My wife and I purchased our first home in 2011. We were pretty new to the whole process, and started calling around to check out properties in the areas we liked, meeting realtors along the way. One of those realtors was Frank Gargani. We were immediately struck by Frank's genuine warmth, his knowledge of the area and the market, and his down-to-earth, focused attitude. He came prepared with a couple of listings he thought we'd find interesting, based on a few qualifiers we'd talked about over the phone. As we checked out the properties, Frank took the time to get to know us better, and made the effort to gauge what we liked or didn't like about a property, so he could help guide us further if we were so inclined. But we never felt the least bit of pressure to make a choice either way. By the end of that day, we knew we'd found the realtor we wanted to work with.
Frank is a very real person who cares about helping people find the best home for them. A lot of realtors like to say it, but Frank lives it. He was there every step of the way, and always took the time to patiently answer every one of our questions clearly and in detail (I had a lot of questions). And he helped educate us along the way, asking questions on our behalf we hadn't even thought to ask. Frank was always available to us, week days and weekends, day and night. He responded quickly to every call and e-mail. And he pro-actively checked in with us, to keep us informed, or just to see how we were doing, knowing how stressful buying a house can be. He became our greatest and closest ally in the process.
We had some specific ideas on where we wanted to live, and working with Frank, we ended up putting an offer on a house in that particular area. When the seller said they wanted to take the weekend to think it over, Frank recommended we continue looking over the weekend, just to stay on point. Now, Frank happens to be an EXPERT when it comes to mid-century modern architecture, and he ended up showing us a beautiful mid-century modern home he'd found in an area we'd initially written off as being outside our price range. We never would have looked at the house if Frank hadn't guided us to it. This house wasn't much more than the house we'd made an offer on. We walked in and fell in love with it. We cancelled the first offer, and Frank was able to negotiate a comfortable price for this new property, actually coming in BELOW what we'd told him we were willing to pay.
Escrow is a headache any way you slice it. But Frank was there every step of the way, representing us well and with an ever present even-keel to the sellers and sellers agent, especially through the inspections phase. We wanted the sellers to take care of a few things before we closed escrow, and Frank made sure they got done, but always with a calm, patient diplomacy. Don't get me wrong, if you want Frank to push on your behalf, he'll push. But again, it's about you -- the person Frank's representing -- and Frank makes sure you're represented well. If I had to describe Frank in two words, I'd say he is a true gentleman. Something you don't find a lot of these days.
We just celebrated our one year anniversary in our first home (the mid-century modern Frank found for us). We couldn't be happier. I highly recommend considering Frank as your realtor. read more