I am a real estate appraiser with 20 years in the business. When it comes to buying and selling homes, I'm very careful and deliberate in my decision regarding whom I place my trust to take care of my family.
Last April, we came from out of state, to Arizona to check out the area as a potential location to move our family. It didn't take more than a day or so to decide that this place is amazing and it was where we would end up. During that trip, I called several real estate agents and chatted with them on the phone, not mentioning what I do for a living. Jill Comfort immediately stood out from the crowd. Even though she was busy at the time of my first call, she answered the phone anyway and politely let me know she would call me back. A few minutes later, I got the call and we chatted about who she was and the mix of business she was engaged in (representing buyers, sellers, investors, builders, etc.). That call was followed up by a meeting at a Starbucks the next day where we got to know her further and she suggested that we go out and look at some neighborhoods and homes, even though we weren't ready to buy. She said this was important to her so she could get an understanding of our tastes and interest in various home types and styles. This was a smart move on her part and a sign to me that we had met someone who was serious about getting to know us and what we were looking for. We did this for two consecutive days and when it was time to fly home, we felt we had a trusted partner here in Arizona who knew us and the type of home we needed to find when the time was right.
As it turned out, it would take upwards of 7 months to sell our house back in Idaho and through all of that, Jill patiently kept in touch with us, checking in to find out how the selling process was moving along and to update us on the housing market in AZ. After we finally receiving an acceptable offer on our home up north, we were ready to go and Jill already had a list of homes ready for us. We had visited enough homes together in the neighborhoods we were interested in during our initial trip, that we had been in nearly every model that was currently on the market. She toured through the homes with us on FaceTime and we narrowed our search to the one we were most interested in and it was time to make an offer. Everything Jill does is electronic, so making the offer from a distance was a snap. Additionally, Jill is very savvy about negotiating strategy and she went over the pricing history of the home we were making the offer on, suggesting a logical starting point for the negotiation. Her experience in this arena proved to be invaluable and we arrived very quickly at mutually agreeable purchase price with the seller, that was below market value but within the seller's budget.
Now we get to the part that I thought would be the most difficult and boy was I surprised. During our initial visit, I asked her for recommendations for a mortgage lender. My thought was that as long as the pricing and rate was competitive, I wanted to use a lender that she had a relationship with. The reason for this was that since I was out of state, I wanted the pro's to be able to work out the kinks and not have to bother me or deal with forming a relationship of trust that didn't previously exist. That turned out to be the second best decision we made (after hiring Jill to represent us). She suggested we use Tom Maison and Luis Ramirez, local lenders at Fairway Independent Mortgage. These gentlemen are very good at what they do and got us a very low rate and were ready to close with ZERO hassle - with marginal credit, no less!! On top of that, she arranged with local escrow company to send our closing papers to Idaho and we signed before we even headed south in the moving truck. This was quite literally the easiest closing experience I have ever had! I'm not aware of any snags (although I'm sure there were some that I never heard about) and we actually closed early. The value of Jill's connections with top-notch, competent professionals who helped to make this very stressful move seem completely seamless, cannot be overstated. Her connections and relationships were absolutely invaluable to us.
It would be a few days after closing before we made it to AZ with the family. In that time, Jill arranged to have a carpet cleaner come to the house and helped us to get the utilities transferred. To top it all off, she put a bow on the door and we came home to a very nice house warming gift.
Jill Comfort is a consummate professional who knows not only how to get the job done right, but she does it in a way that is caring and personal. It is my honor to recommend her for all of your real estate needs. read more
