Tara Farquhar-Hagen, Lake & Co.

My wife and I were so lucky to be referred to Tara by a friend when it came time for us to purchase our home. We had recently moved to Seattle and knew very little about the many neighborhoods and even less about what options would be available to us. She offered to meet us on our side of town (which we now know is on the absolute opposite side of town from where she lives and works) in order to discuss what we were looking for in a home as well as what our strategy might be. She listened expertly and shortly thereafter provided us a list of many houses all around the city that were all great matches for what we were looking for. After she patiently showed us what seemed like a never-ending string of houses, we found the one that we were in love with and wanted to call home. Tara was able to put in an offer that very day and thanks to her many connections and contacts including the lender, the inspector, and several other service providers, the process of went so smoothly. She even helped us to find a great plumber after we had moved in! Her relationship with our lender was extremely helpful as we had to go out of town very near the closing date of the contract. Tara helped to expertly navigate the process and allowed us to enjoy some stress free time with our families. She even picked up the keys to the house and met us at our front door of our home when we arrived back in Seattle. We cannot thank Tara enough for the hard work and knowledge she provided us and would highly recommend her as a realtor to anyone.

About 10 months before we bought our first home we met with Tara to see if she was who we wanted as our agent and were quite pleased with her personality professionally and on a personal level so we decided to go with her. She told us how we should move forward in the process of buying our first home and we followed her advice. She recommended an amazing lender she often works with, whom also gave us incredible advice, and next thing we know we're in the lenders office a month later learning more about the process and how to make it as smooth as possible. So as we started our home buying adventure we'd contact Tara about different places we'd looked at online and in the most professional and polite way possible she'd steer us away from what, looking back now would have surely been a nightmare had we gone through with any of them. Nine or so months after our first meeting with Tara we were doing our usual perusing through listings online and found a house that fit the bill to a "T". We e-mailed Tara that night and heard back from her first thing the next morning. She said there was an offer on the house and the sellers were about to counter but if we act fast we can get in to see the house and put in an offer if we liked what we saw. Well at 11 AM the next morning I met Tara at the house to see it, my husband was in contact with the lender to get the pre-approval, I loved the house almost as soon as I walked in the door and then arranged to have my husband come by at 3:30 that afternoon. When he saw it he loved it as well so that night by 5:30 we were back at the home we'd been renting for nearly 3 years – writing up an offer! Tara was realistic with us about what kind of offer we should present in order to be successful in landing this house. Of course, we wanted to go with a low offer and she strongly discouraged us from doing that. The final offer she put together for us stayed within our comfort zone and budget but didn't low ball the Seller. The next day about mid-way through the day we heard that the Seller had accepted our offer! She quickly pulled everything together for the next steps in the process. After that it was all pretty much a blur of paper work and signatures. Luckily, Tara made sure to explain everything to us in laymen’s terms and then re-explain so that we knew what was going on even in the whirlwind. We knew this was the house we wanted but were still quite nervous going through with this big of an investment. Tara reassured us that we were getting a great house for a great price and that, that’s not seen often these days in this market around the Seattle area. After the house was appraised we found out that it was appraised for OVER what we bought it for which our lender and the closing officer both told us is pretty dang amazing in this market and that they haven’t seen a situation like ours in a looooong time – First offer accepted, all contingencies accepted, appraisal over sale price and closing on time! After signing all the closing papers we were so overwhelmed and excited. Our first few nights in the house we couldn't stop saying how much we love our new home. Now nearly 6 months later we couldn't be happier and we have absolutely zero buyer’s remorse. We feel like we owe a lot to Tara for steering us in the right direction, setting up with an amazing lender, being quick with getting us in there to see the place, developing a good relationship with the Seller’s agent, keeping it real with us on putting forth a competitive offer and just navigating this whole process as smoothly as one could possibly hope.