My wife and I found Barry through a recommendation and we feel incredibly lucky we did. Barry helped us buy our first home in Des Moines, IA while we were thousands of miles away in Austin, TX.
Some things to know about Barry:
-- He's insanely responsive. Nights, weekends -- whenever. I work in tech for a very customer-dedicated company, and I don't think we could meet Barry's standards.
-- He's experienced. He'll help you with the things you don't think about -- like how a home sits on a property, its proximity to a busy street, the height of nearby power lines... all that stuff us first-time home buyers don't always consider.
-- He's flexible. We had a narrow window to look at homes -- we were in Iowa for a short time during the holidays to visit family. Barry adjusted his schedule to show us houses when it worked for us, and even met us again the next day when we went back for a second look at a favorite.
-- He's in it for the right reasons. The amount of money a realtor makes is relative to the sale price of a home. I was nervous about a realtor pushing us to the very top of our budget (we've all seen HGTV). But Barry didn't do this -- in fact, he showed us homes we wanted to see that were WELL below our target price. We ended up with a home in the middle, and really appreciated Barry's lack of pressure in showing us homes we couldn't afford.
-- He'll work hard to find a house you love. We had a very specific area we were looking in. Barry worked with these tough limits and showed us homes that weren't even officially on the market, but he knew the homeowners were open to selling. We ended up buying one. That's right, Barry helped us buy a house we love that wasn't even officially for sale!
-- He's dedicated after the sale. As I write this, we're still living in Austin even though we've closed on our house in Des Moines. We won't be moving for another two weeks, and Barry has offered to personally check on the house several times a week until we get there. We've already closed, the deal is done, and Barry is under no obligation to help us. But he's that kind of guy.
There's an overwhelming number of realtors out there -- and a lot of them are great. But I don't see how any realtor could have possibly done a better job for us.
If you're evaluating realtors, I strongly recommend you give Barry a call.