I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of working with John and could not recommend him highly enough. As a first time home buyer, John took his time to answer any and all questions I had in detail to help give me the clearest picture possible. He also made sure to clearly walk through successful strategies that we could use to have a bid accepted in the crazy Seattle real estate market. When I found a home I really liked, John immediately sprung into action and my bid was accepted within the day. John has a massive network of trustworthy inspectors and contractors that he coordinated to help move the inspection and closing process along and give me a clear picture of any repairs that would need to made. Throughout the process, John's calm and kind demeanor set him apart. He was the most responsive professional I have ever worked with and help put me at ease at all times during the buying experience. I will certainly be working with him again for any real estate needs.

— Chris Feldman, June 2020 

Wow! This is the fourth home I have purchased and John is in a league of his own. We were introduced to John through a mutual friend, who is also an agent, and we were hopeful he would be our silver bullet in the crazy Seattle market. John took the time to explain his strategies and we knew by the end of the call he was the agent for us. His knowledge, calm demeanor, and sound advice were invaluable in this market. Within 10 days of hiring John, we were under contract, and closed another 14 days after that. John is a rockstar who thinks around the corners and is step ahead in the entire process. We will be working with him for all our real estate needs in the years to come. We can't recommend John highly enough.

— benandginamoore, April 2020

“The service was outstanding throughout the process.”

I used John to list my mother's home (estate sale). The service was outstanding throughout the process. Sold the home at top dollar and successfully negotiated with the buyer through the entire transaction. Would highly recommend John to anyone looking at selling (or buying) real estate.

— jeffscole5, March 2020

We worked with John in the search and closing of our first home which took nearly 2 years. The effort, patience, knowledge and professionalism were unparalleled. Thank you, John, for the amazing support, determination and guidance!

— Sebastian Goldman, January 2020

John is the best of the best, my husband and I feel so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with him. We just purchased our second home with John. He helped us through a complicated, stressful, home sale/home contingency purchase and made it as seamless as it possibly could have been. He is quick to respond to any questions (we had a lot), and helped us navigate a troublesome seller. John is all together a great guy - he had our best interest at heart and did everything he could to make our home buying/selling a great experience! Thank you SO much John...we will see you for the next home!

— tsblees, November 2019

We loved working with John and we highly recommend him for anybody who is looking for a professional and a trustworthy person as your real estate agent! My husband and I started researching Seattle neighborhoods and the housing market in January, before we moved to Seattle from other state. We didn't know where to begin but John asked us the kind of cultures and houses we are looking for and sent us links to houses we may be interested. We gave him feedback on couple of the houses and by the time we were ready to commit to buying, he knew what works best for us and found the perfect house for our family. We had competitors but John gave us professional feedbacks and recommendations so we didn't need to go beyond our comfort level to win our house. We are certain that his knowledge and the trust he has built within the Seattle real estate communities have contributed to be chosen as a buyer of the house we are now calling our home! P.S. He is super fun to chat so you won't get bored going to house tours and going through home inspections with him. ;-)

— nanamine71, November 2019

John has now helped me with three different real estate transactions and everyone has been an outstanding experience! I especially appreciate John’s approach of providing information and perspective about the market and the conditions that are applicable to my home. He also makes sure to get input from other experienced professionals to ensure that all of the information is available in order to make good decisions. Additionally, John has a wealth of knowledge regarding home maintenance and upgrade potential along with a great list of contacts for various services. I highly recommend him!

— user3174037, September 2019

My wife and I very impressed with John. He helped us to sell our condo. After we put our condo on market, there was a lot of snow. So buyers didn't show up a lot. We were worried about selling the condo, but he did open house every week, and then he sold it finally. it took about two months to sell and every time I had questions he responded very quickly. He is the best realtor I have met. In the future, if I need a realtor, I will call him again. Thank you John!!!

— zuser20160715173333546, April 2019

John was a true pleasure to work with. He made the process quite simple and was incredibly patient with my wonky schedule. While his knowledge of the area, as well as his general knowledge of home maintenance and necessary upgrades, was incredibly valuably, John's expertise really showed during negotiation and the structuring of the offer. In fact, he helped my structure my deal so that I was able to purchase the first home that I made an offer on! John has continued to stay in contact with me and has gone out of his way to recommend trusted contractors that he has worked with over the years. He's also been gracious enough to consult on what home projects would be most valuable to me vs a future buyer of the home (i.e., what project add value to the house). I would absolutely work with John again.

