Clients: #toocoolforthesuburbs (but they moved here anyway!)
Joanna called me one morning about a listing I had in Brookfield. She was just curious to see if she could come take a look, because it was the house she grew up in! Though I know my sellers would have been thrilled to let her tour the home, the phone call came the morning of the closing, and in just a few hours the home would no longer belong to my clients, so we had to say "No". Joanna and I chatted a bit more, she told me her and her husband had a young son, not yet in school, but they were starting to think about moving to the suburbs from their condo in Roscoe Village. They weren't ready to start looking yet, though, because they didn't have 20% to put down on their new home.
Well, it's quite clear to me that the stars had aligned that day, because I told her that a full 20% down is no longer the minimum to purchase a home--in fact, they really only needed a minimum of 5% down. Joanna was surprised, and wanted to talk more about this new possibility she saw for her and her family's future. After about 20 minutes, we said Goodbye, and she talked with her husband, Carlos, later that evening. The next day Joanna called me again--her and her husband wanted to take a very hard look at their financials to see if they could make 5% down on a home work for them, so she excitedly told me they were going to talk to their lender to see if they could make this work.
After a couple weeks, Joanna and Carlos had their pre-approval in hand, and were comfortable moving forward with a home purchase in the suburbs, and making their dream of homeownership come true YEARS before they expected to.
When I first met Joanna, Carlos and their son, I immediately coined them my #toocoolforthesuburbs clients. Carlos and Joanna were both wearing leather jackets and skinny jeans, and had just the kindest faces--they absolutely looked too cool for the suburbs, and too cool for lil' ole me! And their son, Sebastian--just adorable. We met at a home in Riverside, and began our search. We toured homes throughout Riverside and Brookfield over the next couple months, and eventually found the most charming, Dutch Colonial in Brookfield for them. It was perfect: gardens, a workshop in the basement for Carlos as well as an area for Joanna to read, hardwood floors, and a sunny family room. It was the quintessential fresh-from-the-city home. A month later we went to the closing table and they got the keys to their very first home. I try to make all my closing gifts as personal as possible--it's just more fun that way than just giving everyone a set of the same knives. I struggled a little with this gift because, as I mentioned, they are like way cooler than me...even Sebastian is cooler than me! I thought only a unique gift would do, and then I stumbled upon @nobasicstitches and her Etsy store. I had found the perfect gift: a needlepoint stitching of their first home. It didn't arrive in time for closing, but when I finally got it in the mail I had just returned home from the gym, and I hopped right back in my car and drove over to their house because I simply could not wait to give it to them!