We were first time homebuyers and quite inexperienced. In fact, we were so inexperienced that we were silly enough to be looking at houses in a down real estate market! But really, that much we knew was sorta smart. However, our first big mistake was going around trying to schedule all of our own house showings. This is a nightmare. We would look online, find a house that we thought we might like, fill out the form on that website, repeat for 5 other houses and then have 6 agents all calling us back. What a mess. So when we finally wised up, we got extremely lucky and were put in touch with Patty. She is from Howard Hanna and has been an agent for 6+ years now.
First off, Patty was always very accomodating. She took us around on weekends, weekdays after work, days off, whenever we wanted really. She had some other clients at the time but I can't recall a situation where we were ever in conflict with any of her other clients. Next, she wasn't pushy at all. In fact, she took us around for about 3 months solid, probably 3 weekends a month. And throughout it all, she never pushed us to go towards one house or another; she always encouraged us to keep really good track of what we liked or didn't like and then helped us pare down our search options to other houses which might suit us. She also was extremely knowledgeable about the business environment. She obviously pointed out the positive position we were in as first time home buyers in this down real estate market, but she also was a voice of reason, making sure that when we made an offer it would not offend the seller nor be too outrageous so that the seller would not even consider it.
We found a house after 3 months and this is when Patty was the most helpful for us. As first time home buyers, we figured we could have stumbled onto the right house after a certain amount of time, but we never would have been able to close on a house as we did without her help. Throughout the inspection and testing process, she pointed us to people she had worked with before and trusted (with the list often being 4 or more providiers long). She was tireless in making sure we kept on track to hit our closing date without any hiccups. She stayed on the phone with me into the evening, talking over our options and making sure my questions were answered. And when the entire deal nearly fell apart due to stubborness on the seller's part (OK, mine too), she wholeheartedly encouraged me to walk away from the deal if I thought this was the best course of action (after we said we wanted to walk they not-so-surprisingly gave in). She was a guiding voice throughout the entire process, but never overbearing or pushy (a misconception I had about real estate agents before Patty).
Overall, I don't think we could have lucked out any more with agent than we did. I would highly suggest Patty for any first time homebuyers or any experienced buyers for that matter. She is highly qualified and a great agent to have on your side. read more