Word on the street

“If you are thinking of buying a home in NELA, you are absolutely crazy if you do not hire Alison as your agent.”

Michael M. / Buyer

What People Are Saying

Alison helped me buy my first home this year. When we began the search I was a complete novice, and through working with her I now feel very knowledgeable about the home-buying process and the real-estate market. Alison is exceptionally helpful when doing walk-throughs of potential homes, and she notices things you would never think of. She made the home-buying process a fun one from day one!

Geoff F.

Alison was a huge help and wonderful guide through the unknown world of real estate. Never pushy, but always responsive, she was never more than an email or phone call away – and always able to answer first timers questions about the home buying process or give insight and suggestions. It took us a while to find the ideal home – but Alison was patient and helpful throughout. She’s a joy to work with and incredibly knowledgeable about all aspects of home buying and ownership. A real asset to have alongside you!

Dan P.

Alison helped me purchase my first home.  I can’t say enough about how much she helped me in the process.  I knew I wanted a home in Mt Washington, which was a big challenge in itself, as inventory is low and demand is high.  This challenge combined with the fact that I was living in NY while house hunting in LA was not an easy feat.  Alison was incredible and more than happy to take on the challenge.  She would consistently send me links to potential homes that would peak my interest.  She always offered to go to open houses for me, video taped the properties for me to see and really understand how each home was laid out.  She  always offered insightful and honest opinions, whether I should fly out or pass.  

Her keen eye for design and seeing the potential of a property always impressed me.  Once we found my dream house, Alison was happy to answer all my questions I had regarding making an offer and all the paperwork involved. This was completely foreign to me, but she really guided me through the entire process with her incredible knowledge and experience.  My friends are always commenting how they can’t believe I found a home in Mt Washington and even more impressed at how I did it from across the country.  I really owe it all to Alison and can’t thank her enough!

Julie H.

Alison is SUCH a thorough, hardworking agent who goes the extra mile to try and get her clients every opportunity to buy the house they want!  She worked so hard for us and we LOVE the house that we ended up buying in this really competitive market.   She’s extremely patient, smart and lovely to be around – a good combination for first time buyers like us.   I’d recommend her in a heartbeat.

Victoria M.

We found Alison through the magic of the Internet, and I’m grateful that we did! We had been not-so-seriously looking at what would be our first house, and Alison really helped us focus our search on houses that met all of our needs, including our budget. 

A few things really stood out for us:

Alison was diligent and patient with us – being a first time home buyer, I had many, many questions, and Alison patiently answered all of them for me. She communicates well via email as well as on the phone, and most importantly, she always follows up on everything she says she would. I think she may have been an amazing project manager in another life.

As others have mentioned, Alison does almost everything electronically. I really cannot overstate how great this was. We were buying a house in California while living in New York, so having everything set up to be signed electronically (there were, quite literally, hundreds of signatures needed throughout the whole process) made everything *much* easier than it could have been. For the only documents where we couldn’t sign things electronically, she arranged to have a notary come to our house and handle all documentation and signatures, which made things incredibly easy.

She’s also very flexible on schedule – she would pick up the phone even when I called in the evenings, and emails sent were often responded to within hours, if not minutes.

Finally, Alison also helped us with all of the other parts of home-buying that as first-timers, we had no clue about. She recommended a great home inspector and a fantastic contractor as well as a few other folks who we used and were very happy with all of her recommendations.

In the often frustrating experience of buying a house, Alison made the process about as smooth as it possibly could be, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend her to anyone looking for a house in Northeast Los Angeles.

Jason Y.

At first, my wife and I were overwhelmed with the daunting task of buying a home in Los Angeles. To the point, where it seemed near impossible. Luckily, Alison was referred to us through some friends and that's when there was a beacon of hope. She was willing to work with both of our busy schedules, even meeting us on our lunch breaks to check out houses. She was always accommodating, very knowledgeable, a great communicator (especially when translating all the real estate jargon to us), plus she has GREAT taste. She's so good that I'm even writing a Yelp review about her when I should be working. My wife and I are so thankful for everything Alison did. She went above and beyond to get us our dream house!

