Testimonial

From a UCSC Parent:

I first met Christine at an event for parents who had a child entering UC Santa Cruz as a freshman back in 2014. Christine had a booth set up to provide information to parents who might be entertaining the idea of purchasing real estate in Santa Cruz to have it eventually pay for the cost of tuition at UCSC. My original plan was to look for a real estate agent immediately after this event, but upon meeting Christine those plans went out the window.

We weren’t quite ready to execute our plans without some additional planning, so we told Christine the standard line of “we’ll be calling you early in January 2015” at which time we would be ready to pursue this matter. Christine never called us, never gave us some tacky sales lines, or even pressured us , she just took our word and let whatever was going to happen, happen. In January ’15, I called her, she remembered me, and we started seriously looking at the available inventory of condos/townhouses on the internet. I soon made arrangements to visit Santa Cruz to see what was on the market and met with Christine at one of the available properties. Prior to meeting with her I had checked out other units, but all of them were too far from campus and did not meet our needs. To make a long story short, we made an offer on the only property she had shown us and the offer was soon after accepted. Christine had told me prior to our meeting that the market was heating up and that units selling quickly. I had researched the Santa Cruz real estate market and she was absolutely correct. I relied on Christine’s knowledge and trusted her instincts so we purchased the only property she had shown us and similar units in this complex that were on sale near the time of our escrow closing were about $27,000 higher than our purchase price. Christine had already performed an analysis as to how many bedrooms would be needed to optimize the rental income to offset the mortgage, property taxes, and HOA fees. Because of her analysis we knew exactly what we were looking for, i.e. a 3 bedroom condo/ownhouse. So, we didn’t waste time looking at 2 bedroom properties or anything else because we knew the “numbers” wouldn’t work out unless it was a 3 bedroom unit. When escrow did close we were already half way to paying for our son’s tuition by purchasing this property. Now, my wife and I are keeping our fingers crossed in hopes that this property will pay for all education expenses including the tuition, books, and dorm fees had my son remained in the dorms. I reside in the Los Angeles area and its inconvenient for me to drive to Santa Cruz to waste my time chasing after something that may or may not meet my goals. Christine eliminated all the guesswork for me with her knowledge and experience. I enjoy working with people who are professionals with the determination to get the work done right the first time, but who also have a good sense of humor and are “down to earth.” Christine is one of those people along with her team of other profesionals (Mark Lawson the mortgage broker and Jamie Smith the Escrow Officer). If only Christine knew who was going to win the 2016 Super Bowl.

Hiro K.