— Craig simmons226, April 2019

5 stars for John Blacksmith who sold our condo for us. He was right on when recommending that buyers looking for the type of condo that we had would want it turn key. Within just a couple of weeks he coordinated contractors to give bids, paint, sand/paint floors, update cabinets, remove un-necessary items. We didn't have to do anything - he just took care of all of it including meeting the contractors to get them into the building. His timing was impeccable - he pushed us to get it on the market quickly which really paid off since a couple similar condos came on the market shortly after we got an offer. He is professional, knowlegable, responsive. His calm and confident demeanor helped us to negotiate a very successful and smoothe sale.

— mellyholmes, July 2018

We recently purchased a home using John as our realtor. As we are not from the USA, and new to how the real estate system here works, we really needed someone we could trust. The real estate market here is crazy, and we were almost put off by the horror stories of friends who talk about taking years to find the right home, and taking 10+ offers before finding their home. A friend put us onto John, and for this I am eternally grateful! We spoke with John 12 months before we were ready to buy he spoke with us at great length about how to buy a house in Seattle, the ins and outs of the process. John put us onto an amazing mortgage broker (2 week closings!!) and basically made us feel at ease with the whole process. Once we were ready to buy John really 'kept it real' for us, by knowing the market so well. Homes that on the surface looked like we could afford, he knew would go for much much more, and so he saved us the headache of bidding on homes we'd never get and having our money tied up until they accepted another offer. In the end we only offered on 2 homes, getting the second one. John did all the hard work behind the scenes, and really made what could potentially be a really stressful process seem easy. I would highly recommend John if you want a real, down to earth, no nonsense, knows what he's doing realtor. I'm giving him 6 stars!

— MelindaIssakov, May 2018

We saw that John was the selling agent for our neighbor’s home, whom had used John to buy and sell their home. We had planned to talk to 3 or 4 agents before choosing one, but after talking with John, my girlfriend and I both agreed there was no need to consult with another realtor. We were both very impressed not only with his knowledge of the real estate market, but what a genuine guy he was in general. He did not give off that used car salesman vibe, like agents we had come across when buying our home years prior. This was our first time selling a home and we had a tons of questions throughout the entire process, which John answered promptly, with informative truthful answers. He helped plan every stage of the process, from sewer inspections to having a water heater installed with just 2 days’ notice before going on the market. He had an interior design consultant come by to give us advice, he had amazing staging done, and uses an incredible photographer. Every contractor that came to our house commented on what a great guy John is. Our nextdoor neighbors were selling their house at the same time, and John was able to make it work to go on the market a week earlier than planned, to avoid having our open houses the same weekend. We are moving out of state, and John not only asked around to his colleagues for a good agent in the Boise area, he personally called him to make sure he knew his stuff. We used the realtor that John suggested, and he was great. And of course, John negotiated an offer beyond our expectations, and the closing was on time and flawless.

— Greg Colligan, April 2018

John is amazing. He's like a cup of hot chocolate on a cold night. I always feel a sense of confidence and relief after I talk to him. He has helped me buy two homes and I still call him if I have real estate questions. I never felt like he had any other clients. I felt like he had as much time as I needed to talk through issues and concerns and because he is incredibly smart (and down to earth!) I always felt confident that what he was saying was something I could trust. If you're working with John you are lucky. He is honest, moral and very very good.

— brianh23, June 2017

John really helped with the sale of my North Seattle condo. He recommended a carpet company, a painter, and a handyman, all to get my condo in the best condition for sale. He also helped with staging and cleaning my unit. Where John really excelled was in negotiating with potential buyers, working to minimize contingencies and get the best possible offer. I highly recommend John as a listing agent!

— colt45light, April 2017

I could not have sold my house without John. I moved away and John went way above expectations and helped line up contractors and get the house prepared for sale. I am thankful the advice on what investments to make as if definitely made a big difference on sales price and ROI. The house sold faster than I could have anticipated and was bid up for a record sale in the neighborhood. I could not recommend John more.

— markdenholm, April 2017

We interviewed two other agents before going with John to sell our house. We knew the basic things to look for in an agent - communication clarity and responsiveness, experience and knowledge of the area. John scores high on all of those. What we did not expect is the level of ownership of the process John demonstrated. Not only he connected us with great contractors so that we could do last minute fix ups and improvements to the house, he actually stepped in and helped to coordinate their work. When pre-inspection showed an issue in a crawlspace which worried a few prospective buyers, John took the initiative to get it repaired which turned out to be inexpensive fix but boosted buyers' confidence a lot. We knew the market was "hot" and we would sell the house anyway but we wanted to make sure we get the best value from it. John arranged a designer to help us decide whether we could stage ourselves to save money (which we did). Her advice was invaluable and we got many compliments from prospective buyers and it ended up costing us very little. John explained to us the tricky points about escalation clauses and made sure our buyers had a backup plan in case of the appraisal coming in below their offer. In the end we got the best money we could and sold to the most interested buyers who really appreciate the house. We believe that John helped to leverage the value even in this hot market when other agents suggested we do very little. We highly recommend John for buying or selling a home. He is a real pro.

