Business Philosophy

• Committed to help you find the right neighborhood at the right price

Personal Background

• I am a resident of New Providence with an indepth knowledge of the local area

Communities I Serve
Berkeley Heights, Bernards Township, Bernardsville, Chatham Borough, Chatham Township, Convent Station, Florham Park, Gillette, Harding, Harding Township, Long Hill Township, Madison, Morris Township, Morristown, Murray Hill, New Providence, Springfield, Stirling, Summit

Review

Working with Marta was a really wonderful experience. We've bought and sold three homes in three different cities (metropolitan, suburban, and mid-sized city), and Marta has surpassed service expectations by a large margin,. To say she went above and beyond in her work for us would not even begin to tell of her work ethic and character. Marta took upon herself many tasks that our previous agents had not, which we usually had to coordinate and organize ourselves. We truly felt Marta a great friend, warm and knowledgable and with a true investment in helping us find the right home for us. After the deal closed, she is still around and available (this was something we did not find with most of our previous agents; once the deal was done, the relationship was, as well, mostly) and open to giving advice and recommendations as we need. Marta is a kind, warm, and conscientious person, and that translates fully into her work. She also is sharp, intuitive, and ethical. She didn't work to just make the biggest bottom line for herself' rather, she worked to get us the best deal we could get and watched with very sharp eyes for the details we could've easily glossed over. Most importantly, she became a favorite person for our two young children (she is simply superb with kids) as well as for us. We'd work with Marta again in a heartbeat. Westfield, Giao and David

Review

My wife and I cannot say enough about Marta Knauff. She is the smartest and hardest working real estate broker we have ever met. It took us 3 years to finally find our dream home in Chatham and Marta was our guide every step of the way. Too often we’ve heard that brokers are looking for the quick sale and will encourage buyers to move on homes that aren’t an ideal fit. Not so with Marta, she got to know our family with both our current and future needs. Time and again she steered us through an often treacherous market by providing sound advice and counsel. And thank goodness she did! Real estate purchases can be emotional for prospective buyers and we came to rely on Marta’s extensive market knowledge and bidding experience. She knows the NJ market intimately, and she uses that knowledge to her clients’ advantage. We would not be in our dream home today if it hadn’t been for Marta’s fortitude and perseverance. We even recommended her to family members who were new to the area and needed to find a home quickly. Marta worked tirelessly and was able to find just the right home for them as well. You can’t go wrong working with such a dedicated professional! Chatham, Janine and Cartwright

In a word, we would describe our experiences with Marta as exceptional. We have purchased four homes prior to the one that Marta helped us purchase and we have never worked with a realtor as knowledgeable, accessible, professionally connected and focused as Marta. Marta is a soft spoken but incredibly strong in her delivery, assertive but not aggressive and unfortunately for her and fortunately for her clients, she is a true workaholic totally committed to and in love with her profession. Marta is also highly skilled at listening and interpreting information; a skill not easily mastered. We have never felt more strongly about endorsing/recommending a realtor than we do about Marta. Kori and Damon (Randolph)

Review Sellers

Marta Knauff was enthusiastically referred to me by very close friends to handle the estate sale of my mother's house in Chatham, NJ. They advised me that since I was out of state I would need someone who was hands on and who had excellent contacts RE the inevitable issues that would arise with the sale of our 70+year old house. Fortunately these friends of mine gave me very sound advise with Marta Knauff. In the course of this sale we have run into many issues and in every case, when an issue arose, Marta would immediately call and notify me not only of the issue, but in every case of her recommended solution. It's this kind of resourcefulness and hands-on support that makes me, without reservation, willing to recommend her to anyone. Chatham, Rick.

excerpt from email:

Martha, many thanks for keeping us in the loop. We are quite happy that the closing went well last Wednesday. Many thanks for your tremendous efforts over the last 6 months. You have been such a big help for Connie and I truly appreciate your professional advice last November regarding pricing of the home, timing of the sale, etc. You have been always very approachable and did certainly more than we could expect from our realtor.

New Providence. Connie and Uwe.

Review

Marta was a very hard working person, very helpful and friendly, honest, loyal and truly dedicated to her clients from start to finish on our home buying transaction. We are so glad and happy that she was there for us to help us searching for home. We are relocating from Chicago to NJ and don't know much in the area and know very little about home buying in New Jersey area. It make so much easier when you have the right person who truly help you out of everything you need. We definitely use her again and of course recommend her to all our friends. Thank you Marta for the great job well done! and You deserve a recognition!!! Rockaway Township, Nilda

Dear Ms. Linda McElgunn,

At seven months pregnant and a mom and dad of a three year old, we were told by our family and friends that "it wasn't a good time to think about moving". We went to an "open house" on B......Dr in New Providence just to look. and met your agent Marta Knauff. We decided to take the chance and put our house on the market with Burgdorff via Marta with the hopes of purchasing the B......Dr. Because of Ms. Knauff's lovely disposition, we put our lives in her hands and it was a decision that has changed our lives for the better. Our home sold quickly and we love our new, much bigger home in New Providence...the best part of it wall - is that we closed on both homes just two weeks bfore our son was born!!! Marta went above and beyond to ensure this "piggyback"transaction went smoothly. Because of Marta Knauff we will recommend "Burgdorff-Chatham" to everyone. Thank you!!! Very truly yours, Hugh & Elizabeth God blessed us by bringing Marta into our lives.

Review Sellers

Dear Ms. McElgunn,

It was our good fortune to meet Marta Knauff as a real estate broker from Burgdorff. From day one, her professionalism, sincerity, and good judgement have helped us as a family in selling our mother's house. Now that the closing process has been completed, we want to thank her personally, and commend your firm for making such an "outstanding" individual available. She is truly a client-centered person to be commended and recommended to others. Sincerely, Virginia and Family (New Providence).

