You are my Realtor for life! It's been almost a year since I signed on the dotted line with my husband for our first home together. I was hoping to buy a tiny house that had a basement, an attached garage, a small yard and enough bedrooms for each of my kids to only have to share with one sibling in a safe neighborhood with
good schools. Irma has given us so much more than that, and I wanted to write you a quick letter to show anyone at all who might doubt your amazing integrity, rigor, attention to detail and perseverance in finding your clients’ dream home.
While I'm not ashamed of my humble beginnings, Irma shook my world. After she took an attentive, detailed survey of our deepest desires, she promised us that with the amount of money we could put forth that I could have the house of my dreams. I'd seen dream homes and I couldn't go anywhere close: I knew she was wrong. She asked us to describe as if money were no option. I hesitated, but we started joking about fireplaces, cathedral ceilings, a bathroom attached to each bedroom and another to spare on the main floor. A fenced yard with a beautiful patio, lots of light throughout the whole house, a close safe walk to nearby schools, a pool, and a big kitchen with an island and plenty of room for the kids to play, and most importantly, within our budget. Of course, I never truly believed she could pull it off. But she did. Down to the tee.
From August 2015 until April 2016 she showed us probably 5-7 homes every weekend or two; probably upwards of 100 homes personally making appointments, sometimes driving by and inspecting them before we ever got there, doing walk-throughs with us as if she were purchasing it herself. Every single day I just
wanted to settle and finish this fiasco, and I could live anywhere. I wasn’t picky. However, Irma was adamant. She held firm and fast that the houses I were willing to settle for every single day were no more than that to us: They would just be a house, not the home we were dreaming of.
Irma knew the market within our radius of preference like the back of her hand. We trusted her and kept pushing through all the viewings. Heartbreak after heartbreak, we put bids on five homes. (Houses were selling in a 24 hour period of posting with 3-7 bidders on each during our search.) It was very challenging because we had to drop everything to go see a new listing at a The day our home came on the market that we eventually purchased my husband noted it on Zillow, a website she taught us to scan every single day and to notify her if anything came up at moment’s notice.
Irma taught us what to look for when we went through the house and showed us every good feature as well as those that she would worry about as if she were buying the house herself. Our two youngest children of 5 and 7 were in tote for most showings and she was like a surrogate grandmother to them (mothers would never be this kind), always friendly, tolerant, patient and very accepting of a child's energy level and our inability to leave them behind and have a peaceful showing. She never once made us feel like our children were in the way. On the contrary, they grew to love Irma and our young seven-year-old daughter began learning to go through the houses with a notepad, drawing sketches of the floor plans and taking notes of the colors and features and writing them down to review later.
Searching for a home was exhausting, exasperating, and extremely frustrating to me and to this day I still do not know why. It was so exciting to get there and by the end of seeing that home I pictured myself living in every single one. But Irma did not. She knew what we wanted and she said “No Vicki, this is it NOT what you want... There's something better out there for you and I'm going to find it!” I must say that the whole house hunting process brought the worst out in me and the more frustrated I felt the more Irma simply loved me and was kind and understanding to the frustrations I felt. When we lost one bid and then another (5 in all), she knew how devastated I would feel, but never ever changed her pace to secure our dream home.
The day the home of our dreams, in the neighborhood of our dreams and school district of our older children came on the market in the afternoon around 2pm. My husband caught it and called Irma to schedule immediately. This one was going to go fast. It was too good to be true for its price and location. Irma called and immediately secured an appointment for early the next morning during our working hours. We had lost so many bids in the past, I couldn’t fathom taking a day off, but we knew we would lose it if we didn't go see it that day. Irma went to preview and when she called us back and she said “Oh my gosh, this is your house!” Showings were limited because there were toddlers. We knew that we would lose it, so without ever seeing the home ourselves from the inside, we put our faith in Irma's knowledge of what we had wanted and put in our offer with a personal letter. We were called the very next day and our offer was accepted. My husband could see the house the very next day but I could not. When he got there he called me and said “Honey, this is our house! This is it! Irma asked me, “Do you trust me?" And I told her that I trusted her more than I trusted myself. I never got to see the house Irma asked me, quotation marks do you trust me?" And I told her that I trusted her more than I trusted myself. We gave our earnest money and scheduled the inspection and I still had not seen the house. When I arrived and walked in the front door, I just started to cry. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I know I would've never thought I could own a house that looks like this in the neighborhood so beautiful and so wonderful. I would've sold out a thousand times. But Irma made me wait for what she knew was out there that I couldn't even envision myself.
Just when I thought her role was ending, it had only just begun! She gave us resources for the inspector, attended the inspection, double checking everything, again, as if it were her own purchase. She gave us lists of services in the area, lists of things to do and the order in which to do them and phone numbers and contacts to boot to accomplish at closing (which she also attended ensuring all documents were accurate and in our favor) and a moving day just 2 weeks before my son’s high school graduation. We were able to have the party right in our new home!
Thank you Irma. I never dreamed I would ever walk into a home again. We’d lived in a 2-bedroom apartment with 4 children for 7 years. I still to this day feel ridiculously spoiled and entering my beautiful home. It is still surreal, and I feel that I have too much in life even nearly a year later. I can't believe it's mine. She kept within our budget and exceeded our hope and dream to get a home in which to raise our family. We are in a great neighborhood with great neighbors and I couldn't ask for more. I will forever be indebted to Irma Golden: You've done so much more than sell us a house!
