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To Whom It May Concern:
Anyone can tell you what a great agent they have. Instead, I am going to explain what our agent, Tom Tanton, did for us that I believe sets him apart from most agents. We were transferring from a ranch home in Wichita, Kansas that we truly loved. In the Joliet area, the only houses we could find that met most of our criteria and that we could possibly afford had less square footage and cost twice as much. We worked Tom very hard and at more than one occasion my wife cried because of the housing situation we were in.
Through all of the heartache, Tom stuck with us. He previewed homes to make the most of our house hunting time and he researched everything we asked him to; from comparable home prices to questions about specific houses. Tom even researched a few things we hadn’t asked him to. For example, one house we liked concerned us because it was very close to a water tower. Tom took it upon himself to call the city of Plainfield to get the paint schedule for the water tower to ensure the value of the home would remain high and not deteriorate due to a rusting water tower in the future.
Tom also helped us with 2 very difficult situations that we got ourselves into. We put a contract on one house we later discovered was very near railroad tracks (virtually in the backyard). Tom helped us to revoke our offer and even worked with the other agent to get our entire $5,000 in earnest money back. A couple of weeks later we put a contract on a second house which was still under construction. My wife and I later realized that a new house at the contract price would strap us financially and again tried to revoke our offer. Once again Tom and our real estate attorney, Beth Kaminski, were able to get us out of the contract and get all of our $5,000 in earnest money returned.
Our attorney called it a miracle that we got it back once, let alone twice. I owe a lot of that miracle to Tom’s relationships with other agents and his ability to negotiate. Not to mention his advice to use a real estate attorney in the first place. Tom’s suggestion to use a real estate attorney (against my better judgment) is really what allowed us to cancel the contracts and made our final closing go much smoother than it would have without Beth’s presence.
In the end, Tom found us a home we were comfortable with at a very good price. While the house is still not the dream home we left, it was the best we could find in the area after nearly 60 showings. Ironically, it was also the very first house Tom showed us based on what he thought we were looking for. He was right.
We are now living in and decorating the house Tom first showed us nearly 2 months ago. We appreciate his efforts, his compassion, and his willingness to stick with us through many difficult circumstances. We will use him again and would recommend his services to anyone else needing to find a home in this area.
Sincerely,
Troy Schaffer |