Derek M.

Alison is a gem. She lit the way for us all the way through the process of our first home purchase. It was clear that she wanted to find something that worked really well for our family and wouldn't give up on us, even when the bidding got surreal on certain properties, and we had to keep looking for some time. She ultimately helped us identify a place that was perfect for us, but the photos on the listing were so terrible that even we'd initially passed on it -- but Alison visited it herself to scope it out and told us to come visit in spite of the listing. No one else liked the photos either, but we loved it in person, so it was an easy win for us! She worked well with the other agent and the seller (who was difficult). She took my phone calls about every anxious question I had. She helped us stay focused on the happy big picture that we were buying a home! I'd recommend Alison to anyone looking in NELA and beyond. She's smart, tenacious, and creative. An invaluable broker!

AJN

We met Alison very early on in the process of searching for a new home. She was referred to us by a very reputable real estate agent, so we felt like we’d be in good hands. It wasn’t until we got to actually meet Alison that we realized not only were we in good hands, but this entire process was going to be FUN. That’s right . . . FUN. Probably not something you traditionally hear about the home buying process.

Alison provided us with a lot of information at the beginning and customized our home search based on our criteria. Whenever we had questions (which was often, since we’re first time buyers), she answered them within 24 hours or less. She checked in with us every week, took us to see properties all over Northeast LA and eventually helped us land a winning offer on a home in Glassell Park. NOT an easy feat. She handled getting us all of the paperwork (thank GOD for Docusign) and worked with the seller’s agent to secure credits for work that still needed to be done on the house. All in all, it was as pain free as you can get.

With the competitive market in NELA, having a real estate agent who is knowledgeable and fast, yet calm and savvy, is a must. Alison is all of those things – and she’s incredibly sweet and has great taste! We would definitely recommend Alison to any first time home buyers out there. She will walk you through the ins & outs and isn’t afraid to give you her 2-cents on a property (she saved us from quite a few less-than-ideal houses). She’s a gem!

Stephanie W.

Alison was recommended to us by a friend and she seemed to literally drop everything to help us put an offer on a house quickly - the first house we looked at - and to hold our hands through a process we knew nothing about.  That didn't end up working out, but Alison was invaluable help throughout the shopping/schlepping process.  She was unfailingly helpful, communicative, and available.  We are now in our dreamy dream house, couldn't be happier, and couldn't be more happy with our pick of realtor.  It was an emotional process and Alison was THERE for us.

Donna C

Alison helped me and my girlfriend find an amazing condo in Silverlake.  She was extremely helpful and very patient with us.  She even took time out from taking care of her newborn twins to show us the listing multiple times (even on a Sunday).

Shayan A.

Alison is truly the best. She made the home buying process so easy and comfortable. She answered all our questions and I never felt stupid, even when I asked stupid questions. She also has AMAZING taste so she really does find gems for you. Even in a crazy market she helped us buy our dream home. It was such a perfect experience, where we made one offer and it was accepted. She also has that perfect balance of opinion, expertise, and listening skills to really get you what you want. I would recommend her to anyone and EVERYONE!

Emily B.

Alison helped my husband and I buy our very first home! We were looking in the highly competitive NELA market, and with Alison’s patience and guidance we were able to get into a beautiful character home that hit every item on our “must-have” list and more (we even got a pool, very hard to come by in this area at our budget). Most impressively, in a market where nearly every home we looked at received multiple offers over asking price, Alison was able to negotiate a great deal for us UNDER list price! This is a mark of a strong and astute agent. Additionally, Alison negotiated repair credits from an extremely stubborn seller. The money we saved on the purchase along with the repair credits has allowed us to do some up front renovations and give us a more beautiful starter home than we could have ever imagined.

