We are Nelson and Susan Schmitz, and we decided to move from the Seattle area to somewhere near Raleigh early last year.
When we began our search, we were pleased to find several homes via Zillow that would have met our needs, but with one exception. We learned all too quickly that Raleigh was a sizzling real estate market (and still is). Quite quickly, we began to dread the words “under contract”, “pending” that showed up in a nanosecond from the point of posting. We flew out from Seattle in early March 2021 to look in earnest, armed with hope and courage. At that point, we found that the realtor we had agreed to work with suddenly was unable to coordinate with us, so she agreed to find us another agent. The maxim that “when one door closes, another one opens” is absolutely true. Enter Marilyn Tschudi of Relevate Real Estate. We had a long chat and she agreed to work with us as long as it took to find a home without getting into a bidding war. After a number of unsuccessful forays, Marilyn suggested that there are new homes in Fuquay-Varina we might want a look-see. Nelson was skeptical and almost refused to go along with new construction given some horror stories heard along the way. But given that Marilyn correctly read our concerns and needs we walked into a model home that filled in all of our check boxes!. And the beauty of buying a new home is that once the contract was signed, the price stayed put, giving us time to relax. It took about six months to finally close on our home, but it was ready to go, with just a tweak here and there. Given the 2,500 mile distance we were working with Marilyn made sure all of the pre-closing mile markers were addressed, and completed. One of the pictures below shows the two of us standing in front of the foundation of our new home. Our smiles consisted of happiness, creative imagination and hope. Great work, Marilyn, and we couldn’t be happier. Even the dog is.
Nelson and Susan Schmitz
Newly established North Carolinians.
