Capitol Hill
Buying and renovating a home anywhere is an arduous process. You have to decide what needs to be done, how much it will cost, and how long it will take. You have to find good and trustworthy contractors. You have to obtain the necessary building permits. Renovating an old home in the historic district of Capitol Hill, however, is significantly more difficult, complicated by a morass of legal regulations and the very specific and tricky way 100 year old brick rowhouses must be worked on.
For my wife and I, Jesse Hagopian and his team at RE/MAX provided the experience and skill necessary to navigate this process. From the beginning, Jesse met with us and carefully educated us on the nuances of buying a home. And if all Jesse did was to take the time to walk with us through the dozens of houses we visited and skillfully crafting the offer that the seller accepted (in a competitive, multiple bid situation), he would have been an excellent real estate agent for us. After all, the market on Capitol Hill for 3-bedroom single family homes is a warzone. To have an agent who's widely trusted and respected in the community is already a huge win.
But the services Jesse provided did not end there. Not even close. From providing us with a careful list of trusted contractors, to giving good suggestions on how to budget and plan for various projects, to helping us numerous times when projects on the house went wrong, Jesse went far above and beyond what we could have reasonably asked or expected of him. To be concise (although the actual stories themselves are far longer), Jesse has helped us fix plumbing problems, heating problems, title problems, and regulatory problems. Four months after we closed, and long after he was paid for his work, Jesse is still working with us to make the house we bought a home.
As we're winding down the home renovation process and preparing to move in, I'm reminded of what Jesse told us at the beginning. He said that his business philosophy was to provide such outstanding service that he would win clients for life rather than a one-time business transaction. We have found that to be true many times over. Not only did we have an excellent business experience, we made a trusted and dear friend.