As excited as I was to move back to Austin, I was not looking forward to the first step in that…read moredirection, which was finding a realtor. This wouldn't be my first house, meaning I'd hired a few before Mr.Danny Gallant, and in all honesty, I was starting to get a negative vibe about the profession in general. The pattern I was seeing was quantity over quality - get as many clients as possible, and do the bare minimum to keep them..
Fortunately for me, I found Danny. And where did I find Danny? On Yelp, of course. I love this site.
I started with his website - filled out a form asking for general information - and received a call back from him within a couple of hours. He made it clear from the very beginning that he wanted my business and he would do whatever it took to get it, and he proved it repeatedly over the course of our time together. He sent over a list of houses for me to check out based on my requirements within a day or so, and worked closely with me to revise repeatedly.
I was on a tight timeframe - I was only going to have one trip - 4 days in Austin to find my house and that was it, I needed him to guarantee availability. Not the whole time, of course - I knew he had other clients - but enough for me to see several houses each day, which he said he'd do and he did. He was quite flexible, too - I started off in one area in one price range, and moved both around each day. We were emailing each other new houses and crossing others off late, late at night. Honestly, I couldn't have asked for better service.
So anyway, we found a house. Ha! I said 'we'.. that's how it felt. Corny, I know, but I don't care, that's how it felt - we were a team. Each property we looked at, he played it just right - hung back, let me get my own impression, answered any questions I had, then pointed out all sorts of things I hadn't thought about, but totally needed to know.
And then, that month - the option period, the inspection, all that stuff - it's hard enough when you're in town, but remotely it can be a real bear. But Danny, he handled it all, going above and beyond my expectations. And now that it's all over, he's going to throw me a house warming party, he does it for all his clients, how cool is that? We're waiting for the weather to warm up a bit so we can take advantage of the backyard, but how cool is that? I can't wait!
Thanks Danny - you're the man.