Testimonials

When you choose us you get the very best service available – without compromise. Here is some of what our clients say:

We are very satisfied vendors with regards to the efforts and strategies Leila deployed to sell our house. Leila had our best interests in mind at all times. Her strong negotiating skills along with the exhaustive selling process she used ensured we achieved the best price possible at the time.
It was very apparent that the network of the Barfoot & Thompson agency is very strong and assisted greatly to the selling process. Importantly, Leila managed and coordinated the various agents effectively.  Her frank, no nonsense and honest approach was welcomed, and we would recommend her to anyone considering selling a high-end property.
Vicki & Scott

My apologies for not getting in touch with you sooner to let you and Leila know how much we appreciated all the hard work you both put in to marketing our property. We were relieved we were able to get an agent who we had worked with before to handle the sale of our home as there was already trust built up between us. Not many things in business are consistent over twenty years but the level of service, in depth knowledge of the industry and your absolute integrity, immediately spring to mind as being a few of the qualities you offer your clients.
We did appreciate your putting us in touch with Bill Cartwright whose experience and advice were invaluable. Also the custom designed colour brochure with its excellent script and good photography was superior to what we believe most other agents offer in this part of the market. The memory card Barfoots gave us was also appreciated.
However important these features are, the most significant indicator of your superior experience was the skill you and Leila showed on the day of the auction. The time you took to work patiently with the prospective purchasers showed incredible skill and enabled us to reach our reserve and exceed it. Many thanks to you both.
Sincerely
Stephen and Raewyn Hong

My wife and I have worked with Leila MacDonald on a number of occasions over the last 25 years, when it has come time to sell a family home and move to another.

Most recently, Leila was appointed to sell our current family home – a substantial property in Remuera. She had it sold within two weeks.

She has unwavering commitment and high levels of energy and enthusiasm. She understands who her client is (the seller) and acts with the highest standards of ethics and integrity to pursue the client’s interests. Her recommendations and judgment are sound. She provides prompt, clear and honest feedback and is an excellent communicator.

We would have no hesitation in recommending Leila to any prospective vendor.

Andrew Harmos

I cannot speak highly enough about the service  we received form Leila McDonald and her team in relation to the sale of our Epsom home in February/March 2017.

The  level professionalism and commitment were  as I expected from this very accomplished and experienced agent,  but in addition, Leila provided guidance and support with warmth and good humour , making what can be a stressful experience as hassle free as possible.

I would not think of using anyone else.
Christine Meechan

On the 22nd of June our house sold at auction through Leila MacDonald at Barfoot and Thompson Remuera.
Our whole family instantly warmed to Leila’s caring nature. We found her very genuine and admired her work ethic. She was very empathetic towards the emotion behind selling our first family home and it was very obvious she genuinely wanted a positive result for our family.
Leila and her team put together a 3 week marketing campaign that attracted very good foot traffic during our open homes, opening the listing to all 1400 Barfoot real estate agents in Auckland. The communication between her PA Nadine and ourselves was always productive and thorough giving us feedback from every single group that entered the property through Leila’s follow up after every open home. On auction day Leila fought for us and managed to negotiate our buyer to an outcome we were absolutely thrilled with. Her lovely nature definitely turns no nonsense when it comes down to it! We couldn’t have been happier from start to finish and would go through Leila and her team again and highly recommend them to anyone who is listing their property.
Claire Johnstone-Thomas

Hi Leila, Thank you again for all your hard work, professionalism and skill in selling our home. Your discretion, perseverance and good humour made it a pleasure to work with you and helped us achieve a result where all parties are extremely pleased with the outcome. Kind regards,
Jenny

Impressive knowledge, experience and dedication by the agents, unfailing courtesy, helpfulness and attention to detail by PA and office personnel, all this gave a sense of confidence and made the process of selling not only painless, but also a smooth and pleasant one.
Alexandra Suderi

Leila assisted us in selling our house at 29 Almorah Road at Auction on 26th August 2015.

I chose Leila because of her reputation, her living in the near vicinity, and her generosity with allowing her garden to be part of many Fund raising events I was involved in with Newmarket Primary School. I also appreciate the generosity of Barfoot and Thompson in many sponsorships in the Auckland area.

