“I’ve never bought a house before and you’re a brand new agent… is this a good idea? I mean, I’d be your second client, how do I know you’re not going to really mess this up?” This was the question I asked Bill, almost a decade ago, when he was a new agent and I was planning planning to buy a house and move back to Ann Arbor from San Francisco.
As my friend, I knew he was a good guy, but I had questions.
Bill assured me that as a new agent, he had the full assistance of his employing broker to walk him through every step of the process, answer any questions, and give advice. The broker was also available to me if needed. This made me feel confident moving forward, and I also enjoyed the easy, casual relationship we had during the process.
My good feelings turned to frustration and despair after I lost my (bank owned) dream house TWICE to cash offers over a long, drawn-out process. In the end there was nothing I could do to compete with the cash offers, but it was an emotional rollercoaster.
Throughout all of this, Bill was an amazing agent and partner. I was in San Francisco, so he toured houses for me and sent me videos of all of them. We couldn’t meet in person so he made himself available via phone and text and we transferred all sorts of pictures and videos digitally.
Despite the ease of the process, I was frustrated with the lack of inventory and trying to compete with cash offers and had decided to take a break from my search for a while.
I told Bill I was going to take a break because I was too distressed at the moment to continue, but he had other plans.
He went out driving around to garage sales. At a particular garage sale, he inquired about the owner’s intentions and found out they were “thinking about moving.” He convinced them to let me view the house via videos, we put an offer on the house, and I am currently living in that same house.
I can guarantee that I would not be living in my house right now had I not signed up to work with a brand new agent that was willing to go the extra mile.
Bill now has a lot more experience and owns his own company (this one!) but thinking about my own experience and the service I received is inspirational to me now that I am an agent myself.