Client Success Stories
Real stories from buyers and sellers across the Triangle.
01
Buyers · Relocating from Florida
From Florida to Raleigh: Finding the Right Place to Call Home
I recently helped a couple relocating to the Triangle from Florida.
02
Sellers · One-of-a-Kind Home
Finding the Right Buyer for a One-of-a-Kind Triangle Home
I recently listed a home in a private country club community in the Triangle for sellers who were preparing to move out of state.
03
Buying & Selling · Downsizing
DOWNSIZING WITHOUT HAVING TO MOVE TWICE
I recently had the opportunity to help a couple who were ready to downsize from their current home.
Sometimes the house you don’t get leads you to one that works even better.
Buyers · Relocating from Florida
From Florida to Raleigh: Finding the Right Place to Call Home
I recently helped a couple relocating to the Triangle from Florida. Unlike buyers who already know exactly where they want to live, they weren’t very familiar with the different communities around the Triangle. So before we could find the right house, we really needed to figure out the right area.
And we did some driving.
We looked at homes all over the Triangle, from Wake Forest and Raleigh to Clayton and Fuquay-Varina. That was actually an important part of the process. Looking at homes gave them a chance to see the different communities firsthand, get a feel for the areas and start narrowing down where they could picture themselves living.
While they were flexible on location, they had some pretty specific requirements for the house itself. They wanted a first-floor primary bedroom, a larger private lot and, if possible, no HOA.
We eventually found a property in Wake Forest that they really liked and decided to make an offer. Unfortunately, we were outbid.
Losing a house is always disappointing, particularly when you’ve spent a lot of time searching and finally think you’ve found the right one. But I’ve learned over the years that sometimes the house you don’t get leads you to one that works even better.
We kept looking.
Eventually, we found a home in Raleigh that checked the boxes that mattered most to them. It had the first-floor primary bedroom they wanted, plenty of privacy and the kind of lot they had been searching for.
After looking at properties across such a large part of the Triangle, they could also feel comfortable that they weren’t simply buying the first house they liked in an area they didn’t really know. They had done their homework. They had seen the different communities, compared their options and figured out what worked best for them.
There’s another part of this transaction that really has nothing to do with real estate, but it’s probably one of my favorite parts of the story.
After they purchased the house, they needed some electrical work done, so I recommended an electrician I’ve known and trusted for years. He did the work for them, but somewhere along the way a friendship developed.
They became great friends and now even get together and go out to dinner sometimes.
I love when connections like that happen organically.
For me, helping someone relocate to the Triangle is about more than sending them a list of houses that meet certain criteria. If you’ve never lived here, you may not know whether Wake Forest, Raleigh, Clayton, Fuquay-Varina or somewhere else is going to feel right until you spend some time exploring.
Sometimes that means putting a few extra miles on the car.
In this case, all that driving and looking was worth it. They learned the Triangle, found a home in Raleigh that fit what they were looking for, and along the way even made a new friend.
That’s a pretty good ending to a real estate transaction.
You don’t necessarily need every buyer to love it. You need to find the right buyer who does.
Sellers · One-of-a-Kind Home
Finding the Right Buyer for a One-of-a-Kind Triangle Home
I recently listed a home in a private country club community in the Triangle for sellers who were preparing to move out of state.
From the beginning, we knew this wasn’t going to be a typical listing.
The home was extremely custom and had originally been built to the sellers’ specific tastes and specifications. It was a beautiful home, but the design and layout were different from what you typically see in the Raleigh area.
When you’re selling a home like this, you have to recognize that it’s probably not going to appeal to every buyer who walks through the door.
That doesn’t necessarily mean there’s anything wrong with the house. It just means you may have to be patient enough to find the buyer who appreciates the same things that made the home special to the sellers in the first place.
Fortunately, my sellers understood that.
We stayed patient and continued marketing the property while we waited for the right buyer to come along. Eventually, that buyer turned out to be a couple originally from Texas.
They absolutely loved the design of the home.
Many of the features that made the property different from a typical Raleigh-area home were exactly what appealed to them. It was a good reminder that when you’re selling a unique property, you don’t necessarily need every buyer to love it. You need to find the right buyer who does.
Getting the home under contract was an important step, but there was still work to do.
Like many transactions, we had some issues to work through after the inspections. The repair negotiations required quite a bit of communication and cooperation between both sides. I worked closely with the buyers’ agent to determine which repairs needed to be addressed, coordinate the work that was agreed upon and keep everything moving toward closing.
There were certainly moments during the process when this wasn’t the easiest property to have on the market. I appreciated that my sellers trusted the process and remained patient rather than feeling like we needed to make a major change every time we hit a bump in the road.
Eventually, it all came together.
The sellers were able to move forward with their plans to relocate out of state, and the buyers found a unique home in the Triangle whose design really spoke to them.
Every house is different, and some properties simply have a smaller pool of potential buyers than others. With a highly customized home, sometimes the most important part of the strategy is understanding what you’re selling, marketing what makes it different and being patient enough to let the right buyer find it.
In this case, that’s exactly what happened.
Sometimes the biggest challenge is simply figuring out the logistics.
Buying & Selling · Downsizing
DOWNSIZING WITHOUT HAVING TO MOVE TWICE
I recently had the opportunity to help a couple who were ready to downsize from their current home.
They knew they wanted something smaller and easier to maintain, preferably a one-level home. But one of their biggest concerns wasn’t necessarily finding the next house.
It was figuring out how to get from one home to the other.
Like a lot of homeowners who need to sell before they buy, they were worried about selling their current home too quickly and then having nowhere to go. They really didn’t want to move into temporary housing, put their belongings in storage and then have to move everything again a few months later.
So instead of putting their home on the market first, we decided to start looking for their next home.
As we looked at different options, it became pretty clear that new construction was going to offer some of the best opportunities to find the one-level floor plan they wanted.
The challenge was finding a builder willing to work with us on the timing.
Eventually, we found a home that was a good fit and, just as importantly, a builder who was willing to accept an offer contingent upon the sale of their existing home.
That gave us the opportunity we needed.
Once we had their next home lined up, we turned our attention to getting their current house ready for the market. We did some painting, decluttered the home and made sure it was ready to show well when it went on the market.
Within a few weeks, we had it under contract.
From there, it became a matter of coordinating the two transactions and making sure the timing worked as closely as possible.
About 45 days later, everything came together.
They were able to close on their existing home and move directly into their new home without having to find temporary housing or move twice.
Transactions like this are a good reminder that buying and selling at the same time isn’t always just about finding the right house or getting the right price. Sometimes the biggest challenge is simply figuring out the logistics.
Every situation is a little different, and there isn’t one strategy that works for everyone. In this case, starting the home search first, finding a builder willing to work with a contingency and then preparing their existing home for the market gave us the flexibility we needed.
In the end, they were able to downsize into a one-level home that better fit what they wanted for the next chapter of their lives, without having to make an extra move along the way.