caferock.org

Sounding My Barbaric Yawps Across the Rooftops

Updated on Weekends

• home
• chris
• alyssa
• kid rock
• pet rock
• login

Sounding My Barbaric Yawps Across the Rooftops

Entries 1 - 5 of 178

• Aug 31st - Why Are Mormon Church Meetings So Dull?: A Response (Part 5)
• Aug 30th - Why Are Mormon Church Meetings So Dull?: A Response (Part 4)
• Aug 29th - Why Are Mormon Church Meetings So Dull?: A Response (Part 3)
• Aug 28th - Why Are Mormon Church Meetings So Dull?: A Response (Part 2)
• Aug 27th - Why Are Mormon Church Meetings So Dull?: A Response (Part 1)

More Entries

View All

Recent Comments

• Breanne on Motherhood Feminism
• Breanne on Motherhood Feminism
• Breanne on Why Are Mormon Church Meetings So Dull?: A Response (Part 4)
• Breanne on Why Are Mormon Church Meetings So Dull?: A Response (Part 2)
• Alyssa` on Why Are Mormon Church Meetings So Dull?: A Response (Part 2)

Entry

Because Not All Realtors Are Created Equal

Posted by Alyssa - May 11th, 2009

Today we signed on the dotted line and officially became the owners of our first home. In our original plans for the future, we hadn't intended to become homeowners for another couple of years. But all those government incentives and great deals in the current real estate market persuaded us to do our patriotic duty for the sake of economic recovery and buy our first house. And with that, we'll be moving to Springville---the Art City!---next weekend. Here's the picture of our new house from the real estate listing:

Anyhow, we'll post some pictures of the interior once we've settled in, but I wanted to devote this blog entry to talking about how wonderful our real estate agent Lucy Armstrong was. Because she was seriously AMAZING.

I've known Lucy for a couple of years now. She lives in the same ward in Centerville that my parents are in and she's good friends with my mom. Lucy and I actually started emailing each other when my mom told her that I had my degrees in Film Studies. Like me, she is an afficionado of alternative cinema and so we often exchange emails recommending new films to each other.

Around January Chris and I decided to explore the possibility of buying a home so I contacted Lucy to see if she could recommend any good real estate agents in Utah County. I didn't think she'd be interested in driving all the way from Centerville to help us look for a home, but she jumped at the chance to be our agent. And we're both so glad she did. Here's some of the reasons that Lucy is such a great agent:

Her Flexibility
Lucy is willing to rearrange her schedule to put her clients first. That's because she knows that many times the best way to get a good deal on the perfect house is to "beat out the competition," so to speak. If you can be the first to see a house and put down an offer, that can often be a huge advantage. Lucy rearranged her schedule for us on several occasions. She lives and works about an hour away from the county where we wanted to buy a home, but that didn't stop her from bending over backwards to come and house hunt with us whenever we needed her. She made many trips down to Utah county for us---occasionally braving a few terrible snowstorms to do so. Several of those trips were scheduled on the spur of the moment when I happened to come across a listing I really wanted to see. The house we just bought was one I happened to see on the Hotsheets she sent me the day it hit the market. I sent her an email in the morning saying that I thought this listing looked promising and she called me that afternoon to tell me it was a great house that it probably wasn't going to last long. She was willing to hop in the car and come with me to see it that day. To make a long story short (I'll save that for another post), if we hadn't been one of the first people to put an offer on the house, we wouldn't have got such a great deal on it.

She Has Excellent Intuition About Properties That May Be Right For You
Our first day of house-hunting, we saw several different properties. She was careful to listen to what we said we liked and didn't like and she closely watched our responses to the properties we saw. After seeing just a few houses, Lucy developed a good sense of what kind of houses we'd really be interested in. After that first day, she became really good at looking at a property's specs and quickly determining whether it would be the kind of house we'd like---and she helped us get a lot more clear and specific in our own minds about what we wanted too. That saved us a lot of time because she was able to weed out the right houses for us. She got really good at sending us the kind of properties we wanted.

Quick to Respond to Phone Calls and Emails
Lucy was good about always being very easy to get a hold of---and that is extremely important to me, personally. If I had a question or concern, I knew I could call her or email her and that she would get back to me that same day (often within the same hour). She was especially quick to respond when we were in the critical due diligence stage. On the few occasions when Lucy knew she was going to be tied up in meetings or client commitments for the day, she would let me know in advance so that I would be aware she wouldn't be as easy to get a hold of and she provided an alternative method for contacting her.

