Highly likely to recommend
Dave Edwards functioned as our buyer’s agent. This is a difficult position for a real estate professional because the better he serves his client, the lower his commission (as a percentage of the sale price). That said, he rose to the occasion. He provided us with perfect customer care. We had to conduct most of the transaction from overseas (we were living in Germany at the time, and had just been able to see the house when he showed it to us and once or twice after that). This meant that most of the communication had to be done via email, and we never had to wait longer than a day for a response, which, accounting for time differences, and email checks, is pretty amazing.
During the transaction, we ran the numbers against the other sales in the area, and found that the list price of the home that we wanted was actually higher than the market would support, so he went over to negotiate with the owners at their (now our) home to get them to come down on their price. Again, this does not help him monetarily, but it shows integrity and commitment to his clients.
What really distinguished him, in my mind, from many other realtors is the customer care that he gave us after the sale was signed. Most others would have simply moved on to the next sale, but he checked on the house for us, since we had not gotten there yet from Germany; made himself available to open the house for various vendors and visitors that we coordinated with (home inspector, utility companies, termite companies, my mother, etc.); worked with the lawyer to conduct the sale proceedings in our absence; went to buy a gutter extender because he had noticed that there was some potential for water pooling close to the house, then he went out there and installed it himself. While I had never bought a house before, I think that most of these things are “above and beyond,” which is how I would characterize his customer service.
He has an extensive network (pest control, insurance, legal, etc.) that the can bring to bear to help with the sale, but he was not pushy when we chose to use some people not in his network for certain functions. He was still helpful in facilitating their accomplishing what the were assigned by us to do.
Dave Edwards has been indispensable in our first home purchase, and we cannot recommend him highly enough for anyone who is looking to buy a home.
