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Anna and Nicholas
We’ve always been taught to work smarter, not harder, so I’m enclosing an excerpt we used in our “love letters” to houses during the house hunt to introduce ourselves to sellers—
By way of introduction – we are Nick and Anna. We met while hiking in Maine, picking wild blueberries along the path, during orientation for the University of Massachusetts Medical School. In June 2020, during the height of the pandemic, we got married at an intimate ceremony at World's End conservation land in Hingham; Anna’s dad officiated, and her mom and sister served as her bridal party.
About six years ago, when Anna graduated from medical school, we moved into a condo in the Porter Square neighborhood of Somerville while Anna completed her residency training in pediatrics. Currently, Anna works as a pediatrician at Newton Wellesley Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital and Nick just graduated from the MD/PhD program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and is continuing his training at Massachusetts General Hospital as an internal medicine resident. We love being an aunt and uncle (affectionately called “TaTa” and “TonTon” by our rambunctious 3-year-old niece and 1-year-old nephew) and are ready to become parents ourselves. While we have loved our time in Porter Square, we are ready to leave our tiny condo for a house with room to grow and raise our family!
In terms of our hobbies – we love to hike, travel, cook, play board games, and spend time with family and friends.
Why Rachel and MA Properties Real Estate?
We met Rachel at an Open House the first weekend we started looking at houses. We loved how genuine, personable and communicative she was. We enjoyed chatting with her for several minutes at the Open House, but we were even more impressed by her prompt email communications following up with information she had talked about at the Open House. What clinched the deal was when she sent a video of herself to us checking in ☺ When we had our first meeting to discuss what we were looking for in houses, we knew that she would be the perfect fit. She’s very down to earth, very communicative, very realistic, knowledgeable, etc. We knew that we could trust her to represent us to other agents. We also felt very comfortable being open and honest with her about what we liked and didn’t like about properties. She quickly got to know our preferences, and was a great resource throughout the process. She really became a trusted friend throughout the process!
As physicians, we also really like how MA Properties focuses on statistics. It felt like a familiar way to process information in the overall unsettling/unpredictable process of buying a house.
Why did you decide this was the right time to buy?
We loved our small condo in the city, but we’re looking forward to our next stage of life in starting a family. During the house hunt, we were excited to get more space – both inside and out!
What surprised you the most about the buying process?
The speed at which you need to make decisions. We are both usually very thoughtful in our approach to big decisions, which often involves taking time. Unfortunately, time is not on your side in this market. Houses would often hit the market on Wednesday, and we would need to see the house Thursday or Friday, so that we could schedule a pre-inspection before offers were due. Fortunately, Rachel was very flexible and available, and always got us into the house we wanted to see in a timely fashion. She had many amazing connections in the community to also schedule pre-inspections in a timely manner. This helped us feel better about making such big decisions in a short period of time.
We were so appreciative that Rachel was able to get us into houses early, 1) so that we didn’t have to wait for Open Houses to see properties we were interested in, but also 2) so that we could see houses multiple times before putting an offer in. Seeing houses multiple times before putting an offer in was really essential to us feeling comfortable with the decision.
What challenges did you encounter during the buying process?
I think the amount of time required was very challenging – you need to be able to drop everything and see houses quickly to get through the whole process we described above before offers are due!
What was the best part of your Buying Experience?
Working with such a knowledgeable, flexible, communicative, and fun realtor ☺ Our top buying tips are:
See a lot of houses so that you know what you like and don’t like, and when you find one you like, you feel like you can move quickly.
Find a good realtor to help you through the process!
Would you recommend Rachel and MA Properties Real Estate to your friends and family?
Absolutely!
