Jo Ellen cares and connects with both her clients and the seller. She goes a step above. She works tirelessly until she gets you what you want. She is smart savvy experienced as well as kind and fun. You won’t be disappointed. 5 Star Rating

Dear Jo Ellen I needed this moment of peace, after Nick left, after a day of lots of small accomplishments and after my heart rate started to settle down within more normal ranges, so I can express my gratitude to you Your presents were so incredibly thoughtful you made me go back 60 years waking up on Christmas morning. Thank you for the doctors wines, and the beautiful board and the special knifes, and the wale trip and the city tour and the delicious selection of food that kept Nick and I going through the day. We were in disbelieve seeing every thing the owner has left. Never mind the value but the emotional effect of moving in under these conditions. All beyond expectations. A day so busy that gave us only the last minutes of the sunset to visit the magic bench and the beach. A single day that made me change my long term plans completely because I realized how difficult will be to be away from this piece of paradise. I want also to tell you that over the years I bought 7 houses which gives me a decent experience on the process. I never dealt with a professional like you. I felt at all times you were protecting my interests first. I never had that feeling before. You did what you should do plus so much more that you didn’t have too. I appreciate that more than everything else. I guess I needed to say that you are a large part of the most exciting investment I have ever made Thank you

We knew Jo-Ellen a little bit through her husband. She was the last of several agents we interviewed. And the most prepared to guide through the sale of our 90 year old home we'd lived in for 32 years. We spent six months fixing up our house but could have spent six years. Jo-Ellen helped greatly in showing what was necessary to do, what might be good, and what to defer. She said it would be best to perform the many tests (well, septic, inspections, etc.) and lay it all out. Only truly interested buyers would proceed. Pulling together cleaning, staging, and photography was logistically difficult as we still had painters, plumbers, and the like still finishing up. We sold in six hours over the asking price (3 offers total) which was way over what other agents thought we might do. Then, the real selling started as Jo-Ellen fielded lots of questions to made the buyer comfortable to consummate the deal. Throughout the process she was professional and responsive, but most of all cheerful and caring. We highly recommend Jo-Ellen. Her work is 5 Stars!

Jo Ellen Smith was recommended to me through a coworker when I decided I wanted to sell my townhouse and buy a house in a nearby city. Jo Ellen was available to meet with me and, at my urgency, worked seamlessly to improve, inspect and list my home within weeks of my first contacting her. Within a week I had 6 offers - 5 over asking! I sold my townhouse for more than I expected and there was no physical contingency on the sale. Meanwhile, Jo Ellen patiently showed homes to me and she was able to get me into contract on a house that is absolutely perfect for my needs - before my townhouse was even in contract to be sold! She even took the initiative to include the owner's patio furniture in my offer. Throughout escrow, Jo Ellen coordinated all the inspections needed and we were able to bring the seller further down in price. Did I mention she had to do all this with the Thanksgiving holiday in the middle of our contingency window? She is stellar! It took only 11 weeks from the first time I met Jo Ellen to the time my townhouse was sold and I had keys to my new home in hand. Outstanding! Jo Ellen gets my highest recommendation and I am so thankful to her for making this major life change possible.

As first-time home buyers, we are grateful to have worked with Jo-Ellen! She is a wonderful friend and realtor. During the process, Jo-Ellen was supportive, patient, and sensitive to our needs. She was committed to ensuring that we were happy with our options and that we understood the new housing market in CA. She was also great at advocating on our behalf and providing affirmation when we were nervous about making some offers. We found the perfect home for us, and are very happy. She is incredibly supportive, and makes a naturally stressful process smoother and more manageable. We give Jo-Ellen our highest recommendation! We could never have settled in CA without her.

Jo Ellen was easy to work with, responsive, and helped us compete to get the home of our dreams! She had wonderful contacts including a painter, a handyman, and a lending broker, all of whom we also loved. A great experience overall! This is our second transaction with her!
5 star representation.

My family moved into our dream home yesterday and it's all thanks to Jo-Ellen! This was our first time buying a home, but Jo-Ellen made it so easy. Her experience and advice on what to look for when checking out potential houses helped relieve so much of our anxiety going into the home-buying process. After spending months searching with us in a very difficult market, Jo-Ellen found us a home that had everything we wanted (and so much more) that was just minutes from our offices! Everything after that, from writing the initial offer, scheduling inspections, negotiating with the seller's agent, helping with financing, etc., went so fast and smoothly that you'd swear Jo-Ellen must actually be a team of 5 people! But no, she's just that good. We really cannot thank Jo-Ellen enough!