Dear Marta, Mom and Caryl have forwarded your email and the links to the pictures of Mom's house. I am absolutely astonished at the transformation you have brought about. I am sure that it will contribute to a quick sale and return many times the investment in painting, light fixtures, etc. I had no idea the hardwood floors under the rugs and in the bedrooms could be brought back to such good condition.

Living in California, we have had to watch this process from afar. Having seen your e-mail and the pictures, we have to say that Mom's house could not be in better hands. You have really gone all out to make this sale a success. Thank you for all of your hard work. Guy (Madison)

Review

I can say without doubt that Marta Knauff will be one of the nicest people you will ever work with!

She is a rare combination of diligence, reliability, and sweetness. She is hardworking, dedicated, and really cares about the people she works with. She has an amazing gift for telling people the truth without being offensive, which is extremely important when it comes to selling a house as well as buying one. And I have worked with Marta at both ends of the spectrum.

My husband and I were flop flopping for several years over whether or not to sell our house or renovate. We probably drove Marta crazy with our thought-a-week personalities, changing our minds as frequently as the weather. But Marta never hesitated to answer our questions, help us find builders, painters, plumbers and tile men, stone layers, fence menders, and fire place experts. And although year after year passed without us moving, Marta never stopped counseling us and in fact became a good friend. As it became more apparent that renovations wouldn't pay in the end, after many discussions and open houses, with Marta's help we found the perfect house in a town that we had always loved.

But it doesn't end there. Marta also helped my husband find a property for his business. Although she knew nothing about commercial real estate at the time, which she did not hesitate to let us know, she chose to learn a new aspect of the real estate industry and worked relentlessly to help us find a manufacturing facility; she herself sought counsel from others and ultimately worked hard to help us negotiate the deal.

Marta is a true treasure, and I will be happy to discuss this with anyone needing more reassurance. Sincerely, Karen (Basking Ridge)

Review

Dear Martha,

We want to thank you for all the work you have done with us in purchasing our new home and renting out our old house. You have been incredible throughout this whole process. We began working with you last May based on a recommendation made by a friend. He had mentioned your dedicated and kind nature, and we felt secure working with you. When we first started looking, you areally took your time to understand our needs in purchasing a new home. As you began to show us houses, you took our feedback from each one and incorporated it into your search. You never pushed us into situations where we felt uncomfortable or insecure with our investment. You provided us all the information for each property - both good and the bad - and ultimately this saved us from making a mistake and investing in a house that would have cost much more than just the price listed. You also never pushed us into buying a house that we were unsure of buying. We were able to escape the situation with ease with your help. Ultimately this helped us find a home that we were completely satisfied with, even if it took longer to find. We felt incredibly comfortable working with you, and that is why we decided to give you the responsibility of renting our previous home. This too you handled with utmost professionalism and sincerity, and found a renter that would enjoy our home as much as we had. We cannot thank you enough for what you have done for our family! It has been our pleasure to work with you. (New Providence)

Thank you,

The Krishnan Family

Review Sellers
We feel very lucky to have found Marta to list our home in Summit, NJ. She is very professional, smart, diligent, trust worthy, and willing to make extra effort to help her clients beyond what is normally required by her profession. A friend who listed and sold a house through Marta recommended her to us with very nice words, and her performance even exceeded our high expectations. From the start, she gave us advices from pricing range to decorations and works to be done. Her pricing range was more reasonable (from seller's point of view, and supported by the final selling price) than another agency which we also interviewed. The works she recommended were also quite reasonable. She worked with a stager and provided many decorative items. Our house was old and needed some work, and there also some permit issues. As we moved out of the area already, Marta was extremely helpful in arranging the works and helpin us solving the issues. We are very thankful to Marta and would recommend her to any potential seller. Best, Leland

Review Sellers part 1

We had a good fortune to have Marta as our agent to sell our home.

When we started to consider to sell our old house in Berkeley Heights, we had been approached by a number of real estate agents and received various proposals about how they would handle the sale. We also asked Marta to work out a proposal about the sale. By carefully considering all aspects of these proposals, we found Marta's was the best.To begin with, her proposal did a thorough market research that included the most comprehensive information and market comparisons, giving us the most informative basis to make a pricing decision. Then, her strategy of playing with market dynamics was the most sensible: although her suggested asking price wasn't the highest among the suggested listing prices proposed by all agents, the strategy of starting from a point that would attract enough traffic to start a speedy bidding process worked perfectly. Thirdly, she seems to strike a right balance between using online media exposure and creating real traffic to the property. Her use of online media would serve the purpose of attracting prospective buyers to the property for a look for the real thing, rather than like some other agents who would make a virtual tour of the property online and put virtual furniture and other virtual decorations online. In the end, the sale price was higher than the highest suggested listing price.

Marta brought in an interior designer who made a few very sensible suggestions about a few changes to our home, and we were able to complete these changes with a quite moderate investment. After these changes were done, we, and some friends of ours who had visited the old home many many times, were all pleasantly surprised that they were so effective.

Marta also did a superb job for client service after the contract was signed. She helped us to coordinate the construction work, the clean-up and to - continued in next entry

Review Sellers part 2

to deal with a rather difficult buyer. We took extended vacation out of the country between the signing of the contract and closing of the transaction, Marta's help made it much more enjoyable than it would otherwise as the sale was pending and things often came up unexpectedly.

Last but now least, Marta is extremely hard working. She is very accessible, as we often made late evening phone calls. asking her to drop by our home in evenings and during weekends. This can sometimes make big differences. Eugene and Jenny