— alexandroid, July 2016

Where do we even begin? Simply stated, we wouldn't have a house without John! We met John at a Thanksgiving party a few years back -- at that time, we were nowhere close to buying a house. We continued to see John at the same Thanksgiving year party year after year until last year we told him we might be calling him soon. Finally the day came to meet with John to start learning about this crazy real estate market in Seattle. During our first meeting, we spent almost two hours with John - right then we were blown away by how knowledgeable he was and how much we were able to learn from him. The saga began and we have no words to express how incredibly patient John was over the [long] few months it took us to find THE house (our first house!!!). Throughout the search process, we would ask all kinds of questions, bother John at all times of day (and night) and he was ALWAYS quickly available and able to address all of our concerns/questions. John has truly become like family and we have already been recommending him to all of our friends.

—labruno8, June 2016

John helped me buy my first home, and I couldn't have been more satisfied with the experience. So satisfied, in fact, that I've since referred him to multiple family members and co-workers who have all also had above-and-beyond experiences with John. One aspect I was most happy with was that John was *helping* me to buy the right home, not selling me just any home. John has many, many years of experience in the Seattle market and as such, he was helpful and insightful during tours, but if I said a unit wasn't for me, he would quickly gather feedback as to why in order to guide further tours, and then move on. I felt no pressure whatsoever to make offers on or see homes I was not interested in. Once I found the home that was right for me, he was a professional in drafting the offer and working directly with my lender (Gail Bean of HomeStreet, also highly recommended) to ensure everything was taken care of. John provided excellent guidance as it relates to the value of a home and how much to escalate an offer. Unfortunately, after entering into contract to buy the home I was very excited about, some damage was done inadvertently to the property. John laid out clear options for me to choose from, providing very trustworthy guidance, and then worked directly with my lender and the seller's agent to ensure nothing fell through the cracks when the closing date was eventually pushed back. Finally, John was very responsive; always available via phone, text, or email, and was very punctual. He will be my agent for any home purchase or sale in the future, and I highly recommend him to anyone looking for an agent. John is a trustworthy expert.

— kcan16, May 2016

If you are looking for a real estate agent, look no further- John is simply the best! We sold our home this past April. We started interviewing agents in January. We met with several folks who were recommended from various people. All seemed great, but John was a standout. He clearly laid out his approach and plan, gave sage advice about how to best prepare our home for sale, and explained what sounded to us like a sound listing strategy. To only give John 5 stars on each of the above areas seems like an injustice! He far exceeded expectations on every one. We set a number of goals for selling our home - when various things would be done, and a date that we would ideally be reviewing offers. He handled everything - scheduling painters and repair people, and ensured high-quality work. Everything happened professionally and exactly on time. The best part - we were, indeed, reviewing offers on our target date. John negotiated up until the very last minute to get our most competitive offer. On top of all of this, he's simply a very nice person — he answered all questions (and there were many!) and made us feel like we were his only client — he was incredibly responsive and communicative. Simply stated — we had a great experience selling our home through John. We would use him again in a heartbeat and would unequivocally recommend him.

— sekerns, May 2016

From the moment I contacted John Blacksmith about the prospect of selling my Seattle home in Wallingford, his responses were from quick to immediate, and his answers to my questions were substantive. My home-selling process began in late August of 2015 and ended with a successful closing in March of 2016. I was initially impressed by John’s forthright manner and pleasant demeanor. John laid out in advance what his charges and responsibilities were and delivered exactly as promised. I came to trust him to do right by me and he did just that. I listened to his suggestions for improvements to the salability of my home and, for the most part, followed through with those suggestions to good effect as reflected in the substantial selling price above the asking price of my home. After reviewing my email folders, I see there were 180 emails exchanged with John—and all were answered thoroughly and promptly. His knowledge of the myriad aspects of real estate is just amazing. I do not recall one question that stumped him. I believe that any potential seller would be well advised to give John a call to see what he can do to help sell your home. 

— Mark 2, May 2016