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Client Experiences: Dave & Jeaninne
Read Dave and Jeaninne's story about their experience buying and selling with Tamina at Preferred Shore Real Estate and what advice they have for you.
Platform
Setting the Stage
Dave and Jeaninne lived in Michigan and regularly vacationed in Englewood with Jeaninne's parents for 20 years. They had a lot to build on in Michigan but there weren’t any catholic schools there for their son to attend so they decided to move to Cape Coral. Upon his graduation earlier this year, Dave and Jeaninne knew they wanted to be closer to family and be retired in a beautiful place.
They decided it was time to move closer to Jeaninne's mom in Englewood. Their two requirements for finding the perfect home for them were a) to be close to her mom in englewood and b) find a property that Dave could keep his boat at. Those were the two main things.
Choosing a Realtor
"We had friends in Cape Coral that were Realtors but they weren’t familiar with the area we were moving to, so we had been referred to Tamina here. We had some phone interviews and she sounded really energetic and detail oriented, which is basically how we are. We explained our situation that we needed to sell first so that we could buy because we're retired, and Tamina made a bunch of commitments and promises that she would work her hardest."
Starting Our Search
"Once we started the process, it became clear that the properties we looked at would not accommodate my boat. The canals are smaller and more shallow here than in Cape Coral. Tamina began to look through the properties that had good water and were near Jeaninne's mother. We came across one property that I saw had potential with the water and the house, but my wife Jeaninne was not convinced at first.
This property is a 2003 home, and it was bigger than what we wanted. We lived in a 2000 square foot home in Cape Coral, so we knew all the things that had to be done to it. With Jeaninne not being convinced on this one, we asked Tamina to give us references for builders to help us find an empty lot. One of the biggest assets Tamina has is being married to a dock and boat lift specialist, so she was able to use his expertise to look at the lot and see if it could accommodate my boat and evaluate the condition of the seawall and costs involved to repair and recommended a cost-effective design and lift to utilize the existing dock while touring one of the homes, which at first glance, we were ruling out this property because the existing dock and lift could not accommodate our boat.
Finding the One
After finding a lot, Dave and Jeaninne were ready to put a bid in for it. Or so they thought...
The night before, Jeaninne had trouble sleeping as there was something bothering her about the lot. "She disappeared in the early morning with the dogs. Jeaninne came home and said we need to talk, 'I don't think we should buy the lot.'" They knew Tamina had already done a lot of research and answered all of their questions about the lot, but called in the morning and told her to stop the process. "She didn't even blink, she wanted us to be happy.
We apologized for the time and effort as I could picture a lot of Realtors being frustrated from our whole process and about to make an offer for us to tell them to just forget it. We asked if we could see this house that we had seen before and Tamina got us in that day.
We knew this was a better choice to move in right away close to her mom rather than waiting a couple years to plan everything out. So, we went with this house and Tamina took care of all the contract work, made sure the price was right, and helped us estimate what this house needed to be improved with. Even the pool was damaged and she knew someone to help with that."
Selling at the Same Time
Tamina was honest with us and let us know she wasn't too familiar in the Cape Coral area where we need to sell our current home. She knew we needed to get the most money for our house and told us it may be better to work with a local realtor who knows Cape Coral better. "She knew it would be better for us and always put the customer first."
Dave and Jeaninne found what they thought was an excellent Realtor in Cape Coral, until they started working with them. They looked at each other and said "we're spoiled, Tamina completely spoiled us." Tamina always kept constant communication with them on everything that was happening when they were searching for homes, which they did not have with their Cape Coral Realtor.
Tamina did help sell their lot however. She created an eye-catching flyer and "put their lot up for sale and had it sold in like two days! That was exciting because we knew the money from that lot would help us with whatever we did."
Why Tamina?
"As we were getting to know her, she was very much in sync with us - her thinking, energy levels, we expected a lot of detail and she met all of our expectations. If I ever had a thought and went to call her, she would say 'oh I already had that thought' and lined up with us. She was very good at explaining the situation while reminding us it’s our decisions to make. What we really liked was the way she followed through on everything she said. She worked long hours, she would always answer our calls, she was there for us. Pretty soon I didn’t have to follow up on her at all, she said she was going to do something and she never let us down, she was there 100%."
"With any problem we ran into with Tamina, she was all over it. If she couldn’t get an answer she would find alternate ways to do it. We were in great hands. She was true to her word, very detailed, high energy, and thinks ahead. After we were done working, we felt like we had a good friend. She’s special."
- Dave
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