Right from the first meeting, she gave me confidence in the Sale process. I wanted a “hands off” approach from my agent and she left me to organise what had to be done, and I left them to do their bit. We discussed, time-lines, costs, advertising etc and just got on with it without sweating the details.

I thoroughly enjoyed her company and always felt she had our best interests at heart.

During the campaign, she kept us informed, and despite not a huge amount of obvious interest, we were always filled with a quiet confidence from her that the process was being followed and we would achieve a result. Meetings were called to discuss tactics but these were always done in a calm, professional manner.

She never waivered in her view of what the price we could achieve would be and would not have let us undersell it. I think she worked our Purchaser quite hard to get to what we were happy with and was the perfect person for that job.

All in all we were very happy to have had Leila sell our house – she was exactly the right person for the job and bought a wealth of experience and knowledge of the market.

Thanks Leila for making it a stress free experience!!

Marion and Peter Logan

We had success with Leila and David MacDonald in selling our home. When engaging Leila and David they clearly outlined their way of working. At first we had difficulty in attracting interest in the property from our advertising. Leila called a meeting with her team and we tweaked the advertisements, including a new headline which started to attract more viewers to the open homes.
Leila and David were very charming and courteous to deal with and were always professional. They never built up false expectations but continued to follow their well-tried and proven method to make the sale.
We were delighted with their attention to detail and following up possible interested parties. Their vast experience proved to be a winning combination.
Adrienne and I would have much pleasure in recommending Leila and David MacDonald to anyone who wishes to market and sell their home.
Win Robinson

Leila was exceptional with taking our property to market and successfully selling. She knows the market inside out, and was able to quickly pin point comparable properties to ours that had sold recently as accurate price guides. Leila developed a strong rapport with us, and we quickly realised that she was going all out on our behalf as Vendors, acting in our very best interests. Leila proved her vast experience, as the marketing process unravelled exactly as she had predicted, and she is highly skilled in attracting buyers, and buyer offers. Selling a family home is stressful, but Leila’s style and results lessen the stress. We have no reservation whatsoever in recommending Leila MacDonald, and Barfoot & Thompson, to anyone considering listing their property.
Andy & Jo Archer

Leila MacDonald is the absolute best agent we have ever met & would not hesitate to recommend her.
Lee Spence

It’s been a delight working with Leila. She is incredibly hardworking but is never too busy to make time for you. It’s been a pleasure. Thank you
Kirstin Manson

Leila was great to work with. You get a very clear message that she has the vendors best interests at the forefront of her thinking. Her energy and drive is obvious and play a key role in the great results she achieves for her clients.
Mark Sandelin

“I received excellent marketing & service from Leila, I would absolutely recommend them to others. Being an overseas vendor it was important to me to be provided with a seamless service and regularly be involved in the sales process and Leila did exactly that by providing me with timely quality feedback in line with the excellent reputation Leila has built for herself in this highly competitive market.”
Douglas Coster

“Leila has been in real estate for a long time, so she offers a wealth of experience, and when it came time to downsize and sell our home we had no hesitation in choosing Leila as the preferred salesperson. She is always upfront and honest and kept us informed throughout the whole sales process. She did a fantastic job for us and we got the result we wanted.”
Alaister and Bev

Just wanted to thank you for all your assistance that started from you negotiating a sale at Kings Rd and then introducing us to a new home and assisting us with the purchase. It’s clear to see why you and David are the
very best in the real estate field .Many thanks also for your assistance with mum and dad. They were appreciative of your advice and assistance. Thanks again from all of the Laity’s, Ant & Ali.
The Laity Family

We would like to express our sincere thanks to Leila and David for the very professional, pleasant and efficient way they handled our property sale.
The Barfoot & Thompson organisation swung into action very quickly and was most impressive. Within a couple of days we were having viewings and well before the advertising was due to commence.
At all times Leila was monitoring progress and the regular communication from herself, David and her PA Dawn was excellent. We felt very confident right from the start especially with the advice relating to the timing of campaign. Their approach was very positive and supportive throughout the process and we achieved a good outcome ahead of our time expectations.
Dot and Ian Collinson

“I found Leila to be very professional at all times. Always followed up what she said she’d do and was never late to an appointment. The more time I spent with her the more I got to see Leila the person and got on really well with her. She kept her enthusiasm when I wasn’t so sure at times. I would recommend her without hesitation to any of my friends.”
Leo and Lenora Foliaki

