Anna, Mike… and eventually, Maya

Thank goodness our daughter was born two weeks late!!

Our doctor told us to stay busy while waiting for the arrival of baby Maya, which is how we happened to drift into Anne’s open house one Sunday afternoon. By the time we left, Anne had spent more than two hours with us, and we had totally restructured our team to include her as our new agent, ally, and head coach. We learned more in the first few minutes with her than we had in months with our prior agent.

We could write a book about what happened next...

While touring homes with Anne shortly after Maya was born, we spotted it from a block away: Our dream house, with a huge, wraparound front porch. Anne knew the iconic house well, and had seen it when it was on the market a few years before. We had goosebumps. We wanted it. But there was just one problem: It wasn’t for sale!

Anne quickly launched into detective mode, working discreetly to track down the owner and ultimately negotiating an off-market sale—while she was on the train to Seattle for the holidays! The plot thickened when she lost wi-fi reception due to the heavy snowstorm the train was in; a counteroffer hung in balance.

From the middle of Umpqua National Forest on Christmas Eve, we received the news: Our offer was accepted! We couldn’t decide which was the better gift: Our dream house, or Anne. Both got us home for the holidays.