“Margaret talked us out of a kitchen remodel we were sure we needed and steered us to $3,200 of paint, lighting and a refinished front door instead. The photographs and floor plan looked like a magazine spread. We had three vetted offers by Monday evening, sold in five days over asking and closed on our exact target date.”
Residential brokerage & advisory · Savannah
Street-level pricing, steady negotiation, clean closings
Buying or selling a home in Savannah takes more than an online estimate. Cornice & Slate Real Estate pairs street-by-street sales evidence with careful presentation and steady contract guidance, from the first walk through the house to the closing table.
- Today at the viewing
- Mon–Fri, 8:30 AM to 6:00 PM
- Saturday, 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM
- Sunday, closed
- Every fee agreed in writing first
- One broker, walkthrough to closing
The brokerage
Slow enough to walk the house before it is priced
Cornice & Slate Real Estate is an independent residential brokerage on Marchbank Street in Savannah, Georgia. It takes one instruction at a time and leaves room in every appointment for the walk that comes before the figure: a broker asks what the house does through the year, where the damp shows, and what the last owner changed and what they left alone.
Some agents promise an unrealistic list price to win a signature and ask for a painful reduction thirty days later. Here the recent closed sales, the active competition and the few pre-list improvements that actually pay back are laid out first, and a house that would do better after a season of small repairs is told so before it is listed. Sellers, buyers relocating to the city and investors weighing a duplex all start in the same place: a message describing the house, answered by a licensed broker.
On the board
Representation and advisory services
Fiduciary guidance whether a long-held family home is being prepared for market, a buyer is searching for the right neighbourhood, or an investor is weighing a small multi-unit building. Every fee is explained in plain English and confirmed in writing before any touring or listing begins.
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Full-service listing & marketing
Negotiated
Paid at closing · about 8 weeks
Room-by-room preparation, architectural and twilight photography, a measured floor plan, MLS syndication and every offer vetted and negotiated. The broker who walks the house first attends every private showing and manages inspection through to closing.
Best for an owner selling one house who wants the same broker from the first walkthrough to the closing table.
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Buyer representation & private showings
By agreement
Written buyer agency · until closing
Targeted searches, private tours arranged around the buyer, closed-sale comparables run before an offer is drafted, inspection repairs negotiated, and the appraisal and closing overseen alongside the lender and title attorney.
Best for a buyer who wants an advocate on their own side of the table, never the seller’s.
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New-construction representation
Included
With buyer agency · contract to closing
Independent advocacy at the builder’s sales centre: lot premiums weighed, structural upgrades judged on resale value, builder contract clauses reviewed, and independent pre-drywall and blue-tape inspections scheduled.
Best for a buyer visiting a new-home community, ideally before the very first model-home visit.
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Investment property advisory
Custom scope
Acquisition, sale or 1031 exchange
Rent rolls verified, realistic rents, vacancy reserves, property taxes and capital expenditure modelled, existing leases checked, and closing milestones kept in step with a 1031 exchange qualified intermediary.
Best for a local investor buying or trading single-family rentals, duplexes or 2–4 unit buildings.
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Relocation & neighbourhood tour
Complimentary
With buyer representation · half a day
A tailored half-day drive through Savannah neighbourhoods: architectural styles, commute corridors, school-district boundaries, HOA structures and three to five live homes in the target price bracket, compared first-hand before any offer is made under pressure.
Best for a family or professional moving to Savannah from out of state.
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Comparative market analysis
Complimentary
Written report · about 1 hour
An unhurried hour in the house that an online estimate cannot replicate. The renovated kitchen, the new roof, the lot orientation and the recent closed and pending sales nearby are all weighed, and the result is a written valuation with a seller net sheet, given with no obligation to list.
Best before deciding anything: to sell now, to wait, or simply to know where the equity stands.
The question every appointment opens with
Tell me what the house is like in February, not what it looked like on the afternoon the photographs were taken.
The story
A corner office that takes one instruction at a time
Every instruction here starts with a walk rather than a figure. An agent goes through the whole house first — roof space, cellar, the back of the boiler cupboard and the outside of every window, which are the four places a problem shows before it shows anywhere else — and asks what the house is like through the year rather than what it looked like on the morning the owner decided to sell.
