I was very satisfied and pleased with Christina Souther's efforts to help me buy a house in…read moreParadise.
Compared to five other local agents in town I had dealt with, Christina was excellent in all aspects of my purchase, including helping with my own due diligence by visiting town hall and searching public records on my behalf. As an out-of-town buyer that was very important to me, essential even. She also had the utilities turned on for the inspections and scheduled them. I was happy with her recommendations for inspectors. As well, she was timely and exact in replying to my many e-mails. Christina is a local girl, born 'n breed in Paradise. She can tell you things about neighborhoods unknown to agents who migrated in since the year 2000.
I'll tell you about a few other agents I worked with so you'll understand what a jewel Christina is. The first one showed up at our first meeting without her special realtor's key to open lock boxes. I had to wait around until she went home and got the key. We looked at 10 or 15 houses that day, all ones I myself had found on the Internet. When we get back to the office, this kid asks if I want to make an offer on one of the places we looked. I'm thinking, "What a twit! I'm brand new to town, this is out first meeting, and already she's putting the pushy, hard-sell on me." On my second visit to look at more houses, she sends me an e-mail telling me this one place could be by "retreat". Another pushy sales technique to win a commission without doing much work.
After the third trip to town I was ready to make an offer. Funny thing, it was on a house I had seen on my first visit. The kid brings in an experienced agent to assist in writing the offer. The sellers countered with a list of complicated conditions with grammatical and typographical errors. Rather than go back and forth with an offer, counter-offers, and counter counter-offers, I proposed writing a new offer. The experienced agent refused to do that. She said it would make her look unprofessional to write a new offer. Another agent worried more about herself and her commission than about helping me buy a house.
I dumped them both and got on the Internet to find a new agent. One guy--you see his photo all around town--took two days to reply to my e-mail. Another sent me a kidde text with misspellings and the address wrong. Christina's reply was honest and well-written. She wrote a new offer on the house. That deal feel through when I came to believe both the sellers and their agent were dishonest with their disclosures. No matter, I bought another house.
The purchase went very smoothly. Christina keep everything on track. Something I learned is how much work a buyer's agent must do after the contract is signed. For example, keeping an eye on the other agent, informing her own client, working with the lender, setting up escrow (which went perfectly) and a ton of other stuff.. All went well and we closed two weeks early.
In summary, my experiences with Christina over almost two months convinced me that I made an excellent choice to help me find and buy a house.