Since she lives and works in NELA, Alison is very knowledgeable about various neighborhoods, schools, shopping areas and parks. She was focused on finding homes that we would have a chance at landing and loving even with our modest budget. She also opened our eyes to possibilities we may have not considered on our own. Finally, Alison has an eye for renovations and decor. I found this extremely helpful when looking at homes that required some TLC. I would highly recommend Alison to fellow property virgins looking in the NELA area.

Rebecca R.

Buying a house in LA is scary. And frustrating. And annoying. Alison was amazing at making it all less so. My wife and I just bought a home in Glassell Park and couldn’t be happier with how it all worked out. Alison was great at finding time to fit our schedules and at answering all of our thousands of millions of hundreds of questions about every little possible thing. It ended up being a great experience!. Can’t recommend her highly enough. The only sad thing is our daughter misses seeing Alison all the time!

Brent C.

When we decided to sell our house in Eagle Rock, we were anxious because we'd had a not-great experience with our previous real estate agent many years ago. When we got a recommendation to work with Alison, however, we found out that working with a great agent is a breeze and incredibly valuable. Alison is extremely knowledgeable about the market, she's diligent, she's hard-working, and she's easy to talk to and discuss options with. She had great ideas to get our house ready for sale and how to tee it up best for the market. We're so happy that we found her, because I really believe that her work made a big difference in how much we were able to get on the sale. Couldn't recommend her more highly!

Sebastian P.

My wife and I met Alison at an open house early on in the search for our first home. The first thing we were stuck by about her was her gregarious ness and how encouraging and optimistic she was about our budget, which we worried might not be competitive enough for a market as crowded as Los Angeles.

Buying a house in Los Angeles is basically like taking on a second full time job in terms of the work and stress involved, but having Alison helping us made the process a lot less overwhelming than it otherwise would have been. Throughout the entire process, from visiting open houses to closing on our home, Alison was always organized and available to guide us through paperwork or answer questions we had. Additionally, she negotiated repair credits during escrow after an inspection turned up some issues that weren't previously disclosed. Finally, she was an invaluable ally to us during some last-minute chaos with our lender as we were closing escrow. 

If you are looking to buy a home in NELA, we can't recommend Alison highly enough. Thanks Alison!

Sam G.

We really wanted a good mid-century starter home that we could fix up without breaking the bank or getting into serious construction. This is not an easy feat in a market that is filled with investors paying all cash for properties they can flip. Alison, however, was tenacious in sending us links to homes as soon as they came on the market and never wavered to meet us on ones we found on our own. After four weeks of intense searching, she found a three bedroom mid-century gem nestled on a hilltop with a view and needing only cosmetic updating. We jumped into the process and Alison was amazing at helping us navigate the tricky and emotional road of making an offer, then counter offers, and finally inspections. Without her help and assurances we never would have survived the process. Thanks to Alison, we now have a beautiful home that we love and have customized to our own taste and style. We have also noticed that  many of the homes in our new neighborhood are selling for a hundred thousand dollars or more than what we paid for ours. We are incredibly grateful to Alison for finding us a good deal, as well as exactly the kind of home we were looking for.
If you want someone who is honest, competent, hardworking, and grounded search no further, Alison is truly an amazing realtor.

Kristen H.

Alison helped me find my dream home! She worked tirelessly to find me the perfect place, and her support, reassurance, advice, and attentiveness made my first home buying experience a breeze. Not only is Alison very knowledgeable about the real estate market, but she’s also a person who is just really dedicated to her clients…she won’t rest until she’s found you EXACTLY what you’re looking for. She’s smart, on top of every little detail, and brings a creative eye to the table. I can’t speak highly enough about her skills, expertise, and commitment. If you’re looking for a superb real estate agent, look no further…Alison is the best  in LA!

Carley S.