Cornice & Slate Real Estate was set up to work at that pace. The broker who attends the pricing walkthrough is the broker who oversees the photography, conducts the negotiation and sits beside the client at closing, rather than handing the file to an unlicensed assistant after the first meeting. Three to four weeks before a listing goes live, painters, handymen, lighting and landscape edging are coordinated so the house meets the market at its best.
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01
Evidence-based pricing
Every valuation and offer strategy rests on verified closed sales, price-per-square-foot adjustments and absorption rates, never on a figure chosen to win an instruction.
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02
Transparent written agreements
Fees, agency duties and cancellation terms are explained line by line before anything is signed, and no administrative add-on appears on the closing statement.
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03
Same-day communication
Timelines move quickly, so active clients hear from their broker on the day of every showing, inspection and counter-offer, not at the end of the week.
Behind the viewings
The brokers
Four full-time licensed professionals run Cornice & Slate Real Estate between them. Each one takes every service on the list, and each has two that the office sends their way first.
Margaret Ellis
Managing principal broker
Principal broker and Certified Residential Specialist with eighteen years of complex home sales, pricing strategy and multiple-offer negotiation in Savannah, and the broker who walks the first house on every listing the office takes.
Daniel Reyes
Buyer specialist & relocation advisor
An Accredited Buyer’s Representative who leads the relocation tours, the off-market searches and the offer strategy, looking past fresh paint to roof age, drainage and fair comparable value on every house a buyer considers.
Priya Nair
Listing & downsizing specialist
A listing strategist holding the SRES® and CLHMS designations, who looks after architectural staging, estate transitions and owners leaving a home of twenty or thirty years on their own timeline.
Samuel Hart
Investment & new-construction advisor
A broker associate with a background in real estate finance and construction underwriting, advising on builder contracts, pre-drywall inspections, duplexes and 1031 exchanges.
Pictures
The character a valuation is built on
Bay windows, stair halls, kitchens and a landing: the joinery, daylight and orientation a broker weighs on every walkthrough, and the way Cornice & Slate Real Estate likes a room to be photographed — square, in daylight and without a distorting lens.
Said afterwards
From the visitor book
“As first-time buyers we fell for a bungalow and would have overpaid on emotion alone. Daniel pointed out the ageing roof and the electrical panel on the first tour, pulled every closed sale within six blocks, set a disciplined ceiling on our escalation clause, and the inspection findings turned into $11,000 of seller credits at closing.”
“Most agents hand investors a hopeful flyer that ignores the tax reset after a sale. Samuel modelled conservative returns on four duplexes, audited the existing leases and utility splits, and worked with our qualified intermediary so the 1031 exchange closed inside its 45-day identification window.”
Asked often
Before writing to the office
The questions Savannah sellers and buyers ask most often before a first consultation.
How do commissions and buyer agreements work now?
Buyers sign a written buyer representation agreement before touring, setting out exactly what their broker is paid, just as sellers sign a listing agreement. A buyer can ask in an offer for the seller to cover that fee from the proceeds, and every rate is negotiable — none is fixed by law.
Why is an in-home valuation different from an online estimate?
Portal estimates work from tax-record square footage and broad ZIP-code averages. They cannot see a gutted kitchen, hear road noise or value good light. An in-home analysis compares only genuinely similar closed sales from the past 90 to 180 days.
How early should a seller get in touch?
Ideally six to ten weeks before the planned launch, and earlier if repairs are being considered. That leaves time to skip the projects that will not pay back and to prepare, stage and photograph the house in good light.
Is pre-approval needed before a buyer consultation?
Not for a first strategy meeting, and meeting first means an introduction to local lenders known for closing on time. Before touring and making offers, a fully underwritten pre-approval letter makes any offer far stronger.
Visit or write
Marchbank Street, Savannah, Georgia
Cornice & Slate Real Estate has four desks and no display window, so an agreed time is the only way to be sure of a broker. Valuation visits and buyer consultations are confidential, a message or an email is answered during opening hours in the order it arrives, and a time is held once the day and the hour are agreed.
Opening hours
- Monday
- 8:30 AM – 6:00 PM
- Tuesday
- 8:30 AM – 6:00 PM
- Wednesday
- 8:30 AM – 6:00 PM
- Thursday
- 8:30 AM – 6:00 PM
- Friday
- 8:30 AM – 6:00 PM
- Saturday
- 9:30 AM – 3:00 PM
- Sunday
- Closed
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.