About Smart Choice Realty

Our Team

Samara Presley

Founder/Listing Specialist

Kenny Coates

Closing Coordinator & Realtor

Angie Jones

Listing Coordinator & Realtor

The Future of Real Estate

Smart Choice Realty was started by Samara Presley in 2008, just as the real estate market began to decline. While this was the death knell for many real estate firms, it actually was the perfect time for us – because more than ever, sellers were questioning traditional approaches, and starting to look for ways to save money.

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Our History

Our Birth

After years of practicing traditional real estate, we started questioning the traditional approach. And decided two things:  

  1. Buyers and sellers are – surprise! – consumers who value their hard earned dollars.

2. The real estate industry has to change. Just like every other business in the Internet age.

Not surprisingly, those two things are connected. Because when we asked ourselves what we could do differently, the answer was clear: Have a less expensive business model. And pass our savings on to you.  

  In the old days, it was hard to list and sell a home. It required advertising in print publications. Holding open houses and hoping someone would drive by. And – without cell phones, email and web sites – a lot more legwork.

  Today, thanks to the Internet, things are a lot easier. No more expensive print publications; an agent can upload your listing and it’s instantly available to millions of buyers – who can easily search the MLS themselves. Great for buyers. Cheaper for agents.

Three Years Later

Samara Presley is recognized by Realtor Magazine as top “30 Under 30” agents, which confirms that alternative ways of selling real estate are even being acknowledged by the National Association of Realtors, This recognition propels her to make her first hire and begin to grow Smart Choice.

This recognition propels her to make her first hire and begin to grow Smart Choice.

The Model is Working

Word begins to spread about Smart Choice Realty and how we save Triangle homeowners money.  Word of mouth advertising saves us a ton of money in advertising costs.  We know that if we deliver excellent service our clients will continue to refer us and Smart Choice will continue to grow.

One year after the first hire…

Production doubles and we’ve sold over 70 Triangle homes.  We are now one of the top flat fee firms of the Triangle.

Four years later

Smart Choice has grown to a ten person team with specialists to help buyers and sellers every step of the way.  Smart Choice is the premier flat fee, full service firm in the Triangle and has saved home sellers over $3 million in commissions.

Smart Choice begins to offer our services in Charlotte

After finding tremendous success in the Triangle market, Smart Choice branches out to begin delivering our superior services and savings to the Queen City.

Smart Choice lands at 3950 Blue Ridge Road, located in the heart of Raleigh near Crabtree Mall.

We don’t like to brag, but…

Spectrum News Channel

Spectrum News Interview

2015 Raleigh's 15 Best Realtors

15 Best Realtors in Raleigh

2011 Realtor Magazine's 30 Under 30 Samara Presley

Realtor Magazine’s 30 Under 30 Honoree

2016 NC Top 100 Most Influential Realtors

Named one of NC’s Most Influential Realtors

2017 Top Producers MagazineCover

2017 July Cover of Top Producers Magazine

What People are Saying

Excellent
Smart Choice Realty
5.0
Based on 22 reviews
Samara and her team were unknown to us until we saw how we could possibly save a lot of money in reduced realtor commissions on her website. After calling them and meeting with her, we felt would be getting the same services as from a full fee realtor and we were right. Our sale was easy and quicker than I anticipated and we saved over $12,000. So unless you have thousands of extra dollars living around, why wouldn't you use a discount realtor as Smart Choice Realty. Think about it!
This is 3rd house I have sold with Samara and the 4th one I have purchased with Smart Choice. My current home sold in less than a day. A DAY! Samara and her team keep the process easy, to the point and know what they are talking about regarding market trends and how to negotiate on our behalf. The pictures of our home were so beautiful I almost didn't want to sell!! I have known Samara a long time and would highly recommend you use her firm if you are considering selling or buying.
While we haven’t used Smart Choice as a realtor, we are so glad to have them in the neighborhood. They held a Santa social with free pictures by a professional photographer so I dropped in with my daughters. The event was so sweet and special, I can only imagine how thoughtful they are towards their clients! I would highly recommend them based on their attention to detail and commitment to making your experience the best!
Thank you so much for the dreamy pictures. I’m totally spoiled and will never go to the mall for Santa’s again!
When we decided to move closer to family, we had the tough choice of who to call to sell our home. We were recommended to Samara and Smart Choice by our lender, Martin Mortgage Group, so we knew had to be great. We weren't disappointed. She did a complete walk through of our house, told us what to focus on fixing and how to stage our house for showings. When we got our home listed we had an offer in 24 hours on a Saturday morning. Samara recommended letting the weekend finish before making the jump and she was right. By Sunday night, we had 6 offers on our home! No open house required, just simple showings of our home. The entire process was pain free. Her closing coordinator, Lisa, helped us deal with sellers who were requesting more than we could handle and never made us feel like we were a hassle and understood we were only trying to make the best choice for our family. In the end we were able to make one best for everyone involved. We had a quick and painless closing and in a few weeks after closing, Smart Choice followed up to be sure were settling into our new home nicely. With everyone's expertise and an incredibly low fee (1% of our closing cost due to us moving out of Raleigh) that was significantly less than the 3% or higher other Realtors were asking for. Smart Choice Realty is without a doubt, an incredibly smart choice!
Great group of knowledgeable realtors!
Used Samara and her team to both purchase and sell my home these past few months. I used Kristen to help us purchase a home and Samara listed ours. They both kept us updated on current market, paperwork to sign all the way to both closings. Highly recommend.
� Shout out to Angie Bagley and Lisa Baune with Smart Choice Realty. I recently worked with both of them on a successful closing in Garner, NC. It was a win-win for their sellers and my buyers thanks to their knowledge of real estate, professionalism and willingness to go above and beyond. From one agent to another, Thank You! Can’t wait to work with Smart Choice Realty again.
We bought and sold our house today with Smart Choice and everything went very smooth and we saved over 11K!! Tracy Seese is phenomenal and amazing to work with as a buyer's agent and highly recommend working with her. We wanted to keep our equity as we needed to put as much down as we could on our new home and needed money for renovations so going with Smart Choice for $1000 was ideal. We did end up listing a lot lower than I wanted which I would do over again if I could and demand a higher list price, but we sold in a weekend with multiple offers. If you have a price you want to list at and justification for it make sure you stick to that, that would be my only change in the process, esp since houses went for way more within a month of ours going under contract even with less sq ft. Lisa was so patient with us through closing our house and coordinating with our buyers and the minimal stuff we had to do closing on our new home. Kristin was also a star setting up our house to list. Just don't regret your list price this market is hot and don't under list. Call Smart Choice and use them today! Why give away your equity when you get full service for $1000 and 2.4% to the buyers agent. Happy with our choice to use them.
CHRISTINE UP KEEP RALEIGH NC will support you all the way thank you

Our Vision

We are the industry disruptors of real estate.

The real estate world has changed and we believe we are at the forefront of that change. We want to revolutionize the way real estate is sold by offering sellers another option that not only delivers thousands in savings, but also top notch service.

We are the Future

Not only are we striving to deliver the best customer experience we can offer, but we are also working to become a great firm that agents can call home. We want a professional team of agents whose core beliefs align with ours. We believe in teamwork, putting the customer first, always doing the right thing and maintaining a positive attitude.