February 7, 2016 On January 22nd, 2016 the sale of my Santa Cruz town home closed! It is with gratitude that I acknowledge Marilyn Johnson, my Realtor, who effectively worked with me long distance to achieve the aligned goal of marketing the town home, finding the perfect buyer, and effectively selling the property with no glitches! As an inherited property that had tenants, Marilyn and I began our process to determine the best way to proceed to create the sale. She was a patient and incredible resource for me as I proceeded to give notice to the tenants. From the start, Marilyn was 100% there, effectively communicating and handling each detail to start the marketing process. Her long time experience as a Realtor working in the Santa Cruz market and her grounded confidence reassured me as a Seller from out of area. Affirming the professional relationship, she had respect for my questions and concerns. All in all I feel like she did not miss a beat! The unique and incredible thing is we have never met in person! Yet, I trusted her implicitly to be there for me with my goals as the Seller. I highly recommend Marilyn for anyone desiring an effective and satisfying real estate transaction in the Santa Cruz area. I have been extremely fortunate to have worked with her!

In 1997 I bought my first house in Santa Cruz County with Marilyn Johnson as my realtor. As a newbie to real estate and the county, I needed someone who was an expert on the area and with the process of buying. Marilyn was that expert, and she made the difficult process of buying a home as easy as possible. I recently used Marilyn again to sell my Aptos property and buy a new home in the area. Her professionalism and expertise was evident again as she guided me through the process of preparing my home to be sold. She organized the bids and contractors and took the load off of me so I could continue on with personal and professional life. She helped me get my property in to excellent condition and ended up getting top dollar with excellent terms. She was there during the entire escrow process making sure that the deal went through smoothly so we could then began the buying process of a new home. Marilyn’s professionalism and organization continued to be exceptional during the process of locating and buying my new home. She seemed to know more about what I wanted and needed than even I did. One of her best skills is that she never wasted one minute of my time and she seemed to always have a clear focus on what we needed to do to move forward. Yet she was patient with me while she explained the process and how things worked. She worked with me to find the property that was going to work best for my family and she was with us every step of the way from locating the home, to the offer, and all the way through the escrow process. We are now in our new home and the only problem is that we miss our frequent interactions with Marilyn. She has become a good friend during this process and always will be. I look back on these last many months and two real estate transactions and feel very thankful that we had Marilyn on our team. I would highly recommend Marilyn and her team of other real estate for both buying and selling a home. While I plan on staying put for a while, when the time comes to move again, I will be calling Marilyn Johnson. 

I am writing to express my pleasure with real estate agent Marilyn Johnson, who represented us in our recent sale of a single-family home on a large lot. Marilyn guided us through the entire process and kept us informed. As a former real estate broker, I could appreciate her thoroughness and professionalism. Her knowledge, experience and diligence in researching and marketing the property resulted in getting an offer which exceeded the listing price by over 40 thousand dollars. We are nothing but pleased with Marilyn and her expertise and we recommend her to everyone. Gerald L.

My husband and I purchased our first home in December 2014. As first time home buyers Marilyn made the experience educational, painless, and enjoyable! She allowed us to form our own opinions while providing us with her insight, expertise and professionalism. She alerted us to all properties she knew we would have interest in and worked with our schedules to show us each property with detail and care. Once we found our home she met with us several times so that not only we could view the property and our families, but would meet with us so that we were able to take measurements and make plans for our future home as well. She always made herself available and though I know she is very busy she made us feel as though we were her only client. To top it all off she surprised us with a beautiful house warming gift that my husband and I hold dear to our hearts.I would highly recommend Marilyn time and time again.

Marilyn Johnson has been a wonderful partner in our personal and business real estate endeavors. Throughout our transactions with her, she was a wealth of information and gave invaluable advice.Even after the deals were complete, she followed up to ensure our expectations were exceeded. Marilyn Johnson is one-of -a-kind and delivers impressive results with her professionalism and attention to detail. We feel lucky to have been referred to Marilyn and are grateful to have benefited from her years of experience.

Having been a veterinarian in Santa Cruz for over 30 years much of my investments have been involved in real estate. I have bought and sold a number of properties. In the latter part of my tenure in property management, my needs changed as the landscape of our holdings became more challenging. Subsequently, I began to interview realtors. After attending a multitude of open houses and various discussions with Santa Cruz's top agents, I commissioned Ms. Johnson to handle our real estate needs. Observing her effectiveness, efficiency and honesty laid the foundation for building a strong trust in her skills. Many can sell properties in a good market; only the best can sell problematic holdings in a difficult environment. She is such a professional and is worthy of her client’s trust. In the course of 6 years she has been involved with over seven transactions involving both the purchase and sale of residential and rental property. At one time we simultaneously had four properties on the market. Having Ms. Johnson's expertise combined with a level demeanor, a superb knowledge of marketing and an attention to detail successfully navigated the completion of those sales in less than a year. She was always there for our questions, concerns and follow up. As issues emerged, unexpected details raised concerns and obtuse agents entered into the equation, Ms. Johnson effectively charted us through potential perils. Real estate is not a hobby for Ms. Johnson; it is a passion. She is extremely attentive to detail in every aspect of the contract. Taking time to understand her client's fiscal needs in conjunction with the emotional factor is one aspect of her professional authenticity. This is substantiated by her ability to get the job done. Knowing of her and actually experiencing her knowledge, insight and acumen allow me the opportunity through these brief paragraphs to thank her for all that she has done for us.

When a job change required me to commute to Pleasanton everyday, I realized it was sadly time to sell my house in Soquel. I am a single guy and wanted somebody who was mature, responsible and focused on getting the result I wanted in a timely manner. After researching some local realtors, I found Marilyn Johnson. She met with me and took me through the entire process. She helped me get my house ready for the market and did a great job of promoting my property. In a very short period of time we were looking at offers. She helped me look at the pros and cons of each offer always keeping in mind my requirements and not pushing me to take any deal offered. Ultimately, we closed with a result that exceeded my expectations. Marilyn was a pleasure to work with throughout the process. She always kept my interests in mind and was patient yet firm when dealing with they myriad of other people involved in selling a house. I would highly recommend Marilyn Johnson.

This is truly from my heart... Over the 42 years I've owned a personal residence, I've moved 9 times. That means I've had plenty of experience with real estate agents. While not all of the transactions went perfectly smoothly, none of the transactions were even close to the nightmare that Marilyn Johnson helped us through. Talk about an agent who earned her commission! So what made Marilyn stand out? Communication. Calmness in the face of unbelievably poor performance by the people buying our home as well as their agent. Extra effort to work through the obstacles. Patience. Poise. The way she gave us "relative" peace of mind that issues would be worked out. Thoroughness in keeping track of the paperwork that became complicated when the buyers failed to meet various deadlines. Humor, when there was no other choice than to pull our hair out. I honestly don't think any other agent could have gotten us through that transaction and into our new home. We came away with the feeling that we had not just a stellar agent, but also a new friend. Do I recommend Marilyn? Are you kidding? Of course!

I have worked with Marilyn Johnson twice in real estate transactions. My first experience was in purchasing my home in Santa Cruz.From the start, Marilyn was very proactive in researching possible homes with my budget in mind. She was thorough and very supportive throughout the process and even assisted in moving forward the loan process as well as many other details.My second experience was also a great experience. I was selling my home and with her support and guidance moved through the process very quickly and efficiently getting all processes done in record time and completely. I was able to sell my house very quickly due to Marilyn's representation and efforts on my behalf. She is an excellent agent who will help on either end of the process.