Westover Realty Inc.

Sometimes I wish Unilocal offered an unlimited number of rating stars, especially in this case. For a girl who moved to St. Louis kicking and screaming (in my head, at least), it’s pretty amazing that the realty group instrumental in that move gets five stars.
So. Let’s not beat around the bush. I didn’t really want to move here. Why leave my entire happy life and family and friends up in Chicagoland for St. Louis? Aside from my husband’s job and his wonderful family, I couldn’t see the draw at all… except for one minor detail. A house. An affordable house with a yard. Something that probably would have been unattainable in Chicago, especially if we were interested in having a reasonable commute to the office (that being less than an hour of travel time). So, STL it is, then. We decided to live in a rental place for a few months once we got here so we didn’t have to ruin our last months in Chicago by running back and forth to STL looking for a place to live.
And now, for the review.
We found Westover Realty through Justin’s family. Craig Andrews, our wonderful, amazing, terrific, every-​positive-​adjective-​ever realtor is an old friend of Justin’s dad. That *might* have affected the level of service we received, but honest to God, I think Craig offers the same above-​and-​beyond exemplary service to everyone, which makes him a pretty special realtor, indeed.
Craig really listens to his clients. He is kind and patient (good lord, is he patient!). He is honest, yet incredibly good at remaining unbiased (because, after all, buying a home is very personal and is ultimately the decision of the buyer). He works SO very hard to help his clients find the right home for them – even if that means carting your behind all over the St. Louis area to visit 200 houses (which is exactly what he did in our case and no, I’m not exaggerating on the number – we got to be very, very picky in this buyers’ market flooded with inventory).
When we met Craig, we got the distinct impression that he would work hard for us and he didn’t fall short of that expectation in any way. We had met with one other realtor prior to signing up with Craig and it just wasn’t as good a fit. She was more of a «typical» realtor. I was already in a tizzy having left my life behind and having a hard-​selling, fast-​talking realtor would not have been good for my mental health. Craig was always calm, polite and kind even when I was in one of my bleak moods and not particularly calm, polite or kind myself. He was encouraging and confident that we would find our home, and he never tried to persuade us to buy anything. I very much appreciated his low-​pressure tactics.
He was right, of course. We worked with Craig for about 2 ½ months before we found the house, but we found it, alright. I’m sure he inwardly sighed a great breath of relief when we did, but he seemed just as genuinely excited and happy as we were to have found the right spot. Craig helped us through our inspections, negotiated like a pro with the sellers’ agent and congratulated us with a bottle of wine and a hug at our closing (and another surprise gift when we moved in!). Now we’ve lived in our house for almost 2 months and finally, FINALLY I’m feeling happy to be here in St. Louis. Of course, I miss my family, friends, city and Lake dearly, but I really do love our new 80-​year-​old home, garden, (mostly) walkable neighborhood and all the possibilities this place holds. And while I know Justin and I *did* do some work to make this situation happen, I feel gratefully indebted to Craig at Westover for sticking it out with us and ensuring our house hunt was incredibly successful. I would recommend him in a heartbeat.