Sunny Sarasota Homes: Just Say "Wen!"

I don't want to have only negative stuff up on my Blog. Here is the polar opposite of our experience with the agent in North Carolina!!!!!

Mrs. B

Late last year, my husband and I made the decision that, due predominantly to the fact we both have aging parents in Florida, we should make “the move”. We were initially considering three areas; Ocala, Tampa/St. Pete and Sarasota/Bradenton and, in addition to looking to buy a house, we were also interested in acquiring a CPA practice for my husband. That’s about all we knew.

I hopped onto the Internet to do some general “house hunting” in these areas. I poked around and poked around and eventually stumbled across Wendy Lynn’s site, http://www.sunnysarasotahomes.com/wendy-lynn/. Being a person who appreciates the ability to take care of the majority of my business on-line, I’ve seen my share of web sites. I was immediately drawn into this site; its ease of use and the amount of information it contained without being overwhelming. We later found out that the web site design and development was the brain child of Wendy’s husband and co-worker, Josh, so, a family business! Even better! Through the site, I sent an email to Wendy explaining our circumstances and preliminary thoughts on where we might want to live.

Within a day, I’d heard back from Wendy. From the get-go, her approach in working with us was an effective combination of professionalism, efficiency and genuine warmth and friendliness. Despite the fact that we had not committed to living in the Sarasota/Bradenton area, Wendy jumped right in to help us find our potential “dream home” by having us send her a list of “must haves”, “would like to have”, etc. home requirements. She signed us up for Listing Book, an effective on-line tool and resource to look at homes/neighborhoods, indicate favorites and reject others, change search criteria and post comments/messages for her to see and respond to.

In addition to assisting us while we “virtually” explored her area, Wendy located agents for us to work with in Ocala and Tampa/St. Pete, as well as hooking us up with local business brokers. Not only did she do this willingly, she went above and beyond in finding us DIFFERENT folks to work with when two of the agents were not as responsive as we would have liked.

All of this was very positive, of course, but we knew we had a winner in Wendy when we took a short trip to Sarasota/Bradenton in late January to both explore the area and do some very preliminary house hunting. Wendy made herself available for two days, showing us houses in a multitude of areas in both Sarasota and Bradenton. Many of these houses were ones we’d identified via Listing Book, although some were Wendy’s own suggestions. I should highlight that she did this even though we had not yet committed to move to the area.

Shortly after that trip, we decided that Sarasota/Bradenton was where we wanted to be. For the next several months, we continued to communicate with Wendy, check out the listings on Listing Book, and work towards our eventual move date. During this time, Wendy proved time and time again to be helpful and resourceful in connecting us with people and organizations that we would need to facilitate our move, both from the personal and the business aspects.

Right after the 4^th of July, we headed back to the area to find our house! Once again, Wendy was tireless in her efforts and conscious of our timeframe; taking us to see over 20 houses our first day out and then several more, including repeat showings, the next day. Now, one might think this would be “too much”, but, you have to understand we were looking at homes we’d already been tracking on Listing Book in areas we knew we wanted to be in. My husband and I are both seasoned home buyers and know what we want and what we don’t. Wendy complimented our styles and rounded out the process by doing an excellent job of listening to what we were saying; to her, to one another, and then feeding it back to us at appropriate times, even if it meant playing devil’s advocate. After all was said and done, we ended up making an offer on our number one choice, which, coincidentally, turned out to be a bit different than what we originally thought we wanted; another of Wendy’s talents.

Throughout the offer, acceptance, inspection, closing, etc. events, Wendy continued to be there every step of the way (sometimes even when we were not); ensuring things went smoothly. She was in constant contact with us while we were packing up our home in NC. Even now, she continues to check in with us to see how things are going, provide us information on the area, tips on where to go to get great pizza, restaurant deals, special events, etc.

We would have absolutely no qualms in recommending Wendy; and, in fact, would encourage anyone who was interested in the area to sign on with Wendy. We have no doubt that she would take care of them the same way she did us, regardless of their own particular needs and circumstances.

Professionalism, courtesy, adaptability, effectiveness, warmth, humor and friendliness; if this is what you’re looking for in an agent, “Just say Wen!"