Our Wonderful Realtor, Cristal Kremer of Irongate Realtors

We've been so busy with our renovations, that I haven't posted yet about our amazing realtor through the whole process, Cristal Kremer. She's with Irongate Realtors out of Beavercreek, Ohio, and she really came alongside us in this whole process.

First of all, when we started looking for houses, I was still living in California and my husband, Justin, had moved back. So I would look online at new postings, and she would meet with Justin to go see the houses. Justin would take pictures of the inside and post them, and I would decide if I wanted to see them when I came out and visited. I was out several times this spring and she would take both of us back to some of the houses that I thought I was interested in. We saw quite a few! She was so patient with us, and really helped us understand the process.

At the end of April and early May, we had finally seen a house that we were ready to offer on. It would be a fixer-upper, so we offered low. After a counter offer, we finally had a price we were satisfied with. Then came all of the inspections and paperwork. Unfortunately, there were major issues with the house after the inspections, and we backed out of our offer, as per the written contract allowed us to do. I'm sure that most contracts have this clause, but I am so glad that Cristal Kremer took the time to explain how this all works to us. We were disappointed to not be getting the house, but glad that we were saved from some major issues.

So we started looking at houses... again. While she took her vacation in June, Gary Kremer filled in and showed us a few homes. We found one that we wanted to offer on, and he got us started. It's really great how they worked together on this, and I am so glad that Cristal took a vacation! She works so hard and really deserves it. This home, as I have blogged about before, was a Homepath Renovation mortgage, which was a completely difference experience than the traditional loan that we would have had on the first house we offered on. Still, Cristal helped us understand the terms and did the research so we would know all the details.

After our offer was accepted, Cristal was always on our side with talking to our loan officer and helping us get things done. She really went to bat for us when the bank was taking a long time to process, and we were worried about getting everything done before closing. I seriously don't think that we would have closed on time if she hadn't been so good at what she does. She called the listing agent, the loan officer, and anyone else that needed to be contacted to make sure that we were on track. I really can't sing her praise enough!!

Probably the best thing about the process was her communication and timely responses to all our questions. She always got back with us within day, usually less, and answered all our questions as first-time home buyers. It was so great to know that Cristal always cared and wanted to make the process as smooth for us as possible. If we need help with selling our house in the future, you can bet that I'll be calling her!