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So how do you pick the right real estate agent when I read somewhere that there are millions of them. I’ve been told to ask friends and or family members for referrals from where your trying to move to. The main problem with that is that we’re trying to move to a city that’s over 1,000 miles away that we’ve never spent a hotel night in before. In another reading on how to find a real estate agent it said to solicit the help of a relocation specialist. That wasn’t such a bad idea as I was able to speak to a few agents that represented various real estate companies. The only problem was that they all seem speak the typical salesman pitch.
One good thing is that I knew we had at least 7 years to complete this search. My sons have taken us to Florida several times between 2002 – 2011 to watch them play AAU baseball. We’ve owned a timeshare in Cocoa Beach, have visited Daytona Beach and Orlando many times since the mid 80’s. Visiting Florida all those years was nice as we had the move to Florida in our sites for a while. Our “Florida living ah-ha" moment really didn’t hit us until we start attending our son's baseball tournament games in Sarasota and Ft. Myers. While vacationing at our Coco beach timeshare condo in August of 2015 our initial Real estate agent search began.
I think my wife thought I was crazy because I told her that tomorrow morning, we were going take a long ride to the Ft. Myers are to find our agent. Two of our sons were flying back home and our other two sons were on their way to a Christian summer camp in Martha Vineyards. The smartest idea of them all in finding the right realtor was praying to God and asking him for the right person to help us through buying or Florida home. I read so many agents profiles during the past couple of weeks but now I was narrowing down the list. One thing that I really wanted was a agent that believe and worship the same God that we do in the same way that we do.
I went online and sent out a text message to 7 or 8 realtors, and behold I got two responses that evening and one the next morning. I then had a chance to speak to them for a quick interview via text and over the phone. After driving a couple of hours, I decided to give this one particular agent first shot even though he didn’t fall into any of my criteria of the “Perfect Agent” for us. My mindset was let’s get this one out of the way because I had another agent ready that morning and another agent ready for the next day if we had to go back. We showed up to the first house and saw our new prospective agent step out of his car and after his first statement, I knew he was the person even though God wasn’t present in his life at that time. All I kept saying was “God you are so funny”. This was in 2015 and I kind of question God for almost 18 months.
We went down for a visit in 2016 and another visit in 2017 and then realized that he now had God in his life. It’s now 2 years into searching for that perfect Florida house that we could call home. I’m pretty sure his wife must have thought that her husband wasn’t telling the truth when she ask him “who are you speaking with” when his reply was “The Jacobs”. Now in early 2018 I decided to do some more research by seeking a second opinion from a network that had two top notch real estate brokers and another real respectable agent in the SWF area. The information they shared was basically the same info and I had to let my realtor know. I came clean with my realtor and told him that I was doing my due diligence in seeking more info. I then told that he was my official realtor and let’s get this house search moving.
Our real estate agent name is Mr. Chad Vogt from RE/MAX Palm Realty. He is one of the most knowledgeable real estate people in the SWF area. He is kind and understanding even when we were looking at another area, he was willing and suggested that we work with another realtor that he knew. I really believe what also gives him an advantage over others is the vision that he brings from the housing rehab industry. We saw many homes and each time he could see through the flaws of the homes without needing the documentation on the home. If information was missing or flawed, he would find it. 4 months prior to the selection of our home, Chad Vogt helped us weed through hundreds of homes between 4 different cities to help us find what we wanted in our Florida home.
Though Chad knew what was best for us he never pushed us at any time. Even though he’s an expert agent for the of Englewood, North Port, Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda and others, he never tried to persuade us with lopsided info about any area. One cool thing is that he showed us a house on his own street but never told us right away that he lives there. I’m not sure how many real estate agents have worked with client for 3 years, but he promptly returned every text message and phone call. When we decided which house, we wanted to purchase he was ready, prepared and very respectable. Prior to closing he had given us his document closing info and at our 30-minute closing it was right on the penny. Well almost to the penny because we got a $76.00 overpayment fee in the mail about 10 days after closing.
One last beautiful thing about our real estate agent Mr. Chad Vogt is not only was he our friend throughout our home buying experience, he is still our friend today. In other words, he just didn’t leave us after the deal was done. If I need home services like yard, pool, electrician, air conditioning … You better believe that Chad knows those pros too. Chad whole family (wife and daughter) are also in the real estate business. All of them get it, understand it and care about it and even more about you too!
Thank you, Mr. Chad Vogt, for all that you have done my friend.
Bruce & Phyllis Jacobs