“We engaged Leila and David Macdonald of Barfoot & Thompson to sell our house. Leila and David kept us informed and supported us through the whole process and we are happy with the resulting sale.
We would recommend them to anyone thinking of selling.”
Crofton & Gwenda Umbers

“In our dealings with Leila, in parallel to being absolutely focussed on ‘delivering’ to our needs, she is always the consummate professional- with the highest levels of integrity and trustworthiness. If you want the job done with piece of mind and minimal hassle, I would recommend Leila… without hesitation.”
Nick Scarlett

“For many years I had heard that the Leila MacDonald was a top real estate salesperson. So I was delighted when she agreed to market my property on Westbourne Road, Remuera and prepare it for auction.

After rather dreading living through the process of selling, this turned out to be a very pleasant and interesting time. Leila was enthusiastic and inspirational. She has a very good eye and with some clever touches made my house look its best. For Leila nothing is too much trouble, she was hands on from day one, planting things in the garden, arranging flowers inside and de-cluttering various shelves. With the support of her son David she did a fantastic job, always considerate, pleasant and cheerful, it was a pleasure to have her around.
For anyone wishing to sell their property I would highly recommend both Leila and David MacDonald.”
Julie Brittain

“Your integrity and your professionalism were evident from the outset and consistent throughout. The care, consideration, respect and guidance demonstrated by you towards both my property and to me personally made the selling of my home not only clear as to the process but enjoyable and is a tribute to you both.
Thank you for your kindness and your willingness to assist personally in the preparation of my property in the week leading up to its being placed on the market and for your outstanding efforts in achieving a sale within two weeks of the property being advertised.
It has been a pleasure meeting and working with you both and I wish you continued success and happiness.”
Catherine Lintott

“Recently we purchased our new family home and Leila was the real estate agent with the listing. We found Leila always accommodating in terms of arranging access to the home for viewings & for our architects and builders to survey the property prior to our purchase.
Prior to settlement Leila was very good with communication between ourselves and the vendor.
Throughout the process we have found Leila MacDonald to be factual and straight up to deal with and would recommend dealing with her in the future with respect to buying and selling residential real estate.”
Margo Jamieson

“Dear Leila,
Thanks very much for your endless enthusiasm throughout the whole 6 week marketing programme. Your sales ability was really put to the test in successfully persuading the top bidder to substantially lift his offer to meet my price expectation!
I really appreciated you organising the tradesmen on my behalf to replace all the blown light bulbs and to fix the pool. Thanks also for organising the furniture company to stage the house with appropriate furniture and for making numerous enquiries to Auckland Council on behalf of the prospective buyers .
Your support team of David and Dawn did a great job on all the paperwork, advertising, and administrative work .
Thanks again Leila for concluding a successful sale and for all your enthusiasm !”
Simon Hall

“We engaged Leila because of her high levels of energy, professionalism, integrity and her unwavering commitment to achieving outstanding results for her vendors. Leila has exceptional negotiating skills and has again demonstrated that she can match a property to the right purchaser. We knew that Leila was the right agent to negotiate agreement between vendor and purchaser culminating in a successful sale and purchase and a happy vendor and purchaser.”
John and Patrice Dell

“Leila has acted for us over an extended period as we endeavored to sell a difficult high value home. We found Leila very respectful in terms of our need for privacy. At no stage did she show the home to a buyer who we would consider non-qualified. She was also sensible when it came to advertising, only incurring cost when absolutely necessary. Overall Leila represented us with the highest level of integrity and that was reflected in the price we were finally able to achieve. We would have no hesitation recommending her.”
Craig & Jane Norgate

“Recently we employed your services to sell our property in Remuera. On first meeting with you, my husband and I were very impressed with the professional manner in which you outlined the options for selling our house. You were the only agent that listened to us and our concerns about various marketing options. The end result speaks for itself.
We followed your recommendations and got the desired result. Our house was sold within 3 weeks of going to tender. During the whole process we found that you and the Barfoot & Thompson team were very helpful and courteous towards us.
My husband and I have sold many houses over the years, and I have to say that this is the first time we would recommend an agent to other sellers. If I was to sell another house I wuld have no hesitation in using your services again. Thank you, and we wish you all the best for the future.”
Monique & Paul Tooley