Good "Bedside Manner"
Since you can potentially spend a lot of time driving around with your realtor, it makes it easier if you enjoy talking with them. Lucy is a great conversationalist. She's bubbly, energetic and just plain fun to talk to. Both Chris and I are a bit introverted and slow to warm up to conversations with people that aren't close friends, but Lucy got both of us to open up and feel comfortable talking with her within a matter of minutes. As I've already mentioned, she's a great listener and she does a really good job of making you feel validated as a person. (Not to mention she has an excellent taste in films, so you can have a good conversation about that topic alone!) As a bonus, she also has a really nice car that's enjoyable to ride around in.

She Establishes Good Rapport With the Selling Agents
This kind of goes along with the previous thing I mentioned about her having the kind of personality that is easy to get along with. Lucy does a great job of establishing a good relationship with the seller's agents. She is very affable and courteous to the agents she works with and she builds strong relationships of trust with them. This is helpful because the selling agent will sometimes give preference to Lucy and her clients just because she is so easy to work with.

She Never Pressures, Just Presents Options
She never pressured us to do something we weren't 100% comfortable with. She likes to say, "I don't want to push you into making a decision either way; I just present the risks and let you decide." In other words, she often points out the pros and cons about purchasing a given property (e.g. it's resale value), but she ultimately respects your decision. That being said, she also made sure to point out when a given property was especially poor or excellent for various reasons. This information is pretty important since it saves you time and keeps you from considering the kind of houses that could be a mistake to buy.

She Respects Your Emotions
Lucy recognizes that buying a house is one of the most important decisions you'll make in your life. It's a difficult decision because it often becomes an emotional one too. She is willing to wait for you to feel good about a house before you sign the dotted line. There were a number of occasions where she patiently waited upstairs or out in her car while Chris and I sat and deliberated about the pros and cons of a particular house. We really appreciated that quite a bit since it helped us feel good about the decisions we were making. She never made us feel rushed to make up our minds.

She Does Her Homework to Ensure You're Getting a Good Deal
We put offers on a few houses before the one we finally settled on. On the first day of house-hunting we had decided to make an offer on a particular house. Before we submitted the offer, Lucy checked to see what equivalent homes in the area were going for so that we could make a fair bid. While doing this, she discovered there was an equivalent house in the neighborhood that was selling for $10k less. We immediately went to go see the house and Chris fell in love with it. We put an offer on that house later that night. (We ended up canceling our offer on that house later for a various reasons, but it was still a great house.) As a few weeks by, Chris and I began to realize that the kind of house we wanted might not be within our price range. Lucy worked hard to find the kind of houses where we could sneak in at the "right time and the right place." She found houses for us that were slightly undervalued because the sellers had become desperate and had dropped their prices. The house we ended up buying was definitely a steal. We're getting an incredible deal on it.

She Makes Sure You Know Exactly What You're Signing
Lucy gave us a very thorough walk-through of all the papers we were signing. She did an excellent job of translating the legal language of these documents into laymen terms. She likes to say, "When we're done going through all of these documents, you'll be able to sell real estate yourself!"

She Makes Good Recommendations For Service Personnel
Lucy went above and beyond the call of duty for us on many occasions. She helped us to find a wonderful mortgage broker who got us an amazing 4.875% on our loan. She personally interviewed several house inspectors who serviced Utah County so that she could make a good recommendation for us. She found us an excellent maintenance man who was willing to make minor repairs to the house for us for a very reasonable price. She got her cousin to give us a good deal on new carpet for the house. And when Chris mentioned that the house we were buying had a slightly boring interior, she offered to have her stager (interior designer) come and give us some tips about what kind of paint and carpet would help give the house some more personality. Who needs Angie's List when you have such a great real estate agent like this?

She Was Always Self-Sacrificing, Always Willing to Put Us First, Always Positive
Lucy never complained about driving down to Utah County for us, even on days when her schedule was really tight. One time we made her wait a little while for us, but she remained positive and found a way to make good use of her time. When we were having a hard time deciding between two different houses, she offered to drive back down and show them to us again. For the house we ended up buying, the sellers were giving a $750 bonus to the buyer's agents. She gave us $500 of that (only keeping enough to pay her taxes) to help with some of the costs associated with getting a home. (And she does that with many of her clients!) Today when we closed, she brought us a huge gift basket with helpful items that we would need on the day we move in---stuff like light bulbs, toilet paper, kleenexes, etc. And she even held Alex and fed him when he started to get a little fussy during the long process of signing the closing documents.

What can I say, I love Lucy! (You knew that joke had to come into play at some point, didn't you?) If you happen to need a real estate agent in utah, you should definitely use Lucy. And if you need a real estate agent somewhere other than Utah, Lucy tells me she'll even interview potential real estate agents for you and help you find a good one in your area. Please let me know if you would like to get in contact with Lucy and I'll make sure you get in touch with her. I would love to give her business because she's definitely earned it!

Edited 6-1-09 to Add: We've just put up some pictures of our house if you'd like to take a look.