Jeez buying a house was the most stressful experience of my life. Fortunately, Rob Alcorn and the rest of the Keri Shull team were there to support us every step of the way. From just thinking about buying to finally closing, Rob was the best asset we had. In our initial zoom call (thanks to covid) Rob provided his knowledge and expertise in what we know as the vast ambiguity of real estate. He spent several hours with us on the call prior to even looking at our first potential property. He went over the entire buying process with incredible depth and detail. He answered every single one of our questions to a T (even the one’s we haven’t asked yet). The final takeaway and disclaimer from Rob was how stressful the experience was going to be – to which we underestimated the gravity of. However, we never felt alone. Rob was able to set us up with some of their preferred lenders (please take note of the word “preferred”, they label them as such for a reason). Two loan officers I worked with, Thad and Dustin, shared the same desirable traits as Rob and the rest of the Keri Shull Team. Not only were they extremely pleasant to speak with and knowledgeable in their respective fields, they were available at almost all hours of the day. I don’t think I’ve ever waited longer than 20mins for a response to a question or concern. Upon gaining pre-approval, we began the exciting part – the search for our home! Rob set us up with custom alerts for desired property types and features which refreshed nearly every day. He also recommended to use the “HomeSnap” application as it had real time updates to new properties and listing status (Zillow is somewhat delayed). I would like to highlight one more time, Rob’s incredible flexibility and responsiveness. We would pick out several properties and it seemed almost instantaneous that Rob had us booked for a viewing. I personally feel a little bad for taking advantage of Rob’s determination because we had this poor man driving all over the DMV area, from Germantown to Woodbridge to Bowie. Morning, Night, Weekend… didn’t matter, Rob was there and he made it happen. After finally finding a property we liked, we discovered that the offer deadline was 30mins later. “Have no fear, Rob is here!” was going through my head. Despite the near impossible timeline, Rob walked us through the steps to formulate an offer (which is more complex than I imagined) and was able to contact the listing agent for submission. He helped us create strong offer that would be favorable for both the seller, and for ourselves. Although we didn’t get that property (somebody submitted a much higher cash offer – gotta love a sellers market), we gained some needed experience and were ready for the next one. After a few dozen more viewings, we finally found the ideal home. This time, we were ready. Rob helped us strategize to a point where the seller couldn’t possibly refuse – which is what ended up happening. Instead of a traditional counter-offer, Rob was in our corner yet again negotiating for the best possible terms. This went back and forth throughout the span of a week. Rob was honest and always looking out for our best interest. He was not concerned about the commission. In fact, at one point in the negotiation, ourselves and Rob were in unanimous decision to “walk away” if they didn’t accept our final terms. Fortunately, they did.
