Testimonials

Reviews From Our Satisfied Clients

"...Anna met with us and informed us about the process of downsizing and the many decisions we would need to make in a limited amount of time. She was invaluable in presenting a game plan for our move. Anna’s knowledge and contacts made the entire moving process much easier for us. She was always available to answer our questions and offer suggestions. Anna stayed involved with us from our first meeting until after our move was completed.

We strongly recommend Anna Novak and Simply Downsized to anyone preparing to move and/or downsize."
"Anna has been my rock through a really tough move during COVID. She's arranged resources that I had NO IDEA how/where to find and kept my process on track. This would have been so much more difficult without her help!"
"...Anna absolutely came through for me with guidance, support and hands-on help. I don’t know what I would have done without her and wish I had called her earlier in the process."
"Anna is a treasure! She was instrumental in my recent move, to the point where I gave her a key and let her handle the rest. She planned the whole thing, hooked me up with an incredible team of packers and movers, and I didn’t have to sweat the details. She also arranged for all the trades to ensure my house would look its best, and it sold quickly.

Anna is fantastic with providing updates as things come up, and she provides a great sounding board with ideas, advice, and encouragement. I strongly recommend Anna for downsizing and move management services."
"Faced with moving from our home of 30 years to a much smaller home in a retirement community, we knew we needed help. Luckily, we found Anna, who has been our guide and helper every step of the way. She has turned what would otherwise have been an overwhelmingly stressful ordeal into a smooth and manageable transition.

From our first meeting with Anna, she prepared a detailed timeline, showing us a clear path forward. Thereafter, she has kept in close contact with us throughout the process. She introduced us to the many service providers we needed to help us downsize our possessions, prepare our house for sale, and get us ready to move to our new home. These included a professional organizer who helped us sort and organize our belongings, an online auctioneer who successfully auctioned many of our possessions, handymen and painters who put our house in prime shape, an experienced realtor who was able to get our house under contract within a day of listing it, and a moving company to take our remaining belongings to our new home in the midst of a busy holiday season.

On top of that, Anna personally found specialty buyers for our jewelry and coin collection, as well as people to take some of our larger hard-to-get-rid-of pieces of furniture. We truly would have been at a loss without Anna’s steady hand and priceless advice. What a relief it has been to have Anna at our side."
"...I could not have accomplished this move without Anna. We met and established what needed to be done, and on what schedule.

I did some packing, and took a number of trips to Goodwill. Anna did the rest including identifying clothing that could be consigned or donated, packing fragile items, identifying furniture that could be consigned or donated, selling a number of items and artwork, finding a mover, and hiring a firm to remove trash and take furniture for donation.

On the day of the move Anna supervised the movers - then she had the removal company come in and remove all remaining items. The apartment was left in immaculate condition, and the apartment management team did not have to penalize me. I highly recommend Anna."
"While searching for a Senior Move Manager, I found Anna Novak through her blog articles for seniors who need help with moving. She delivered the one-stop shop I wanted. Bottom line: she’s an exceptional highly recommended expert.

With her professional background in real estate, Anna understood fluid deadlines, downsizing, and my need to deliver a sparkling home to a real estate agent for a swift sale. She was at my side from her initial assessment appointment through my property closing. Anna was genuinely concerned about me and ensured a gentle landing at my new home out of state. She always answered her phone and replied to texts – with joy, moral support, and encouragement.

Suddenly, my move date narrowed to 90 days (from 6 months). Anna immediately provided hands-on work in my home and behind-the-scenes negotiations on my behalf. She always listened very carefully, guided our conversations efficiently, and quickly gauged situations.

We set up a work calendar for my dreaded de-accession tasks. She vetted and coordinated experienced professional organizers, handyman services, junk haulers, movers, housecleaners, and a real estate agent, each of whom showed up on time and billed me exactly as contracted."
"Working with Anna and having her support during my move was extremely helpful. I don't think I could have done it without her. She gave great advice and reached out consistently to be sure I was on track. She managed the donations and junk hauling and allowed me to hand over the keys and walk away. The mover she recommended was very professional and helpful as well."
"I've worked with other realtors in buying and selling homes before but Anna was by far the best. She went above and beyond and provided value during every step of the process from recommending contractors (who were very reliable) to do renovations to coming over to advise me on what to pack up in order to declutter my condo. Her additional items that she added to stage my home and the pictures taken looked AMAZING. It looked like a magazine cover. With her help we got over 9 offers in under 4 days and she provided a spreadsheet of all the offers so we could review them side by side.

She is extremely professional yet personable, proactive, and efficient. I greatly valued her advice during the entire home selling process. I would highly recommend her to anyone buying or selling a home. Several of my friends and neighbors have already asked for her contact info and I've recommended her to them."
"Anna was an invaluable partner in selling my home. 'Partner' is the only word to describe what she did, including helping to line up workers and contractors to prep the house for going on the market, give advice and execute on staging the house for quick sale, and helping to navigate and negotiate a bunch issues with our buyers around the inspection and final steps to closing. Without going into detail, there were also some extra steps and issues around the sale/buyers and Anna was incredibly helpful, involved, attentive and creative every step of the way. She is committed to getting every step of the process right and you'll have no doubt she is working *for* you. I can't recommend her highly enough."
"Anna was a tremendous resource in helping us buy our home. She knows the local real estate scene very well and quickly figured out our preferences and parameters. Anna steered us to just the right house - literally, the first one she showed us that she said was "perfect for us" turned out to be just that (though we did due diligence and looked around!).

We are compressing two households into one, so there were many pieces of the puzzle to keep track of along the way, and Anna guided us through all of the paperwork smoothly. She has a wealth of excellent recommendations for each step of the way (including handymen with a variety of different specialties). And she was incredibly friendly and attentive throughout the entire process. Overall, we would recommend Anna enthusiastically and with no reservations!"
"Anna is a wonderful resource in so many ways. She recently helped me through a very complicated situation, which involved readying an older home for sale and dealing with an estate and other legal issues. She also helped by preparing items for auction and donation, and listing and selling the property. I am very happy with the price I got for the house.

Throughout the process, Anna was a steadying presence to guide me through the challenges. She treated me and the rest of our family with respect and kindness. I’d wholeheartedly recommend Anna to help anyone who is buying or selling a home."
"Anna is excellent and made the home buying process seamless from start to finish. As a first-time home buyer, she walked me through the process, helped me narrow down my wide search to the locations that were best for me, and provided valuable insight on important considerations related to each potential property. She already had everything prepared once I was ready to put in an offer and communicated frequently with my lender and the selling agent to give me the best odds of getting accepted. Beyond her expertise, she was a joy to work with and made the home search a delightful experience. I will definitely be using her again when it comes time to sell, and I can’t recommend her enough!"
"Anna is professional, prompt, efficient, and most importantly an active listener. She got us a house that fit our needs before it went on the market. She is an outstanding realtor and has great relationships with quality contractors to complete your home. I highly recommend her to anyone."
"Anna found us the perfect rental home. Our parameters were challenging such as; school district, lease term, bedrooms, and of course price, and she did it! We will definitely hire Anna again!"
"Working with Anna was a fantastic experience from start to finish. She quickly figured out exactly what I was looking for and really pushed me to map out the areas where I would be willing to move. She is very attentive and took the time to talk through all possible options and happily answered lots of questions. When it came time to put in an offer, her strategy was well thought out and aimed to get me exactly what I wanted. I had so much fun working with Anna, and she continues to be a great resource even after purchasing my home with great recommendations for people to make updates to the property. I would enthusiastically recommend her to anyone looking to buy or sell within the area and am confident that they would have as great of an experience as I did."