Meet the Barton Family

With no intention of moving, COVID changed a lot for the Barton Family. The pandemic forced Andy to work remotely while Shanna was trying to manage 4 kids schooling from home. It was very chaotic but they loved their street and neighborhood so much they thought maybe they could just ride out the pandemic and wait for things to get back to normal.

But, as the pandemic lingered, they slowly decided to start checking out some places. While leaving a showing in Anderson, Andy spotted the next door neighbor's house and immediately loved the rear yard and pool. Unfortunately, this home was not for sale, so they moved on, not thinking much more of it.

They decided to continue their search by having Scott set them up on an email portal so they were aware of new listings as soon as they hit the market.

The Bartons made the offer on their current home right on the cusp of the crazy COVID market. They knew they would have to stand out, so Scott encouraged them to submit a letter explaining how they loved the home from afar and hoped it would eventually come on the market. This letter is what ultimately helped the sellers pick the Barton's offer even though it was not the highest or even the second highest offer!

So what surprised them the most? Shanna explains, "How long we waited to hear back from the seller in regards to our offer. We submitted our offer on a Saturday night and knew the sellers were waiting until Monday at noon to make a decision. We didn’t hear anything from them until Monday at 11:47 (but who’s counting). Earlier Monday morning we assumed they were working with another offer and mentally prepared ourselves that our offer fell through."

"Have the house that you are currently living in as ready to go as you can. That way, when you pull the trigger, you won’t be sent scrambling. Since we just started looking at houses and weren’t completely convinced that we were ready to move, we had a lot of work to do in 9 days to get our house on the market. Andy was painting the shutters at 11pm one night and the interior at 1am the next night since our painter cancelled last minute. If you think you’ll consider moving anytime soon, get those things in order now."