Though I knew several really good realtors in Austin, we didn't want to work with anyone who we…read moreconsidered a friend--in case things went bad. We wanted to keep our cut throat dealings about the sale of our 1974 1154 square foot rancher on a strictly professional level. I can be sorta an a-hole about things.
Three different people recommended Jill to me to be our realtor for the sale of our house, and purchase of a new one. Three people, that I know. In person. With those solid references, we gave her a call when we started our home search--which began when we stalked a house in Hyde Park before the home we owned wasn't even near ready to be listed, and continued as we tried to figure out what we wanted in a new place, Dripping Springs? House in Travis Heights with a tree growing in the middle of it?
Jill:
*Gave us homework to envision what we wanted in a house.
*Talked to us in a really nice voice that was never condescending no matter how batshit crazy we were about this stage of our lives. (I forgot to mention I was in my first trimester of my first pregnancy -2010- trying to figure out where we were going to move.)
* gave us snacks while we went out looking at houses.
*Did not smack the crap out of us when we realized we needed to rent in order to get our overfull house, that we'd lived in (hard living with dog hair) for 8 years ready to sell.
And so we worked with Jill to come up with a plan, and we most of our junk and our dogs and our collections of fantasy figurines, and fabric for projects that *I promise* I'm going to sew one day, out of our old house, and made it pristine.
She directed us in the staging of the house, and when we were finally ready, she took AMAZING photos of the place--AND shot an HGTV quality video of the house. The house went on the market and...
TWO DAYS LATER WE HAD A REASONABLE OFFER (not full price, but it was CASH, and would close in 2 weeks.)
Then we got a back up offer.
And then we got a back up to the back up that we didn't formalize because it seemed like that would be showing off.
Now I was in my second trimester, and really didn't want to deal with any of the real estate crap at all.
Jill:
*negotiated win/win agreements with the purchaser of our house
*had stellar comps available to defend the price that we set
*talked to my husband and I in a really nice voice that was not condescending at all, even when we were freaking out late at night after our baby birth class to learn how to deliver our GIGANTIC baby
*made the transacation so easy that I had to watch the movie The Secret again to believe that anything this good was actually possible. (The Secret is that whatever you think is drawn to you to happen...and while I don't go in on all manner of hocus pocus, I did indeed actually watch it because I was in friggin' disbelief that my house was sold after two days on the market, and would close with a cash offer in two weeks. I didn't want my disbelief to jinx it!)
She attended our closing, and I apologized to her for several instances where I know I came off as a bija.
Now is the time I should mention that she's SO NICE, she's PBS nice. She's Buttermilk Biscuit on The Biscuit Brothers. How in God's green earth could I have ever been uppity to Buttermilk? And she forgave me. (I think.) She brought my new baby Biscuit Brother DVD's.
So, I can't say she's going to make you a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when you're on property tour, or she's going to do an homage to Gone with the Wind to sell your garden on the video she makes of your house, or she's going to give you DVDs. What I can say is that she takes her professionalism personally. She embodies each transaction with appropriate integrity and a deeply connected creativity. My hormonal, indecisive transaction needed lots of coddling, but I observed the way she negotiates and she isn't inherently a coddler. She had just done some sort of Black Belt/ Six Sigma/ Jedi Advanced Negotiation training dealie...and she's formidable.
She's got the ability to meet people at their level, and give them what they need to have a phenomenal experience during the most stressful moments of life in transition. Whether you're selling and then buying, or just buying for the first time, you want her on your side. If I knew you personally, she is the realtor I would tell you to call.