For Anna Chavez, buying her first home with her fiancé was an eye-opening experience. They knew this first property was a fixer-upper, but it was in a great location, and they were eager and willing to invest sweat equity into a home that would increase in value over time. It was their precious nest egg.
She will never forget that closing… they signed a seemingly endless stack of documents in rather rapid succession and without having a ton of knowledge about the different options that ought to have been considered.
They could have avoided several problems that popped up AFTER completing the sale, from finding out about a cracked foundation to discovering, to their shocked dismay when they later decided to refinance the original loan, that there was an “early payoff” penalty.
Wow… so much pain could have been avoided if only they would have chosen a good realtor who would have educated them about their options, like having the right to a full home inspection that would have exposed the cracked foundation, or to making sure that they understood about the early payoff penalty of their loan.
The upside of these early and difficult real estate obstacles and lessons is that Anna learned first-hand how important it is to find a realtor who will provide real guidance, feedback and expertise so clients can avoid potentially disastrous and expensive mistakes.
A few years after that first home purchase, a friend of Anna’s asked if she was interested in job-shadowing her in her real estate business. She knew that, although her corporate job had taught her a lot, like perseverance, organization and time management, it didn’t “set her on fire.” She was looking for something more purposeful and satisfying.
For six weeks Anna watched her, and she liked what she saw! Visiting clients, matching people to homes that fit THEIR needs, writing contracts, EXPLAINING to the clients each of the provisions of the contracts, insisting on the proper reports and inspections. Her friend was really making a difference for her clients. She wanted to do that!
It was a scary decision to go from a steady, corporate salary with benefits to being self-employed, but Anna made the leap and hasn’t looked back since.
That was over fifteen years ago and since then she thinks she has encountered just about every type of property sales situation out there. It seems that virtually no real estate transaction is ever flawless – something almost always crops. But there is always a solution to every problem, and helping you work through and solve those problems is where Anna gets the most satisfaction from her job. That is when she KNOWS that she is making a difference in peoples’ lives!
Home Types:
House, Condo, Lot/Land, Townhouse, Multifamily
Languages Spoken:
English, Spanish
Years of Experience:
18