Alison helped my husband and I buy in Highland Park/Eagle Rock recently, which was no easy task considering the low inventory and high interest! Alison was fabulous to work with; we always felt she understood what we were looking for, and she was laid-back, yet accessible. If, like us, you appreciate a no-pressure realtor, then look Alison up. She made the process very calm, and answered all of our endless “property virgin” questions promptly and in a way we could understand. She took us to SO many houses, and worked on a whole lot of offers on our behalf before we landed our house (which we love). Alison is very sharp and has a great eye for design, which we appreciated a lot. She also has a great team of people you can work with (mortgage professionals, inspectors, etc.) so you always feel secure. In short, Alison was the perfect realtor for us!

Lindsey H.

I’ve never written a review for anything on the internet, movies, food, car dealerships, anything… but my experience with Alison was so terrific that I felt compelled to add more positive words to her page. There’s no amount of gushing about the terrific job Alison did for us that can put into context just how instrumental she was in finding the perfect home for my wife and I. If  you are looking for a home on the East Side, or if you have a realtor  that’s not getting you the results you need, then I couldn’t recommend  more strongly that you give Alison a call. She is the best.

Dallas H.

After parting ways with our first agent, we happened to run into Alison at a listing. Though that particular house wasn’t the right fit, we liked her so much that we decided to start working with her. I’ll admit that I was not an easy person during the process (hence why we broke up with agent #1), but Alison was patient and reasonable and helped make the process very easy. A few months later, we found our dream home. Thanks Alison!

Leroy H.

The greatest compliment I can give to Alison is to refer my family and friends…so here it is people…Alison is possibly the only realtor in the world that does things electronically (yay Docusign).  Not to mention her communication skills, knowledge and personality are much appreciated.

She is everything that you want for one of the biggest days of your life.   She is like your maid of honor on your wedding day; she is the wax in your mustache, the keys to your car, and the cheese to your macaroni.  

Thank you Alison we love our new house.  May we someday repay the slice of happiness you have helped us acquire.

Tara F

We just wanted to add our two cents to the reviews here and echo the fantastic reviews that Alison has already gotten. In short, Alison was a calm and knowledgeable presence who guided us to the perfect house in a really competitive market.

We met Alison at an open house and immediately knew she would be a great fit for us.  She went above and beyond to meet our every need– from finding a contractor who helped us understand how much a renovation to a prospective house would cost to helping us place an offer while she was on out of town on vacation!  Then, she made sure our offer stood out from the 11 other offers on the house.

In an earlier review, someone wrote that Alison was “never pushy, but always responsive.”  This is the perfect phrase to describe Alison.  She understands the fast-paced nature of a competitive market, but she never pushed us to make a decision before we were ready.

Emily C.

Alison is a great partner in finding your new home. She has intimate knowledge of north east LA and is very helpful when determining neighborhoods that will suit you and your family. Alison is always available to meet for a showing and has a flexible schedule to meet your needs (i.e. Late night phone calls due to work schedules). We actually went into escrow twice before we finally purchased…so she also has patience and a sense of humor with the tedious process that is home buying often is (especially right now in NELA). She has an upbeat attitude and fun personality (bonus – she is great with kids)!  We love our new home! Thanks Alison!

Cindy S.

I cannot say enough amazing things about Alison. She was referred to us by a friend, and my husband and I are SO GRATEFUL to have had her help buying our first home! We had so many questions and were so overwhelmed, and I cannot imagine anyone I would rather have in our corner throughout the process. Alison is warm, understanding, and SO knowledgable. She has an incredible eye for style and renovation, and noticed things about the homes we were touring that we never would have considered. She is flexible and enthusiastic, and always responded to our questions and calls and emails in record time.

And, perhaps most crucially for our personal home-buying experience, she had incredibly sharp instincts when it came to bidding and writing an offer. We ended up in a bidding war for the house of our dreams in Glendale, and Alison totally NAILED every step of the offering process - her instincts proved to be spot on and we got the first and only home we loved enough to bid on. We cannot thank her enough for the incredible work she did!! 

