Best Agent Business Virtual Assistants don't just live in the real estate world as staff - often they enter it as clients. This moving story of a virtual assistant who just bought a house tells it all, from the importance of finding the right agent to the importance of making a fair offer based in the market conditions to the mound of paperwork necessary to close.
As a first time home owner, I can tell you one thing, very few emotions are left unturned during the process. I had no idea what I would be getting into, and here I am almost a month and a half later, still wondering how this all happened.
Let me back up and give you a quick history of the whole process and how it began. My husband is active duty Navy. When he received word that we would be staying in Jacksonville, I was ecstatic. Not only would we not have to move for at least three years, but we would actually be able buy our first home, and paint the walls a color other than white. Now, when we found out we would be able to look into buying a home, I was 7 ½ months pregnant, moody, and tired all the time. The military has a program called Movers Advantage, so we decided to utilize this program. We started with one realtor who sent us many listings to view on-line, but none that had any of the specs we were looking for in a house, our soon-to-be home. She was very passive, not as aggressive as I would have like her to be, so we politely requested a new agent.
Wow, she was wonderful. Not only did she find us ten plus homes for us to look at, she scheduled us is times to view these houses, all within a weeks time. Our first realtor did nothing of the sorts. So into the car we went, driving around, looking at house after house, and not finding anything that said Home.
Three days of looking, and I was beginning to feel overwhelmed, and disappointed. This was not only because we were growing closer and closer to time for my husband to be finishing with his training command, but also because our little baby would be arriving very soon and I knew my time was limited on being able to look for a house. It was hard enough waddling in and out of a car, then looking through house after house, but doing so with a newborn....not happening.
Day four of looking seemed to be producing the same results...nice houses, but not our home. It was the last house of that day, it had been on the market 1 day, and I just had this feeling. This house was on the same street as the house we were renting, so it would be a short move, and almost seemed too easy. We pulled in the driveway and I got a tingling feeling. As soon as my feet stepped into the front foyer, I knew it was home. I began scurrying around the house as fast as a 9 month pregnant lady could and became more excited with each step. My husband and I sat down at the bar right there in that house and put our offer on paper and the realtor submitted it.
Then the nerves sat in, and it was almost unbearable. We gave them two days to respond, and when 5 o'clock on the day we requested a response came and went, my heart was sad. I just knew that they had passed on our offer. Several hours later, the phone rang, they had countered. Contrary to most people's beliefs, their counter actually included a few things we hadn't thought of, agreed to most of our conditions, the only thing was they wanted a little more money. We put our counter offer in and the next day, with a house full of friends cheering on our respective college football teams, the phone rang....WE GOT THE HOUSE! The whole room broke into cheers, and we were so excited to share that moment with everyone!
Then the fun part, form after form, stacks of papers, inspections, walk thrus....o my the paperwork seemed almost endless. Then, in the middle of trying to get all of this done, our son made his appearance into the world. With a 3 ½ week old in tow, we arrived at the Law office to do our final closing. What an amazing feeling. The lawyer was wonderful and explained everything as we signed our lives away. As we sat there at the round table, signing paper after paper, I felt very relieved. The process was finally over, and we had a house, a home, a place our son will take his first steps, say his first words, and celebrate his birthday. It was the most amazing feeling knowing that it was done, and we could start moving our things into our home.
Not only did we find a house that we fell in love with, we made some new friends that we now talk to regularly, and plan on having dinner with, the "old" owners. It made the process even more enjoyable, though the first word that comes to mind when I reminisce about first starting the home buying process would have to be "anxiety filled," ha!
We've been in our new home for a little over a month now and couldn't be happier. The pictures are on the wall, the furniture is in place, and we're having our first dinner party tomorrow night. You want to know the best part; it's all over for at least three years!
Want more new ideas to make your business run more efficiently? Take 30 minutes today to schedule a call with Steve Kantor to see how a part time virtual assist can transform your business. Interested in a part time career with us? Visit our website for more information.
the last three years, you didn't qualify?
