I should start with the fact that our family just purchased and moved into a great property. A…read morefantastic home!
Going all the way back to the beginning, we find ourselves near our condo, our previous dwelling that we were trying to sell in summer 2017. That 38th showing should have ended already. I opened the door of my garage and... found two people inside. The buyer and his realtor were standing right in front of me and apparently had my face expression: quite surprised and very funny. These guys were taking their time... Or were they just very thorough?
The next 15 minutes we spent talking about the condo. They barely asked questions. Instead, the buyer's realtor started telling me things that I hoped no buyer would ever find out and complain to me about. Such as uneven floors under the laminate. I learned to live with it. I put some heavy furniture on top of it that silenced the worst of the squeaks and I imagined the new owner would do the same. And in fact, in 40 showings I had that summer, no one ever noticed that. However, that was just the beginning. The realtor went further exposing one problem after another. It seemed like he could not stop running through the list. I was genuinely surprised that in a single showing he learned much more about my condo that I did in three years.
When they were leaving, I asked for his business card. The name of the realtor was Scott Sowles. Key Realty.
On the back of the card I read: ... expertise that you will have hard time finding elsewhere.
After two more unsuccessful showings, I asked my realtor N. to take it off the market.
Two months later, I called Scott Sowles: We wanted to discuss buying a new property OR buying a vacant lot to build a brand new custom house.
Scott spent almost four hours at our place drawing various scenarios on his laptop. Having him at our disposal suddenly felt like having been granted access to a powerful tool that we now should learn how to use. The tool guided us through various dimensions of every decision we would potentially make and gave us a perspective in all its complexity as well as provide solutions. That evening truly convinced us that Scott was not the usual realtor.
With that realization, the back of his business card seemed to have a deeper meaning:
Scott was sharing with us the time of his life.
In the next 1.5 mo. we tried to understand what we actually wanted. We were not ready for Scott, we would just waste his time. Then I called him to see a vacant land. One lot was particularly interesting. We went on evaluating it, until we found that... a custom house was not what we needed.
Finally, we found an existing house that was on the market for two months and no one wanted to buy it. Don't get me wrong: this is the fantastic house we own now! What could be wrong with it? Well, the realtor and the sellers were not talking to anyone. I mean, it was as if they never wanted to sell anything at all! Call them, send them an email - be sure, they will NOT respond!
Scott and I were already a team and I was not expecting Scott to do all the work for me! I owned my part. Scott still does not know it, I hope he will not read this... haha... but to get the seller's realtor out of his hide, I sent him an email saying I was going to buy the house! Whatever did it, in the morning the seller's realtor suddenly started talking to us.
Long story short, Scott helped us purchase that house in late November. Scott also sold our condo to the 5th visitor in late November (our closing was on December 21). It wasn't the great summer time when potential buyers storm your house. Scott personally took the pictures. And no, this wasn't because he was trying to save money.
We used Scott's mortgage rep and did not get a better offer anywhere else. We used Scott's recommendations for the home inspection, sewer inspection,... We learned what great improvements we can make to the house. We even learned realtor secrets not every realtor knows :-)
By the way, Scott teaches sales, negotiation etc. He knows a lot in every subdomain of real estate and a lot around it.
We have already recommended Scott Sowles to my sister and her husband. We will keep recommending him to every good friend of ours. We are recommending him here to You.
Ask me what was that one thing that made me feel so thankful to myself and happy about my experience with Scott? I trusted this guy all the way. I looked at Scott's card again:
Trust Scott...
I would add: don't judge Scott.
You can buy a good house, but you can't buy a good friend. Scott isn't a tool that you buy. I know I said otherwise above, but I just realized that! When you call him, if you can, please treat him as your close friend. Please treat him well. The house will come (or sell).
Not: "Trust Scott and expect results". Instead, "Trust Scott, the results will follow"
Thank you, Scott Sowles!
