Florida Buyers' Advocate

When we started in February 2009, I was new to the Tampa area and unfamiliar with the neighborhoods of South Tampa. My husband was stationed in South Tampa for one year in 2001 with the military and liked the area so much that he encouraged me to plan to retire there. While we were still a few years from retirement, the financial crisis in 2008 had a major adverse impact on the Florida real estate market, so we thought we should initiate our search in hope of finding our ideal retirement home. My husband found a reference to the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (NAEBA) after we had spoken to a few local real estate agents without receiving much interest. The idea of having an agent that only represented buyers made a lot of sense to us. We thought that the buyers' agent arrangement presented the right motivation and alignment to help us really obtain what we wanted. We interviewed two NAEBA agents who were identified by the national association because they were located in the Tampa area. We selected Dawn Rae at Florida Buyers' Advocate as our agent and started our "journey". Our situation presented two challenges. We were not under any time pressure to buy and we weren't quite sure how to define what we wanted. Over a period of the next 3 1/2 years, we saw hundreds of listings online, toured dozens of properties and bid and lost two times before we found our "ideal" retirement home. Dawn was with us every step of the way. She never gave up on us and had the patience of a saint. She was always available to set up visits and never pressured us to make a rash decision. She listened to our likes and dislikes and as time went on, she and we could easily prescreen new offerings on the market in addition to developing a deep understanding of the South Tampa market. When our new home came on the market, she knew and we knew it was a strong contender. As such, we were on an airplane to Florida within a few days to tour the property. Dawn quickly gathered all of the pertinent information and identified a couple of "comps" in the market to tour as well so that we could compare and contrast this house from others. The house was everything we had hoped for. We were able to submit a credible offer and won the bid. Dawn continued to be a valuable asset throughout the sale process, facilitating the interface with the sellers, evaluating various property insurance proposals, gathering info on the transfer of utilities, etc. The closing went off without a hitch. Now we not only have a beautiful retirement home in Florida, but we've made a lifelong friend. We strongly endorse Dawn Rae and recommend her services and believe that a "Buyers' Advocate" like Dawn is what any real estate buyer needs.