Housing Shoutouts

With all of the house purchasing and stuff we've done recently, I'd like to take a moment to plug a few people that helped us along the way. Most of these people do their business through positive word of mouth, and I have nothing but positive things to say about each of them. When I got the names / companies of some of them, I tried Googling them to find reviews to see how they conduct business. I couldn't find anything - good or bad - so hopefully this blog post will come up in searches, so others can read about our good experience:

First up is our realtor, Kari Wilson. As nervous and inexperienced first-time homebuyers, Kari was incredibly patient with us. She took the time to explain things to us, and in some cases, re-explain them in easier terms. She kept telling us that her goal is for us to find a home that makes us happy, even if it took months and months. We never felt any pressure from her to bid or act on something we weren't 100% comfortable with. She was always quick to respond to emails, phone calls or texts, and she really stayed on top of getting the bid and proper documentation. Whenever we decide to sell that place and look for a new home, we'll definitely use Kari again.

For getting the home loan, we used Carrie at Military Home Programs. She also took the time to explain things to us so we could understand them, and was quick to respond to all communications, even if it was after regular business hours or on weekends. She got us a great rate and was very friendly to work with.

We had the acoustic ceiling scraped off and repainted in our new place, courtesy of Andrew Kang. He's been in the business for over 30 years and gave us the most competitive quote (out of the 3 we received). We left a house key in a lockbox and he had the whole job done in 2 days. The ceiling looks great and it's really helped with getting rid of the smoke smell that was lingering in our place. He was out on a Saturday to give us a quote, then came back to start the job on Tuesday and finished it by Wednesday. What a pro!

The last person is the handyman our realtor recommended - Rich Flittner. We faxed him a copy of our home inspection report and he gave us some rough estimates. He said he would stop by sometime on Wednesday, get the key from the lockbox and take a look at the problems in person. He figured he would assess it, then come back on Thursday and/or Friday. It turned out the problems weren't that intensive and he didn't have to buy any supplies, so he started and finished them all on Wednesday. One of the problems was that neither ceiling fan / circulator in the bathrooms were working. His original estimate included replacing them outright, but all they needed was a good cleaning and to be reconnected. He could have told us he replaced them and charged us the full amount he originally quoted, but he did the cleaning / adjusting and saved us a decent chunk of money. Rich is totally professional and honest, and we will definitely be using his services again.

If you need any of their phone numbers, post a comment or shoot me an email and I'll get it to you.