06/09/2024
Dear Diary:
This post is a little late, we closed on May 28th, but this story was worth the wait.
I work really really hard for my clients, and I love all my clients, but I especially love first time homebuyers. But this couple, this couple right here, they just might be my favorite clients of all time. They blew me away with their sweetness and kindness and loyalty.
Let me introduce you to Salvador and Monique (or MoMo as she is called by friends). I met this adorable couple over a year ago at an open house. They worked really hard, worked with an amazing lender, and got themselves into a position where they didn’t just get to buy a home, but a gorgeous, large, brand new Lennar home. Did you know lenders and agents can spend months, even years helping clients without ever seeing a paycheck?
And we don’t talk about this a lot in our profession but new home builders often have incentives that our local lenders can’t beat and we as agents and lenders have to allow our clients to do what is best for them even if it means losing them to the builders after working with clients for over a year or more. Local lenders are the backbone partnership of what we do everyday and it’s heartbreaking when our clients have to go with a different lender. And us agents sometimes lose clients to new home builders if the builder corporate policy doesn’t allow for dual representation.
But luckily I also have a great working relationship with Joe Navarro at Lennar and I was able to co-represent my clients along with Lennar, but we ended up needing to switch lenders to Lennar to take advantage of the best available incentives.
I’m very good at maximizing and understanding how these incentives work, because my husband and I just recently bought a similar Lennar home so I know how the entire process works because I’ve literally just been in the clients shoes.
So, back to financing…MoMo and Salvador qualified for a Section 184 Native American loan (which is an AMAZING loan product by the way), but Lennar wasnt an approved lender for that loan type. Griselda Gutierrez of Gold Standard Mortgage was the original lender for Salvador and MoMo and on the morning Griselda was packing and leaving on vacation for a holiday (meanwhile she had also recently given birth to a newborn and had other children at home), she stopped what she was doing, knowing she wasn’t going to get paid for her year of work on the loan, and put together her most competitive Section 184 loan quote she could for me to send to Lennar. She did it because she’s an amazing person who cares about her clients and people.
So then we sent Griselda’s quote to Zenaida Santos of Lennar Mortgage and together, along with the wonderfully amazing Joe Navarro new home sales consultant for Lennar, we were able to advocate for a loan incredibly similar in payment and in terms to the Section 184 Loan. This was incredibly selfless of Griselda Gutierrez because she was losing a loan to another mortgage broker but she STILL advocated for what was best for her clients.
Lenders, agents, and other real estate professionals often get a bad wrap for making what people think is “too much easy money” or only being out for themselves and taking advantage of clients. People think we drive fancy cars and get 100 bills thrown at us in beautiful homes all day. They don’t see the tears, the stress, the long nights, the sacrifices us crazy professionals make.
But let me tell you I surround myself with a team of people who are the good ones in this industry, because being my own boss means I select my own team, and I partner with the good ones, the ones who work tirelessly and selflessly for their clients day in and day out. The ones who care about people. The ones who advocate and help generations of families hold on to success and wealth or take that first step to break the cycle of poverty. And many days, we often wonder if we can keep it up. We hope that our clients see our love and our motivations, and we hope that they appreciate it, but we often get a bad wrap in this industry.
MoMo and Salvador really had gratitude for it all. And that’s rare, because home buying is stressful and I often see people at their most stressed, and so I’ve seen sides of people that aren’t always a true reflection of who they are or and I don’t always experience clients in ideal situations where it’s easy for them to be their best selves. But these two, these two were wonderful.
There were several things that were really special about Salvador and MoMo—the first was they kept their word and every promise to me. Many clients forget or move on to other agents after meeting, I lose listings and clients to other agents all the time, but when they said “we promise we will call you when we are ready” they did. This is huge in and of itself. Loyalty like that is hard to come by.
The second thing is they are such an adorable couple, they remind me of how my husband and I interact and I see a long, happy, beautiful future for them. They teased each other through the process but were just full of joy.
And the third thing that blew me away and made my eyes water is that THEY BOUGHT ME a closing gift to show me appreciation. A really, really really nice gift of amazing whiskey, glasses, a yummy candle, and a Mary Kay gift basket.
All we really hope for is a clients business, their referral, and a online review if they had a good experience, but MoMo and Salvador really took it to the next level with their gratitude and sweetness. These past few weeks have had me questioning myself as an agent, as a mom, and just in general, and the effort and love they gave me blew me away and kinda helped me to remember what I do does make a difference and people do see the heart that I put in to each and every client.
I wish them a lifetime of love and happiness and success. I’m so proud of how hard they worked, they deserve it all.
With gratitude,
Amy