I can not say enough great things about Jo Ellen and our experience with our recent purchase. I have been looking for a year to buy an investment property. I live about 90 min from Santa Cruz and preferred to purchase something local to me. I was working with one, than another and than another real estate agent near my house. I was shocked at how lazy they were. I kept on hearing 'that house is probably already sold', on the first day it's on mls. So, how about being more aggressive? Jo Ellen was everything great! She is amazing with communication, text or emails were returned immediately. Her knowledge of the Santa Cruz area is absolutely number 1. She seems to know every agent in the area, independent of the company. She knows every community and it feels like she knows every house. I literally think she works 7 days a week in the field. She would tour the listings and send me photos. She would call prior to tours if she wanted me available for facetime. Jo Ellen actually called me about several properties prior to mls. Finally, she was able to find a house, prior to mls, that we loved. We made an offer that was accepted. And that's only the beginning of her amazing! It was necessary for us to obtain the inspections. Jo Ellen scheduled every inspection, met the inspectors, sent me photos and texts and then reviewed everything with me. After closing, she has been great with scheduling and availability for renovations. The deal has been over for a month, and she still updates me daily with progress on the work. She communicates regularly with my contractors and is taking a personal interest in making sure the end result is amazing. I really can't thank her enough for everything she did to help me obtain this property. Not only is she an amazing real estate agent, she is also a really wonderful person. Thank You!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jo-Ellen was awesome to work with. Extremely knowledgeable about houses in the Santa Cruz and Los Gatos mountains ('the hill'). As every house, road and property are unique, this is a vital in buying and selling a home in this area. Her experience, connections, and people skills allowed us to quickly identify our home, go through inspections and negotiate a price! She's very flexible, responsive and will drive you through all the back roads to make sure no stone is unturned in your home search. We strongly recommend her!

“Choosing the right realtor can make a big difference in your real estate buying or selling experience. To this end, I am thankful that my family and I have had the opportunity to work with Jo-Ellen Smith at Bailey Properties. She has represented my family numerous times both as a buyer’s agent and a seller’s agent. Jo-Ellen has helped us buy and sell real estate, manufactured homes, and acreage.
As a buyer’s agent, Jo-Ellen has helped us find exactly what we needed and has assisted us throughout the buying process. In one case, Jo-Ellen helped us buy a house that had multiple issues with the Title, all of which needed to be resolved in order to close escrow. I was so impressed by how she tackled one issue after another, finding appropriate resolutions while keeping us from becoming discouraged. In the end, Jo-Ellen was able to resolve all of the Title issues and we purchased the house for well below the asking price!
As a seller’s agent, Jo-Ellen has helped us determine the best way to sell our homes. We had a fixer-upper that needed a buyer willing to do some repairs themselves, and a Santa Cruz Mountain property that just needed the right buyer looking for mountain living. In our most recent transaction, Jo-Ellen sold our manufactured home in Capitola in just 6 days with multiple offers and a quick escrow as well!
In summary, Jo-Ellen is a knowledgeable, capable and efficient real estate professional with an easygoing approach that makes you feel comfortable from the start. She has my highest recommendation and I look forward to working with her again in the future.”

Sincerely,
Jean Carson

Hello,


Jo Ellen Smith at Bailey Properties has been apart of my four real estate journeys. From a VA home loan to a Measure O loan to selling that same measure O property to the last one being a USDA loan she has successfully made it happen. Her experience and knowledge in the industry goes without saying. Last year 2023, I met with her and had a goal of selling my condo and closing on another property by Thanksgiving. I was in my new condo November 18th. What a wonderful experience it has been working with Jo Ellen. My 5 star girl!


Let me know if you want me to add more or change any parts.

Cheers,

Marissa

As we end the year and start the new year in our new home i want to give a big shout out to our Realtor, Jo-Ellen Smith for helping us out finding it and all the in and outs of this stressful process. She helped us so much with new septic regulations and home owner insurance issues.

Jo-Ellen sold my house and I highly recommend her as an agent. This had been our family home for 40 years, and I appreciated her approach. There was a lot of deferred maintenance on the property, she brought in staging and set up the house up to bring out the best.

I interviewed other agents, but chose Jo-Ellen for her knowledge of the area, the unique requirements of the San Lorenzo Valley, and her experience in closing a sale. One of the agents I interviewed had been trained by Jo-Ellen, and spoke highly of her.

Here are some of the things that I liked:

Her preparation of the property made it shine
She knew a lot about landscaping including what plants to purchase and had a discount connection
She actually planted some of the plants!
We had to work with county regulations on the septic system and fire insurance, she was very knowledgeable
She knew a contractor that was reasonably priced and rebuilt a retaining wall with a creative touch and did other repairs
The deal closed without any issues with the buyer, they did not ask for any credits

Bruce Bedayan