Tom Dankewitz and Sharmen Liao sat down with me after selling their home of 33 years.

“We were artists and now we are retired,” Tom smiled.

“Are artists,” Sharmen corrected. “We’ll just be making art for ourselves now.”

“That’s true, I worked in animation for years and Sharmen was a computer artist,” Tom agreed.

“And now I’m into fine art,” said Sharmen. “And Tom wants to write a book…”

“And fish, and start a whole new life. We’re honestly just so excited for our retirement and the chance to experience something fresh. And thanks to Eva we finally can,” Tom beamed.

Let me just say, Tom and Sharmen are adorable together. They had reached a point in their lives where they knew it was time to make a change. Tom had worked in the entertainment field for years, most notably on the long-running series “American Dad,” and he and Sharmen were ready to retire and seek new experiences and artistic inspiration. They had a great place picked out on the Florida coast, but selling their home in San Gabriel was proving to be a lot more difficult than planned.

“I was getting really concerned we would never sell.

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“I’ve been waiting for two years!” Sharmen laughed. “All the painting and prepping, it was a lot of work!”

“We love this house,” said Tom. “But it had some issues when it came to selling; this large legacy oak tree, for example, required the buyer get fire insurance through the Fair Plan, which would take at least three months. We had a lot of interested buyers but they all had major contingencies that proved to be too difficult for us.”

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“We were also receiving a lot of bad advice from realtors,” Sharmen added. “I was getting really concerned we would never sell. But after six months of looking for a new agent, we found Eva and just knew.”

Tom and Sharmen were in need of some direct and expert advice when I met them. At the time, they’d been led to believe they should spend a ton of money on repairs, updates, and staging. But I knew the right buyer, the one who’d pay top dollar, wouldn’t be enticed by those things. The right buyer would be seeking a home they could extensively remodel.

“Whatever came up, she would handle it.”

I shared this insight with Tom & Sharmen along with my recommendation that we simply tidy up and skip the professional home staging. They were ecstatic.

“Eva sold it in seven days, with a cash offer and no contingencies!” exclaimed Tom.

“We couldn’t believe it! She even got the buyer to raise their offer to compete with the non-cash offers,” Sharmen continued. “It was incredible.”

Tom added, “And you know, I was really impressed that even though our home wasn’t as pricey as the multi-million dollar properties Eva usually sells, we were still treated to the same level of service, care, and attention as any of her other clients.”

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“It was so nice. From the beginning she really focused on what we wanted from the experience,” said Sharmen.

“She’s very good,” continued Tom. “She’s good with the contracts, she’s good with the negotiations, she’s good with the last minute things you didn’t expect, and she’s good with people. We were absolutely confident that whatever came up, she would handle it.”

“And she has this large and incredible team that was there for anything we needed. They were so professional and responsive. It really just removed our stress. We felt shielded and protected by her,” said Sharmen.

“Protected. Yes. Completely,” Tom agreed. “After such a stressful start, we were just so happy to have found Eva and her team. I view this sale as the gateway to our new life. And we truly believe that we have Eva to thank for that.”

And in turn I’d like to thank Tom and Sharmen for believing in me and my team. It was a true joy to help them navigate their home sale and take this momentous life step.