I'm sure there are a lot of great realtors in LA - but I kid you not, my husband and I would turn to each other, after meeting the selling agents at every open house, and say "MAN are we glad we're with Alison." It's been a joy to refer her to everyone we know!

Allie F.

My wife and I met Alison early on in our housing adventure. We first met her at an open house she was representing.  We were a couple of clueless kids who needed some guidance.  She seemed like a straight shooter and very knowledgable of the area.  I also liked that her background was in public radio before real estate.  I also liked that she lived in NELA and was very proud to be living there.  We were upfront with our budget and goals and she was the only person that didn't laugh us out of an office.  No lie, we were laughed out of 2 offices. Trying to buy a home in NELA feels like taking the ring of power to Mt. Doom.  Everything and everyone seem to be against you. Alison was one of the few people that made it seem like we could do the impossible. 

Alison throughout the process was a guiding presence.  We checked out a bunch of houses in a bunch of different neighborhoods.  She never pressured us into pursuing something just to finish the job.  She genuinely was concerned about us finding the right house not just a house.  She was patient with us and didn't rush us.  She also has a rare gift of making you feel like you are her only client.  She was very organized and punctual which is a big thing for me.  

After the seeing a bunch of houses we finally found one that really stuck out. Alison was there to support us through the open house.  Alison was there to help us with the offer process.  We were unfortunately outbid on the house and Alison did not pressure us to go over our red line on price.  I really respected that.  Mind you she did all of this while my wife and I were away in Belize on a trip because of course you find the house you love a week before a vacation.  While we did not get the house, she advised us to do a backup offer.

As luck would have it our backup offer was accepted when the first offer decided to back out during escrow.  Alison guided us through escrow.  She set up all the inspections.  Her inspectors were great and thorough and also kinda quirky.  She even helped us talk down the price after an inspection turned up some issues that weren't previously disclosed.  She was always in our corner working hard.  Escrow was a breeze and we are now living in that very house on a hill in Glassell Park.

Alison continues to check in and just see how we are doing from time to time.  She truly cares about her clients.

If you are thinking of buying a home in NELA, you are absolutely crazy if you do not hire Alison as your agent.

Michael M.

We are first-time homebuyers with a very specific set of parameters and limitations, and Alison helped us find a buy a great house in the West Valley that worked for our budget and our slightly wacky home-office requirements. She cheerfully and patiently walked us through the scary maze of buying a house for the first time, and we are very pleased to recommend her. She is wonderful to work with and just an all-around fabulous person.

Carrie F.

Despite being 8 months pregnant with twins and having to climb 55 stairs up to the house we had our sights set on in Echo Park, Alison was a super trooper and capable guide through our first home buying experience. We were impressed with how well Alison worked with the sellers agent, and secured our little perch on the hill! She always made herself available, working with our busy schedules, and was lightning fast in replying to any question, bizarre or banal.

Em and Rob B.

Just worked with Alison on the purchase of our home. Going into the process Alison knew there were significant time constraints so her extensive knowledge of  NELA neighborhoods was vital. She was everything a good real estate agent should be; responsive, diligent, good listener, etc, however, what really sets Alison apart is her eye for design and aesthetics coupled with finding the best values for the money.”

Highly recommend Alison Gilbert.

Angelo Q.

Alison was so much help during our house hunting extravaganza.  We specifically wanted Mt. Washington and she knew a ton about the area.  We had very particular geographical requirements -- down to the street -- and she was able to accommodate it, and even got us in to see a house before it went on the market. We ended up making an offer on a house with Alison, and she was there every step of the way.  She even introduced us to a very kind loan officer.  Both my wife and I felt very taken care of, and if we ever are in the market for a house again, we will be calling her first.  I highly recommend using Alison.

Fernando O.