Now, I’ve been a realtor for the past 15 years and have helped dozens of families move locally and long distance during that time but this was the first time since 1996 that I was in the position of actually moving myself. And this was the first time since I obtained my real estate license that I wasn’t in control of the transaction. Since my real estate license is held in Arizona and we’re buying in Colorado, I had to enlist the help of another realtor to process the transaction for us so I put a call in to my niece who used to be in real estate herself. “Dana, who can put up with me?” “Definitely Ryan, give him a call. I’ve known him for years and he’s the best."
So I gave Ryan a call and told him our wish list. Being a realtor myself, I can say I think Ryan had it fairly easy in this transaction and to tell you the truth, I wish all my clients were as easy. Maybe it was due to the fact I‘m familiar with the process. They say an informed client is an educated client. Hmm, something to think about for the future.
By the time we were able to meet with Ryan, Brian and I had pulled a list of homes that had peaked our interest and we had already driven by them so were able to narrow our selection down to a select few. Now, I’ve always had the habit of entering a home with my clients with the thought in mind, “Could I live here?” Don’t ask me why I do that. Just a little quirk of mine but now the shoe was on the other foot and I was actually a buyer, not just a bystander and I actually had to ask the question of myself, “Could I live here?” and be honest about it. This was totally foreign to me as we had lived in our last house on Gleneagles Drive for over 14 years and I really loved that house and neighborhood. I was doing exactly what I warn my clients, “Don’t compare houses.” Even though Colorado houses have a totally different style than Arizona houses I was comparing every house I saw to our house in Phoenix. Our first day of house hunting was a bust.
We did a lot of driving over the next few days. We’d pull a list of homes from the internet, drive by and either put them on our list to view the inside or delete them from our list all together because of location or neighborhood. It was on one of those “drive-bys” that we found our house.
I learned a long time ago never-to-say-never and this house proved that saying to be true. As we were driving through a neighborhood looking for another house on our list, Brian spotted the Laredo Way property. I have said many times over the years I would not even entertain the idea of looking, more less living in a house where the doors to the garage don’t empty directly to the street but empty towards the front of the house giving the front yard the look of all concrete. Picture Marty McFly’s house in the movie, Back to the Future. Now, you’ve got the picture. You look out your front window, and all you see are cars parked in the driveway because either someone is too lazy to park in the garage or you have more cars than space available in the garage. I wouldn’t even get out of the car to peek through the windows. “You’d really like the inside of this house,” Brian yells at me from the front porch. To appease my husband, but mostly out of curiosity, I grudgingly get out of the car and slowly walk up to the front porch and peek through the large picture window. Lessoned learned, Never-Say-Never as the Laredo Way property was the property we ended up submitting a contract on.
My next lesson? Being a patient buyer…
