I really should have written this review much sooner than now. I don't know why I haven't.
My wife and I moved to Cedar Rapids from the east coast back around March. Living in Manhattan, and later New Jersey, neither of us had ever owned (or even contemplated owning) a home. We didn't know what earnest money was. We didn't know who to talk to in order to set up a home inspection. In fact, we almost missed our own closing, because I didn't realize that it was an actual event that you have to show up to. (When people said things like "You close on the property at 9:00 AM on 6/22," I thought that just meant that's when the property officially became ours.)
Anyway, my wife ended up reaching out to Meridith Hoffman at Skogman to look at one of Meridith's listings. We didn't end up buying that listing, but Meridith took my wife all over to look at a number of properties (some Skogman listings, some not).
Once my wife and Meridith had narrowed things down to a few finalists. we made our first offer. Thankfully, Meridith had caught something that my wife and I would not have noticed. It certainly would have been caught at the inspection, but by that point the house we ended up buying probably would've been sold.
We love the house that we ended up buying, and the whole thing was much easier than we could have imagined. Skogman is affiliated with UICCU for mortgages, which made that a snap. (I know what you're thinking regarding getting a mortgage from a credit union that is affiliated with your realtor, but Nathan at UICCU was incredibly helpful, and a friend who works in mortgages in another state confirmed that the rate Nathan got us was very good.)
Meridith and Nathan were also able to get me in touch with people for inspections, homeowners insurance, and probably a bunch of other things that I have already forgotten.
From start to finish, I was thrilled with the service that we got from Meridith. The only thing she didn't do was draft a legally-binding document to witness my wife's promise that she wouldn't enter my basement mancave. Perhaps I should've gotten a lawyer for that? read more