MEREDITH SPENT A LOT OF TIME UNDERSTANDING OUR NEEDS
(She did a great job of managing our expectations)
In January Patrick and I started looking on our own for a home. We had been renting and we were ready to buy a home that we could live in for at least five to seven years and in which we could start our family. In addition, we were getting killed by taxes! We were living in the Inner Sunset area and liked it but we were open to considering other areas.
When we started looking my brother, who is a mortgage broker, suggested we should work with a realtor and he recommended Meredith. They had been neighbors and he knew of her reputation. We met with Meredith and she spent a lot of time understanding what we wanted and what we did not want. Together we went through open houses for one full day and shortly thereafter we found a place just one block from our rental that had just gone on MLS. We are not the Home Depot types so we needed a home that was in excellent shape. This one had just been remodeled by a fireman and converted to a condominium two years before so it was perfect!
I really wanted the house and Meredith counseled us carefully because she knew the house would receive multiple offers. She even recommended that I stop going to their open houses. As we prepared our offer she pointed out that the roof had not been replaced and we should have it checked. We found out that it will need to be replaced in one to two years so we took that cost off of our offer. Meredith talked to us about what we could be comfortable with but never used pressure. She wanted us to be certain we could live in this home for ten years should one of us lose a job or market conditions change. She even suggested we slip a note to the renters downstairs to determine usage of the garage. When we made our offer, Meredith hand delivered it and we beat fourteen other offers!
Dina Collins, November 23, 2005
