far and you’re still looking for an agent, please do yourself a favor and give Aileen a call. You will not regret it.

I can’t say enough great things about this lady. She stepped in to help sell our house while we were facing some very challenging circumstances. Once she took over it was a dream. She is very organized, communicates well and saves trees in the process by puting most of the paperwork online. I would put five stars as the rating but I want to make sure the rating stays here.

I am a Veteran and was referred to Aileen through the USAA movers advantage program around January. As a Veteran, I DEFINITELY recommend her. This is our third home we are looking to buy and needless to say, we have some experience when it comes to Realtors.
First of all, Aileen is very friendly and has a very positive attitude. I also rate her communication excellent. Whenever I sent her an e-​mail, I almost always received a response within a few hours. Whenever I called her she almost always picked up or called me back within a short amount of time. She also always followed through quickly on whatever she said she would do. If Aileen had any information to give us, she always contacted us right away and gave us a full status report.
Our personal situation is unique in that we wanted to put an offer on a Condo complex but could not because the complex is not approved by the VA. Aileen went through all of the effort on her own to research what paperwork was necessary for approval, as well as contacting the VA directly and speaking to the person in charge of moving approvals through the VA system. She also contacted the Condo Association and was able to convince the association to consider going through the process of obtaining VA approval. All of this was initiated by Aileen on our behalf. This is considerable more service than any other Realtor we have dealt with before has ever given.
In regards to Juan V’s poor review. I don’t know the particulars but I would suspect that a lot of it has to do with high first time home buyer expectations and miscommunication. Having gone through this process three times, I can say with experience that Aileen is as good as it gets when it comes to buying a home.

I had a horrible experience with Aileen. She was referred through USAA (my bank) through its mover’s advantage program.
We worked together for about 3 months and each time I would contact Aileen and send her listings that I’d found online. Basically, I was doing her job. The straw that broke the camel’s back was that a month passed and I hadn’t heard from her. No emails or a phone call. Nada. I’d had it. I called USAA and told them I wanted a change. But, when USAA told me that they’d contacted her and that Aileen told them that my «price point» was the issue on why we hadn’t found a home. Wow!!! This was news to me because she’d never mentioned my «price point» as a concern. I mean, how could she, Aileen never called and had very little communication with me. However, she did admit to USAA that she’d gone on vacation and forgot to inform me. She also told them that she’d like to continue to work with me and help me find a home. HUH?!? WHAT!!! You want to continue to work with me after you haven’t contacted me in a month and now you’re blaming me and saying that my «price point» was the problem.
If you’re going to spend over a million dollars I’d recommend her because she probably does good work at that «price point». If you don’t have the means to spend that much money then my advice is to look elsewhere. I wasted large amounts of time with Aileen and you probably will too if you use her. Instead, find someone who’s going to dedicate themselves to helping you find a home. She’s just not that person.

Peerless! I’ve used several realtors over the years, and she’s the cream of the crop!
Above and Beyond – She picked me up from the airport and drove me to my new home! She’s an eco broker, has a legal background, and is extremely thorough with the process and the significant amount of paperwork that comes with buying/​selling a home. No worries, she uses recycled paper and pens and has a cool laptop program I signed some of the documents on.
Responsive and meticulous! She met all my schedule requirements and requests to view places, pointed out every minute detail I should be aware of about the property, and was very upfront and honest.
Delivers – Aileen’s confidence and creativity enabled me to win over the sellers in a bidding war when I purchased my home! I had full confidence in her. She also scanned in all of my home-​buying documents to be maintained on a server and created a CD with all the documents for me so I don’t have to maintain a mound of paperwork in my home.
Look no further! Aileen will exceed every one of your expectations in buying/​selling a home. I can’t say enough great things about her. She’s awesome!

Let me start by saying: Aileen is awesome! My fiancé and I found her on Trulia, read her Unilocal review, and emailed her to make an appointment. This lady responded to our email in minutes, and this persistent communication continued throughout our transaction. She’s flexible to meet with our needs. She made us feel like we were her only clients. She’s optimistic, assertive; realistic and personable. She gets things done! We firmly believe the purchase of our first home would not have happened if it weren’t for her.
Aileen, you’re awesome! We can’t thank you enough!

I am constantly looking on Unilocal for recommendations about what I need: a gentle dentist, a good fish taco (Flying Fish Grill!!), a new place to get my hair cut.
Oddly, I didn’t start here when I needed a Realtor to help me find and buy my first house. And I rarely feel compelled to write my own reviews.
But working with Aileen has been so rewarding, I’m writing one of my first Unilocal reviews about her.
She’s realistic, down to earth, insanely knowledgeable about the San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, and consistently goes above and beyond for you. She cares about getting you into a house (or out of a house, as the case may be) in a way that makes you happy, doesn’t stress you out, and treats everyone fairly and honestly. Her background in construction management, and her low-​impact, green «ecobroker» philosophies are extra bonuses.
Plus she’s from Sydney and has a killer accent. No, it doesn’t matter when you buy a house. Yes, it will make you smile. And hey, it’s never bad to have an intrepid Aussie on your side.

Excellent agent. Commited to selling your house and/​or helping you find a new one. Very knowledgeable about the area. Very happy working with her. Will work with her again.