Lindsay and I were actually renting in Charlottesville before we made our first home purchase. We had a really cool condo in Fifeville by the Amtrak station. Prior to that we were both in school at JMU. Beginning the house-hunting process was pretty one-sided. Lindsay has always been what I like to call a “Zillow Shark”. She would spend a lot of downtime perusing a competitive (and discouraging) Charlottesville market, whereas I was content living the low-maintenance, downtown lifestyle. Eventually she convinced me buying a house was a natural progression and I’m so glad we did.

We chose Charlottesville because we love the mountains, and because it’s a small town with an incredible downtown. I’ve lived in multiple parts of Virginia—growing up in Hampton Roads and Arlington/NOVA, and then attending college in the Shenandoah Valley. We knew Virginia was the state we wanted to reside in and felt like the central/western area was the best part of it. Charlottesville has so much history, so much good food, and such rare culture—not to mention phenomenal cycling.

We ended up buying in the Martha Jefferson/Locust Grove area. I’m convinced there’s not a person alive who can drive down Park Street or Locust Avenue and not fall in love with the houses or the charm. I work on Pantops and Lindsay works on the Downtown Mall and we love each being 1 mile from work and a short, beautiful walk to downtown. The neighborhood is active and diverse, and the people are friendly.

The Sasha Farmer Team understood us. That’s the most important facet of a realtor, in my opinion. They were able to provide us with quality leads that fit our style and checked our boxes. No showing felt like a waste of time. Each helped us understand exactly what we were looking for. It seemed like they were in on the ground floor with most of the showings and that we were getting a leg up on a competitive Cville housing scene.

Our journey to buy our first home was lengthy and frustrating at first—but that was before we started working with Josh, Errin and the Sasha Farmer Team. Once we started working with them we realized it was actually possible to get a place with all our non-negotiables in a town we had come to love. The house hunt actually became fun.

The most stressful part of the real estate process in Charlottesville was seeing houses fly off the market as soon as they were posted, and seeing an area add such value to its inventory. We knew we wanted to be in town—a town that was only 10 square miles—and we knew a lot of other people wanted to be there too. Going to showings on the first day and finding out there were 10 others that day, and that the weekend would end with it getting 5 offers was very stressful—but that goes to show the importance of having a solid team advocating on your behalf.

The absolute best part of the real estate process was taking the references of the Sasha Farmer Team for everything from home inspection to lending to closing, and feeling like we were being connected to individuals at the top of their field whom had our best interests in mind. And they were highly personable, too. I truly felt like everyone we worked with during the home buying process, I’d be friends with them outside of it. My wife and I feel as if we’ve gotten a home and long-lasting friendships, and I think that’s pretty unique.