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To Whom It May Concern: In the summer of 1999, my wife and I moved to California from New England for work reasons. Since we did not know the area, we rented a house in San Jose to get a better feel for the market. After a few months, having made many new friends, and familiarizing ourselves with the neighborhoods, we decided the time was right to buy a house. We initially looked at homes by ourselves; however, we felt that we needed a realtor to work with us through this process. [Note: For those who don't recall, trying to buy a house in late 1999 was nearly impossible] The traits we were looking for in a realtor were: - friendly - knowledgeable about the various areas, schools, and other "local" tidbits - would only work with a few clients at a time (since we knew we would want a lot of his time) - and most of all patient We spoke to the realtors at open houses as well as asked friends and co-workers for recommendations. We spoke to half a dozen realtors and decided to work with Richard Calhoun from Creekside Realty because we felt he exhibited the traits above. We were right! For over 2 months, we worked diligently with Richard. Three to four times a week, Richard would email us any new listings that had come on the market. We would select the ones that we thought sounded like a fit and within a day or two, we would either see the property or have Richard preview it and report back. He gladly did this no matter how many houses we decided were worth seeing. . Almost every weekend and often 1-2 weeknights, we went and saw houses. Together we saw over 75 houses; and he probably saw 20+ more alone that he weeded out. We asked for "comps", school reports, market trends, etc, and Richard always came through. Our email box was filled with great information. We never knew someone could gather and analyze so much data. When it was time to make an offer (and we bid on many houses), he tried to guide us to what made sense. However, he was careful to make sure that whatever we bid was our decision. When we finally got the house we wanted, he referred us to a home inspector and to some contractors because we wanted to do some slight modifications. We used all his referrals and were pleased as well. We have since referred Richard to friends who have been equally pleased with the caliber of his work, passion, and knowledge. They too now have a new home thanks to Richard. Richard never steered us wrong. He was a pleasure to work with, we feel comfortable with his judgment, and would use him again. Sincerely, Wayne
Firsty
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