Steps Realty is a God send for a 1st Time home buyer. I am in the US Air Force and was given fairly short-notice orders to change stations with my family from Ramstein AB, Germany to Randolph AFB, TX. I was referred to Chris Sandahl, Realtor and Co-owner, by an old friend who swore by him and he did not disappoint. We first started interacting via email, due to the time difference, which is usually impersonal, but he signed off the first message by saying "I am looking forward to finding you the right home."...he already had me more at ease when it came to the most major purchase I had ever undertaken.
Over the next few weeks I bombarded Chris with questions, "must haves", and preferences (some would think they are strange) but he rolled with it, giving quick answers and well-placed advice. He also got me set-up on the MLS Connect site where he sent me houses within my desired parameters for price, features, etc., which facilitated even better communication on what I wanted.
I got lucky because my Command allowed me to take 10 days to travel from Germany to Texas for a permissive Housing Trip (found cheap tickets) allowing me to get a head start on finding a home. Only about a week out I let Chris know I was arriving on a Thursday and was hoping to look at places the next day and he opened his Calendar for me. The 15+ hour trip was rather grueling and I was dreading waking-up the next morning to get ran through the ringer of home shopping. This however was not the case with Chris.
He was welcoming and understanding that the jet lag was kicking my butt, however Chris is a charismatic guy who made sure I was not bored. He was teaching me about the local area as he drove me around and engaged in candid conversations about what he thought of the houses we viewed. We even joked about some of the undesirable and downright weird features in the houses we viewed (one had these fence holes that could only be for horses to look through from the field behind the place)...items one can't see online. Meanwhile he told me what he liked and why (e.g. sprinklers and water softener installed...saves money in the long run & helps resale value), which enabled me to better refine my preferences. He made looking at 10+ homes in a row an enjoyable experience and what I thought would be a rough day turned-out to be quite uplifting.
Over the next few days we viewed and reviewed more homes and Chris continued answering my 1001 questions with a positive attitude, even texts/emails on Easter. Then, along with my wife in Germany watching videos I emailed her, we chose a place that we actually looked at that first day. From that point Chris advised me on the litany of process and paperwork needed to buy the house. Soon after the family and I arrived in Texas for good he invited us to his house for a client appreciation Crawfish Party. There we were finally able to meet his awesome wife and realty partner Rachael, who made sure we were comfortable, something the wife and I especially needed as there were still 2 more weeks before we closed on the house.....temporary quarters and living out of suitcases was getting old.
The day of closing at the title company they were both sitting at the table while we signed our names over & over making the experience light and not so much like a business transaction. At the end the Sandahls handed us a $500 rebate gift card, which we used for a celebration meal and much needed supplies for the new home. Chris and Rachael are great realtors and even more important great people. They will take care of you. read more