As first-time home buyers we didn't even know how to find a Realtor, much less find a house that we could make feel like home. We started looking at the MLS listings on our own; James happened to be filling in for the Realtor involved in the sale of one of the properties we were considering. After a walk-by it was clear that this first place wasn't the house we were looking for, but we had been impressed with James's prompt response to our inquiry and his candid assessment of our needs and asked him to become our Realtor. We were particularly impressed that after a short interview James seemed to have a strong sense of what we were looking for. Within a day of meeting he had arranged for an electronic client account that would alert us to houses he felt might be suitable, even before they made it to MLS. One in particular caught our eye, and James got right on it to arrange a viewing. A few days later we were able to see the house. We fell in love with the house right away and were anxious that we would lose it if we didn't offer a high price (revealing our naivete as first-time buyers). James was terrific in helping us realistically assess the property's strengths and weaknesses and determine an appropriate initial offer. He also helped us understand the importance of occupancy date and conditions as part of the offer (we had been solely focused on the money), and helped facilitate us finding a reputable building inspection company. He spent the entire day helping us with the paperwork, even driving one of us to work for a meeting so we could have more time that day to do everything needed to make a solid offer to the sellers. The saying "start right, finish right" really was true for us. We wouldn't hesitate to recommend James as a Realtor, especially to other first-time home buyers.