The office
A corner office that gives each house its full attention
No. 01
Cornice & Slate Real Estate works from Marchbank Street in Savannah, Georgia. Six services, four licensed brokers, and a fee agreed in writing before any agreement is signed.
From the first walk-through
How the office approaches a house
Every instruction here starts with a walk rather than a figure. A broker goes through the whole house first — attic, crawl space, the water heater closet and the outside of every window, the four places a problem shows before it shows anywhere else — and asks how the house lives through the year rather than how it looked on the morning the owner decided to sell.
That is why each listing stays with one broker from the first walk to the closing table. The broker who prices a house is the broker who shows it and negotiates for it, every offer is checked against a lender pre-approval before it is accepted, and a seller who would do better waiting a season is told so before anything is listed.
A first appointment can expect an hour of walking and looking before any figure is written, a fee explained in plain English, and a valuation set out with the comparable sales underneath it so that every number can be checked. It should not expect a home inspection, title work or mortgage advice; those belong with licensed specialists, and the office names trusted local ones when they are needed.
Signed at the deskMargaret Ellis, managing principal broker
No. 02 · Marchbank Street
Standing rules
Three standing promises
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01
Fiduciary advocacy, never pressure
Every recommendation is made on the client’s financial position and long-term goals. Nobody is rushed into an offer, a list price or a contract, and the advice stays the same whether the deal closes this month or next spring.
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02
Valuation rests on hard evidence
Pricing comes from verified closed sales, pending contracts and a walk through the house itself, never from an online estimate or a figure chosen to win a listing. If the right service is a different one, the broker says so.
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03
One broker, start to close
The broker who walks a house negotiates for it, and is reachable through inspection, appraisal and closing. Nobody is handed between desks, and no client is asked to explain their situation twice.
Where those rules came fromThey are the three things clients asked about most often in the office’s first year, written down so that the answer never depends on who happens to pick up the message.
No. 04
Start to finish
From the first message to the closing table
A message arrives
An agent replies
A time is agreed
The work happens
The limits
What the office does not do
Cornice & Slate Real Estate represents sellers, buyers and investors and prepares market valuations. It does not carry out home inspections, does not handle title or closing legal work, does not lend or give mortgage advice and does not manage rental property. Each of those is work for a licensed specialist. The office has four desks and no display window, so an agreed time is the only way to be sure of one.
Talk to the office
Ask before making the trip
A message describing the house or the move gets a straight answer about which service fits, how its fee works and how long it takes.
The column
A short note when the office changes something
Holiday hours, a broker joining the office, a shift in how the local market is moving. Two or three notes a year and nothing else.